A Look Back at 1980s Colombo

On YouTube, there is a video called “Sri Lanka Colombo 1984” by user Wolfgang Gegusch. I decided to write a blog post about 1980s Colombo based on the video. I’ve written similar blog posts which are “A Look Back at 1960s Colombo” two years ago and “A Look Back at 1970s Colombo” four years ago. To give context to this period, the 1980s was a time without internet, email and mobile phones for the general public. Television was something new to Sri Lanka then as it arrived in 1979. I’m embedding the video and giving my thoughts below it.

The video opens with a close up of the “Insight Guides Sri Lanka” book. I have the 1987 Fifth Edition with the same cover which I referred to in the second part of my article about how Sri Lanka switched to the metric system. We are then shown a good postcard of Colombo from this time period. The video footage starts which shows the guns at Galle Face. We see the Galle Face Hotel which looks special. I like how it’s so green with the palm trees and grass around the hotel. There’s a gigantic chess board in that green environment.

We are taken to Galle Face Green which doesn’t look to be well maintained. Looking back at this time, I see the achievement Sri Lanka has made of getting cleaner in the decades since. We see buildings with the Bank of Ceylon Tower being in construction. I notice near the Galle Face Green there are black and white markings on the edge of the pavement which doesn’t exist anymore. We see more roads nearby and go to Colombo Fort with buildings such as the State Bank of India and the red Cargills building next to it. The Colombo Fort Clock Tower looks good.

We see the Diyawanna Lake with the Sri Lankan Parliament building that was new at the time. It’s good to see the old Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI) building on Dharmpala Mawatha. The SLSI played a major role in Sri Lanka’s metrication as I’ve covered in this blog. It’s unfortunate to see elephants being mistreated for a zoo performance.

This was a good look into what Colombo was like nearly 40 years ago in 1984. This is a colourful video with good cinematography. When I posted “A Look Back at 1960s Colombo” exactly two years ago in December 2021, economist Amal Sanderatne in correspondence with me suggested other blog posts like this to do, including one on the 1980s. Amal who founded Frontier Research tragically passed away in July 2023. I never met him personally, but enjoyed being in touch with him online. He is a man of integrity who contributed greatly to Sri Lanka. I dedicate this article to Amal Sanderatne.

Bitter Fingers by Elton John

I decided to write about an album track from Elton John. An album track means a song from an album which wasn’t a hit and/or a single. The song I’m writing about is “Bitter Fingers” from Elton John’s 1975 album “Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy”. This was during the peak of Elton John’s success. This song was written with his songwriting partner Bernie Taupin. It features his original band of Davey Johnstone (guitar), Nigel Olsson (drums), Dee Murray (bass) & Ray Cooper (percussion) and is produced by Gus Dudgeon. I’m embedding the YouTube audio of the song and am discussing it below.

The song opens with Elton’s piano. There is a subtle melodic part with his piano. I suspect this instrument is bells or belltree. They are two of the instruments percussionist Ray Cooper is credited with playing alongside tambourine and congas. Elton then begins singing. Soon subtle bass by Dee Murray appears. This is followed by understated rock guitar by Davey Johnstone and barely audible drums from Nigel Olsson. When the chorus starts, Nigel’s drumming properly comes in and it becomes a full-on rock song. Nigel’s drumming and Elton’s piano rock well together in the chorus. Davey’s guitar comes in and out during this section. Davey, Nigel and Dee sing backing vocals in the chorus and at the end of the song.

After the first chorus, it goes back to the piano intro of the start. Davey’s guitar then comes in, doubling the piano which sounds good. Towards the end of the second verse, Nigel brings his drums properly in a bit before the chorus. Dee’s bass seems to be louder from the second chorus to the end of the song. After the last chorus, Davey gives a good guitar solo to conclude the song which is followed by it going into the chorus with the song soon fading. Elton is credited with playing pianos on the track so it seems he’s playing two pianos. I’m interested to know how the two pianos are featured.

Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy is an autobiographical album chronicling the early days of Elton John & Bernie Taupin’s careers before Elton became a superstar. Bitter Fingers is about Elton & Bernie’s struggles as staff songwriters at Dick James Music (DJM) where they had to write songs they weren’t interested in which were popular at the time. Steve Brown who worked in promotions at DJM told Elton & Bernie their work was awful and to instead write music they believed in. This resulted in them writing the rocking single “Lady Samantha” in early 1969. More songs recorded by Elton came out that year which were the single “It’s Me That You Need” and his debut album “Empty Sky”. Steve produced those singles and the debut album. While he didn’t produce any more songs for Elton, he set Elton & Bernie on the path to be the globally successful songwriting team they became.

Bitter Fingers is a great album track by Elton John. It’s representative of his style of music being similar to some of his well-known songs. I really like Bernie’s line about “the keyboard player’s hollow haunted eyes”. While this song was recorded in America, it has a definite English feel both lyrically and melodically. This makes sense as it deals with Elton & Bernie’s experiences in England. Gus Dudgeon did a very good job producing this melodic 1970s rocker. This song represents the songwriting of Elton John & Bernie Taupin at their best.