The lights are flashing and the bass is booming. They’re playing this old funk record from way back, and it’s sending me somewhere new and alive and wonderful. It’s the scratchy guitar, all wah wah and the rest, the throbbing of the bass, that flute that keeps coming in and out and then some horns play a distinctive melody, and then the drums kick in and give it the groove, and it’s off somewhere new, somewhere you want to follow, a place you want to be. It’s coming towards the end of the night, and I’m on the dancefloor and hitting the mood and keeping it crazy. It’s been that sort of night, a party in the back room of The Bear, and all the cats are here.
They were talking about it earlier, in The Crown, when we were standing at the bar and thinking about what we were going to do with the rest of the night, and someone came out with it. There was a group of girls standing near us, and they started talking about it. Party at The Bear, they said. You should go, tell us we sent you. You’ll love it. They stood and laughed, and Maz had a smile on his funky little face, or maybe it was more of a grin, in the way he does. Yes, we’ll be there. Of course, we will. So that’s what we did, the girls headed on their way round town, and we wandered over to the jukebox and looked through the selection and put on something loud and blasting and went over to see the boy we know behind the bar and asked him to turn it up, which he did.
Another beer, said Maz? Don’t mind if I do, sir. And we got some ice cold beers and stood by the jukey, feeding it with hot tunes for the rest of the night until we decided to try The Bear and headed own through town, me thinking all the time that they weren’t going to let us, but they did and we’ve spent the night at the bar and on this dancefloor, getting into the mood and loving the music among the beautiful people, the cats from The Crown which is where all the hepcats hang out and do their thing.
And I’m loving what this DJ’s doing, playing all this old funk which is just what you need for this time in the midnight hour when the beers have flowed and the feeling’s good. But it can’t last forever, a few minutes later the music stops and the lights come on and it’s bright and blinding and you see the place for what it is, spilt beer and walls that need decorating and it’s in front of you, warts and all and you don’t want it to be like that. So you head for the door and Maz goes his way and you go yours and you walk onto the main street and the darkness of the night’s ahead of you, a few street lights and the rest, and you sit down on a bench and look ahead.
And it’s all a blur, and it moves around in front of you, and a smile crosses your face, it’s been a big night and a good moment and one of those you’ll remember in the voyage through life. But you’ve drunk too much and talked too much and laughed too much and now it’s moving around and you can see those lights and they’re blinding and doing a dance in front of you. How did you get here? What does it mean? Spaced at midnight. It’s the way to be.
