Hmmm. Since I'm the guy who wrote the 'new' song ... do I need a kick upside the head? Honest, folks, I only knew the 'older' song as Spanish Lady or Dublin City ... and the Wheel of Fortune is a Tarot card, so far as I know, therefore a cliche of long standing, but never a song, to my (admittedly feeble) memory.

But since 'kicking upside the head' is the recommended cure for such acts ... what should we do about Bono and his styling a song of his 'Cedars of Lebanon' ... when the 'original' and 'only' and 'older' Cedars of Lebanon was the Pumpkinhead song written and performed in Ireland from 1974 ... and moreover one that Bono would have been familiar with at least to some degree, since Paul McGuinness managed both Midnight Well (who performed Cedars extensively) and the 'kid' band, U2, until Paul broke up MW and sent Janie Cribbs and me off to a lingering death in America?

Hmmm. Very interesting, I imagine. At least to some people ...

'Wheel of Fortune' incidentally was identified to me as her favourite Midnight Well song when I met a dyed-in-the-wool fan of the band in 1989, the lovely Valerie Waters. I was so nonplussed (and disbelieving) I could only shoot back at her, 'Oh, yeah? And what's your favourite line, then?' Without dropping a beat, she smiled at me and recited, 'And a friend I'll be when I refuse him, and send him home again ...' And that's about all I remember of the song, folks, since I wrote it for Janie to sing and haven't ever sung it myself ...

Cheers,

Thom Moore