Whenever I hear the word "Bangkok", my mind automatically fills in the words "Oriental city". Those opening words (so I thought) to Murray Head's song from 1984 about chess competitions are seared in my mind for some reason...as is the more familiar chorus. I had no idea until now that the first line is actually "Bangkok, Oriental setting". Something about the strange, somewhat out-of-focus video for that song stuck in my mind as a kid, too. It made me want to travel there, which I did, some 18 years later. I was much more interested in the provocative images of girls dancing on a bar than the repeated views of chess boards, I imagine. Although apparently being banned in Thailand when it came out, they still play the shit out of that song in the bars and tourist haunts there. The song (and city) got a recent boost in popularity when used in one of The Hangover movies a few years ago. Like it or not, that song is kind of the de-facto theme song for Bangkok, and probably will be played for decades to come.

Hear that, Junta? You can crush Thai democracy, but you will NEVER defeat the musical genius of one Mr. Murray Head!

Here are the lyrics and video. How many other songs contain the word "cloister"? How many songs have references to obscure actor Yul Brynner? Not many. Not near enough, anyway. The world needs more songs referencing Yul Brynner, dammit. I always thought the line about "Not much between despair and ecstasy" was quite a profound lyric. And any man who has stopped at a hostess bar on Sukhumvit Road understands the part about feeling "a devil walking next to me."


Bangkok, Oriental setting
And the city don't know what the city is getting
The creme de la creme of the chess world
In a show with everything but Yul Brynner

Time flies, doesn't seem a minute
Since the Tirolean Spa had the chess boys in it
All change, don't you know that when you
Play at this level, there's no ordinary venue

It's Iceland or the Philippines
Or Hastings or, or this place

One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a God in every golden cloister
And if you're lucky then the God's a she
I can feel an angel sliding up to me

One town's very like another
When your head's down over your pieces, Brother

It's a drag, it's a bore, it's really such a pity
To be looking at the board, not looking at the city

Whaddya mean?
Ya seen one crowded, polluted, stinking town

Tea girls, warm and sweet, warm, sweet
Some are set up in the Somerset Maugham Suite

"Get Thai'd", you're talking to a tourist
Whose every move's among the purest
I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can't be too careful with your company
I can feel the Devil walking next to me

Siam's gonna be the witness
To the ultimate test of cerebral fitness
This grips me more than would
A muddy old river or Reclining Buddha

But thank God, I'm only watching the game, controlling it

I don't see you guys rating
The kind of mate I'm contemplating
I'd let you watch, I would invite you
But the queens we use would not excite you

So you better go back to your bars, your temples
Your massage parlors

One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a God in every golden cloister
A little flesh, a little history
I can feel an angel slidin' up to me

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can't be too careful with your company
I can feel the Devil walking next to me

Thank you for that.
As you (and everyone else I guess) I have fond memories of this song but the lyrics always were hard to understand with english being a second language and usually hearing the song in Bangkok late at night when drunk.
However I always understood and liked the "hard man humble... Devil next to me" lines...

Yes interesting to read the actual lyrics, it's a while since I've heard it. Was he keeping it subtly regional with the line, " It's Ice-land or the Philippines ". Ahem

"A little flesh, a little history." ... another intriguing lyric, I always thought.

Maybe Phnom Penh needs a Western theme song.

My girlfriend is sick to death with my obsession with shite 80's music.

I always reply "Oh come on Eileen"