David does it ‘his way’ in hilarious COVID-vid from Down Under
Musician releases COVID satire in aid of Cambodian charity
OLE blue eyes never had a cover like this one.
Sinatra’s greatest hit ‘I Did it My Way’ has been repurposed by one of the crooner’s biggest fans for the Covid era and the reaction would suggest it’s proving just the ticket for legions of locked-down viewers everywhere.
With an hilarious accompanying video shot entirely on location on the ghostly pandemic-hit streets and parklands of Sydney, it’s tickling funny bones and staving off the boredom of its very subject matter - isolation.
Take a bow David Horgan. Isolation - My Way follows the Sinatra fan as he captures the thrills and spills of lockdown to perfection in an ever-so-slightly retweaked version of the song.
Shot through with his humour at all points, it features the Athea native – who spends much of his time at home in Listowel – roving along the streets of his adopted home Down Under, going mad staring in through the window at the unused taps in watering holes, stuffing his face with fries and taytos in his pjs at home and much, much else.
Though only just out, it’s getting comments and shares like the new time on Facebook and YouTube.
The upshot of the message? The abstention and weight-gain of life in lockdown could yet prove worse than the disease.
“I’m getting a great response to it. I’m delighted in that it’s just all one hundred per cent positive feedback. I’m a bit surprised by it, it has had near enough 3,000 views and nobody has been offended by it. It’s a bit of fun in a bad time, and just like the Irish always we will have a laugh even in the toughest of times.”
Home features prominently in the video – David reading tearfully from Around Athea at one point as he realises Covid has put paid to a trip home later this year; and romping around his apartment under a portrait of the great John B Keane at another point.
“I know Billy Keane will get me to play it in the pub when I get home next. My plan had been to get back for my fiftieth in September but that’s looking unlikely now unfortunately.
“I’ve been in Sydney 25 years now, I’m halfIrish, half-Australian at this stage and in those 25 years I had never been out of work a day until Australia locked down in mid-March. I was still getting plenty of phonecalls, we specialise in hand-painting interiors, particularly kitchens, but that all came to an end and I suddenly found myself with all of this time, like everybody else, on my hands overnight.”
David runs with a creative crew through his music always, and it wasn’t long before some of them prevailed on him to take his plan to record a step further.
“I went down to my garage, and was talking to my videographer friend Blake Castle who lives next to me. I said I’m writing a bit of a take-the piss-song of COVID-19 via Sinatra’s My Way, I’m a huge fan of Sinatra always. I said when I have it written I’m going to record it and I’ll give you a listen. When he heard it he said we had to make a video of it.”
What followed was one slick visual production featuring David in a Sinatra-appropriate outfit belting out his new version of the hit. The audio meanwhile was recorded by one of his best pals, a musician wellknown to Aussies through groups Noiseworks and Electric Hippies - Steve Balbi.
And he’s well-known to North Kerry too having gigged in John B’s and St John’s with David in recent times.
“I recorded it with my great mate Steve Balbi, in fact we did a couple of gigs in St John’s over the years and his family have come to Listowel because of that connection, and promptly fell in love with the place just like their son.
“Steve just loved John B’s, the whole thing of sitting down in a pub with a guitar and no mike.. he still talks about it, how everybody stopped talking and stopped drinking and just listened to him. He was overwhelmed with the level of quietness and respect shown the performer.”
David said a lot of the song was informed by the stories he was hearing on talk radio in Oz as the lockdown started getting more taxing – from fellas newly discovering the delights of the less clothed end of the internet to overeating, the loneliness of isolation and much, much more.
He chucked it all in there, mixed it up and belted out the lyrics in an hour and a half - with the video shot in record time and the song recorded in a single take!
Hard as the restrictions have been in Oz, as at home, the country has at least apparently smashed the disease with 103 deaths to date.
“Australia locked down at an early stage and isolated people coming off flights and ships. That’s where they really hit the nail on the head, stopping people coming off flights and what have you. They sorted it there and then, and they are very good at testing too. And Australians have been very good at isolating, everyone stuck to it. There have been very few incidents of people breaking the rules,” David explained.
In fact, the country’s horrendous forest fires might have played a part in the success, he added: “The economy has officially gone into recession this week, the first time in 28 years. I think part of the fact is with all the bush fires in November, December and January and the media coverage of the them it frightened the life out of people coming, with tourism taking an awful hit even though the fires were was only in certain areas. Many tourists cancelled so the economy was already on the backfoot before the pandemic. But that also helped us in that there wasn’t many tourists coming in with COVID-19, especially from China.
“They were kind of saying there was going to be a bit of a recssion anyway, but we’re officially in it now. I’m not yet worried, as we’re established in the business a long time now, but I can imagine how scary it must be for a young family.”
Bad as it all is, it is nothing compared to the lives of a people David holds close to his heart –the Cambodians. The world-traveller has spent months at a time volunteering in the Asian country and is now hoping that his new song will support the work of NGO abcrice.org.
Loads at home in North Kerry and West Limerick supported an EP he brought out a few years back that raised $12,000. It even featured another video, this one shot by his great friend Brendan Landy who accompanied him on one of his volunteering visits. “I know times are tough but if anyone would see fit to donate to the charity it would be fantastic, as they are literally keeping families alive in rural Cambodia.”