![]() It has a terrific garage band sound although I'm not crazy about the misogynistic lyrics which are worthy of the Rolling Stones. The Gilbert/Carter team also were credited with "Incense and Peppermints" by the Strawberry Alarm Clock" as well as most of the songs on this record almost all of which I think are better than "That Acapulco Gold." My favorite is the hard rocking "Absurd Bird" which has a smoking guitar solo from Mac Ferris. It is about a couple who go down to Mexico on their honeymoon to score some Acapulco Gold - "ain't nothin' it can't fix." The song was written by Tim Gilbert, the group's lead singer and rhythm guitar player and his college roommate John Carter, who later had a notable career as a record company executive and record producer. I use the term "rock" lightly because the song sounds more like an old-timey music hall type song akin to Harpers Bizarre or Sopwith Camel. It achieved notoriety for being one of the first rock songs that was explicitly pro-marijuana. The band is largely known for the title track, "That Acapulco Gold," which was released as a single. Sir John Alot of Merrie Englandes Musyk Thyng & Ye.The ivory chess pieces likely originated from Scandinavia and can be seen on display at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh or at the British Museum in London. The name of the book alludes to Whistler’s hobby of carving chess pieces and also the famous Lewis chess pieces that were found at Uig on the island in 1831. Each book has also led to me researching a lot of random stuff on Google and this time it was the phenomenon known as bog bursting which is utterly bizarre. It’s probably not the first place that would come to mind as a setting for a series of crime novels but these remote Scottish places are becoming more popular thanks to Peter May and the Shetland series by Ann Cleeves. The descriptions of the wildness of the island are breathtaking and really make you feel like you are there. The whole story is told against the atmospheric backdrop of the Isle of Lewis which is the real star of the book once again. ![]() As Fin delves deeper into the band’s past, a shock revelation will leave him wondering if he ever knew these people at all. Now Fin is left wondering if the bad feelings between the two led to murder. Whistler and Roddy were both in love with the same woman, the band’s lead vocalist, and jealousy drove Whistler to ultimately leave the band. Whistler reacts badly when the body is discovered and continues to act oddly throughout the investigation leading Fin to believe Whistler knows more than he is telling. ![]() Since he is no longer a policeman, Fin has to rely on the goodwill of a local officer to provide him with relevant information and his new job as a gamekeeper also brings him into conflict with Whistler, a former member of the band, who is a well known poacher. As the band gathers for Roddy’s funeral, it becomes increasingly evident they are hiding secrets and Fin is determined to find out the truth. As Fin recounts how close he was to the band and how he even worked as a roadie for them until he went to university, I thought it was strange these friends had never been mentioned in the first book which went into quite a bit of detail about Fin’s time at school. ![]() Like the other books, the story weaves between the past and the present as Fin remembers the group of friends who would eventually go on to become one of Scotland’s most famous Gaelic bands. After examining the body, it becomes evident his friend was murdered and Fin is determined to find out what happened to Roddy Mackenzie. The airplane crashed into the loch almost twenty years ago claiming the life of a childhood friend of Fin’s who became a famous musician. The Chessmen brings the Lewis Trilogy to close as Fin Macleod discovers a body after a freak event of nature known as a bog burst empties a loch full of water to reveal the remains of a crashed airplane. ![]()
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