Tuesday, May 1, 2007

A ROOK HOUSE FOR BOBBY

A ROOK HOUSE FOR BOBBY

They've made mountains out of mole hills
Let them climb
They can chase me to the ends
Of the Earth
And if they find me
Let them indict me
I just don't care any more
They've pushed me too far, too far
They've pushed me too far, too far
All this talk of war
But it's only a game
All I ever wanted to do is play chess with you
But if they find me
They will indict me
I just can't fight anymore
They've pushed me too far, too far
They've pushed me too far, too far
We'll build this rook house here for Bobby
We'll build this rook house here for Bobby
We'll build this rook house here...

---

The Ballad of Bobby Fischer, recorded in 1972 by Joe Glazer & The Fianchettoed Bishops.
No Bishops, fianchettoed or otherwise, can be heard on that disc, nor any real singing - it's some sort of a Country & Western style spoken poem, backed by aimless acoustic guitar riffs. It tells, in 7 minutes, the story of Fischer's life.

He was born in nineteen forty-three
Right away I knew he'd make chess history,
Cause he opened his mouth on the day he was born,
And instead of crying, he said, "Move that pawn
to King four"

When Bobby was three, he went to nursery school
and the things he had to do made him feel like a fool
he had to listen to fairy tales and dance in a ring
but Bobby preferred to do his own thing
like studying the Najdorf Variation of the Sicilian Defence

the kids learned about Red Riding Hood
and all the things that little kids should
about Hansl and Gretl and the wicked old witch
but Bobby, he was studying Nimzovich

(...)

sitting in the classroom he barely could think
cause chess was his food, chess was his drink

(...)

That Bobby Fischer was a chessplaying fool
sharp as a needle, stubborn as a mule
he studied all day and played all night
but he didn't play a match unless things were just right
And I mean right
I mean double right
I mean two hundred percent right
That's right

And so on.

Despite his attempts to innovate
Larsen was bent right out of shape