The Getaway Review

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Copyright (c) 1996, Cesar D. Quintero
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The Getaway
Chris de Burgh
1982
A&M Records

How would you mix a trip with Charonte, the dark boatman who takes the souls of the dead to the Hades, with an idilic song about peaceful waters, with a song of hope for your little daughter, or another of hopeless despair for a leaving love?... It may seem hard, but if you add an epic trilogy about revolutions and the feeling of liberty, probably will appear as impossible. Yeah?... Think again.

Chris de Burgh did it again. He showed up again between mists of time and space to take us, in every single song, to another land where we'll be feeling the same as his characters. There are twelve songs which carry us from here to there, joined together under the name of THE GETAWAY.

My name is Cesar D. Quintero, and we're going to travel along one of Chris's best albums, The Getaway, song by song, feeling by feeling. I hope you will enjoy the trip as much as me. Fasten your belts, here we go...

The GETAWAY album was published in 1982, as Chris's eight album (if we count up the recopilatory BEST MOVES (1981) and the LIVE IN S.A. (1979), after a two years rest since his last original album, EASTERN WIND. This Eastern Wind was already a little change of pace, something easily understandable after the PERFECT Crusader (1979), but in THE GETAWAY he returns to his ever-faithful story-telling.

DON'T PAY THE FERRYMAN, the first song, it's inspired in Charonte, a mythological character from the greek, the one which, previous payment of two silver coins (usually placed under the tongue) crossed the Stygian River to the Hades carrying the souls of the dead. It it a very powerful song indeed, which he has used sometimes to end his concerts (Live from Dublin)

LIVING IN THE ISLAND is a cute little song about a retirement place to spend time pleasefully. It is very nice to listen to, although it's not the one you remember.

CRYING AND LAUGHING is another matter. From the very first chords, it takes you to the land of memories, whether you have had them or not, about a love (temporal) who has to go. When he sings the crucial words "Homeward, back to your world, back to the one who is there", your heart will break up in two along with his, while another bolt of lightning travels (once again) from your spine to your heart.

I'M COUNTING ON YOU is one of his most beautiful songs, in every sense of the word. It is a song of hope dedicated to his daughter, hope in her and her generation opposed to his. A piano/voice song, as the ones for his children use to be (hear FOR ROSSANNA and JUST A WORD AWAY, from Into the Light and Flying Colours), accompanied by a cello on certain moments. The piano is not played by him, but by David Caddick.

THE GETAWAY, song which gives name to the whole album, is probably the most happy song of them, which tells of the joy of some prisoners while they prepare their escape. The song overflows of hope on freedom in anticipation of it. At the end, the words "This is our world too" are said in german, english and french.

SHIP TO SHORE. Although it seems a light song, it talks of incommunication between a man and his woman, a theme he also repeated in SEPARATE TABLES, and some others, symbolizing it now with a ship lost in a storm.

ALL THE LOVE I HAVE INSIDE. A typical love song. Simple, sweet and charming. But we have to remember we are talking about Chris de Burgh, and even the most typical song is unique if it is sang by him. The arrangements, though (specially those cellos in the background) could be a little more worked out.

BORDERLINE. A Sad story about a soldier who is divided between his country and his love. He wants to stay to love, but he has to go to fight. It is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful and remarkable songs of Chris de Burgh. The final chorus is breathtaking.

WHERE PEACEFUL WATERS FLOW gives us a change of pace from the anguish of the war to an idilic place where love can grow freely.

THE REVOLUTION, LIGHT A FIRE and LIBERTY, the last three songs, form a trilogy as one song which tells us about the process of men fighting for their rights to be free. The first one ends with the cry "Revolution", to begin LIGHT A FIRE, another powerful song with a strong and catchy army beat on the drums. LIBERTY, the last one, is the result of the other two, and it situates us after the war, with the first winds of freedom. It's really remarkable the 12th strings guitar on REVOLUTION and the last instrumental verses of LIGHT A FIRE. For those, there's no words to describe them. All I can say is that everytime I hear them, I can feel the first lights of dawn on my face, meanwhile the wind slowly brings some freshness into the athmosphere and peace surrounds me. Now it's up to you to feel the same or not.

And that's about the songs. As for the whole album, we need to specially remark as extraordinary the vocals Rupert Hine, among others, does. Try especially to notice them in LIGHT A FIRE and CRYING AND LAUGHING. Rupert Hine is also the producer, same as in other Chris de Burgh's albums, apart from the keyboardist, and he deserves also his recognition into this piece of art that is THE GETAWAY.

Should I give a rating to this album? If it exists an 11/10, which I think it rightfully belongs to CRUSADER and AT THE END OF A PERFECT DAY, this album should be a 10/10. There's no other way to calificate excellency.