A journey down the river of sport
That was Robbie Robertson on Somewhere Down The Crazy River, the magical and mysterious 1987 leg of the musical pilgrimage the great songwriter and guitarist had been making from Canada down to the American Deep South since, some 25 years earlier, he’d hooked up with those like-minded souls who, as a talented quintet of singers and musicians, would go on to become known and revered around the world as, simply and fittingly, The Band.
The song came to mind when I found myself down by Dublin’s own crazy river on Wednesday afternoon, where the Sean O’Casey pedestrian bridge over the Liffey was temporarily transformed into a promotional stage for a Premier League sponsor, complete with fake turf, ceremonial arches, and amplified crowd noise, the glittering prize itself drawing plenty of attention from snap-happy office workers enjoying this novel twist to the daily lunch break routine.
