Ernest Borgnine

Album: Pale Green Ghosts (2013)
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Songfacts®:

  • This song finds Grant wryly referencing his HIV-positive status. He told The Sun: "'Ernest Borgnine' is sort of my version of Woody Allen's Purple Rose Of Cairo in that it's about the occasional difficulty of coming to terms with the cold hard facts and the temptation to escape into another world, like movies for example. I'm a pro at escaping."
  • The title references the American film and television actor Ernest Borgnine, who was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, and won an Oscar in 1955 for Marty. Grant explained to The Sun: "He has always been one of my favourite actors and I have wanted to include him in a song for quite some time. He passed away just as we were finishing up the song and I was sad that he wouldn't have the chance to hear it. But I did get to meet him when he was 91 and he was lovely. It's great he had such a full life."

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