The Atlantic House (often called the A-House, even in its own advertisements) in Provincetown, Massachusetts is a drinking establishment that has been in continual operation on the tip of Cape Cod for over two centuries.
Having been an openly gay-friendly establishment for half a century and discreetly so for perhaps twice that long, the Atlantic House is an excellent contender for the oldest gay bar in the United States. Frommer's calls it "the nation's premier gay bar".
The oldest part of the building (now the left wing) was constructed in 1798 by Daniel Pease, Provincetown's first postmaster. Pease operated the building as a tavern although the name of the establishment at this time, if it had one, is uncertain. After Pease's death from cholera in 1834, the business was purchased by Benjamin Allstrum and became known as the Allstrum House. It served as the last stagecoach stop of the Orleans to Provincetown route until the arrival of the train in 1873.
When Allstrum died in 1871, Frank Perry Smith, a Portuguesesailor who had arrived in town by sea at the age of eighteen, bought the Allstrum House. At some point, the original structure was joined with a much larger adjacent structure that was fitted with guest rooms. Smith renamed the business "Atlantic House Hotel" and it has been called the Atlantic House since.
A House were an Irish band from the 1980s to the 1990s, recognized for the clever, "often bitter or irony laden lyrics of [frontman] Dave Couse ... bolstered by the [band's] seemingly effortless musicality". The single "Endless Art" is one of their best known charting successes. A House were managed throughout their career by John Carroll.
Formed in Dublin by former of the band Last Chance, vocalist Dave Couse, guitarist Fergal Bunbury, bassist Martin Healy (who had all been schoolfriends at Templeogue College), and drummer Dermot Wylie came together as A House. Initially developing a classic, guitar based rock sound to highlight Couse's frank but often bitter-tongued lyrics the band put in all the appropriate rites of passage for an Irish group in the mid-1980s, honing their live skills in the pubs of Dublin, performing in McGonagle's club (best known internationally as the venue where U2 cut their teeth in the late seventies), at free gigs in the Phoenix Park, and turns on RTÉ's TV GaGa and Dave Fanning's radio sessions.
"Endless Art" is a song by Irish indie rock band A House, released initially as the lead track on the "Bingo" EP (1990), and then as a single from their 1991 album I Am the Greatest. (It is also included on the greatest hits album The Way We Were.)
After the commercial failure of their 1990 album I Want Too Much, A House had been dropped from their label, to be picked up by the indie label Setanta Records. They quickly released the EPs Doodle and Bingo, at the end of 1990 and in 1991. The latter included the first appearance of "Endless Art", which A House recorded with Edwyn Collins as producer. Collins went on to work with them on I Am the Greatest from which "Endless Art" was re-released as a single, accompanied by a video.
Although the song did not enjoy huge chart success, it reached number 46 in the UK - an achievement by A House's standards - and it gained a certain amount of airplay on MTV Europe. But for distribution problems, the song might have performed much better commercially. Yet, that one of the A House's most popular successes should be such an unusual song as "Endless Art" confirms their peculiar status as cult favourites. The lyrics to "Endless Art" begin with the line "All art is quite useless according to Oscar Wilde" and for their remainder are mostly a list of the names and birth and death dates of artists from various fields, with the chorus remark: "all dead but still alive, in endless time and endless art". This "list" style of song is characteristic of many of Dave Couse's songs. The majority of the lyrics are declaimed rather than sung, over a repetitive electric guitar motif. Melodically, the song features a quotation from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony at the chorus.
It was a day like this and my house burnt down
And the walls were thin and they crashed to the ground
It was a day like this and my life unwound
You could've struck me a line and that's okay now
We could always put it together again
You could've told me a lie, and a lie so thin, so thin
Now everything's clear
Day after day and the life goes on
And I try to see the good in everyone
If I ever find myself here again