I first heard this song in 1995. I was living at Kings College in London and attending the University of Western Ontario. Through an administrative cock-up I found myself living not on the main campus with my classmates but instead down the road in an all-female residence at a Catholic college. I hated just about everything about the place – I had a couple of good friends, but I felt ferociously out of place there. I used to sleep through far too many lectures by staying up all night in the torturous company of someone who I thought was the bees-freakin’-knees, who barely noticed I was there, irrespective of the frequency and intensity of all the twirl-hairing and joke-laughing, gloss-lipping and reveal-cleavaging I could muster. One morning, my clock radio alarm woke me up and the University radio station had just started playing this song.
I lay there – paralysed by that swooping and swirling slide guitar. Frightened to even bloody breathe lest I miss any part of it. Fell back into a peaceful sleep once it had finished, but not before I managed to scribble down “swoopy swirly guitarey song at 7.53am” or something. Later, I rang the radio station to find out what it was – and lo, my love of Afghan Whigs was born.
day 15 - a song that you listen to when you’re angry
I would have liked this song to have been around a decade earlier than it was actually released. I call to mind one or two occasions that the listening of this track at full volume on repeat would have been particularly appropriate. Jason won’t let me listen to this in the car if the kids are with us, on account of the sweariness. Ha ha.
day 16 - a song that you wish you heard on the radio
English radio leaves a lot to be desired compared to the great selection of genre-specific stations I grew up with in Canada. I’ve been in the UK now since September 1999 (12 years is a long time to be away from such a great home-grown music scene) so this is a song I wished I could here on the radio here, instead of having to listen to Canadian radio online! UK readers – listen up, this is one of my favourite tracks from a cracking Canadian band out of London, Ontario (town of my alma mater).
day 17 - a song that makes you laugh
When I was little, we had a taped copy of a record we’d borrowed from some friends of ours called BBC Children’s Favourites. It was a mad compilation of wacky songs (mostly released in the 60’s and 70’s in England) and whenever we went on a road trip or holiday, it was the first tape we looked for to make up our in-car entertainment. These three were our favourites on that tape, and coupled with our ridiculous attempts at singing along (accents and all) they always had the four of us in stitches. Which, incidentally, was a useful diversionary tactic to prevent us from going bonkers while my Dad scrambled about the countryside looking for motels which still had vacancy in the wee hours of the morning.
Stay tuned -- Part 5 is coming soon!
2 comments:
Love what you've done with the place, darling.
I fell in love with the afghan whigs when I bought their TAPE because the cover art was so fantastic. Angie was with me and I'd been coveting the all the goldfish for weeks.
And Martha, I love.
Thanks! Oh, tapes. Schoolbag full of dead batteries, only one earphone working... I miss tapes!
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