…..subtitled a mini-series, the idea for which was knicked from a book…..
I’m reading a fab book called ‘Cool for Cats’ by Jessica Adams at the moment – it was bought for me for Christmas by Claz and I started to read it on the flight home from Munich. I engaged with it right from the start because the first chapter has the ‘heroine’ applying for a job as a music journalist and she has to say what ten songs changed her life and why for the job application.
It got me thinking about my own ten life-changers – what they would be and why. So, I decided to do a mini series of them here in my diary – it’s as good a place as any!!! Then I got to thinking about the songs and realised that to capture them in a photo is going to use all of my imagination……you’ll see why over the coming weeks. I’m not going to do them every day, just when I can.
So, here is No 1 (not that the order is important, it was just the first one I could work out a way to do):
S.Y.S.L.J.F.M – by the Q-Tips. It’s not their original song, it was recorded originally by one of the great masters of soul and star of Atlantic records, Joe Tex in the sixties. It’s the Q-Tips one I love though. Why did it change my life?
I went to see the Q-Tips hundreds of times in my mis-spent youth. I loved them. Really loved them. They were the epitome of everything I loved about the music scene – amazingly catchy songs, staggeringly gorgeous singer that everyone lusted after (Paul Young), REAL musicians – they were an eight-piece band, complete with a Hammond Organ and brass section. They came from Luton – only a stone’s throw from West London in the heady days of ‘have company car, will travel’. They played 200+ gigs a year. We went to see them all over the country. Some of my most cherished memories are eating curries in the trumpet player’s (Tony) house after gigs, prepared by the keyboards player (The Rev) while we all lounged around listening to music, drinking beer and chatting.
I’d always loved soul music but the breadth of my knowledge before them had been limited – Motown and the block busters only from Stax and Atlantic. They taught me to love so much music that still makes me happy today – from the Soul Brother Six to Joe Tex (who until then I’d only known for ‘ain’t gonna bump no more’), from Sam and Dave to Solomon Burke. I’d listen to the Q-Tips version, then seek out the original – my pure, unadulterated joy at finding myself a 7” version of Some Kinda Wonderful by Soul Brother Six still thrills me today.
So, the first way this record changed my life is because of lighting the flame of soul in my heart well and truly.
The second way that it changed my life was because I was at a Q-Tips gig, photographing the lush PY and some daft girl shoved a scrappy bit of paper in my hand asking if I’d sell her some pics (I wasn’t the only woman who lusted after that man’s bod by any means). I wrote to her and said I’d happily sell some. She sent me money, I sent her photos and she and I have been ‘best friends’ ever since. She is Claz!
Not only did she become my life-long friend, but she also introduced me to Shazbop and through Shazbop and Claz (oh boy, am I beginning to sound like Bridget Jones? I’ll be telling you what I weigh each day in future…..er on second thoughts, that’s between me and my weighing scales) I met Colin and Paul. So, four of my closest and certainly my most long-standing friends were met as a direct result of seeing the Q-Tips playing this song.
Life-changing? Definitely! I still love it to this day.
I knicked the idea for this pic from Dreams and Images PotD one day last year because I thought the initials were really right for text-speak.
BTW – For anyone who doesn’t know the song….
S.Y.S.L.J.F.M. – save your sweet love just for me.
And for DM – D.E.T.Y.S.L.A.
Here is the whole song...
Oh having just seen the photo load - it looks quite sexy the way it scrolls down the black lace - and it was only there as a way of stopping the flare of the studio light - good fortune shines on me.
A year ago I confessed one of my most shameful moments....
