Les Stanley - Author

Writer, Wit and Raconteur

chicago

If music be the food of love…

by

A recent challenge on Facebook prompted people to provide their personal favourites, their top 10 most influential music albums. For reasons unknown, participants were instructed not to reveal the rationale for their choices.

So, this month I’ve decided to share my choices and offer a pithy and insightful comment on each album. Why not take a trip down my memory lane? You may find something you like.

There’s a bit of The Pretender in all of us I think. That feeling of “I don’t really want to do this but…needs must.”
Pack my lunch in the morning and go to work each day
A teenage friend of mine owned this. We’d sit in his bedroom smoking Players No 6, playing it on his Dansette and thinking we were so much more than two 15-year-olds living in a small English seaside town.
I’m more than that, I know I am, at least I think I must be.
In my mind, I was famous for my Ginger Baker impersonation, which I would perform unbidden at parties. It came in just after these immortal lines:
I’ve been waiting so long
To be where I’m going
In the sunshine of your love
In some ways Warren was the first Punk. He was also a tender, if troubled, soul. His one hit was Werewolves of London but he was so much more than that.
The days slide by
Should have done, should have done, we all sigh
Bob Dylan has had so many rebirths. This one comes from his second or third incarnation. He was in love but he knew it had to end.
I hate myself for lovin’ you and the weakness that it showed
Another friend, I’ve had so many, lent me this. “Play side 2” he advised, but I wasn’t ready to become a Bruciple until a few years later when I saw him perform live.
Sandy, that waitress I was seeing lost her desire for me
I spoke with her last night, she said she won’t set herself on fire for me anymore
I won a Rod Stewart haircut impersonation competition once. I can only imagine what the other guys must have looked like.
Wake up, Maggie, I think I got something to say to you
It’s late September and I really should be back at school
Play it with the lights out and preferably naked. Make sure the heating is on.
It’s four in the morning, the end of December
 I bought this for the poster which hung on my wall throughout my teenage years. I stayed for the music.
The last time I saw Richard was Detroit in ’68
And he told me, all romantics meet the same fate someday
Cynical and drunk and boring someone in some dark cafe
Scratched to bits and 50 pence from a guy at school. His name was Jacko, I assumed his parents were hippies who lived on a farm. Side 3 was my favourite.
Does anybody really know what time it is (I don’t)
Does anybody really care (care about time)

The journey had just begun.

In my My Brother’s Bicycle you can learn more about how music has influenced my life choices.

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