I was at university in Scotland between September 1973 and December 1977. Bang in the middle of that time, a song was released by Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel. It made Number 1 in the British charts and for many weeks was played continuously in the student union's pub - "The Allangrange".
The song was "Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)" and if a film was ever made of my university days and that particular time in my life, that single would have to be the theme song. Admittedly, such a prospect seems highly unlikely unless I become a mass murderer or, more likely, assassinate Boris Johnson with a cricket bat.
I had never really analysed why I liked that song so much. After all, there's a lot of bitterness in the lyrics. Steve Harley was addressing the original members of Cockney Rebel with whom there had been a breaking up in the summer of 1974 but at the time we never knew of that background. With its pauses, its guitar solo and its Mae West-like top line it was a curiously catchy song.
Sadly, Steve Harley died yesterday morning at the age of 73. It wasn't drink, drugs or a rock star lifestyle that did for him but a cancer that he had been battling with for a few short months. Now, as the song said, "There's nothing left/All gone and run away" and Steve Harley is no more. But behind, as well as his grieving family, he leaves an army of people from my generation who danced to "Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)" without fully understanding what it meant though it truly did make us smile.
from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/DZ2qpIO
ليست هناك تعليقات:
إرسال تعليق