I have a large playlist on my phone which is often set to shuffle. This came on as I was coming back from having a cuppa with Quin. She and I are in the same boat in many ways. We're both in the writing game. We're both on our own - but Quin is a single Mum and I'm just single. We're supporting each other as we both look for something new. I took her a green candle in solidarity.
But turning into the Canterbury Road, the twanging guitar of Jeff Beck came over the car's sound system.
I'm not big into guitar music as a rule. Sure, I like Carlos Santana and can really get into Tommy Emmanuel and Slava Grigoryan, but after living across from a guy who worshiped Joe Satriani and Ronnie James Dio at 2 a.m. whilst at university college, I've tended to stay about from guitar standards.
Until I was introduced to Jeff Beck ten years ago.
We began to call this "our" song, not that it was ours, nor he was ever mine, but my friend introduced me to this and I instantly fell in love. It's something about the snare drum in the background I think. It might have been the small amounts of marijuana partaken in the hours before too. It was always referred to as Track Three - as he only had a bootleg copy of the Jeff Beck CD and he had no idea of what the album was really named. (After some internet searching the album is called "Who Else?")
I remember lying on the floor of his flat being taken off to another place as this played.
We went and saw Jeff Beck a few months later at the Palais in St Kilda. He was awesome. It was just him, a fellow on the drums and a woman named Tal Wilkenfeld, an Australian Bass player who is amazing. (Worth looking up - she's a legend).
I remember when he played this song. My head went back and it was as if my body had disappeared. My friend made mention of the fact that I lose myself to music completely. It's funny, I can't understand how people don't do this.
I have no idea about which ethereal plane I had entered, but I had no body for this five minutes.
A few years later, I did some psychological tests as a part of a job relocation after being made redundant. My most prominent trait was my affinity to music. I found this strange as I thought it would be something to do with reading and writing, but I know it to be true. I'm oddly musical. I am a desk dancer. There is always a song in my head. I sing all the time (and when I get stressed I sing louder and more often). I always have music on in the car - but I don't play it much at home. I like to write in near silence. Music is too overpowering for me to concentrate.
But I hear this song and my body disappears. Not a great thing when you a driving.
Strangely, I caught up with this friend a while ago and we were chatting about this and that. Jeff Beck somehow came up in the conversation.
"Track Three."
"Brush with the Blues."
We exchanged a secret smile. A happy time. A shared memory. Something special.
It always will be so.
Today's Song:
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