Fifty Years with Virginia Plain

Somewhere in Pembrokeshire, south-west Wales, family holiday - hot summer's day, August 1972. I'm 14, and back from three weeks on Polish scout camp. We're in my father's company car (a metallic brown Ford Cortina 1.6 GL) my parents, my brother and me. The radio's on. Radio One. Suddenly - this: piano, wailing synth... sounds familiar - and yet unlike anything I've ever heard...

and my world is changed. Suddenly - a magical world has been created (or maybe recreated?) - the Past and the Future - merged. Fifty years ago today, Roxy Music's first single, Virginia Plain entered the UK charts. Hearing it for the first time, I recognised straight away, the sublime aesthetic. This was not one of those songs that grows on you. The effect was startling. I had to hear that record again! Fortunately, it was on high rotation and would be played over and over again, it would stay in the charts for 12 weeks, peaking at number four.

In a low-fi world of AM radio, the lyrics were never clear - half of them I wouldn't grasp until the advent of the CD - but the soundscape was spot on - the future as imagined in the past - the past as remembered in the future. Glamour, excitement, sophistication - intelligence - art. Stepping way outside the spirit of the age, as only David Bowie could back then. A song as unformulaic as can be - no verse/chorus verse/chorus middle eight verse/chorus  repeat-chorus-to-fade structure here - a song which ends with its title. "Far beyond the pale horizon/Some place near the desert strand, Where my Studebaker takes me/That's where I'll make my stand..." Instantly familiar - and yet... why? The imagery is Hollywood Americana, 1930s to 1950s (referencing Flying Down to Rio, made in 1933, and Last Picture Show, set in 1951). "What's real and make-believe" - indeed. What is real? What is make-believe?

On my return to London, back from the school holidays, a new term, starting the fourth year. I discover that Roxy Music has an album out, called simply, Roxy Music. The single Virginia Plain is not on the LP. A friend has it and tapes it for me - in mono. And that would really open the door to a new perception. Pop and rock had been an important and ever-present part of life since childhood, a shared soundtrack to growing up, but this was something I felt was uniquely personal.

But then looking at that week's charts, I can see that soul music made up one quarter of all the UK hits. And what classic slabs they were too - Al Green's I'm Still In Love With You; Roberta Flack's The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face; the Stylistics' Betcha By Golly Wow; Bill Withers' Lean on Me; Love Unlimited's Walking In The Rain With The One I Love; songs from Michael Jackson, the Supremes, the Four Tops, Bobby Hebb, Donny Hathaway and Roberta Flack, Chairmen of the Board; re-releases from Jackie Wilson and Mary Wells. Music that has stayed with me over the decades.

Which reminds me to remind my readers to tune in, as I do every week, to Yours Sinsoully on West Wilts Radio, live on Fridays (9-11pm UK time, 22:00-00:00 on the Continent), hosted by my classmate from Gunnersbury, MJDJ - two hours of classic soul/funk/R&B, with past shows available to listen to again.

This time last year:
The Curve (and one's place on it)

This time three years ago:
Fifty years on, my last kolonia

This time nine years ago:
Grodzisk Mazowiecki's pretty station

This time 10 years ago:
Exorcism outside the President's Palace

This time 11 years ago:
The raging footsoldier - a story about anger

This time 12 years ago:
Graffiti and street art