Okay, so I made some kind of aborted attempt at a ‘Sunday’ series a couple of weeks ago. Here’s a proper attempt to get something regular going… Assuming I post a different track every week, I figure that I have just about enough ‘Sunday’ songs to eke this series out to just over two years. Are you ready for the trip? Am I ready for the commitment? Probably not, but what the heck.
To kick off, and to give the series its title, here’s Stephen Duffy, from his Because We Love You album of 1986. Now I liked Stephen Duffy pretty much from the outset, or at least from when I first heard ‘Kiss Me’ on the radio in 1982. I remember buying Because We Love You on cassette in a record store in Edinburgh. I think it was when I was in the city for an interview at the Art school. I’m pretty certain I picked up the Colourbox album on cassette at the same time, and passed on the Dr Calculus album. Kinda wished I had picked that one up as well, but hey, you can’t have everything.
So did the Edinburgh art school offer me a place? I really do not remember. Not that I wanted to go there anyway. It was Glasgow or nothing.
I have followed Duffy erratically since those early ‘80s days, and whilst it may be unfashionable to admit it, it is those first two albums that I like the best. For whilst there are many moments from the Lilac Time’s impressive body of work that are admittedly delicious, there was always a hint of earnestness or at least the tint of strived for authenticity that left me a little cool. Oh, and ‘Dreaming’ was wonderful too of course. The Hypnotone remixes even better. Which is a statement designed to frustrate the Lilac Time purists, of course, but no less true despite or because of that.
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