https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWsRz3TJDEY
Music can be funny like that, triggering memories when you least expect it, and sometimes in really strange ways. I had one of those moments in my local supermarket in Jakarta of all places.
Not some fashionable, curated place that’s playing “cool” music in the background. This is a chaotic supermarket that I really like because it always throws up random treats. Proper Italian Grana Padano at a reasonable price, for example… not just the awful stuff that gets passed off as parmesan in this part of the world. Let’s be honest, you’re not in Asia for the cheese.
Anyway, this song came on over the supermarket tannoy (is that the right word for speakers in a supermarket?) and it immediately took me back to an album cover. A strange thing to say, but it’s true. When I was a teenager and finding my way with music, two of the biggest influences on me were my two brothers-in-law. One of them had a compilation called something like Virgin’s 21st Anniversary. I can picture it exactly. That album was phenomenal, especially for me at that time. Track after track after track… brilliant, and all over the place in the best way.
And there I was, buying whatever it is you buy in a supermarket… actually, I was buying ingredients for a carbonara, prompted by the Grana discovery… and suddenly I was about 13 again, listening to that compilation on my brother-in-law’s CD player.
So this is the song that triggered the memory.