Two days to go and Wilko Johnson’s and Roger Daltry’s “Going Back Home” is at Number 2.
I’ve been a fan of Wilko’s since a long lost summer in my 20s featuring Dr Feelgood’s “Malpractice”, The Clash and whole lot of Red Stripe. When I sobered up, I drifted into an appreciation of Ian Dury and the Blockheads, and lo and behold he was the guitarist on many of my favourite tracks. This is before we even start discussing all the musicians he’s inspired. Some people are just part of the musical landscape. He got firmly nailed to my Wall of Heroes when he got diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and instead of going down with depression felt exactly the opposite – in his own words “Euphoric”. Here’s him talking about it last year,
“The things that used to bring me down, or worry me, or annoy me, they don’t matter anymore – and that’s when you sit thinking ‘Wow, why didn’t I work this out before? Why didn’t I work out before that it’s just the moment you’re in that matters?’
“Worrying about the future or regretting the past is just a foolish waste of time. Of course we can’t all be threatened with imminent death, but it probably takes that to knock a bit of sense into our heads.”
A year on he’s still alive, despite refusing treatment, he’s got a record out with Roger Daltry (who is in fine form) and only two days away from taking number 1 🙂 I only became aware of it this morning and picked it up immediately on download, if only to reward the fact he’s gone out and made record, and man is it all killer no filler 🙂
Here’s a track..