(Note: I know the above video cuts off the end, but it’s the only YouTube I could find of the original song!)
There’s something wonderfully drunken about this song; more than likely, it wasn’t alcohol that messed Bobby Gillespie up before he recorded the vocals to this song, but nonetheless, this song always sounds like the complaints and pleas of a man gloriously drunk, dumped and trying to talk his way out’ve the trouble he’s surrounded himself with, and I love it for that.
I also love it for the arrangement, with the horns, the grumpy wah-wah guitar and, really low in the mix but definitely there, the piano. It’s a wonderfully old-fashioned, sad song, and even if it ended up getting remixed to hell to become “Loaded” and start a minor musical revolution in the UK, this is still the version I love best.
Well, okay. Maybe I prefer this version, but that’s only because I’m a sucker for women doing acoustic songs, for some reason.
Ah, Idha. The world needs more of you…