One of my happy childhood memories is walking round the mini-market near the holiday house my grandad owned in Sutton-on-Sea, on the Northeast coast. This would be the summer of 1983, I think, when I was nine. I would later build a sand boat on the shore and then frantically bail water out of it as the tide came in, imagining I was actually at sea. But for now I was looking at frozen food and sweets and comics, and the shop stereo was playing Baby Jane, the Rod Stewart single that was Number 1 that July. I was very happy.
(This exact happiness resurfaces fairly regularly. Last week they played the Pointer Sisters in the pound shop near my house in London as I compared translucent plastic storage boxes, and I felt a proper sense of well-being. Six or seven years ago in New York, three friends and I walked round a Japanese mini-market next door to City Lights bookshop. I bought various delights including Japanese toothpaste in a silver tube with neon writing. They were playing Rozalla's Everybody's Free (To Feel Good) and I almost levitated.)
I love Baby Jane. I love Rod Stewart. I love his voice, I love his face, I love his long and varied career (lots of which I haven't heard yet). I love him and Ronnie Lane singing Maybe I'm Amazed. And I love this clip. There are so many reasons to love it, but let's not ignore the outfit or the woman on the balcony just because we are deeply wowed by Rod and his voice.
One day Rod will do a duet with Bonnie Tyler, and beautiful raspy worlds will collide.
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