Sock Free Hideaway

BEATS OF LOVE

96. Scorpio Rising (The Scientist Mix) by Death in Vegas with Liam Gallagher

WOKE UP up feeling lost at sea. Then had to sweep a big fucking dead pigeon into a bin bag and felt even worse.

That sinking feeling when you know you've got two dozen working weeks ahead and you already feel totally knackered after just one. The regret you feel at frittering away all your holidays in a summer that's pouring with rain. Then you bang on this and everything brightens up.

Life in technicolour even. And the sun even comes out giving me a full whole day of clear blue sky. If ever Noel's trite Status Quo styling were borrowed to sound gratingly like The Beatles it was here. The original version sounds too self-consciously aware of this and creeps about like a non-poisonous snake. The genius that is The Scientist strips away a lot of those superfluous psychedelics and decides that adding keys and vibraphone with toasting over Liam's Lennonesque drawling works best. And it does. General Jah Mikey steals the show, demonstrating that sometimes seemingly suspect ideas work really, really well.

You can either roll a big fat one or do what I do and psyche yourself up for a day in the garden. Reaching up for the trowels whilst swaying your head along to its majesty. Music has nearly always saved me from total despair.

I've always found my freedom in listening to it and that probably gives me the strength to endure real life. To paraphrase the great Abba, 'thank you for the greatest music!'