(The year 2020 marks my 50th birthday. Leading up to the day (22nd November), I’m planning on writing a blog entry for each year, picking a song or an album from then that I love, talking a bit about why, and giving it some context in my life)
I have never loved a radio show more than The Graveyard Shift on Radio 1. For period of about three years I listened to Mark Radcliffe and Mark Riley every single night, planning my whole evening around them. I hated it when one of them was away, or if someone else was deputising. And I was so sad when it all came to an end, when they moved to breakfast time, with so much of the content ripped apart and replaced with something more mainstream.
They introduced me to so much poetry, so many books, so many movies, so much culture. But mostly music, both old and new. So many bands and records that I love to this day I first heard Monday to Thursday between 10pm and midnight. Your Woman by Whitetown. Dive Bomb by Number 1 Cup. Come Undone by Secret Goldfish. And bands such as Mansun, Super Furry Animals, Quickspace, Porcupine Tree and more. And my first exposure to Belle and Sebastian through their debut, The State I Am In.
I was blown away from the first listen. The fragility of the vocal, with the most incredible lyrics every submitted to vinyl, this beautiful soliloquy of a man’s struggle between purity and temptation. “He took all of my sins, and wrote a pocket novel…”, back and forth between sin and God’s providence. It spoke of a different kind of Christian faith to that taught in Sunday School, a spirituality born out of your own exploration rather than rigidly following another man’s dogma.
Later, after their second album, came a brace of singles, the second of which was this, Lazy Line Jane Painter. Mark and Lard had moved on from The Graveyard Shift by then, and in fact, soon from the Breakfast Show, the death of Diana participating to their swift exit. So I bought this without hearing it first and thought it was terrific.
Its more powerful than the average Belle and Sebastian, building gradually to a stunning carousel of organ and guitar, the band wringing every ounce of passion out of the song. Its a masterpiece, more of a play set to music, with its own cast of characters with their own personal depths and emotions. I also love the video. It speaks of youth and creativity, a bunch of friends with a camera, some film, and a lot of imagination. And I defy you to find a more magnificent facial expression that Stuart Murdoch’s when his shirt gets paint sprayed.
As a band I have never found them less than interesting. I prefer their more lo-fi offerings to the work they have done with Trevor Horn and Tony Hoffer, but each album has stuff I enjoy. But these songs from the close of the nineties are my favourites, and this song transports me back to a time of simply wonderful radio.
Why Did I Buy That 