Searching for a song

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I listen to the radio a lot when I’m at home doing the chores, and in the 1990s Andy Kershaw used to be one of my favourite presenters with his eclectic mix of music. He was also a keen motorcyclist, as I was (and may yet be again!) One evening I was fetching firewood or something when I came in and caught him saying ‘This would be a great song, even if it wasn’t about a motorbike, which it is, so here it is’ and then he played a song that I just loved. I waited for him to back-announce the singer at the end of the song but he just moved on to the next item. Of course this was before the general availability of the internet (it was just a tool used by geeks in the engineering department back then) so I couldn’t just look up the programme playlist. I asked all my friends and colleagues but no-one seemed to have heard the song or know what I was talking about. Months passed and it seemed I would never hear it again. Then a couple of years later, I went with friends to the Cropredy festival. I didn’t really know much about Fairport Convention or their friends, we’d just gone along to listen to some folk-rock music we hoped we would like. One of the performers was Richard Thompson, who had previously been a member of Fairport back in the early days, but now he was performing with his own stuff. We were listening to the songs, drinking cider in the evening sunshine, when suddenly he struck up with the distinctive opening riff I had been looking for for so long. At last I had found it! I was so excited, I was jumping around telling everyone ‘This is it! This is the song I was telling you about, about the guy who dies and leaves his motorbike to his girlfriend!’ and they all thought I was a bit barmy no doubt. Apparently in 2011 Time magazine voted this one of the top 100 songs of all time. I love the images in it, especially the idea of ‘Angels on Ariels in leather and chrome swooping down from Heaven’. Thank you to @TheHorse for mentioning this and reminding me of the story! All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2018.