Sexeteria

Ah, the way a certain song can just transport you back to a certain time, a certain feeling...

Tonight, I'm remembering a time that felt really good, even in its intense fucked-upedness.

I was channel-surfing and found, much to my delight, that the brilliant film Me and You and Everyone We Know was playing (oh, to be able to feel right this minute like that next-to-last scene with the picture in the tree!). Anyway, in one key scene, the soundtrack swells up with a song I'd totally forgotten about. Spiritualized. From 1990. Their first single, a cover of the Troggs' "Any Way That You Want Me."

And it just took me right back to exactly what it felt to be me back then. Yes, there were dreams in my heart. And shoes in my gaze. And stars in my eyes, sometimes figuratively, sometimes literally through...shall we say, artificial enhancement. And this song sounded so damn good under both conditions.

I'll let you reminisce with me:

There was a time when, after long, long, nights of dancing and excess, a group of beautiful, strange, outsider people would collapse on the floor of a certain flat. And certain things would be poured and passed, and certainly, eventually, always--someone would cry for a certain VHS tape to be put into the player, and we'd curl up together like feral kittens, each touching, stroking the other and the other and the other, and we'd watch the same songs play for us over and over again. I still remember the warmth of that feeling; of the exhaustion of balancing on the edge of a blade without rest. Of how safe I felt in the madness of it all.

This next video, Ride's "Like a Daydream," is so rare (it was a pre-first-LP promo) that I thought I was likely to never see it again. Visually, it's a lot slower than I remember. And my, Mark Gardner's hair...I didn't remember it looking that dated. Or how young the whole band looked. But the song is so beautiful--all the time, really, but especially listened to loud, under the influence of certain chemicals. And back in that time, I was often compared to the girl in this video. I'll let you decide if it was in appearance or behavior or both.

And then finally, a song and video that did the best job ever of capturing the feel of that very short era in time, back when the word ""Factory"" meant something other, and much better, than a soulless space full of people mindlessly watching machines. Nothing could have more perfectly encapsulated the scene than this video...and all they had to to was stick Shaun Ryder in the middle of a crowd at the Haçienda (I'd add "drugged out of his skull," but that's redundant), and let him go to work.

Sorry it's a bit blurry; it's a rare video and this is the best one I could find. But just look at his eyes. Look at the crowd around him, see the colors, the lights, how they're dancing, the look of joy and mess and total zone out. Feel the whole thing, and you'll get it. Or maybe you remember it too. 'Cause you're not made of cream, you're made of chocolate.

Here's the Happy Mondays' "Wrote for Luck." Come dance with me. (You can also see it slightly larger here.)

Or, if you want a different and slightly clearer cut of the same video/song, but with more Bez in it (and who doesn't want more Bez?), check below the cut.