Fifty for Fifi

Which when you think about it is a great title for a sudden re-relaunch post over five months after the last overly ambitious relaunch post.

At a certain point, Fi and I combined our musical tastes. During our courtship, we made a combined playlist on grooveshark, a now defunct site. It is to our eternal sadness that the site (and therefore the playlist) both got deleted. We can remember songs that we shared at that time, but we can’t be confident that we remember all of them.

Today’s song, I can confidently say, isn’t one of those, but it *almost* could have been. Very early on, Fi and I acknowledged that the feelings we had for one another were as much a challenge as they were a reward; our continuation was as much a gauntlet being thrown down as it was a celebration of each other.

I don’t particularly recall Space, although they might have been in the mix along with other (somewhat arguably) Britpop bands I did listen to in the 90s such as Pulp and Elastica. At that age I didn’t know how to explore music and was only really exposed to what people around me were listening to, something that has fortunately changed in the meantime.

Space had a really different take on what made a song, and this one was right in my wheelhouse at the time Fi introduced me to it. I love it’s torchy vibe, it’s use of minor keys and replication of a big band feel from a set of pop instruments.

Conceptually it owes its heritage to songs like Black Magic Woman or Ween’s Voodoo Lady – songs song from the perspective of a man hypnotised and perhaps bedeviled by the object of his affection.

I’m still very bedevilled by her, if the truth be told. Endlessly fascinated in a grumpy old codger kind of way. I hope the song isn’t true, but we’ll find out.