I love it when folk share the stories behind their requests. A great example of this is Gordon Urquhart's e-mail which I wanted to share with you:
Request: Slade – How does it feel?
I always hated Slade when I was a school-kid - The shouting, the noise, and not least the misspellings. I was a very academic child.
Then I was dragged along to see Slade in Flame, and sat surprised and spellbound, not least for the stunning opening sequence.
The camera flies over an industrial landscape as the piano, plays a simple two-chord sequence. As the song builds, we see inside the Wolverhampton ironworks - sparks, flames, demonic flowing lava. We meet Stoker, played to type by Noddy, and the story starts. Slade as Flame were old-fashioned rockers, caught in the corporate world, and come off worst. In a few years, the industrial landscape of Britain would be changed forever. The smelters, coalmines, shipyards and car factories would be shut, as the economy shifted to services instead of production. The suits and money-men took over.
The song's lyrics tells of change, the temporary nature of everything, and growing up, facing challenges, and the final realisation, that in the end, it all matters, perhaps, not a lot. There are brass bands and Noddy getting a chance to sing. Dave Hill plays bass waay up the fretboard, as the song outros the way it came in, with the simple cyclical two-chord sequence.
It was heady, panoramic stuff for a 16 year old, and still today remains my favouritist song ever. I use it as a tonic whenever I feel thing slipping, though I still hate the misspellings.
This is what makes Get It On stand out from the jukebox request shows on commercial stations. Your recollections of when you first heard a track can turn a fairly ordinary song into an intense musical memory.Don't be shy about sharing yours...