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Well, I’ve bought a new car. It’s frankly ridiculous, it’s so big it has its own gravitational field. A massive old Merc. But I love it, no matter what everyone else says. It’s one of those “beyond your wildest dreams” things, I would have never have considered driving an old fart’s car like this when I was a hyper aggressive arsey mad dry drunk phase. But I sit there in double glazed splendour, tootling along at 70 (I can’t afford the petrol to go much faster) and lapping up tunes on the amazing stereo that the millionaire who bought this car in 1996 selected. There’s no iPod connection, I’m not sure whether to put one in, but for the moment it’s CD’s. And you get to listen to CD’s over and over again on big trips, as the changer is in the boot (or “trunk”, for our North American readers). The signature CD for this car appears to be Levy’s 2005 debut Rotten Love. What can I tell you about Levy, fact-fans? Not a lot. It appears to be the working name of James Levy. He used to work in a Jewish cemetery. He’s from Brooklyn. ANOTHER great musician from Brooklyn! I can’t now remember where I heard this track, but I couldn’t find the mp3 to steal anywhere, bought the CD, and the whole thing is great. It’s pretty breezy, pretty slick, some big sky sounds, dare I compare it to, hum, Coldplay? Well, maybe there are hints there, but there’s some Smiths in there too and it’s sufficiently quirky and dreamy and intelligent and knowing and assorted not to be too hideous. And I really should confess to having a soft spot for “Yellow”. Anyway, enough confessions. Here’s the title track.

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Levy - Rotten Love

Now that I’ve ploughed through the “official” slogans of my main fellowship, plus a couple of extra ones, it’s time for a new set of topics for me to misinterpret and attach tenuous song connections to. I’ve decided to stick with AA for the time being, and to work through the chapters of “Living Sober“. I like this book - it’s a practical guide to living without drinking, framed in rather less biblical language than some other AA literature. Although some of the suggestions are specific to alcohol, they easily translate to other intoxicants, and I think it’s fair to say that the text as a whole is applicable by analogy to recovery from all sorts of addictive and compulsive behaviours.

OK, confession time. In the early 1980’s, I quite liked Men at Work. I know, I know, but what else was on offer in the charts in 1983? Paul Young? The Flying Pickets? Renee & Renato? Yes, ok, there was “Thriller” and “Let’s Dance”, but, for me, reggae-influenced Scottish/Australian pop, and heavy on the woodwind, was where it was at. “Cargo” was a great album, and I wish I still had it, but all of my vinyl was discarded along with many other things along the path I had to travel. If only it were as exotic as it sounds.

Men at Work’s Colin Hay is probably terminally uncool, but so what? If I mean it when I say that I don’t care what people think about me (and believe me, I don’t mean it when I say that) then I like Colin Hay and his strangulated nasal vowel sounds. And I particularly like this song, a song that is explicitly about living sober, and a song that when I have been really down has been a big help to me. I want what Colin has, and I hope, I sincerely hope, that includes a sense of irony (when he does the bit about automatic weapons and “our little ones”). Get yourself a cup of Irish Tea “with a little bit of Lapsaaaaaaaang Souchong”, and enjoy.

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Colin Hay - Beautiful World