Nice to know I can get spam even here. What the fewk.

Thought i'd indulge myself. In no particular order, here is one of

Tom's Desert Island Discs

Because the Night, by Patti Smith

1978 was a pivotal year in popular music. Punk rock was shaking the foundations of Britain and America, disco was smuggling homosexuality into the mainstream, while Kraftwerk were inventing electropop. So the high seers of music journalism attest- I, however, was not an NME reader at that time. I was 7. "Remember You're a Womble" had recently been supplanted by "I've Got a Brand New Combine Harvester" in my then Desert Island Discs. But I remember "Because the Night" more clearly than any other rock song of the time.

I remember the restrained piano intro, the keening vocal of the first verse, the sudden explosion of drums, the vocal turning impassioned, the lady with this big scary, growly voice singing about how the night belonged to lovers. I had no idea what she was really on about, but whoever these "lovers" were, they obviously were not messing about. I remember Pan's People dancing to it on TOTP, and my Dad's head making one of its occasional appearances from behind the paper. Wouldn't you ?

I don't buy most of the orthodoxy on Patti Smith. I didn't spend any teenage nights in a reverie to "Horses". I had the Smiths for that. I never felt the desire to buy any of her albums, despite loving this song (written by Bruce Springsteen- maybe that made the difference). I don't want to own certain great songs, for fear that I'll play them to death and they'll lose their appeal. But I did finally buy this, on the "Land" compilation a couple of years ago. It was, and still is, glorious. "Desire is hunger is the fire I breathe, love is the banquet on which we feed".