Like most old curmudgeons I enjoy looking back nostalgically at how wonderful things were in the past and sort of pitying the youngsters of today for missing out on all that. Of course, most of the time I'm aware I'm just happily deluded. But occasionally a memory will pop up suggesting that the nostalgic haze might not be quite so deceptive.
The other day I chanced upon an early single, I Can't Let Go, by The Hollies, a fine sixties (and beyond, I suppose) 'combo', originating from Manchester of all places. It's a song I know backwards, having happily embedded itself in the consciousness of the little lad I was back then. But hearing it again made me keenly aware of just how brilliant it was, and is. Can't think of anything I've heard in the world of popular music in recent years that comes close to evoking the sheer joy of the song - and, by the way, I reckon The Hollies playing it live is even better than the studio version. Two and a half minutes of bliss that's sort of lasted more than fifty years.
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