Stylin'

"I'll Change My Style" as performed by George Thorogood and the Destroyers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUSVtK8oGAs

There are some really nice versions of this little gem, but this one is my first heard and favourite. It's all soulful twang and gravelly yearning and bluesy hope. I love it when a good player so precisely punctuates a good singer, and it's especially fun when singer and player are the same person. I first heard Mr. Thorogood and his Destructive pals nail this song back in the mid-1970s, when I was a lot younger, and the fact that I still love it lessens my unease about at least some of what's happened between then and now.

Also back then, I heard this song performed in a bar by the great Canadian blues band Downchild. I couldn't find their version online, but I remember that their saxophonist, who also occasionally sang back-up, took the lead vocal and that their lead guitar guy killed his part. It's a great slow dancing number, but I also remember that instead of dancing, a lovely girl I had known for a while and I started trading goofy smiles and longing looks with each other at the table while everyone else was dancing (I was too shy to ask her on to the floor). Later on, we shared some soulful kisses. Eventually our styles clashed. I mean, c'mon -- how do people really change their heartbeats, or their walks, or their talks? That stuff only happens in songs, which I guess is why we listen to them.

I don't miss that girl, but I sure do miss how she made me feel forty years ago.