‘I’ll buy your first good wine’ – Asides (XXIII)

As a consoling line following an early heartbreak, ‘I’ll buy your first good wine … we’ll have a real good time’, has seldom been bettered. Chris Rea, who died yesterday, delivering it in that chocolate digestive of a voice, convinces you – though it might not seem like it right now – that there will eventually be light at the end of the tunnel.

I say ‘convinces you’, but listening again to ‘Fool If You Think It’s Over’, not only makes you realise that this song has aged beautifully but it has also aged with you. On first encountering it in my teens, I couldn’t help but see myself as the subject of the song. But with three-quarters of a lifetime behind you, you’re the one all too ready to impart the song’s hard-won wisdom. Indeed, with a penchant for lager and maybe a Malibu and orange chaser, the teenage me might not have been swayed by that invitation to fine wine. 

I was first drawn into Chris Rea’s universe by his slide-guitar appearance on Deacon Blue’s ‘Love’s Great Fears’, and because of that, went on to grab the compilation New Light Through Old Windows. His initially unassuming songs took a little bit of time to get under my skin. But stealthily they did just that. ‘On The Beach’ contains as much sand, sun and sea as ‘The Girl from Ipanema’. ‘The Road to Hell’ (the glorious long version) grows in relevance with each passing year. And ‘Let’s Dance’ – certainly this morning – with its call to arms of ‘while there’s a chance, let’s dance’, rings with more wisdom than the combined utterances of the Dalai Lama. 

Go well, Chris Rea!