Commentary

During my wondrous college days, I shared a huge Grade-II listed Georgian townhouse with about a dozen fellow students. Music was our lives, and with DJs on every floor, a love of sharing our music was cultivated. Tunes echoing around the house formed a daily soundtrack, a sonic backdrop to showcase whatever else was happening that day. Without a doubt, our lives became more colourful, as background music became theme tunes in the great movie of our lives.

Nearly a decade later, we had dispersed. We still kept in touch online, but with thousands of miles between us, we lost the ability to share those thematic musical experiences.

That is until one of my friends wrote to me, describing a new idea. “The STML.” The Soundtrack To My Life. The idea was, in a short email to your mates, to take a particular song, and describe a would-be music video to reveal how that song is relevant to your current life situation. What would yours be, right now?

I had a dream the other night. The soundtrack was “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” by the Rolling Stones. I love it when dreams have cool soundtracks. Anyway, to give you the idea, here it is (it helps if you’re listening to the tune while reading!)…

STML: Rolling Stones, You Can’t Always Get What You Want

Opening angelic choir bit: Jimi asleep and happily dreaming of sunshine and green hills and a field full of flowers and all my friends having a picnic and hundreds of naked girls walking through the colourful knee-high forest.

Guitar begins: Jimi wakes up, opens eyes, gets up, scratches his head, scratches his nuts, has a general stretch…

Vocal arrives ['I saw her today at the reception...'] – Now dressed, eating a banana, stumbling out onto the street, walks through busy street scene, arrives in bookshop.

First chorus kicks in ['you can't always get what you want'] – Jimi spies a cute young lady also browsing books. Their eyes make contact, she gives a little smile, then disappears behind a bookshelf. Jimi spends the rest of the chorus trying to find her in the store. At the conclusion of the chorus ['but if you try sometimes, you just might find...'] – she’s walked out of the shop, but Jimi looks down to see a copy of Anarchism and the EZLN in his hand. He pays for it and walks out of the shop into bright sunlight.

Second verse ['I went down to the demonstration'] – Short clips of Jimi performing chores around the house (2 seconds apiece) – up a ladder fixing the floodlight, doing the vacuuming, trimming the hedge, listening while his mother is shouting at him ['To get my fair share of abuse'], putting the bins out, finally doing some grocery shopping – scene cuts to Jimi reading his book in a park, with the grocery bags at his ankles, rolling a cigarette. He goes to light it…

Second chorus kicks in ['You can't always get what you want'] – …but he can’t find a lighter! He takes the entire chorus to search for one in his pockets and in his bags and on the park bench. At the end of chorus ['but if you try sometimes, you just might find...'], a benevolent passer-by volunteers a light. Jimi takes a deep drag, and sits back into the bench, finally relaxed.

Third verse – ['I went down to the Chelsea drug store'] – Jimi arrives at the bar for work, waves hello to all the regulars and is greeted with cheery smiles. He spies an older version of himself standing at the bar ['I was standing in line with Mr Jimmy'] and pours a glass of lemonade ['We decided that we would get a soda']. He starts to collaborate with old Jimmy on the crossword. He fills in one word and that is ‘Dead.’

Third chorus – ['You can't always get what you want'] – now outside the bar, Jimi is carrying a crate of beer on his shoulder, heaving heavy kegs about, and looking through the window into the warm bar inside, and all the pretty girls sipping expensive drinks… He’s sweating, swearing under his breath, working hard, until the crescendo of the chorus ['but if you try sometimes...] – scene cut to back indoors, after hours, the boss hands over Jimi’s paypacket full of cash. Switch to front view outside of bar, as both doors fly open, and out walks Jimi, beaming a smile and with both hands in the air, he walks straight to camera – cut to view of Jimi’s back walking away from camera, and into the front door of a house party

Instrumental – there’s that girl from the bookshop at the party – it’s her house. Jimi takes her hand and leads her out of the back door and into a gig staged by my friends, collectively known as Valleum [www.valleum.com], with the local boys on stage, singing the rest of the song.

Fourth verse ['I saw her today at the reception'] – Jimi’s dancing with the girl, there are lots of positive vibes flowing. Suddenly she looks directly at him and walks off to start making out with a pretty girl instead ['She was practiced at the art of deception']. Jimi can never have her. Gutted.

Into chorus – ['You can't always get what you want'] Jimi is wandering round the gig on his own, downhearted, before the great build ['But if you try sometimes..'], where he bumps into a big bunch of his friends, all watching the Valleum boys and having a great time. Much partying ensues, Jimi is surrounded by good friends, engulfed in universal brotherhood. As the choir builds, the drinks are flowing, laughter all round, silly dancing… Big smiles on the faces of everyone for sepiatone snapshot and fade to black…

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What song sums up your life at the moment? And if ‘they’ were to make a film of your life, what would be on your soundtrack album, and why?

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