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What's Going On

Say it's 1987 and you're curious to learn more about the classic 'canon' of rock & pop music. The web is still some years off in the future and you're not going to be able to afford to connect to it until 1998 in any case. What you might do is lurk in your local branch of WH Smith and peruse the display copy of a new book (Paul Gambaccini Presents the) Top 100 Albums (a best-of list based on top-tens provided by its 81 contributors), and make some mental notes as to what albums you might acquire next on cassette.

I wasn't interested at that point in the book's top three picks: Sgt. Pepper... ; Born To Run; Blonde On Blonde -  but the write-ups within did guide me in the direction of albums such as Astral Weeks (#9); The Velvet Underground and Nico (#7) and What's Going On (#4). I didn't then (or for a long while afterwards) listen to much soul music, but it was obvious from the first notes that this was a top quality item.

I've always loved the title track and 'Mercy Mercy me' and 'Inner City Blues', but in the callousness of my youth the the earnest tenor of songs like 'Save the Children' and 'God is Love' grated on me somewhat. With the mellowing benefit of age I've come to enjoy those songs too: the whole thing is a joy from start to finish. I bought my present copy - a 2016 vinyl re-press - shortly before the pandemic took hold.

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