Went around the Co-op this afternoon for a few things. Absorbed in the cleaning section, it took me a few moments to recognise the song that was being played on the store radio – The Rolling Stones with Let’s Spend The Night Together. Instantly I flashed back forty years, to hot, crowded rooms rank with the smell of dope and patchuli, “I’m off my head and my mouth’s getting dry”, swaying bodies, stale beer, “I’m high, But I try, try, try “, the promise of thrilling illicit fumblings in dirty sheets, “Oh my, my, my, my, my Let’s spend the night together “….
Then I came back. To a small Scottish supermarket. Four decades later. Standing in the cleaning products aisle and wondering if I should get some more cream cleaner for the bathroom.
And wondering why the hell that song was being used as background music in a bloody supermarket; I suddenly felt like somebody had got hold of my teenage diary and started reading it out over the intercom.
I headed for the checkout, furiously.