Song of the Day

Two of my favourite singles of all time hit the charts in the same week in the spring of 1973. This was the first of them.

It was a challenge to follow the uniquene brilliance of Virginia Plain but they achieved it with Pyjamarama which, for me, is even better. It came out in March to promote Roxy’s second album For Your Pleasure, which was the best album I’d ever heard.

Little did I know that I’d have a new favourite just three weeks later – and a new favourite single (coming up tomorrow). Both remain important landmarks in my musical life.

I remember buying the single of Pyjamarama in its pink paper sleeve, the peephole revealing the distinctive palm tree of the Island label. Most of all I remember being stunned by the sheer volume of that opening clang of guitar bursting out of whatever small speakers I had attached to the turntable in my bedroom.

Then that irregular drum beat comes in, unnaturally high in the mix and unnaturally arrhythmical, leading finally to Ferry’s smooth, seductive vocal as he croons gently: “Couldn’t sleep a wink last night… Ohhh, how I had to hold you tight.”

The rest of the lyrics are free-form stream-of-consciousness stuff: there’s no coherent narrative to the song, and the meaningless yet memorable title does not appear at all. The mystery only adds to the allure.

Thompson’s drumming is the star of the show, rattling around as Andy Mackay parps away on his little sax solo and then Phil Manzanera constructs a spiralling solo on his guitar and, finally, Eno – playing on his last Roxy album – chips in with that insistent descending synth melody.

And all the while Ferry is murmuring his meaningless seductions with lines like “Just boogaloo a rhapsody divine” and a couplet that conjured the most exotic sort of romance, spurring my adolescent imagination to think of Bond girls in tropical locations: “They say you have a secret life / Made sacrifice your key to paradise.”

To add to the uniqueness of Pyjamarama, it didn’t appear on the album when it came out. So if you were a fan you simply had​ to buy it. I’ve still got mine.