Soundtrack Of My Life

"Papa Was A Rolling Stone" - The Temptations

This style of music has grown on me as I've aged. In my youth I was into the usual mainstream pop stuff (or should that be fluff?) of the 1970's, and it's only as I've got older that my tastes have widened to include music like this. My teenage self really had a limited range, and would probably have dismissed this out of hand.

I heard this song on the radio and vaguely remembered it from all those years ago, but on all such occasions it had been the short version. As is sometimes the case, a long version exists and I encountered this one on trawling around YouTube. Nearly 12 minutes long, it has the most amazing instrumental introduction - 4 minutes long - that builds towards the start of the song. The first time I played it I was working on something on the computer and it was just on in the background, but eventually I had to stop what I was doing, as the intro just kept on developing and I found myself wondering when the singer was ever going to get involved.

I can understand why the shorter version was released - they're looking for chart success and even the short version is a little on the lengthy side at 7 minutes, but when you hear the full version then the short one just doesn't cut it anymore. It's one of those rare works where you have to stop what you're doing and pay attention to it - this one definitely isn't "musical wallpaper".