Desert Eagle Discs

It's in the nature of Irk The Purists (see here) that the high-brow should share equal billing with the low-brow, that the supposedly credible artists should rub shoulders with artists that musical snobs might consider beyond the pale. So avant-garde jazz by Matthew Shipp, say, should immediately be followed by something like Agadoo by Black Lace.

Well, I haven't got any Black Lace to share with you (though Having a Gang Bang from the soundtrack of Rita, Sue and Bob Too is probably one of my Desert Island Discs), but I will confess to a fondness for a song by an artist equally reviled by the cognoscenti. It's immediately below. It's Boys of Summer by Don Henley. And no, I'm not trying to be ironic, or post-modern. I'm not a huge fan of the Eagles; I just genuinely love this song, and always get a little thrill if I'm driving along and, say, Ken Bruce introduces it (I get a similar thrill from The Heat Is On by Henley's erstwhile bandmate Glenn Frey, but that's another story). It's astonishing that anyone can wring longing, melancholy and regret from synthesisers and drum machines as Henley does in the verses, but somehow he manages it. The chorus is slightly too Eagles-ish to really love, but it provides a necessary, summery counterpoint to the truly autumnal feel of the rest of the song. In fact, this is the perfect song for this time of year, especially in Britain, as the final dregs of summer give way to the first chill evenings of autumn. So download the choon, put on your IPod, find a deserted beach and mourn your lost youth.

Download Boys of Summer (deleted Feb 2007--sorry!)

Make the Eagles even richer