good morning everyone and welcome to the final day of Fitzie’s Track of the Day (Revisited). This whole week we have been pouring through the archives of the 1,000-plus TOTD playlist, pulling out some of our favourite songs and exploring what drew fitzie to include them. We’ve laughed, we’ve cried, and now we’ve got a BOGO TOTD (revisited).
But first, let’s recap the past four days:
- Monday: Too Late Now, by Wet Leg
- Tuesday: Mood Indigo, by Charles Mingus
- Wednesday: トーキョー レギー, by Masayoshi Takanaka
- Thursday: Carried Away, by Television
Today’s Tracks of the Day (revisited) follow two themes: versions that don’t actually appear on the playlist because
they aren’t available, and songs done by artists who inspired me to go on to explore new artists.
The first is a version of Rhiannon I discovered many years ago. Fleetwood Mac have always been one of my favourite bands, and Rhiannon my favourite song from Fleetwood Mac’s white album.
This is from the Old Grey Whistle Test, which I first heard of when I was a kid in high school (this was well after the test ceased airing). But the first time I heard of this was with Talking Heads’ version of Psycho Killer. I was hooked.
And I was hooked on Fleetwood Mac. Still am.
This version is not like the studio version at all. It’s sped up, darker, and full of rancor. Stevie Nicks lets loose as she summons the Welsh witch, and Lindsey Buckingham shreds on the guitar while Mick Fleetwood and John McVie drive the rhythm. And, of course, the haunting layers composed by keyboardist Christine McVie.
The first time I heard this song I got chills. Tonight was the first time in quite a while I listened to it, and I got chills again. This song, and Rumours in general, sealed my love for the Mac that’s since expanded far and away from just Rumours. I love Mystery to Me, Bare Trees, Kiln House and everything from the Peter Green era.
But it was this particular song that I listened in my earphones walking to class at Leeds Beckett University more than a decade ago. Every night I would see a fox. It reminded me of Stevie Nicks.
Fitzie’s track of the day (revisited), part one: Rhiannon, by Fleetwood Mac
So it shouldn’t be a surprise, then, that I take Nicks’s suggestions to heart. If she supports an artist, then they deserve my attention (and, frankly, the world’s attention).
It was during her induction speech into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019 where she gave a shoutout to the Haim sisters. A year later I heard The Steps play on the radio for the first time. I was hooked.
And it was during Nicks’s performance during the induction ceremony where Harry Styles filled in for the late Tom Petty in Stop Dragging My Heart Around. It was Styles who inducted Nicks into the Hall.
I didn’t care much for Styles at the time. I thought he was just one of those kids from One Direction.
During the pandemic I set out to finish reading Fernando Pessoa’s The Book of Disquiet, which would go on to become a core piece in my literature collection. I consumed the pages, line by line as Bernardo Soares wrestled with the mundanity of existence and the metaphysics on the conditions of what it means to live.
During this same time I had purchased a copy of Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks. I knew the self-titled song already, but for me it was Madame George that took away my breath. At nearly 10 minutes, the song about a Belfast drag queen slips into the stream of conscience in a style I felt matched with Pessoa’s own perfunctory technique.
One day I wanted to learn more about both of them. It was here where I stumbled upon an article in which Harry Styles and Timothee Chalamet interviewed each other in 2018. The pair name-dropped The Book of Disquiet and Madame George.
After reading this, I felt I should check out this Harry Styles fella. If he has Nicks’s stamp of approval, finds Madame George as his favourite song, and is within the same literary circle as someone reading The Book of Disquiet, then he is deserving of my time.
So I began listening to his music and found that I quite liked it. It was rock and roll, as Nicks said. Very unlike One Direction. Watermelon Sugar can be a little bit silly, but Sign of the Times, Kiwi, Carolina and Sweet Creature were all standouts from his debut solo album.
And I adored his record Harry’s House and its lead single As It Was, which catapulted him to claim the Album of the Year at the 2023 Grammy Awards.
Years later I would read Haruki Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, a brilliant introspective on what it means to take up long-distance running. In April, two days before my most recent marathon, I picked up the latest edition of Runners World. Harry Styles was the cover story: “Harry Styles Is One of Us”.
And who was he doing a joint interview with? Haruki Murakami.
It was also before this that I saw he likes to cover other artists from time to time. I’ve featured a couple here before: Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer and Tears For Fears’ Everybody Wants to Rule the World.
So now as we close this week’s project of revisiting Tracks of the Day, I want to end where we began: with Wet Leg.
Although it isn’t really Wet Leg, but Harry Styles covering the song Wet Dream, which appeared on Wet Leg’s debut album in 2021.
This is one of the great joys of music. To fall in love with one artist, who becomes a gateway into multiple avenues of discovery which bear fruits more than a decade later.
And so wraps up our week of Fitzie’s Track of the Day (Revisited). I’ve had a lot of fun with this. Maybe I’ll revisit some other tracks in the future and see where the music and memories take me. Til then I’ll keep looking for more tunes and please keep sending along your recommendations!
Fitzie’s track of the day (revisited), part two: Wet Dream, by Harry Styles
And now for your links:
The Standard: “Three Tottenham players who must convince Roberto De Zerbi during pre-season”
BBC: “What’s going on with penalties – is it time to end the ‘stutter’?”
ESPN: “U.S. star Christian Pulisic suffered microfracture vs. Belgium”
The Independent: “How should England line-up against Norway? Our writers pick their XIs for World Cup quarter-final”
The Telegraph: “Wimbledon women’s final: When is it and how to watch Noskova vs Muchova on TV”
