I dust off my vinyl collection in London and the first batch of albums I grab includes a Bryan Ferry compilation. I immediately go to Love is the Drug, follow it up with Slave to Love and calm things down with Avalon. However, it's only This is Tomorrow that stops my embarrassing dance and makes me think, rather than just get over-emotional.
The simple track fills me completely and fits me absolutely. I can't recall hearing it before, but I know that in one way or another, in one song or another, in one pub or another - I have, thousands of times before. And I have taken it in, it immediately touches my internal organs - it must be circulating in me alongside my blood now.
And even more: the primordial sequence of chords, the PIE tune, the ultra-Western arrangement - they are all like that big old oak tree that marks the end of Greater London and the proper beginning of Kent, like Stonehenge, like the Moon, like the Sun. I (nearly) believe Bryan Ferry too must have always been around and is an indispensable ingredient of this universe.
And just like to the other ones, I absolutely relate to this song - it's my planet, my land, my upbringing, my memories and for a moment I think: it's me.
PS And that thought that I once thought comes back: if I had to be a pagan, I'd want to be a Jethro Tull pagan by day and a Roxy Music pagan by night.
