How Long Do I Have To Wait For You?
Sharon Jones And The Dap-Kings
Daptone
Winter takes forever. Time drags, the days stumble. Up here in the hills it’s snow and ice and rain and mud. Most of the birds have fled, the squirrels and foxes are holed up, the mail doesn’t arrive, the car won’t start. The worst things linger. A man needs strong medicine to get through the week.
Sharon Jones is strong medicine.
Look at her; listen to her. This is heavy tonic. I put on a Sharon Jones record and things get better. Snow melts and the rain stops. It sit in my room and feel restored. On especially bad days, when the sky is dull and thick and lethal, I put on How Long Do I Have To Wait For You? and I’m heartened. I get up and dance; I put it on again and dance some more.
How Long Do I Have To Wait For You? is my secret weapon. Snow and debt and fatigue be gone.
As Abbey Lincoln, another great singer, said: Music is the magic of a secret world.
This is what Wake Up sounds like, coming from across the world to slap sense into fools.
“Every hour seems like a day
and every day seems like a year
and every week seems like an eternity…”
When I look out at another three inches of icy snow…
When there’s only miles and miles of mud…
When my neighbour says we’ve haven’t seen the end of this yet…
When the car gets stuck half up the lane…
When there’s only beans and rice left in the cupboard…
I put on Sharon Jones and she takes my hand, saying: Cheer up fool! We jump around the room and things, if just for a few minutes, are bearable.