Primal Scream - Movin' On Up

ORIGINATION Screamadelica
RECORDED IN 1991
LAST LISTENED TO last night
RATING ★★★★★

It is one of my favourite starts to an album, a guitar riff that I will never confuse for anything else, signalling so much goodness to come. I would have first came across it in the year of its release. I'd have heard it in an indie disco and, knowing who I was back then, may well have sneered at it somewhat. In all likelihood, it was Loaded from the same album that I first came to know. However, two events changed my relationship to Movin' On Up.

To begin with, in the summer of '92 I saw Primal Sceam play a headline set at the Glastonbury festival, at the end of a brilliant sunny day. It was a magical night and even though I may have been perhaps a little tiddly, I remember that I really enjoyed their set, which shook my then particular, silly music clique snobbishness. Once I was home, I am sure I would have sought out the album. The second event happened two summers later, when I was in hospital. I was really quite ill, had dropped in weight to near eight stone and had been on a drip for days, only vaguely conscious. About four or five days into my stay, I was getting better and was at last properly with it, when I realised that I had not listened to any music in almost a week. I recall quite clearly lying in a bed, the only occupant in a strangely circular ward, when I slipped my headphones on and pressed play on my personal stereo. I did not bother to check what was in it, I needed music that badly. Screamadelica was the tape in the machine. As Movin' On Up began to play, I felt relief and joy flood through me and I wept. It moved me in a way almost no song had until that point and for that it will forever remain precious to me.

On Friday I went to see Primal Scream perform Screamadelica in Glasgow. They opened, naturally, with Movin' On Up. As Bobby Gillespie started singing, the audience, breaking from an immense cheer, as one sang along loud enough to near drown him out. It was the beginning to a brilliant gig.

Waking with this in my head the next morning was very much a foregone conclusion. It is a song that I can find not one flaw in, from the perfectly-paced beginning, though Bobby G's slightly off singing and the slide guitar licks, to the gospel choir and the guitar solo. It was a great start to the day.