Are you ready to be heartbroken?

So I parted with some change in Oxfam recently and this is why: above is a signed copy of Rattlesnakes which I’m obviously chuffed with. Firstly, because it’s got the signatures of the whole band and secondly because it doesn’t say anything like, “To Marie, what’s it like being my biggest fan?” et-cetera.

The date on the record is 1987, three years after it’s original pressing. My daydreaming predicts that the early fingerprints on the sleeve are that of someone who spent most of the 80’s being continually disappointed by Dylan forgetting how to be Dylan. A 60’s throwback that never liked punk, but instead claimed Led Zeppelin were the original ‘punks’. By the late eighties he sported a trim black mullet and drank lager heavily down his local. Knowing the cannon, and recognising Cole’s similarities with Dylan he saw that a star had been born and had to have evidence by way of a signature. To validate himself as much as it does the artist.

I didn’t buy the record however for this concocted history. Today, getting items signed is not a ‘done thing’. I’ve only seen it happen a few times: 1) after a gig 2) at an in-store 3) on request from a journalist as a gift for a friend or family member.

I expect that the record in question was signed after a gig as it’s not only the most common way, but also because an industry type would request a personal note  and I can’t see him doing in-stores but I could be corrected.

I bought the vinyl for other reasons. It’s a vain and exotic record. It speaks of Ida Marie Saint and weather girls. It’s a record sung from the gutter looking at the stars. It’s about a wasted youth living in a nobody town and creating a new persona of sophistication and raised cultural awareness.

“…[It] boasts its own cleverness, preens its wit and says nothing.” – Mellody Maker, November 3, 1984

If style is substance then Rattlesnakes has substance – even if the style is clearly feigned. The sheer scope on this record never fails to please. What Melody Maker has overlooked in its review is track Forest Fire. It isn’t some childish snipe at a persona of cultural demographic in a love song. Forest Fire is a classical lament comparing love to nature partially disguised as a self-deprecating view of his aggressive behaviour. The track may not shine as bright as other tracks but its optimism is a beacon in the darkness.

I got the record because for a moment when I was 15, this was the most important record in the world to me.