The Lilac Time – Black Velvet on MUZU.TV

Click on READ MORE at the end of this post before playing the track, or else it’ll stop when you click to read more. Try and ignore the awful advert before the song… Unfortunately youtube doesn’t have this track.

I first heard this song about a year ago, though it was released in 1987. I was doing other things at home, and the album was playing on Spotify (my boyfriend had found the band and put them on in a fit of nostalgia for his younger days). I’d never heard of them and was only half listening when this song came on.

I was completely drawn in – it was one of those times where you just have to stop and listen. I couldn’t hear all the lyrics properly, so at first I thought it was about a horse called Black Velvet (I think I was thinking of Red Rum…). Although I’m still not entirely sure what it is about, I think I can be reasonably certain now that it’s definitely not a horse.

Why do I love it so much? I’m a music geek, and I always want to analyse why a song is great – and this one’s got a lot to consider. This post should be the first in a series of sporadic writings about my favorite pop and rock songs, and what exactly I think makes them amazing.

I will be talking mainly about the Black Velvet remix version that can be found on Compendium – The Fontana Trinity (2001). I haven’t been able to find out when this remix was done (it’s on as an extra on the 1987 album, The Lilac Time on Spotify, but I’m not sure if it was originally there) but it’s the version I really got to know. The original is a beautifully simple recording with less bass and fewer backing vocals, but I love the epic quality of the remix.

So, to begin…

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