Rock 'n' roll lifestyle

Indri at Waterbones offers a poignant memoir of loving Adam Ant back in her innocent youth.

By the time he came on stage I was completely hyperventilating. I couldn't look at him at first. I had to look at the shadow he was casting against the back wall. That's Adam's shadow, I told myself. In a moment, I will be able to follow it up to him.

And when I did ...

I have several little observations in the wake of the story.

1. It's an old story.

   People say some stranger has arrived, some wizard, a conjurer from the land of Lydia --- with sweet-smelling hair in golden ringlets and Aphrodite's charms in wine-dark eyes. He hangs around the young girls day and night, dangling in front of them his joyful mysteries.

2. A few years ago, I was caught in a minivan traffic jam. Many of the minivans were decorated, so I knew they were on their way to the 'NSync concert. Inside, I could see 'tween-aged girls festooned in fan t-shirts, warming up with songs on the CD player. Girls already a-glow with anticipation, moms gamely singing along, wishing their daughters' crushes would remain so safely distant forever.
3. There's another bit where Indri says that when her love for Adam faded, she ...

   ... started fixating on Peter Gabriel, who sang about things that meant something, even if I didn't know what that something was ...

   ... which reminded me of Neil Gaiman's wonderful observation about listening to Lou Reed and David Bowie as a teenager: he couldn't figure out quite what the lyrics meant, but he was sure they were about sex somehow.
4. In the story, I show up in a small rôle as part of the bookend narrative device, under the name "AX." I must correct the story in one small way: I never actually heard the Cake song --- I made a comment about "affording my rock 'n' roll lifestyle" and one thing led to another. So the Cake song is an homage, and I'm obviously an old, old man for never having heard it.