Some records belong in a club. This one belongs in the car, with the volume up and you singing along.
It’s The Changingman by Paul Weller, the lead single from his album Stanley Road. Go! Discs released it in April 1995 and it went straight into the UK singles chart at number seven. It came out while I was at university, and it’s been in heavy rotation in my life ever since.
Built on shifting sands
There’s one line Paul sings so clearly that it’s always stayed with me:
The more I know, the less I understand
Paul Weller, The Changingman (1995)
I’m the changingman, built on shifting sands
It’s about how life is built on shifting sands. No matter what foundation we’ve got, no matter where we think we are, tomorrow can always bring something different.
With the clocks gone back and the evenings drawing in, that’s the feeling this time of year gives me. Something’s about to shift, before anyone’s said so.
Where that riff comes from
If the guitar riff sounds familiar, there’s a reason. It owes a lot to 10538 Overture, the first single by Electric Light Orchestra. Play the two back to back and you’ll hear it straight away. It’s the kind of thing you notice after years in the crates, and I love hearing a riff carried from one era into the next.
So when the season’s turning, or something in your own life is about to shift, put it on loud. It won’t tell you what’s coming. It might make you feel a bit better about not knowing.
If you want a record about quietly getting on with it, I wrote about Nas and I Can.
Turn it up and sing along. I won’t tell anyone.
