Joan Armatrading's 1980 album, Me, Myself, I.In 1980, I "got into" Joan's music. I'd heard her Love And Affection track a few years previously and then, aged ten or eleven, had immediately denounced it as "soppy". But times change. At Christmas 1980, this album was a present from a very mean old family friend.
This woman was known as "Auntie" to the kids in my family, and her meaness was legendary. On her daughter's 21st birthday, "Auntie" gave her a bottle of scent she'd had for Christmas the year before.
I suspected that the album I received had been an unwanted present to "Auntie" as well (her musical tastes didn't stray much beyond Dana and Sleepy Shores), but I'd enjoyed the track Me, Myself, I when it had charted, so put the record on. And that was it. I was hooked. I bought some of Joan's other albums and she helped see me through some turbulent teenage times.
Thanks, Joan. Thanks, "Auntie"!