#51: THE SHAPESHIFTERS
"Lola's Theme"
from the single "Lola's Theme"
Released: July 2004
Norman Jay MBE, how great were thou? Life, how fantastic couldst thou be? It is a matter of extreme regret that Norman's Giant 45
radio show, formerly an indispensable part of Sunday teatime, went
strictly online some years ago, all the better to accommodate yet more
'phone-ins
on BBC Radio London - because, as every Londoner knows, this city's
radio is
alarmingly bereft of 'phone-in programmes - but during its terrestrial
existence it was vital listening, both to make vital connections with
the past and the promise that all that 1967 or 1976 or 1988 joy could
somehow be ours again.
The original, glorious eight-minute mix of
"Lola's Theme" - the Johnnie Taylor sample bobbing in and out of
visibility, like a candle in the middle of a deserted forest, before
proudly bursting out to proclaim that, yes, House lives! - was spun on
Norman's show for the best part of a year prior to its official release,
and clearly its success demonstrated that I wasn't the only frustrated
listener glad that the thing was finally available to purchase. "Lola's
Theme," a British-Swedish deep House crossover, was my favourite single
of 2004. A full lyric was appended
to the vocal mix, written and entitled by Simon Marlin in honour of his
wife Lola, and sung by one "Cookie" (I've no idea whether she had been
one of the Cookie Crew in a previous life) and it is a vibrantly defiant
declaration of rebirth (hence metamorphosis, transition, shapeshifting)
and renewed faith: the chorus of "I'm a different person - yeah!/Turn
my world around" - Cookie sounding not unlike Michael Jackson - is
exultant and blazing and the track palpably benefits from its first-hand
instrumental input (including actual bass and drums played live)
blended with that Daft Punk swing, distant wireless voices from Joe Meek
and an earth-moving moment at the climax of the full-length vocal mix
where the entire cosmos seems to sigh out restoration, and the sun
reappears, glad and unrepentant.
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