Joe Cocker

I can't remember when I first heard Joe Cocker perform; forty years ago, a bit more?  My older brother had a marvellous album collection from which I acquired my defining musical preferences. 

One of his albums was, perhaps of course, Mad Dogs and Englishmen.  

So ... farewell Joe Cocker.  As with so many ageing men like me, he was one of the lead singers on the soundtrack of our lives.

It was 40 years ago today ...

I was 12 years old, living 3,000 miles from a defining moment ... the end of the summer of love, the birth of a new consumerism. Everything changed. This is the voice; this is the song that carried a message I was too young to understand. It's still an electrifying moment.