Sunday 1 May 2016

Tracy '77


Tracy went to the same school as my sister. They were quite good friends for a while. When she came over to ours, Tracy always seemed rather curious about her friend's older brother - especially the kind of music that he was playing.

Anyway, we never got to speak much, but one day she presented me with one of her drawings as she thought I'd like it. It was a real surprise. This was the very first piece of artwork that had ever been given to me. She said it was about me, even though I never got into the safety-pin thing, and it felt a bit of a cliché which embarrassed me slightly.

But I had a bit of crush on Tracy. I remember that she was blond, very attractive, and had a scar below the corner of her bottom lip which seemed very cool to me. I just love the way she had signed the back of her drawing: 'Tracy '77'. Oh boy, such a very long time ago!

At some point, I'd put 'PUNK' inside the sleeve of 'The Whole World Turned Day-glo' single by X-Ray Spex, which I bought (on orange vinyl), but had stopped playing the 7" once the track appeared on their 'Germfree Adolescents' LP that was released about six months later. So 'PUNK' has been rediscovered. Perfectly and appropriately preserved between the picture sleeve and disc of a masterpiece from the era.

Thank you again Tracy '77, wherever you are...

'Punk' by Tracy '77