15 September 2001
September 11, 2001 was a Tuesday. For the days after that, in the wake of the terrorist attacks in the US, the national Irish radio stations (and perhaps local ones too) played round-the-clock news programmes instead of music. This absence of radio airplay, still in 2001 a crucial promotional outlet for new music, surely had some influence on that week’s Irish singles chart. So, while I won’t be suggesting that this particular record at number one was some sort of ‘Candle In The Wind’ direct response to 9/11, or reading any deeper meaning into the timing of it, I’ll just point out the unusual context for it. (Its US chart peak had been earlier that year, back in June.)
The thing is, that deeper-meaning slant is certainly tempting. The sedate country-rock doo-wop groove of ‘Follow Me’ is nostalgic and comfort-craving. I’d go so far as to say it’s conservatively so. Maybe we can read it as emblematic of the new Bush-Republican America, with its old-time radio and vinyl in the video and its general air of home-spun cornball values: “I’ll be the one to tuck you in at night” isn’t what you’d normally like to hear from your grown-adult love interest. That mildly catchy chorus and that nursery-rhyme primary-coloured “swim through your veins like a fish in the sea” lyric are probably enough to get the mainstream punter and their school-run carful of kids humming along. Considering the shock and turbulence of that week, not to mention what the actual response to 9/11 turned out to be, I suppose it’s harmless enough. Otherwise, it’s just simpering mush.
