18 October 1973
I don’t think I know ‘My Friend Stan’ by Slade. If it had been used in a retro clips show like Reeling In The Years or Match Of The ’70s I’m sure I would have been curious enough to find it out. So, following the Irish Number Ones process document, I will listen to this LIVE for the first time as I write this. Expectations? Well, it’s a Slade record, so I expect it to sound like Slade. Anything else would be a shock to my system. However, not already knowing it makes me suspect it’s not worth knowing, or I’d know it by now.
[One listen later]
Well, fancy my surprise: this doesn’t sound much like Slade at all! Pounding piano chords in the old-fashioned English singalong style; whimsical rhyming-dictionary doggerel lyrics about Stan and Jack and Pete; chorus reminiscent of ‘Tell Me What You See’ from the Help! album: turns out ‘My Friend Stan’ is Slade doing Paul-ish “granny music” Beatles. There are no glam guitar chords, and the title is even spelled correctly. Is this really Slade? Why would this tired, unremarkable rote of a song get to number one? Do I particularly care? Only the last question is one I can be bothered to answer. Not a fan.
