Last month I began entries in the series entitled "Ten albums that were most influential(for me) by age 20" and got as far as number 2. I should add at this stage that they are not listed in any order of importance, rather, in the order that I likely took possession of them. It is worth noting also that the kinds of music one listens to as a youth doesn't always translate into later life - tastes change, but sometimes, of course, it does.

The third album that makes it into the top ten is The Rolling Stones, Sticky Fingers. I can credit here the influence of my older brother John who had one of the singles from the album in his collection (Wild Horses, I think). One day I went looking for the song and found the LP instead. I can quote here from an unsent letter from this period,

"There is a strange alchemy on this album that moves from slow to fast, from rock to blues. The lyrics can be brassy and sexual or just very sad. Sometimes they are a little odd - "What am I doing in this place/Why does the doctor have no face?" Why indeed!  And the cover - pure Warhol, of course!"

I can't say why I still have a few unsent letters from my misspent youth, except to say that none of them were finished, so perhaps I put them aside and forgot to complete them. I wrote quite a lot of letters at the time and most were not replied to(some of my friends were not especially literary), though I know that they were well-received at the other end.