Peter Perrett
How The West Was Won

«I always flirt with death».

So, I got a bit worried when Peter disappeared from the face of the earth.

That relationship of tender feelings, Peter cultivated with syringes and tourniquets, had little to do with Peynet's lovers.

«It will kill me but I don't care».

It was drug addiction at an almost terminal stage.

«I'm not afraid of your threats, I won't bend and I mock you».

In his time – which means when he was young and, in a certain sense, even handsome – being a junkie was a respectable job.

At least, Peter felt no sense of rejection for his state.

Rather, he considered himself – and some considered him – a damned, a rebel with a cause to die for.

Almost a romantic hero.

«You always play to win but rehab won't be necessary for me».

Peter was wrong.

However, he put everything in black and white.

Then, that black and white, became just black, like the vinyl on which «Another Girl, Another Planet» was recorded.

A few months later, Peter disappeared from the face of the earth.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

In hindsight, someone labeled that confession of Peter as the greatest single ever recorded, which is probably true.

And it ended up that a telephone company, one of those truly famous ones, insisted on exploiting the greatest single ever recorded (probably true) for an advertising campaign.

That's when Peter reappeared.

He mumbled something about «Another Girl, Another Planet» having little to nothing to do with drug addiction.

That at the time he was more dependent on sex than on drugs.

That his muse was a Yugoslav girl, moderately out of her mind.

Truth be told, Peter wasn't doing much better and he painted her as a heroine, an infantry cadet from space.

So, in the end, he admitted he was wrong about the rehab matter.

Being a junkie, after thirty years and at a certain age, was disgusting and Peter was ashamed as a dog to be one, in those times.

He trembled at the mere thought that someone might compare him to Pete Doherty, his exact words.

So, he went into rehab and disappeared from the face of the earth a second time.

I got a bit worried.

But after a while, I stopped worrying, and Peter ended up in some remote corner of the memory.

He, who was the author of the greatest single ever recorded, which is probably true.

And not even a telephone company, one of those truly famous ones, which exploited the greatest single ever recorded (probably true) for an advertising campaign, granted him thirty seconds of fame.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

So, sooner or later, everyone reappears.

Maybe it happens by chance, completely unexpectedly.

But it happens, sooner or later, indeed.

That's how Peter, not long ago, reappeared a second time.

Something that would leave even Our Lord speechless.

Now he's sixty-five and deep wrinkles carve his face.

But that love story with the Yugoslav cadet has been left behind, water under the bridge.

He's back to playing rock'n'roll and has made an album, all his own.

No longer with the companions of the past, but with his sons Jamie and Peter Jr.

This album is «How The West Was Won».

That it's beautiful is clear from the start, the eponymous «How The West Was Won», riffs like «Sweet Jane» and slides tracing the trajectories of the Only Ones, never forgotten.

«Like everyone, I'm in love with Kim Kardashian … In other times, I would have spent days watching her, never wanting to look at her face to face … God only knows how much I adore the United States … ».

Among the bursts of melody in «An Epic Story», the serene «Take Me Home» and the contrasting torment in the splendid «Living In My Head», the noisy thrills of «Something In My Brain».

«I'm not dead yet, for now … Rock'n'roll has possessed me again».

And it's a great thing, Peter's second resurrection.

Something that would leave even Our Lord speechless.

One who knows a thing or two about apparitions, resurrections, and rock'n'roll.