… tentative, tender, descending lines make up the opening half or so of the song, muted but crisp and bright-edged, yearning and slowly, plangently spiralling; and then, the glory moment, when the guitars find voice and ring out and Alex Chilton really goes for it, and the song catches fire and everything just keeps on going forward, upwards and upwards again; pulls back, then comes again more vividly than before, crashing and jangling, and even though you’ve no idea what he’s talking about when he cries, over and over, “you're going to die”,[*] it still all makes sense.
* * *
[*] Which, incidentally, I'd always heard as “you know the type” before looking it up just now.
