Belle and Sebastian: My Wandering Days Are Over

When I heard the start of this tracked use to introduce a programme on Radio 4 Extra, I thought it must be by some mellowed-out West Coast hippies and date from around 1970.

It turned out to be a track from Belle and Sebastian's first LP, Tigermilk, which was issued in 1996.

Billboard's review of the LP describes it thus:

My Wandering Days Are Over: Written after Murdoch met Isobel Campbell, the cello player who would complete the band’s lineup, “My Wandering Days” folds the B&S origin story into a larger narrative about a guy hanging up his dancing shoes and settling down. 

Whether he’s the melancholy “circus boy” who pops up later in the song is never really made clear. The ambiguity manifests itself gorgeously in the final minute, as trumpeter Mick Cooke cuts through the hazy fadeout with a sharp run of notes.

This is a more recent live performance of the song.