A crash of sounds as big cymbals and acoustic guitars strike in unison to begin the track. Smothered in hypnotic layers of 12-string guitars, strumming eternally in the foreground while Pete Ham's sallow haunted vocals croon despairingly.
There's a glow to the track from George Harrison sweet lilting slide guitar aching through the mix to the golden sunshine of layers of guitars to the spellbinding use of twinkling tik-toking piano notes all add to the glorious splendour of this track. The bouncy bass drum turnarounds thud and roll like heavy artillery adding some hard rock and pace to the largely subdued tempo.
The drum parts kick in along with angelic oohs for the chorus to pick up before returning to the glistening malaise. This gilded production is an exercise in arrangement sense, to make lilting slide guitar, twilight piano, 12 string guitars together; the power of the vocals and the songwriting still make the track. The underlying tragic undercurrent of Pete Ham's songs was always evident, not just in the hit Without You but also here as he grimly recalls how "I remember finding out about you", it's not an endearing line but more of haunted statement, almost tinged with more regret and pathos as he struggles to go cold turkey off a relationship in a "lonely room, Day after Day"
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