By TTT Subscriber Sebastian Crankshaw.

I came of age in the 1990s. Like many others who entered their teenagehood in that decade, my early years were defined by three Shaggies. The least important of these was the novelty R’n’B artist. His breakout hit ‘Oh Carolina’ combined feel good lyrical nonsense with a bum wiggling beat and the deep dubby voice combined with suggestive eye-brow wiggling that would, quite incredibly, see Shaggy become one of the most successful and long-lived artists of that decade. The most important Shaggy was a rather different character, one who defined a certain set of aspirations not just for my generation but the previous one too. I am, of course, referring to Scooby-Doo’s owner. A coward he may have been, but his philosophically laid-back approach to life, obvious stonerisms and love of quite comically enormous sandwiches were, are and will remain an inspiration to us all.

The third and most personally influential Shaggy was Liverpool’s ‘free-role’-defining winger Steve McManaman. He played football like most children want to play the game. A genuine free spirit on and off the pitch, he is one of the best dribblers and most creative players that England have ever produced. McManaman was the kind of player who could score goals like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQEAUYu8tnw

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