So I’m talking to my (useless) mate Dom the other day and we get onto ‘best music EEEVVVVEEERRRRR’. Top ten stuff. Of ALL TIME. Wow.

Dom’s mired in the pre-90s because he’s so old and stuck in his ‘good old days’ on Hampstead Heath. I’m much more open and embracing and thus have 1 track from the 90s and 1 even from a few years ago. Just one. 

Dom’s list was typically: Glad to be Gay, YMCA, Dancing Queen, Edelweiss from the Sound of Music, Bay City Rollers, Aled Jones, David Cassidy…

Whereas I compiled a list that embraces everything from rock to roll, from heavy to metal, everything. Ok, I have a decidedly soft side too when it comes to music and so had to include songs that make me cry. Every frikkin time.

And of course, its not about a quest to isolate musical perfection; music takes us to a place where we heard it. Dom just hasn’t been anywhere since 1989, poor fucker, but the music we like may be about the people it reminds us of, about the time of life, the holiday, the girlfriend, the STD, anything. Its just a stimulus to greater depths of our unconscious.

Which is why I left out ‘Spurs are on their way to Wembley’, by Chas’n’Dave. Because its best listened to when completely unconscious. And Jolene, because its too embarrassing to include, even though we all love it.

So this is my top ’10’ (ish).

American Girl                                            Tom Petty

Suffragette City                                          Bowie

Virginia Plain                                             Roxy Music

Smells Like Teen Spirit                               Nirvana

Islands in the Stream                                 Dolly & Kenny

Alison                                                       Elvis Costello

1983 (A merman I should be)                      Hendrix

Tiny Dancer                                               Elton John

Cajun Moon                                               JJ Cale

Breaking us in Two                                     Joe Jackson

I will always love you                                  Whitney

Goodbye Girl                                             Squeeze

Stairway to Heaven                                     Lid Zip

Rock’n’roll suicide                                       More Bowie

Every Dreamhome a Heartache                    More Roxy

My Old School                                           Steely Dan

Someone Like You                                      Adele

Atomic                                                       Blondie

Rock the Cazbar                                         Clash

Everchangin Moods                                     Style Council

Sound of Silence                                         Simon/Garfunk

Candle in the Wind                                      Elton

Man Who Sold the World                             Bowie/Lulu

Perfect Day                                                 Lou Reed

Tempted                                                      More Squeeze

Stuck in the Middle with You                         Steelers Wheel

Lady Eleanor                                               Lindisfarne

My Lady d’Arbanville                                     Cat Stevens

Girlfriend is Better                                        Talking Heads

To Sir with Love                                            Lulu

While my guitar gently weeps                       Beatles

See Emily Play                                           Pink Floyd

Moondance                                                 Van Morrison

Southern Man                                             Neil Young

Simple Game                                              Four Tops

I believe when I fall in love (it will be forever)    Stevie Wonder

The Pretender                                              Jackson Browne

Already Gone                                              Eagles

Long Train Runnin                                        Doobies

Hurricaine                                                    Dylan

Mother and Child Reunion                             Paul Simon

Dont’ Stop Believing                                     Journey

One Step Beyond                                        Madness

Edge of Seventeen                                      Stevie Nicks

Let me know what you reckon. Or let me know yours. And then I’ll perform some statistically wizardry (ie make it up completely) and come up with the definitive top ten of top tens.

Happy listening (which is very different from ‘easy listening’ which is the work of the devil)

 

A xxxx