One of my favorite contemporary writers Nick Hornby (High Fidelity, About A Boy) has published a book of essays about his favorite songs ever entitled simply 31 Songs. Here in America the book is called Songbook. I have been taken with it so much so that it made me not only compile my own list of personal 31 songs but ask many other musical minds to do the same. Today I feature local favorite Evil Wiener frontman
Billy Sugarfix AKA Bill McCormick :
Listing My 31 favorite songs was a difficult but incredibly enlightening exercise. People who know me and my music will surely notice that some seemed shoe ins are missing, but after several brainstormed lists followed by in depth pondering of nearly 100 brilliant songs, I feel that these honestly are my 31 favorites. They are not listed in any kind of order, i.e. Number 1 isn’t my absolute favorite, number 31 is not my least favorite. You get the idea right? I hope you enjoy my list.
1. The Velvet Underground - Sunday Morning: The most amazing thing about this song is not that it is completely gorgeous, but that it so vividly reproduces the odd melancholia that has always accompanied Sunday mornings for me. It’s like hearing a mourning dove for the first time.
2. Melanie - Ruby Tuesday: This is a stunning song that tells such a sweet story in and of itself, but Melanie’s treatment with the odd phrasing and her unique voice really bring it to life in ways that the original Rolling Stones version doesn’t. I actually visualize a waifish creature named after a jewel and a day of the week softly urging us to catch our dreams and then disappearing as we try to ask her why she need to be so free. I honestly shed tears of joy while listening to this.
3. Zen Frisbee - Lunch At Laird’s: As Dark as a horror film, as mysterious as a Nancy Drew novel, as intricate as the chess pieces Laird Dixon makes.
4
. The Kinks - Big Sky: This song has the rare ability to effectively ping pong back and forth from rocking hard and then sounding totally pretty. The angelic backing vocals are what cinch this one as my favorite Kinks song, and that’s a bold claim.
5. Bob Dorough (School House Rock) - My Hero Zero: Of all the brilliant school house rock songs this one seems to tug hardest at my heart strings, and is the most practical as a teaching tool.
6. The Shins - New Slang: This shimmering fragile mix of tambourine and melody is not only beautiful but it makes me think that creating something of similar beauty is somehow within my grasp. And I will. You just wait.
7. Devo - The Day My Baby Gave Me A Surprise: I consider Devo to be the most innovative band in rock history, but their music rarely enters the realm of what one might consider pretty. This song, however, with its falsetto chorus teamed with synthetic wood blocks, does.
8. The Violent Femmes - Good Feeling: I saw the whole thing. I watched the Violent Femmes first album go from being a mod revivalist phenomenon to a “new music” sensation to a frat part staple. But I still love it, especially this violin guided gem.
9. The Pogues - Old Main Drag: The sad story of a young Shane Macgowan as performed by the greatest band I’ve ever seen.
10. Hot Butter - Popcorn: I don’t have room here to go into how much I love this perky little piece of synthesizer history. It is rare that an instrumental has this kind of effect on me. Seriously, there isn’t room.
11. Roxy Music - Same Old Scene: Oh, the drama!!
12. Shonen Knife - Ice Cream City: The ultimate in serenity with a beat. Japanese lyrics boasting a universal one word chorus; “Yum”. Sharing this song with my third graders at Siler City Elementary was one of my favorite experiences as a teacher.
13. Beat Happening - Cast A Shadow: A prime example of the fairy tale lyrics and echoing minimalism that made Beat Happening so great.
14. Neutral Milk Hotel - The King Of Carrot Flowers: It took me weeks to finally listen to the entire “Aeroplane” album as I kept lifting the needle and listening to this odd story over and over again. The part where the chord organ comes in is definitely a touch down in the game of pop music.
15. Husker Du - Eight Miles High: Although not an original, their version of the Byrds classic captured the cathartic nature of the band better than any of the other recordings, many of which I love dearly, but this is my favorite thing that Husker Du ever did.
16. The Toys - Lover’s Concerto: This lovely variation on a Bach theme makes me so happy when it comes on an oldies station.
17. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Even The Losers: It’s true. They do. Don’t give up. You are loved.
18. Belle And Sebastian – Get Away From Here I’m Dying: It’s lovely to be able to be able to settle down with some old story about a boy who’s just like you.
19. The B52’s - Rock Lobster: I don’t care if it is their greatest hit, this song is the perfect balance between the blissful vocals of Kate Pierson and Nancy Wilson, the bizarre talents of Fred Shneider and the quirkily but solid playing of Ricky Wilson and Keith Strickland.
20. Blondie - 11:59: I heard “Heart Of Glass” on the radio for the first time only seconds after I had been told that my family sold the farm and was moving to town. It really softened the blow considerably, but what really killed me was when I bought the 45 and discovered that the b-side was even better.
21. Galaxie 500 - Oblivious: Sometimes I feel as though the Velvet Underground was a person and that Galaxie 500 extracted a strand of DNA from its body which happened to contain my favorite elements and then made beautiful clones, over and over and over. Slightly altered, but just for me.
22. The Feelies - High Road: The guitar parts on this are so simple yet so great, and the feel of the song is so perfect. I have listened to it countless times and have no idea what the lyrics are saying, I can’t stop bobbing my head long enough to concentrate on them.
23. Dexy’s Midnight Runners - Come On Eileen: To me, this transcends the 80’s campiness aspect and can stand as a great song. Can you name another song that sounds like it? People never believe me when I tell them what the lyrics really say.
24. Metal Flake Mother - Open A Vase: This song had a huge impact on me, not just because it is absolutely beautiful, but because it was one of the first times that people I knew created something that was simply trying to sound nice, with absolutely no attempt to rock hard. And to think that it was created by the same people who turned me on to the Stooges’ Metallic KO. It’s a strange, strange, world we live in.
25. The Ramones - My My Kind of a Girl: I really adore the bubble gum side of the Ramones, and this song, like good bubble gum, has managed to keep its flavor for many years now.
26. The Pooh Sticks - Who Loves You: This song is an absolute sugar-rush of sound. Strong male and female vocals combine with the driving drums and guitars to produce the finest power pop to evr come out of Wales.
27. The Carter Family - Troublesome Waters: The latter day, all female Carter Family which consisted of Mother Maybelle and her three daughters are my favorite vocalists of all time. I can’t imagine that real angels would sound any different than June, Helen, Anita and Mother Maybelle. This, one of their many songs of faith, was written by Maybelle along with her husband and an outsider named Dixie Dean.
28. The Nightcrawlers - Little Black Egg: I find it impossible not to sing along with this, the prettiest of the garage nuggets.
29. The Partridge Family - I Really Want To Know You: This song, to my knowledge, was never even of their TV show. It is a brilliantly written and performed number in which Shirley Jones begs to “taste your tears” and explore “the brilliance of your sighs”.
30. Lucinda Williams - Side Of The Road: When you’re having a hard time of things, sometimes it’s good to cry. If I feel the need to do so, I listen to this and it happens. What more can you ask of a song?
31. The Magnetic Fields - 100,000 Fireflies: In my opinion this is the best song ever written. An anthem of vulnerability, a generation X lullaby, an aural picture book. Just the idea of 100,000 fireflies, the mere title in and of itself could stand as a work of art. Susan Anway’s chilling vocals, the melodies, the singsong instrumentation, and the thud and ping electronic drum beat all work in conjunction to produce a sound that literally makes my spine tingle, but with all of his songs, Stephin Merritt’s lyrics are what really amaze me. Did I mention that I think this is the best song ever written?
Welcome To Cookie's 31 Song Blog!
One of my favorite contemporary writers Nick Hornby (High Fidelity, About A Boy) has published a book of essays about his favorite songs ever entitled simply 31 Songs. Here in America the book is called Songbook. I have been taken with it so much so that it made me not only compile my own list of personal 31 songs but ask many other musical minds to do the same. Today I feature the outpouring of the great musical mind of
David Alston :
I went into this assignment blind – I haven’t read the Nick Hornby novel in question (my familiarity with Hornby begins and ends with the delightful High Fidelity), and didn’t do much of any prep work before writing this. I considered and rejected the idea of going for themes – new wave, or 70s pop only, or 70s r&b, or 80s & 90s post-punk, or music of any variety from the South (some swank smorgasbord of Doc Watson, Al Green, The Bar-B-Q Killers, Dr. John and Labradford….hmmm) before opting for the more haphazard and completely entertaining first thought-best thought technique, grabbing a notebook and firing off a list of tunes. I typed, I proofread, I hoped for the best. I wasn’t sure if I should write like a critic, or a soft-around-the-edges nostalgist, so I just winged it, annotating with chatter as needed to prevent utter boredom. An attentive reader may note my possible overuse of the word “irony,” a 90’s critics’ word that, as of late, seems to be on life support. This perhaps corresponds with my not including anything recorded during the last decade, as I’m admittedly a bit behind the curve of the latest upheavals in the global rockristocracy. These are all just old favorites of mine, simple as that – maybe a little more outré than the goodfeelin’ hits of the Big Chill generation, but that’s just cuz I’m weird like that. I numbered ‘em simply for the sake of retentiveness, these are absolutely not ranked in any kind of preference order. Enjoy.
1. Pere Ubu - Chinese Radiation -That a punk record could express such a sharply defined worldview in such a creative and affirmative fashion left a strong impression with me. I was turned on to Pere Ubu by a former college professor – once showing up in class with a block of blank tapes for this and a few other albums other albums he was a fan of, so here’s to higher education. In any case, this is an unforgettable song, from one of the greatest albums (The Modern Dance) ever.
2. Can - One More Night - Arty yes, but funky too. I have no idea what it’s about, but neither did they, and it’s still great – along with Damo Suzuki’s semi-intelligible murmurings, the rhythms (bassist Holger Czukay, keyboard player Irmin Schmidt and drummer Jaki Leibezeit) swirl and swell gorgeously. The disc this is from (Ege Bamyasi), or the follow-up Future Days are the places to start with these guys.
3. Talking Heads - Crosseyed And Painless – I prefer More Songs About Buildings And Food to the celebrated Remain In Light, but this tune (from the latter) might be the best thing David Byrne has ever done.
4. Stevie Wonder - Boogie On Reggae Woman – I grew up loving all of Stevie Wonder’s 70’s singles, and this may or may not be the greatest of them, but it is the sexiest, and the quirkiest, which counts for plenty in my opinion.
5. Savage Republic - Pios Den Milo Yia Ti Lambri – I was lent a stack of Savage Republic albums at some point in the late 80s by a friend, and this album (Jamahiriya) struck me a something incredible – a mix of Sonic Youth detuned guitar, Flipper theatrics, Talking Heads rhythm-fixations and a lot of world music, mostly of Greek or Middle Eastern derivation that was all blended perfectly. In other words, it blew me away, and this tune – a Greek-traditional cover of a Mikis Theodorakis composition from the score to the Costa-Gavras film “Z” became my favorite. Great song, great album, great band.
6. Pylon - Cool – One of my all-time fave bits of brat exuberance - from a punk-influenced Georgia band who swiped their name from a Faulkner novel. The rhythms are amazing, the dissonant guitar jingle-jangles like their lives depended on it, you can dance to it, and frontwoman Vanessa Briscoe-Hay was a true force of nature.
7. Miles Davis - Red China Blues – Miles’ ’74 release Get Up With It was a 2-hour tour-de-force made up of nothing but curve balls – half-hour dives into ambient music, volcanic white-noise blasts that only Lou Reed would dare emulate, along with well over an hour of electric jazz that approaches Afrobeat levels of sustained polyrhythmic intensity. But in a way I think this is the most unexpected and entertaining moment on the disc – a short, straight excursion into Chicago blues that made me laugh from shock the first time I heard it, followed by the swift realization that this was a strange, great moment in a career filled with plenty of plenty of both.
8. Mott The Hoople - Death May Be Your Santa Claus - An ancient favorite of mine – 5 minutes of garage rock that rampages like a wounded beast. I think I was 16 or 17 the first time I heard this (from the disc Brain Capers) and rock was never the same to me afterward. Producer Guy Stevens went on to produce London Calling (Joe Strummer liked the early Mott records).
9. The B52’s - Dirty Back Road – Well (actually like a number of early B52’s songs) this one definitely ain’t about B-movies, southern cuisine, rock lobsters or big hair. Unfortunately they don’t seem to be remembered for the substance and sexuality beneath the surface quirk, which is why this atypically blunt little piece of pop (from Wild Planet) hits like a dare, a come-on, and a flip of the finger to the neo-con 80s simultaneously, all in just over 2 minutes.
10. David Bowie - Stay – A sentimental favorite from Bowie, from Station To Station, an album that was an apparently arduous undertaking, but is nonetheless also one of his best ever. “Stay” is the overlooked gem – 6-plus minutes of lumbering, propulsive white funk, fusing together layer upon layer of rhythm, and a whole lotta immodest guitar heaviosity.
11. Birdsongs Of The Mesozoic - Rite Of Spring – My favorite by Birdsongs – a trash-compacted rendition of the well-known Stravinsky composition. Birdsongs were initially a Mission Of Burma side project, featuring two keyboards, a guitarist, a percussionist, and tapes/effects/drum machines, and were equally in touch with their “garage” and “art” tendencies (years before the similarly-inclined but far more polite-sounding Tortoise), and it works perfectly here. Amid many geologically-titled originals, these guys also covered The Ventures, Brian Eno, Phillip Glass and the theme song from Rocky and Bullwinkle, which should collectively tell you something.
12. Blue Oyster Cult - Career Of Evil – From their pre-cowbell days, a collaboration between frontman Eric Bloom and Patti Smith. Yes Bloom’s vocal kinda reminds me of Ethel Merman, but that only adds to the b-movie effect. The album (Secret Treaties) is amazing; everything after should be avoided.
13. Camper Van Beethoven – Tania – Spectacle and human strangeness is fascinating, to me and everyone else, and this great song commemorates that fine American tradition in a tip of the hat to Tania, Patricia Hearst’s “revolutionary” ID.
14. Public Image Limited - Poptones – Never knew exactly what this song was about, not that it really matters – but I’ve always thought that one of John Lydon’s wittiest, and most politically astute utterances was the lyric “this bleeding heart / looking for bodies / nearly injured my pride.” Empathy, and action in the face of oppression is courageous – but feeling sorry for “the downtrodden” (whoever they might happen to be) is cheap and condescending, a seemingly obvious but occasionally forgotten truism, and old Mr. Rotten’s reminder of this is rendered with all his usual disgust. T o me this tune seemed to be coming form the viewpoint of someone at the receiving end of such condescension, in this instance very appropriately wedded to some of the finest death-dub ever recorded.
15. Grace Jones - Walking In The Rain – Hmmm. Speaking of death-dub, someone should (a) cover this, or (b) at least publish a study on it. That “feeling like a woman / sounding like a man / looking like a no-no…” line should’ve been given an award by someone. Amazing.
16. R.E.M. - Life And How To Live It – I always thought this one would’ve made a great single, in spite of the whozis gobbeldy hmmph jibberjabber of the lyrics (Damo Suzuki, Michael Stipe, Steven Malkmus or Liz Frazier – who was the true champ of unintelligibility?). Incredibly catchy, with all the expected Peter Buck guitar “jangle” firmly in place – this is one of R.E.M.’s finest moments, from Fables Of The Reconstruction, their most critically underrated album.
17. Al Green - Can’t Get Next To You – The greatest song about horniness ever. Don’t believe me? That vocal will make a believer out of you.
18. The Great Unwashed - Neck Of The Woods – Pop as a low-fi, headlong rush into chiming guitars and floating, moody melodies. This is one of the more obscure singles issued (on Flying Nun Records) during the 80s by a Clean-connected New Zealand pop group, and sounds as though it was recorded in about 15 minutes, though perfect as is - a lavish production job would’ve only killed it.
19. Chic - Everybody Dance – Instrumentally I love ‘em – a genuinely great, inventive band unfortunately tainted by a temporarily lucrative association with disco. Nonetheless Chic was intriguing lyrically as well – specializing in meticulous, lush escapism, while freely admitting the irony of indulging in lush escapism in times when economic upheaval and bigotry are still day-to-day realities. This is one of their most anthemic, and irony-free moments – devoted to the perhaps political pursuit of hedonism in disturbing times.
20. Sly & The Family Stone - Hot Fun In The Summertime – Overplayed or not I love this tune. At the surface it’s the greatest piece of bubblegum funk ever, written around Sly’s mightiest hook. But I also love the challenge (to an audience aflutter with flower power) the whole song turns on – the spring and summer of ’68 brought the assassinations of Dr. King and RFK, along with rioting in dozens of American cities. The whole song dares you to tune out the world around you, and wallow in a 2-minute summery idyll instead of facing reality – betting that you wouldn’t be able to. As the song was taken to be an acid-funk “Fun, Fun, Fun,” I’d say Sly lost that bet, unfortunately the first of many.
21. Patti Smith - Easter – One of the most beautiful, un-traditional hymns to have ever been written. Patti’s spiritual side ran strong through Horses and Radio Ethiopia (along with plenty of poems), necessarily entangled of course with many brilliant and equally transgressive impulses. But here – the title track from album #3 – she unapologetically looked towards an unspecified divine, and created a shimmering masterpiece.
22. Steely Dan - Show Biz Kids – A great one, written for all the world’s most debauched once and future rich kids. Someone oughta cover this one too.
23. Warren Zevon: The French Inhaler – What a character study! I’ve always been a fan of Zevon’s tragic and twisted humor, and this warped epic is near the top of the list, offering a waitress/failed actress and her sponging boyfriend/manager (the titular French Inhaler), who drinks up all of whatever money happens to be lying around, kissing up to every phony in L.A., whilst hoping against all odds for her show biz success, so he can rip her off, in the finest show-biz fashion.
24. New Order - Paradise – For better or worse, listening to Peter Hook was pretty much fundamental in my learning how to play bass guitar. This is one of my favorites by them (I always wondered why it wasn’t a single), and is among the first things I learned how to play.
25. The Meat Puppets - Party Till The World Obeys – In 1989, at a now-defunct Charlotte rock club, I recall seeing these guys play one of the best rock shows I’ve ever seen, touring on the then-new Monsters. This is one of my favorites from that album – one hook after another, delivered through a blinding blur of acid-punk guitar, undulating sun-baked melodies and unforgettable vocal harmony. The mid-90s collapse of this band is an absolute tragedy.
26. Bob Dylan - Isis – Not the most famed or acclaimed of the many, many great Dylan songs, but still one of my absolute favorites. One of his most stylish performances ever - with his unique voice still sharp and strong, every syllable in this 6-plus minute ballad is teased, slurred or bent to match the mood of the lyric, accented with unexpected swoops and dives through his broad vocal range.
27. The Go-Betweens - The House Jack Kerouac Built – I first heard this shortly before I graduated high school, in 1987. This was also the last year there was any college radio in Charlotte, and I remember staying up way too late one school night, listening to the radio through headphones, pretending to be asleep. This tune was one of the only things played that night that I remember – from their album Tallulah – and it knocked me out. Having rediscovered the disc during the last few years – it still holds up today. Magnificently well-crafted pop, filled with great literary detail in the lyrics, and a strings-driven melody to die for.
28. The Smiths - William, It Was Really Nothing – Sure Morrissey had a sense of humor – in this case a great one. If you don’t believe me, check out that mocking falsetto vocal at the end, where he makes clear to the egotistical William that attitude doesn’t equal proficiency. One of the better kiss-offs ever recorded.
29. Aerosmith - Sick As A Dog – From Rocks, an altogether first-rate slab of arena rock, sprang this magical tale of gross overindulgence – it ain’t a first-person narrative, which automatically renders it both ironic and prophetic (it was released in 1976, years before the disintegrations, confessions and comebacks started). Best ever use of the word “loo” in a rock song. Does it rock? Damn straight it does.
30. Lou Reed - Legendary Hearts – I was an obsessive Lou fan in high school and college, and picking a fave is tough – at any given moment, between the Velvets (on a good day I even like “Murder Mystery”) and the solo releases (on a good day I even like “Disco Mystic”) I could easily rattle off dozens of songs. Nonetheless this tune is really something special – a plainspoken, un-cynical defense of love, set to Lou and Robert Quine’s crystalline guitar build. Outside of the Velvets, this tune - and the album of the same name - is some of the sweetest and smartest music he’s ever made.
31. Flipper - Way Of The World – My housemate says that “Sex Bomb” (from the same disc) the greatest song ever, but that was his opinion last Thursday. I’d root for this less porny, but more philosophical and pragmatic piece of fatalism. If reality has – at any time, in any way shape or form – smacked you upside the head, this one’s for you. It’s a crude and glorious reminder that you’re still in good company, while offering no other reassurance whatsoever.
David Alston grew up in Charlotte, and has also lived in Boone and Carrboro. He’s played bass since 1987, for Sticky, The Buttons, Blue Green Gods and several other bands you’ve never heard of. He tried his damndest to figure out how to sneak Jorge Luis Borges and Satyajit Ray into this list, but was ultimately stymied. His future career goals include past life regression therapy for pets, enabling responsible pet owners to know with certainty if young Sierra or Quiche Lorraine might have been, in an earlier earth transit, the file clerk of Kiev, the janitor of Timbuktou, the noblest hairdresser on the Nile, or the best damn plumber on the south side of Kyoto.
Welcome To Cookie's 31 Song Blog!
One of my favorite contemporary writers Nick Hornby (High Fidelity, About A Boy) has published a book of essays about his favorite songs ever entitled simply 31 Songs. Here in America the book is called Songbook. I have been taken with it so much so that it made me not only compile my own list of personal 31 songs but ask many other musical minds to do the same. Sans the essays here's Nick's list :
1. Bruce Springsteen - "Thunder Road"
2. Teenage Fanclub - "Your Love is the Place That I Come From"
3. Nelly Furtado - "I'm Like a Bird"
4. Led Zeppelin - "Heartbreaker"
5. Rufus Wainwright - "One Man Guy"
6. Santana - "Samba Pa Ti"
7. Rod Stewart - "Mama Been on My Mind"
8. Bob Dylan - "Can You Please Crawl Out of Your Window?"
9. The Beatles - "Rain"
10. Ani DiFranco - "You Had Time"
11. Aimee Mann - "I've Had It"
12. Paul Westerberg - "Born For Me"
13. Suicide - "Frankie Teardrop"
14. Teenage Fanclub - "Ain't That Enough"
15. J. Geils Band - "First I Look at the Purse"
16. Ben Folds Five - "Smoke"
17. Badly Drawn Boy - "A Minor Incident"
18. The Bible - "Glorybound"
19. Van Morrison - "Caravan"
20. Butch Hancock & Marce LaCouture - "So I'll Run"
21. Gregory Isaacs - "Puff the Magic Dragon"
22. Ian Dury & the Blockheads - "Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3"
23. Richard and Linda Thompson - "The Calvary Cross"
24. Jackson Browne - "Late For the Sky"
25. Mark Mulcahy - "Hey Self-Defeater"
26. The Velvelettes - "Needle in a Haystack"
27. O.V. Wright - "Let's Straighten it Out"
28. Royksopp - "Royksopp's Night Out"
29. The Avalanches - "Frontier Psychiatrist"
30. Soulwax - "No Fun/Push It"
31. Patti Smith Group - "Pissing in a River"
See what I mean? Quite a diverse eclectic list with a number of surprise picks. As I said above it inspired me to make a list of my own 31 favorite songs - one in which I would truly pick songs that touch me whether or not they could be seen as obvious choices for particular artists and songs that not neccessarily would I claim to be the artist's best work. What I'm saying is I really don't believe that Nick Hornby believes that "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window" is Bob Dylan's greatest song (though I could see some Dylan fan making that argument) but that he considers it an important personal favorite. Although I'm sure I'll look at this in a day or two and want to make some changes here goes:
Daniel Cook Johnson's 31 Songs
My list took some thought of course but most of the choices didn't take any thought at all. I'm a lyrics guy so while the musicianship was and is a very important factor in picking songs some songs were favored because of particular lyrics that I hold dear. That's why in my commentary I just simply state the single line that made me choose the song. As Rob Reiner said "enough of my yakkin', let's boogie!" :
1. Funkadelic - "Can You Get To That?" Burning soul meets an acoustic guitar fueled singer-songwriter perimeter on the asphalt of funk and the result is delicious. George Clinton opens this highlight of the classic Maggot Brain album with a variation on a John Lennon line from "Girl" - "I once had a girl" replaced with "I once had a life or rather life had me". He goes from there to present an uplifting put-down of counter culture ideals and a prophecy about the scary prospect of an future race war and in a three minute pop song that's a major feat! Contains what is definitely the greatest single lyric ever - "when you base your life on credit and your loving days are done, checks you sign with loving kisses come back saying 'insufficient funds'".
2. The Clash - "Lost In A Supermarket"
3. Marshall Crenshaw - "Television Light"
4. Uncle Tupelo - "Gun"
5. Elvis Costello & The Attractions - "King Horse" : "I hope I never hear the song you dedicated tonight, you see I knew that song so long before we met that it means so much more than it might."
6. The Beatles - "It’s Only Love"
7. The Blake Babies - "Waiting For Heaven": Two years ago the Blake Babies played the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro to a less than stellar crowd. I suspected their simple ernestness was not welcomed by the snobby Triangle hipster scene. A local paper even accused them of "cashing in with a money grubbing reunion tour". It was a ridiculous charge to make to a band going from gig to gig in a old van on a very limited tour supporting a wonderful new album of heartfelt originals. This song which wasn't even played that night truly touches me every time I play it because of it's direct honest plea for some kind of happiness. "Heaven where are you?"
8. Big Star - "September Gurls"
9. The Replacements - "Achin’ To Be" : "I've been aching for a while now friend, I've been aching for years!"
10. Beck - "Jackass"
11. Lucinda Williams - "Bleeding Fingers And Broken Guitar Strings"
12. Bob Dylan - "Shooting Star"
13. R.E.M. - "New Test Leper"
14. The Who - "Getting In Tune": Many Who songs could have made this list (and in earlier drafts did) but this one truly shines through my ears. Nicky Hopkins, who graced many albums in that era, plays a spare few notes on the piano at the beginning and before long the entire band comes in with a poignant urgency that never fails to grab me. The late great John Entwhistle basswork provides every line with perfect punctuations and entertwined with the late great Keith Moon's drum fills is a work of wonder. Pete Townsend's lyrics and guitar work rarely miss the mark and this time they hit it so hard it truly hurts. People often put down Roger Daltrey's vocals but I love the way, as former 70's Rolling Stone magazine rock critic John Mendelsohn pointed out, he sings "gettin' in chune, right in chune." Beyond beautiful.
15. Glory Fountain - "Everybody Loves You"
16. Smokey Robinson & The Miracles - "Tears Of A Clown"
17. Neil Young - "Mellow My Mind"
18. The Rolling Stones - "Shine A Light" : "Make every song you sing your favorite tune."
19. Aimee Mann - "Nightmare Girl"
20. The Kinks - "I'm Not Like Everybody Else"
21. Bruce Springsteen - "For You"
22. Pretenders - "Talk Of The Town"
23. Prince - "When You Were Mine" : "You didn't have the decency to change the sheets."
24. John Wesley Harding - "Old Girlfriends"
25. Johnny Cash - "Solitary Man"
26. Tom Petty - "Crawling Back To You"
27. The Ramones - "(Do You Remember) Rock ‘N Roll Radio?"
28. The Velvet Underground - "I Found A Reason"
29. Son Volt - "Medicine Hat"
30. Zen Frisbee - "Fraidy Cat"
31. Nick Lowe - "Time Wounds All Heals" : "Revenge is sweet and I'll get mine, one day you'll pay for all your loving crimes."
Whew! Not very easy to do, is it? My list is nowhere as interesting and varied as Mr. Hornby's but I feel it is honest - for today anyway.Anyway please check back regularly and you'll see some cool lists by cool people.
Thanks,
Danny
cookieco@sprynet.com
