In Nick Hornby's book High Fidelity (arguably the Rock Geek Bible) his lovesick protagonist Rob Fleming randomly made top-five lists while toiling about his North London second hand record store. Hornby takes his list-making obsession to new heights in Songbook, a collection of essays about his most cherished and personally dissected songs ever. The book also known as 31 Songs in Britain, is a wonderful reminder of the power of a simple ditty or textured arrangement to enhance our daily existence. Bruce Springsteen once claimed in song of course that "I learned more from a 3 minute record than I ever did in school" and I'm sure many of us can relate. So in that spirit I've asked many musical minds, local and otherwise, to compile their own lists of 31 favorite songs. As in Hornby's book the criteria was not picking what you believe was the artist's greatest work, just what you hold as a personal favorite. I sincerely don't believe Hornby would cite Bob Dylan"s "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window" as Dylan's best work ever, just that it's the one that has a place in his heart. People who wouldn't normally make lists have expressed concern about making such a list but have conceded to the fact that a list of personal 31 songs chosen in the moment is not written in stone.
Here's another great 31 songlist - this entry comes from the the proprietress, publicist, and jellyfish farmer extraordinaire of the PressGang Media Group (I stole that from the Pressgang website I must confess)
Melissa Adams :
My 31 Songs that can change your life .... or at least change your mood.
There are a few extras here as some artists represented more than once (how can a reasonable human tell which Elvis Costello song is most important to them.... impossible so I named the top two right now.) For the record, a lot of this is Punk/Post-Punk stuff which is what I came into in the late 70s and 80s as a smart ass kid. For my 14th birthday, my mother gave me $20 to spend at the record store. I bought The Clash, London Calling and The Pretenders. It was 1980 and it changed my life. Thank you Chrissie Hynde. I could easily do another 31 song list of local music and 90s/recent music but that's another project.
1. "Halloween" - The Dream Syndicate (overdriven riff heaven for me)
2. "Tiger Lily" - Luna
3. "Blue Thunder/Instrumental" - Galaxy 500
4. "Devine Intervention" - Matthew Sweet
5. "Precious" - The Pretenders
6. "Our Dying Brains" - Grandaddy
7. "Waiting For Superman" - The Flaming Lips
8. "Walking with Jesus" - Spacemen 3
9. "Diane" - Superdrag (cover of Husker Du)
10. "Caleb Meyer" - Gillian Welch/David Rawlings
11. Tie - "Talk About the Passion"/"Gardening At Night" - R.E.M.
12. "Oh the Pagentry" - Rodeo Boy
13. Tie : "Little Palaces"/"Radio Radio" - Elvis Costello
14. "Melody Lee" - The Damned
15. "Johnny Hit and Run Pauline" - X
16. "No Fun" - The Stooges
17. "Lost in the Supermarket" - The Clash
18. "Make Things Happen" - The Waco Brothers
19. "From Her to Eternity" - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
20. "Big Jesus Trashcan"/"Mutiny in Heaven" - The Birthday Party
21. "She’s Like Heroin To Me" - The Gub Club
22. "A Million Things To Do" - Palaxy Tracks
23. Anything off “Isn’t Anything” - My Bloody Valentine
24. Triple Tie - "Death Valley 69"/"Starpower"/"Teen Age Riot" - Sonic Youth
25. Tie - "Bottle Up and Explode"/"Angeles" - Elliott Smith
26. "Neurotica" - Redd Kross
27. "California Stars" - Wilco
28. "Maybe in November" - The Photon Band
29. "Golden Hair" - Syd Barrett/James Joyce
30. "Garbage Man" - The Cramps
31. "Spoilt Victorian Child" - The Fall
