Read this intriguing NPR challenge recently - what are the 6 songs in your life?
Six songs? Surely that's impossible! Coming up with a 60 song triple LP anthology would probably be easier than a paltry 6 song list, but then, therein lies the challenge, and who am I to turn down a challenge like that?
So, without further ado, here we go!
1. Everything Counts - Depeche Mode (1983)
Easy choice, this one - for all of the 80s, this was my favourite tune from my favourite band of my favourite genre, the genre that was all the rage when I first started listening to pop music - British New Wave!
Ok ok, this was before I discovered there were countless other more significant music that existed - 60s rock, Beatles, Dylan, blues, hard bop jazz....
Heck, even in 1983 itself, there was a shitload of other great music being created and released....REM's seminal Murmur, Stevie Ray Vaughn's debut Texas Flood, even Michael Jackson's Thriller....but back then, Depeche Mode and Yazoo was all that mattered in my universe.
To me, this is the epitomy of the perfect pop tune - crazily catchy, with just that bit of edge to keep it from being candy fluff. This song just edges out DM's other great hit from the early 80's, Just Can't Get Enough (*warning* very very lame video), and Yazoo's greatest dance tune, Don't Go, from their brilliant 1982 debut Upstairs At Eric's.
Yes, the video's pretty lame by today's standards, but then, so is most of 80's British New Wave!
Always loved Dave Gahan's dancing, though...
2. Winona - Matthew Sweet (1991)
Matthew Sweet - Winona from LaundroMatinee on Vimeo.
Another easy choice - this is my go-to moppy, just-got-dumped, love-sick, self-pitying torch song, and trust me, back in the early 90s when I first fell in love with this song, there was ample opportunity for me to put this track on repeat play.
Could you be my little movie star?
Could you be my long lost girl?
The parent album, Girlfriend, was an overall excellent album (it's been described as a modern day Revolver - there can hardly be any higher praise than that!), and for me, this was easily the highlight tune. The accompanying pedal steel guitar (on the original track) by the great Greg Leisz is to die for.
This edges out countless other moppy love songs that I've fallen for over the years....Everything But The Girl's Shadow On A Harvest Moon from their excellent 1988 album Idlewild, and Yazoo's greatest (only?) love song, Only You, again from Upstairs At Eric's, are just two that come to mind.
3. Idiot Wind - Bob Dylan (1976)
Being a fervent lifelong Bob Dylan fan, I have often-times found solace and refuge in many of his songs (even as I struggle to understand his often very oblique lyrics) such as Desolation Row, Ballad Of A Thin Man, Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands, Changing Of The Guards etc (*warning* if you've never heard Dylan live in concert, well.....let's just say.....you have been warned), but Idiot Wind will always remain the one that strikes the deepest emotional chord in me.
In many ways, this is the 'Yang' to Winona's 'Yin' - Idiot Wind is my go-to bitter-as-hell, I-hate-you-go-fuck-yourself, breakup song, and yes, no surprises here, there too has been ample opportunity in my life for this song to feature prominently!
Written to describe his crumbling relationship with his then wife Sara (Jakob's mother), what's most intriguing is that there are 2 distinctly different versions of this song.
The one that appears on Dylan's classic 1975 Blood On The Tracks, is a faster, angry version (see above). On the 1991 Bootleg Series boxset lies another version, a slower, more wistful, rendition. Apparently, it's the slower Bootleg Series version that was the original recording, but it was somehow deemed not a good fit to be the closing track of Blood On The Tracks, and thus the song was re-recorded in a radically different way for the album.
Having heard the Bootleg Series version first, I've always preferred it, but the Blood On The Tracks version is no slouch either, and is a definite grower.
Slower poignant version or faster angry version, there's no mistaking the underlying theme of hatred and bitterness. In the vast canon of pop/rock music, one seldom hears lyrics as hateful and vile as this - I can only imagine the visceral pain and emotional torture Dylan was going through then.
Yes, the video's pretty lame by today's standards, but then, so is most of 80's British New Wave!
Always loved Dave Gahan's dancing, though...
2. Winona - Matthew Sweet (1991)
Matthew Sweet - Winona from LaundroMatinee on Vimeo.
Another easy choice - this is my go-to moppy, just-got-dumped, love-sick, self-pitying torch song, and trust me, back in the early 90s when I first fell in love with this song, there was ample opportunity for me to put this track on repeat play.
Could you be my little movie star?
Could you be my long lost girl?
The parent album, Girlfriend, was an overall excellent album (it's been described as a modern day Revolver - there can hardly be any higher praise than that!), and for me, this was easily the highlight tune. The accompanying pedal steel guitar (on the original track) by the great Greg Leisz is to die for.
This edges out countless other moppy love songs that I've fallen for over the years....Everything But The Girl's Shadow On A Harvest Moon from their excellent 1988 album Idlewild, and Yazoo's greatest (only?) love song, Only You, again from Upstairs At Eric's, are just two that come to mind.
3. Idiot Wind - Bob Dylan (1976)
Being a fervent lifelong Bob Dylan fan, I have often-times found solace and refuge in many of his songs (even as I struggle to understand his often very oblique lyrics) such as Desolation Row, Ballad Of A Thin Man, Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands, Changing Of The Guards etc (*warning* if you've never heard Dylan live in concert, well.....let's just say.....you have been warned), but Idiot Wind will always remain the one that strikes the deepest emotional chord in me.
In many ways, this is the 'Yang' to Winona's 'Yin' - Idiot Wind is my go-to bitter-as-hell, I-hate-you-go-fuck-yourself, breakup song, and yes, no surprises here, there too has been ample opportunity in my life for this song to feature prominently!
Written to describe his crumbling relationship with his then wife Sara (Jakob's mother), what's most intriguing is that there are 2 distinctly different versions of this song.
The one that appears on Dylan's classic 1975 Blood On The Tracks, is a faster, angry version (see above). On the 1991 Bootleg Series boxset lies another version, a slower, more wistful, rendition. Apparently, it's the slower Bootleg Series version that was the original recording, but it was somehow deemed not a good fit to be the closing track of Blood On The Tracks, and thus the song was re-recorded in a radically different way for the album.
Having heard the Bootleg Series version first, I've always preferred it, but the Blood On The Tracks version is no slouch either, and is a definite grower.
Slower poignant version or faster angry version, there's no mistaking the underlying theme of hatred and bitterness. In the vast canon of pop/rock music, one seldom hears lyrics as hateful and vile as this - I can only imagine the visceral pain and emotional torture Dylan was going through then.
You hurt the ones that I love best and cover up the truth with lies
One day you’ll be in the ditch, flies buzzin’ around your eyes
Blood on your saddle
One day you’ll be in the ditch, flies buzzin’ around your eyes
Blood on your saddle
Idiot wind, blowing through the flowers on your tomb
Blowing through the curtains in your room
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth
You’re an idiot, babe
It’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe
Blowing through the curtains in your room
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth
You’re an idiot, babe
It’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe
4. While My Guitar Gently Weeps - The Beatles (1968)
This was a difficult choice..not so much about having a Beatles song in the shortlist - that's easy - there will always be a Beatles tune in my life (pun intended). In fact, I could just have easily done a 'My Life In 6 Beatles Songs' shortlist, but the difficult decision was to chose the one Beatles song above all the rest of their excellent tunes.
For today, just shading it for me is their timeless rock classic While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Written by George Harrison, it famously features an uncredited guest guitarist - Harrison's best friend Eric Clapton played an excellent 'wailing' guitar solo here.
It beats out several other timeless rock classics that I love: Jimi Hendrix's Little Wing (also love the smokin' blues cover by Stevie Ray Vaughn), and Derek and The Dominos' tortured masterpiece, Layla (another song with a very strong link to both George Harrison and Eric Clapton).
Apart from the original version on The Beatles 'White' album, there exists a quiet acoustic version that can be found on their Anthology series. Also, on Youtube, you can find numerous live versions of this song, some featuring, and many others in tribute to, the late, great George Harrision.
The one I chose to embed above is an early version from the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh.
PS. The other tunes that would have made up my '6 Beatles Songs' shortlist? Easy peasy lemon squeezy!
Here, There and Everywhere, I Saw Her Standing There, All My Loving, Nowhere Man, and Come Together.
5. High And Dry - Radiohead (1995)
High and Dry (Live Studio Session) - Radiohead
What can I say about High and Dry, the lead single (and massive hit) from their 1995 sophomore album The Bends? Radiohead may have disowned this song (together with their earlier hit, Creep), but this is possibly my favourite song of all time, like ever!!!
I could put this on repeat all day and night and not tire of it. Deceptively simple with only 3 chords, this lyrically vague (about selling your soul?) rock anthem manages to sound sad yet strangely uplifting at the same time.
This is my go-to song when I feel down and need an emotional lift, or when I just need a cathartic blast of the hi-fi!
This edges out another sad yet uplifting favourite song of mine, Jeff Buckley's timeless, haunting cover of Lenard Cohen's Hallelujah, and U2's signature chestnut, One.
6. Let's Do It (Let's Fall In Love) - Ella Fitzgerald (1956)
I've said it before, I'll state it unequivocally again here. There are lots of excellent female vocalists out there - Karen Carpenter, Theresa Teng, Billie Holiday - but for me, there will always, for all eternity, only be one queen of them all, Ella Fitzgerald.
I adore so many of her songs...Cry Me A River, Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered, but today, this whimsical Cole Porter tune just about edges it as my favourite....but ask me again tomorrow, and you'll likely get a different answer!
The version I embedded above (sorry, couldn't find a Vimeo!) is a later, raunchier, live version from 1966. Her 1956 original cover (a slower, more romantic, possibly definitive version) that appeared on the Cole Porter Songbook, is here.
I love this tune so much, I chose to walk down the aisle, at my wedding solemnization, hand in hand with my lovely wife Lena, to this song! 'Nuff said!
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