Having listed a top ten favourite songs, restricting myself to one per artist, I realise there are a few more not far behind, just 'bubbling under', so to speak . . . so here goes:
11 Leonard Cohen - Tower of Song . . . This stark song, so rich in imagery, just grabs me more than any of the rest of his work. I seem to be drawn to songs that are, in some form, about alienation - but maybe that's true anyway of much of the best lyrical work.
12 Korgis - Something About The Beatles . . . I may be cheating here a little, as this song was I think originally released by Stackridge (on 'Something For The Weekend' 1999). It was recorded and released as a single by the Korgis in 2006, and, not surprisingly given the presence of Andy Davis and James Warren in both bands, the two versions sound very similar. The Korgis were strongly influenced by the Beatles and particularly by John Lennon, so perhaps this version is the more appropriate for my list, even had I not already included Stackridge.
13 Who - Won't Get Fooled Again . . . There was bound to be a Who song in my list, and for me this one is their finest hour. Originally on "Who's Next", this is a protest song that exposes the futility of revolution, and tells of how the hopes and dreams we take with us are never realised. Pete Townsend commented that he wanted to make clear that the centre of his life was not for sale to the highest bidder. The last two lines, "Meet the new boss / same as the old boss" just sum it all up.
14 Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues . . . Hard to choose which Dylan song, but this says so much so tellingly, and with a wry smile, about human interaction and city life that it has to get my vote over, say, "Like a Rolling Stone" or "Tangled Up in Blue".
15 Eric Clapton - Autumn Leaves . . . Off his 2010 album, this version of the Johnny Mercer song is, I think, beautifully expressed. Clapton as a singer has often been underrated, not least I guess by himself, and there is, needless to say, some beautiful and poignant guitar work.
16 Cream - Badge . . . This Clapton/Harrison song from 'Goodbye' is just special for me, and maybe I find more in the lyrics than its composers put there! But it reads like a song about discontinuity and separation, where one person in a relationship is drifting away. The image I have is of Alzheimer's . . . I picture one partner visiting the other in some nursing home, and telling stories about the world outside that are no longer really heard or understood.
17 Wonderstuff - The Size of a Cow . . . This may well come under the heading of 'Guilty Pleasures', but for me this is just the perfect pop song (from 1991 I think).
18 REM - Daysleeper . . . Again, one of several candidates, and alienation is once more in the frame. Michael Stipe speaks about seeing the label 'Daysleeper' on the door of an apartment in New York. The night shift worker invisible through the day, emerging to inhabit an alternative world of isolation and fluorescent lighting . . .
19 Deacon Blue - Loaded . . . Their second single, and not a chart hit, but a strong song with lyrics that expose the shallowness, I think, of a life defined by material wealth and possessions - think rich men and eyes of needles . . .
20 Tom Waits - Tom Traubert's Blues (Waltzing Matilda) . . . I bought Rod Stewart's version of this song in 1992, and he performs it well, but it can't compare with Waits' original, and his distinctive wrecked-by-bourbon vocal style. Written after a visit to skid row, and in memoriam, it's said, of a friend who died in prison, it is such a powerful song: 'waltzing Matilda' in Australian slang means to go walkabout, but Waits also comments that most of those on skid row are there because of a woman: "There's a battered old suitcase / in a hotel someplace / and a wound that can never heal".
No comments:
Post a Comment