Top Ten

For no particular reason other than it seemed like a good idea when I was lying awake the other night with a bad back (I fell on the ice), I've decided to share my all-time (ish) top ten favourite songs with that part of the world that glances occasionally at these pages. So here goes:

1 Pink Floyd - High Hopes . . . a great song, the last track I think on 'Division Bell', itself their final original album, and Dave Gilmour at his best. The lyrics strike to the heart, as does the closing guitar solo.

2 Bruce Springsteen - I Wish I Were Blind . . . apologies to those who prefer his work with the E Street Band, but this song from 'Human Touch' is to my mind this is one of his very finest. Well crafted lyrics to tug at the heartstrings, and some understated but excellent guitar work.

3 Beatles - Fool On The Hill . . . it's always difficult to choose a favourite Beatles song, but I go for story songs, and lyrics that don't always follow expected paths, and I like the slightly off-key penny whistle.

4 Beach Boys - Heroes And Villains . . . a close call for me between this one and 'God Only Knows', but the superb use of harmony shades it for this track, part of the 'Smiley Smile' project.

5 Stackridge - The Last Plimsoll . . . a track from the George Martin produced 'Man in the Bowler Hat' LP. There's so much of their stuff I like, but Mutter Slater's manic flute and the cleverness of the lyrics puts this one firmly in the frame.

6 Fairport Convention - Who Knows Where The Time Goes . . . this is just a wonderful and hopeful song, and the catch in Sandy Denny's voice as she sings the final chorus gets me every time.

7 Ray Davies - Working Man's Cafe . . . I wondered about 'Waterloo Sunset' or 'Autumn Almanac', but I love the wistfulness of these lyrics. The way things change, and that sense of having lost forever something important, something of the soul, is a constant in Ray Davies' lyrics. The version I have of this song is the recording with the Crouch End Festival Chorus, and is very beautifully scored.

8 Martyn Joseph - Kindness . . . from the album 'Vegas', a song that manages to convey something of the desolation of street life (in Toronto), the ache of separation from loved ones and that deep-hearted humanitarian longing one can have that somehow a wand could be waved to make everything all right.

9 Eagles - Desperado . . . a very strong Frey/Henley song from the album of the same name, with lyrics full of meaning, and a theme of the separation a man might choose for himself without really meaning or wanting to - it's just that, somehow, that's where we find ourselves, that's what we've come to.

10 Paul Simon - Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After The War . . . again, there are many songs I could have chosen, but there's something about the wistfulness of this song, inspired I think by an old photograph, that gets to me. That sense of lostness, is it, when a boundary has been crossed, when bridges are burned, when you can no longer go back?