A rock bracket, this, with another appearance from Guns N’ Roses, plus The Wedding Present, Meat Loaf, Fire, Inc., and... White Lion?! Yes, it’s true. Oh, and "I Can’t Forget" Pixies’ cover of Leonard Cohen’s song of the same name, plus their Neil Young cover, "Winterlong". And Pixies weren’t even a covers band - what can I say? Big Star’s achingly desperate cover of "Motel Blues" by Loudon Wainwright III and a Replacements rarity round out the Top 20.
11. Baker Street - Gerry Rafferty
12. Under Pressure - Queen and David Bowie
13. Making Love Out Of Nothing At All – Air Supply
14. Wait – White Lion
15. Motel Blues – Big Star
16. Patience – Guns N’ Roses
17. Blonde – The Wedding Present
18. Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young – Fire, Inc.
19. I Can’t Forget – Pixies
20. Winterlong - Pixies
And how about another ten for good measure?
MUSIC FOR MY WORLD
I'm no Lester Bangs. To tell you the truth, I've never read him. I have no musical ability - by that I mean, I play no instrument. But I possess a serious love of music. I just can't imagine life without it.
Much as I love drums and guitars, it don't mean a thing if I don't dig the lyrics. (Funnily enough, for a writer). And the idea of expressing to you what I love about certain pieces of popular music is both a challenge, and a powerful motivator for me.
I'm also a list maker from way back (only child and all that), and there's an obsessive fascination with reducing life's excess to the essentials: could I compile one CD to cover all necessary moods and occasions, one CD that would be the one and only one I'd ever need to listen to.
Of course, it's a futile exercise, in practice. Even though most of my musical interests are historical (not much newer than about 1995), I could never get by with just one CD of music.
But it's fun imagining.ON SELECTION CRITERIA
I was thinking about whether I could define any of the selection criteria for my favourite songs, and I realised one thing they all have in common, is their perceived appropriateness to be played at my funeral.
Or, to put it another way, to be played as the last song I'll hear.
This reveals a couple of aspects to my personality even I wasn't really aware of until I put it down in words.