Scraping the bottom of the barrel, or hidden gold? Are you with me still? If so, enjoy this defining selection of pop, indie rock, melodrama and heart-on-the-sleeve epics that make up my taste in music. Odd? Maybe. Eclectic? Definitely.
31. Nobody’s Fool - Cinderella
32. Freedom ’90 – George Michael
33. Web In Front – Archers Of Loaf
34. Last Train To Satansville - Swervedriver
35. All By Myself – Eric Carmen
36. Lenny Valentino – The Auteurs
37. Shot In The Arm – Wilco
38. I’m Gonna Make You Love Me – The Jayhawks
39. More Than This – Roxy Music
40. Nowhere Fast – Fire, Inc.
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.