A miscellany of opinions, thoughts, rants and comments
We’re a bit late for this one, since I’m already married and have no plans to have any more weddings. So, rather than try to come up with anything clever, here’s the song that Emma and I had at our wedding as we signed the register:
Direct link: Breathe
Happy songs are all alike, every sad song is sad in its own way. So Leo Tolstoy might have written if he’d been into music instead of literature. As with anger, a couple of days ago, there are different reasons why I’m sad, and different types of sadness seem to demand different types of music. Sometimes, sadness can require catharsis, at others, it requires sympathy, and at yet others it needs washing away. There’s a whole genre of nobody-loves-me songs which have their raison d’etre in the need to cry your heart out, Bridget Jones style, and take solace in the fact that you’re not the first to be lonely or suffer a broken relationship. We all have an inbuilt urge, it seems, to hear some sounds that recognise the pain we feel.
So there are far too many candidates for today’s topic for it to be an obvious or simple choice. But sometimes, sadness isn’t just about me and what I need, it’s about what those I love need. This song exemplifies that, to me. This is Coldplay, with Fix You.
We’re at Dailymotion again for the video (Youtube seems to get suckier by the minute). And, in this case, the DM version seems to be better quality as well, so here’s the link: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1g0tu_fix-you-coldplay_music
This song is a staple on my “driving songs” iPhone playlist, which primarily comprises upbeat, happy songs that sound good on the way home from work – particularly on a summer Friday afternoon when the sun is shining and the weekend has just started. So, for the purposes of this list, it’s a pity that today is a Monday. But then again, I don’t care if Monday’s blue…
The embedded video is from Dailymotion, because of YouTube’s embedding restrictions. But, for those who prefer to see it at YouTube (or don’t get the embedded version anyway), the direct link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa2nLEhUcZ0
This ought to be divided into subcategories. There are lots of different reasons why I get angry, and different songs fit different types of anger. There’s the anger when I’m angry with myself, usually for doing something stupid, there’s the anger with other people for doing something stupid (I’m reminded of this song at this point), and there’s the anger at injustice and oppression. On the latter note, this song has always been one of the most evocative, and recent media stories make it even more relevant. Sunday Bloody Sunday.
Direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbNuIqiVPbU
Picking a favourite album is almost as hard as picking a favourite song. I’m not entirely sure if this really is my favourite album, but it’s certainly up there near the top. But the reason I’ve picked this is because it gives me an excuse to include a song that nearly, nearly got chosen as my all-time favourite song back in day one, could equally have been a song which makes me happy, is very much a spirit of place song and probably fits several other categories as well.
It comes from one of those rare albums which doesn’t seem to have any weak songs on it, and showcases Mike Scott’s extraordinary lyric-writing ability – this is the only song I’ve ever hear where the bridge consists of nothing more than a bullet point list set to music, and does so utterly brilliantly (Facebook users will see this as one of my favourite quotes if you check my profile). From the album This is the Sea, this is The Waterboys with The Whole of the Moon:
Direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4NoZtmxf6o
This is a bit trickier than yesterday, since on the whole I don’t tend to worry about songs that aren’t on the radio that I think ought to be. That’s partly because the radio I listen to out of choice (Absolute Radio) plays the songs I like anyway, and I don’t think I’m really in a position to complain about the Radio 1 playlist that we get at work since I’m not part of their target demographic.
That said, I think this should have got airplay when it was in the charts :-)
I hear plenty of songs often on the radio, since we usually have it on at work and I tend to listen at home at the weekend as well. But this song seems to have been particularly ubiquitous recently since it’s been on the playlists of both Radio 1 (listen at work) and Absolute Radio (my weekend listening of choice). So it makes a change from the past few days to be able to make a nice, simple and easy choice for the day’s topic. It helps that I like this one, as well. This is Scouting For Girls, with This Ain’t a Love Song.
There really isn’t anything which fits this category. Apart from the fact that, as I’ve already said, I don’t “hate” any music – I just don’t listen to it if I don’t like it – my tastes haven’t changed so much over the years that I now even particularly dislike something that I used to love.
Some songs, though, drop out of favour not because my tastes have changed, but because the song itself becomes tainted by negative associations. And that’s the case with this one.
It would be stretching it to call this a song that I used to love, because even then it wasn’t a favourite. But it was a tolerable enough pop song from a singer that I quite like, so I was happy enough to hear it. Until, through a purely coincidental set of circumstances, it became associated with an episode in my life that I still cringe to think about. I still can’t hear this song without having flashbacks.
This is Amy Grant, with her sole UK chart hit Baby Baby. I’ve used the TOTP performance as, yet again, the official video has embedding disabled so they lose out on the benefit of having it shared. Feel free to enjoy this, I’ll wait outside until it’s finished…
Well, now, there are lots of options for this, at least if I go just by the title. This Charming Man, maybe, or possibly anything by Captain Sensible. Or, more prosaically (but far more accurately), just plain Human.
Having said that, this is probably the hardest to pick so far. I really don’t tend to associate songs with myself, and finding one that genuinely describes me – as opposed to merely having a title which suits me – is almost impossible.
To try to solve the problem of what song to pick, I asked Emma what song she thought described me. Her answer was that I should make a mixtape of various clips of my favourite songs and use that, which is a great idea but – apart from being too much effort – it’s probably not in keeping with the spirit of the series.
So, after much thought, I’ve gone with this classic from the late 90s. Not because the song describes me as such, but because I can hear myself in the voice of the narrator. I’ve come to the conclusion that as I get older I’m turning into the kind of grumpy old man who’s never short of advice for the younger generation. But, in the end, advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.
This is a bit too much like yesterday’s topic, really, and suffers from a similar flaw. Those who know me well won’t be all that surprised at any of my musical choices, while for those that don’t know me, they don’t have any expectations to be confounded.
So, is anyone going to be surprised by this choice or not? I don’t know, you tell me. Given that I’m not normally into power-pop girl singers, and I’m a bit old for the usual Radio 1 demographic (I blame my co-workers for the fact that I’ve even heard this), I suppose it is a bit of an unpredictable choice. But what the heck – I like this.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX07z6ho_F4
(That’s another unofficial link, because the official version can’t be embedded. Does that suck, or what?)
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