B96: Mainline Playlist

I've made a playlist which I really think is great. It's still not perfect, and somewhat dynamic in form, but the idea is so simple yet, I think, important, and I'm really enjoying listening to it a lot, and think it's one that lots of people could enjoy.

It started with watching the Sex Pistols series 'Pistol', which I enjoyed for various reasons, but one of the interesting aspects was that one of its main sub/plots was that it presented itself as an origin story for Chrissie Hynde. An undercurrent to the whole thing was  "there's a frustrated genius in the background here who's going to outshine all of this", so the whole thing made me think about Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders in a new light.

I've always liked the Pretenders - they were a real AM/FM staple throughout my youth, and in a way, it's a little baffling they're not more acclaimed in the big scheme of things. Such a unique voice, great style, such great, distinct pop-rock songs.

The next piece that helped me put the playlist together was an interview with Gilbert O'Sullivan I read. A couple of years ago, I saw a few people on twitter talking about how 'Alone Again, Naturally' (a song I'd seen mentioned but not knowingly heard) was one of the best lyrics ever written in a mainstream pop song, and I was like "yeah right grandaddio", then I listened to it, and it is, it really is.

Gilbert O'Sullivan was very successful for a while and now he's just not really in the big picture.

So I put Chrissie Hynde and Gilbert O'Sullivan together, and had a think. What's the link, what's the catch?

I've put a lot of acts together here, and this is how I think about them - that they had a turn in the mainstream - they're not really cult heroes as such - but they brought something fresh and sui generis to the mainstream. Most of them, not all of them, never quite made it to the Hall of Fame, to regular in-depth features in Uncut, to the absolute pantheon, You still might catch them playing mid-afternoon at a mid-sized festival, or doing a couple of shows at the Roundhouse or some other medium-sized venue. They don't keep on selling out arenas.

They're, in some sense, singles acts. There's not, usually, one album that really stands out. They have a fine Greatest Hits. They're not just one-hit wonders, they're not just about one place and time.

It's not quite the music branded as "Guilty Pleasures" a few years back,  though that comes into it a bit. There are quite a few soft rock acts which the fullness of time reveals in a more favourable light, but I've tried to make it cover all the decades and a few different genres. though it's harder for me to know who these acts were in the 60s and who they are in the present day.

There are some acts who are probably a bit big - Blondie, Dolly Parton, Pink, The Commodores. But I think I just thought they'd be nice to have, and just to have a reminder of how many good songs they have.

Some acts are there in quite a specific way - by Fleetwood Mac in this case, I mean Christine McVie, by the Style Council, I very much mean the Style Council, not Paul Weller in toto.

Which acts did I, just about, deem too big and acclaimed? The Kinks and Kate Bush were the line. Wanted to put them on, but just missed the point a bit too much in different ways.

Anyway, I could go on, and I will. I can hone the list, take out any songs that don't feel right on listening, add in new ones I think of. Today, I thought ... The Coral, The Lighting Seeds. There'll be more.

This is a great listen, I reckon. I'll accept all suggestions to improve it apart ... from Duran Duran.

https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/mainline/pl.u-DdbloCYWr9b