I made myself a big new playlist, having realised I'd been listening to quite a lot of the same stuff when out and about for the last year or two. I took some care over it, digging into lots of existing playlists and picking out songs that I'd liked at the time but had gone off my radar, just trying to avoid all my completely obvious favourites, while also wanting to make sure it was mainly stuff I really did like, across a good range of genres and eras. But, equally, there's no particular order or meaning to it after a while. When a song came to mind, I added it, so it's quite unwieldy.
But I'm pretty happy with it. I'll share a link to the whole thing at the bottom, but thought I'd write a sentence or two about certain songs, and certain bits in certain songs, which I particularly like.
And Your Bird Can Sing - The Beatles. The bit halfway through which goes "Tell me that you've heard every sound there is ..." Just, halfway through an album, a non-single, they decided to make that incredible noise together. They didn't have to. It's funny, I've been looking this (mainly Lennon) song up and he was a bit sniffy about it, saying it was basically a polished turd - just so funny that, with their double guitars and glorious harmonies, McCartney and Harrison turned a song of his which he thought merely ok into something magical and he couldn't help but be annoyed about it.
Still Life - Suede. The apotheosis of doomed Suede grandeur. Every album should contains a song that attempts to be this grand. I've taken to starting it quiet and then turning the volume up high just as it builds to the big chorus 2.30mins in. Bit of fun. Anderson now sings it in concert with just an acoustic accompaniment and without a mic, which, in its way, is just as grandiose and ambitious as the massive string section on the album.
Fantasy - Earth, Wind and Fire This is one of those songs that was around in my head for years before I first properly heard it and knew what it was. I still love it so much - the melody and the sound and the vocals. It sounds like something from a psychedelic musical, as much as a disco/funk track. Like a lot of songs I love, it leaves you waiting a long time for the full glory. Philip Bailey is an incredible singer.
Some Jingle Jangle Morning (When I'm Straight) - Mary Lou Lord I first heard this on a compilation of lo-fi 80s British indie, where it stood out in that a) it's from the 90s, and b) she's American. It's also a great song. There are two versions - one (I guess the one I first heard) which is very lo-fi from 1993, and then rerecorded with more alt-rock sheen in 1998. Her name, and maybe the title, make you think it will be a bit country, but not really. It's classic scuzzy/grungy melodic indie - catchy, pretty, but also very sad, about lost love and addiction. The chorus references Dylan and Guns n'Roses, and I literally only found out today that the song is a lament for the singer's former relationship with a little feller you might have heard of called Kurt Cobain. So I guess the 98 version has a different level of sadness to the 93 version. Anyway, it's a beauty of a song.
Heat Wave - Martha and the Vandellas I've given it some thought, maybe a lifetime's thought, and I just think the "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah" bit in Heat Wave is the most joyful thing in the history of pop music.
So Sorry - Feist I saw Feist supporting Ed Harcourt in the early 2000s in some properly tiny venue - basically the size of a large living room, with a barely raised stage, and I remember being sat, with my feet tucked in so as not to kick the artists, to the side of the stage, literally about a metre from Feist, who was tiny, and not at all well known. She became pretty well known a few years later as her song was used in an Apple advert, and gradually she has become one of my favourites. There's a bit at the start of the second verse here where the spare vocal is suddenly backed by a humming accompaniment and she varies the vocal melody slightly, which is really lovely, just a moment to melt into the music.
Lawyers, Guns and Money - Warren Zevon I usually resist the calls that tell you that cult favourites like John Prine, Townes van Zandt and Warren Zevon are the USA's actual greatest songwriters - I'd been quite indifferent to Zevon, but I love this. It's got quite a bombastic intro and has a superb opening couplet - "I went home with a waitress the way I always do / How was I to know she was with the Russians, too?" Needless to say, the people eg Bob Dylan who tell you these kind of guys are good at writing songs are right.
Chandelier - Sia It's an incredible piece of singing, Chandelier. It makes you think "Why aren't there more pop songs like this?" but the answer is fairly simple, of course - there are only so many pop stars who can sing (and write) like Sia, and once she's done this once and had a hit with it, she can't really do the same thing again (rather like I sometime ask why there aren't more Wilco songs like Impossible Germany).
St Dominic's Preview - Van Morrison I think there is the biggest gap, with Van Morrison, of anyone, between the persona he presents to the world and the music he has created. Or rather, some of the music he has created. Perhaps that's a visual thing too. The fact he's always looked, not just talked, like a curmudgeonly uncle. So, sure, that fits with the basic, tight, blues and jazz he does, but some, a lot, of his greatest songs, like St Dominic's Preview, have so much vision, and joy, and wonder, so many words and thoughts and ideas, fly so far above the world, it really does feel impossible to reconcile.
I'll Take You There - The Staple Singers I mainly think of Mavis as a modern grandee, a gospel/soul/protest survivor beloved of everyone from Tweedy to Run the Jewels, Gorillaz and Waxahatchee, making all kinds of songs her own. And clearly also just one of the nicest, best people to have ever lived. But also, in the 70s, the Staple Singers had massive hits. I'll Take You There was a US Number 1, (as was Let's Do It Again). It borrowed the intro from Liquidator and used the Stax house band, but it's really all about Mavis Staples - one of the absolute best voices, hardly diminished even now.
Alfie - Dionne Warwick Funny song, Alfie. I do like it. Interestingly, most people involved in the creation of it didn't love it that much, or rather didn't love having to do it. The film needed a song - Bacharach and David didn't really know what to do with the title, until they watched a draft of the film. Cilla Black, who sang it for the UK, didn't really like the idea of singing the name Alfie so much either. Anyway, there are multiple covers - the Cher and Dionne Warwick versions are well-known, but the glaring omissions are the two people who should have sung it, Sandie Shaw and/or Dusty Springfield. I don't know why Dusty Springfield didn't sing it, but Sandie Shaw was offered it first and turned it down. Now, that is a damn shame. Still, it's an odd song but a great effort by Bacharach and David to make it work. It's the Dionne Warwick version I've always listened to, and she always sings great, but, still, it's not quite right ... anyway, the reason it's come back to my mind in the last year or so is because my cousin's dog is called Alfie (apparently one of the reasons Sandie Shaw didn't want to sing it was because she thought Alfie sounded like a dog's name!) and he's a lovely dog but has a bit of a bark when startled and when he does, I inevitably mutter "what's it all about, Alfie?"
Kids in America - Kim Wilde It's such a brilliant song, Kids in America, almost unfathomably good. It's got so many bits to it. I always loved the slightly unexpected male backing vocals (which i think is her brother Ricky who wrote the song with her dad Marty). One of the best singles of the 80s.
American Girls - Harry Styles A few things about Harry Styles - he can do a sub-3 hour marathon. That's no joke. He's got a seriously weird transatlantic accent now, but, funnily enough, he always had quite a weird accent, quite hard to place, a product of different English places. He kind of looks old now. Not in a bad way, but most 32 year old pop idols still try to look 22, but he looks happy to look 32, or even 37. This is a great single, about his fifth bona fide great single.
Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard - Paul Simon I quite like this little clip of https://www.youtube.com/shorts/AaaPDD0padE Paul Simon talking about how it's difficult to write story-based songs to electronic dance music, but that his music has a strong rhythmic feeling which people can dance to if they want. It reminded me that the first dance at our wedding was to Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard. Now, this was a joke. I said to Julio, well, we're getting married at a school, let's have Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard, and she said ok, and we listened to it together, and she, who knows about dancing and rhythm, said, well, ok, that's a pretty complex rhythm, it's not going to be easy to dance to, but we'll give it a go, and she taught me a little dance we could do, but needless to say, it was entirely beyond me so I jumped up and down a bit and looked embarrassed, and of course no one got the joke. Anyway, I love Me and Julio ... it's a super-fun song with strong rhythmic content, but I'm better off listening to it than dancing to it.
Maybe the People Would Be The Times or Between Clark and Hilldale - Love Always one of my favourite song titles, and always one of my favourite songs from Forever Changes. Weird how this kind of mainstay of "classic albums" has kind of faded away. Love were kind of a massive deal in the 90s and 2000s, it felt like they influenced lots of the music I loved. But now? Not really. Modern music is influenced by Take on Me and Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls.
Jenny Was a Friend of Mine - Killers Weird how, within a handful of listens of Hot Fuss and liking at least four of the songs, I decided I thought the Killers were essentially throwaway rubbish and haven't liked anything by them since. Bit unfair really. Why did I judge them by a harsher standard than other bands? (I guess cos of that infernal "i've got soul but i'm not a soldier" bit) Still, intro to this is the best thing they ever did, really.
My Brave Face - Paul McCartney Just, nothing could sound more like a Paul McCartney song co-written with Elvis Costello.
So, here's the whole, 300+ playlist, which is called "2026 is moving" - more hits than misses, I think https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/2026-is-moving/pl.u-JPVaJCjqxpe
I may even do a part 2 of this type of blog, as there are a lot of interesting songs on the list I could write a couple of sentences about ...
