101 Songs again and again

Right, I seem to put a list of my 101 Favourite Songs on here every five years or so, and the time has come round again.

Obviously, I've done countless sub-lists in the intervening period, but nice to go back to basics with no parameters.

Apple Music recently offered me my 100 Most Listened To songs of the last 10 years, so here, in the link, is that for comparison. Obviously, that has a significant weighting towards the toddler tyranny of the Disney years, which my own list, mainly, will not.

https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/replay-all-time/pl.rp-bwCb43xN

There is a lot in common, of course. I tend to listen to songs I like. I think, more than usual, I've included passing fancies in this list as much as longstanding favourites, so probably when I look again in five years there'll be a few were I'll wonder what the hell that's doing there ...

Anyway, here's the list. No big surprises, I'd have thought ...

1. From the Morning - Nick Drake
2. When the Haar Rolls In - James Yorkston
3. Can't Do Much -Waxahatchee
4. Pa'lante - Hurray for the Riff-Raff
5. Take It With Me - Tom Waits
6. Something Like Happiness - The Maccabees
7. All My Friends - LCD Soundsystem
8. In California - Joanna Newsom
9. She's Your Lover Now (Take 16) - Bob Dylan
10. Diamonds - Rihanna
11. Impossible Germany (Live) - Wilco
12. Doo Wop (That Thing) - Lauryn Hill
13. Caravan (Live) - Van Morrison
14. Head Rolls Off - Frightened Rabbit
15. Fourth of July - Sufjan Stevens
16. Witness (1 Hope) - Roots Manuva
17. Being Alive (from Company)
18. My Baby Don't Understand Me - Natalie Prass
19. A Matter of Time - The Leisure Society
20. Love It If We Made It (Live) - The 1975
21. Ruby Falls - Waxahatchee
22. Place to Be - Nick Drake
23. Yes - McAlmont and Butler
24. Dancing on My Own - Robyn
25. Surf - Roddy Frame
26. Losing You - Solange
27. Grace - Jeff Buckley
28. Ignore Tenderness - Julia Jacklin
29. Song for Our Daughter - Laura Marling
30. Famous Blue Raincoat - Leonard Cohen
31. The Mercy Seat (Live) - Nick Cave
32. Would I Lie to You? - Charles and Eddie
33. Good Luck, Babe - Chappell Roan
34. Better Son/Daughter - Rilo Kiley
35. Isis (Live) - Bob Dylan
36. Angela Surf City -The Walkmen
37. Rise to Me - The Decemberists
38. The Only Living Boy in New York - Simon and Garfunkel
39. She's a Jar - Wilco
40. I See a Darkness - Johnny Cash/Bonnie Prince Billy
41. Rainy Night in Soho - The Pogues
42. Thunder Road - Bruce Springsteen
43. The Wild Kindness - Silver Jews
44. No Children - Mountain Goats
45. Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love - Kara Jackson
46. With Every Heartbeat - Robyn
47. The Modern Leper - Frightened Rabbit
48. Moon River - Audrey Hepburn
49. The Rat - The Walkmen
50. Sultans of Swing - Dire Straits
51. Hummingbird - Wilco
52. Downtown Train - Tom Waits
53. The Place Where He Inserted the Blade - Black Country, New Road
54. St Elmo's Fire - John Parr
55. She's Got You High - Mumm-Ra
56. Rise - Josh Rouse
57. Au Fond Du Temple Saint - Jussi Bjoerling
58. Alyosha - Susanne Sundfor
59. Danny Callahan - Conor Oberst
60. Green Light - Lorde
61. Redemption Song - Bob Marley
62. Blind Willie McTell - Bob Dylan
63. Under the Westway - Blur
64. Slow Life - SFA
65. Sally MacLennane - The Pogues
66. Stars - Simply Red
67. The Dark is Rising - Mercury Rev
68. Like a Prayer - Madonna
69. Dollar Days - David Bowie
70. Idiot Wind - Bob Dylan
71. Don't Let Go (Love) - En Vogue
72. You've Got a Friend - Carole King
73. So Now What - The Shins
74. The Way You Look Tonight - Frank Sinatra
75. All My Happiness is Gone - Purple Mountains
76. Killing in the Name - Rage Against the Machine
77. Modern Girl - Sleater-Kinney
78. There Must Be an Angel - Eurythmics
79. Right Back to It - Waxahatchee ft MJ Lenderman
80. Young Hearts Run Free - Candi Staton
81. Iceblink Luck - Cocteau Twins
82. Two Princes - Spin Doctors
83. Suite: Judy Blue Eyes - Crosby Stills and Nash
84. A Woman of Heart and Mind - Joni Mitchell
85. In the End - Linkin Park
86. Chicago - Sufjan Stevens
87. How Far I'll Go (from Moana)
88. Save It for Later - The Beat
89. Sunday - Let's Eat Grandma
90. My Girl - The Temptations
91. Danko/Manuel - Drive-By Truckers
92. Carey - Joni Mitchell
93. Takeover - Jay-Z
94. Werewolf - Fiona Apple
95. Nutmeg - Ghostface Killah ft RZA
96. Llorando - Rebekah Del Rio
97. Party Fears Two - The Associates
98. Back to the Radio - Porridge Radio
99. Still Life - Suede
100. Paper Planes - MIA
101. Bryte Side - Pernice Brothers

Ars Gratia ...

Went to see a little work of art you might of heard of called the Mona Lisa last week. I say "see" ... more like catch the top of it from about 25m away over a sea of camera phones. But that's fine with me, we saw it and I can tick it off. I'm vey much from the tick-it-off school of art.

My favourite painting is a little work of art you may heard of called The Starry Night. When I saw it, I hadn't really fully 100% consciously made the connection between the song Vincent and an actual painting called The Starry Night and I turned a corner in MOMA straight into it, and it really was one of my few "well, holy shit, there's that" moments with a painting. I like that it looks a bit like a child's painting. Well, anyway, I like a lot about it.

My sweet spot with art is probably around 1885-1950. I wonder, if you tried to equate ages of art with ages of music, how one would do it. Would the impressionists be 60s rock'n'roll? Da Vinci Mozart? Doesn't really work at all does it? Maybe someone could make it work ...

Anyway, though I like to tick off art, I do also like to look at it, and the people I've most enjoyed looking at, I think are

Van Gogh

Malevich

Durer

Mondrian

Seurat

Bosch

Miro

Waterhouse

Rothko

and of course Bob Dylan!

Just kidding there. I've had a few people tell me Bob Dylan's paintings art is not good, though some critics will say it is actually pretty good. I think it's pretty variable, I do think some of his paintings show some aptitude, but the interesting thing with Bob Dylan's art, as may come out a bit more after his death, is, well, look ... reading Heylin's exhaustive and exhausting biography and a few other things, Dylan has a relationship to not giving people what they think they're getting which is quite dazzling. I suspect were he not one of the great American artists he would be one of the great American white collar criminals ... as it is, maybe he's both, who knows...

anyway, art, you should try it, it can be good ...