Well, this is where I get to be like a little kid and and tell the world about some of my favourite music. Probably before I had even reached my teens I wanted to become famous just so that I could sit on some radio station as a guest and play all my favourite songs which, at that time, would have consisted of Ennio Morricone, The Sex Pistols, The Damned and Killing Joke. My musical tastes have broadened since then but I've still the desire to spout off about all my treasured songs. My favourite songs by some bands change like the wind. I've picked a few here but by next week I'm sure that will have changed. I've tended to pick songs that I find most beautiful (as with Why Not Smile) though some I have put in just because they're great songs (as in Public Image Limited).

I'm a bit of a sucker for beautiful things and music is no exception, so be prepared to hear that word quite a lot on this page. Some of the songs I've tried to link to YouTube so you can hear them - but I can't find them all. If you do listen to them you might be best not watching the videos that go with them because some are pretty awful home-made efforts. I hate having my mental images of songs fucked up by crappy videos. Some ain't so bad.

In the descriptions of songs that I've written below there may be some links to other songs as well that aren't in the main twenty I've picked. You may also hear 30 second clips of most of these songs at either allmusic.com or at lastfm.fm. The quality, though, is never anything like the real thing. I've also tried to choose a different artist for each one because otherwise it might get a bit lob-sided. Hope you enjoy at least some of them.

The Last Beat Of My Heart
by
Siouxsie and the Banshees

Beautiful and brilliant with that romantic edge that I usually like to things; maybe my favourite Siouxsie song. It's off the Peek-a-Boo album which in itself is a fave of mine. I really miss the Banshees (they were wonderful live). Anyway, I was listening to this song recently (I always have a listen around Christmas 'cos I think that's when I first got into the album around Christmas 1988) and thought I'd have a look and see if there were any guitar tabs for it. To my surprise there was and it's very easy to play. So, I've been bashing away on my new 12-string and enjoying myself immensely playing this song (my voice, of course, isn't a patch on my beloved Siouxsie). Now all I need is some black eyeliner :)

In the sharp gust of love
My memory stirred
When time wreathed a rose
A garland of shame
Its thorn my only delight
War torn, afraid to speak
We dare to breathe
Majestic
Imperial
A bridge of sighs
Solitude sails
In a wave of forgiveness
On angels' wings

Reach out your hands
Don't turn your back
Don't walk away
How in the world
Can I wish for this?
Never to be torn apart
Close to you
'Til the last beat
Of my heart

At the close of day
The sunset cloaks
These words in shadowplay
Here and now, long and loud
My heart cries out
And the naked bone of an echo says
Don't walk away

Reach out your hands
I'm just a step away
How in the world
Can I wish for this?
Never to be torn apart
Close to you
'Til the last beat
Of my heart

How in the world
Can I wish for this?
Never to be torn apart
'Til the last beat
'Til the last fleeting beat
Of my heart

*

Heart and Soul
by
Joy Division

To me, Joy Division are one of the greatest bands ever and their singer Ian Curtis is probably the greatest ever songwriter. The music and words work on a level that's kind of hard to fathom and I envy anyone who is dicovering them for the first time. It's just like falling in love. Ian Curtis killed himself on May 18th 1980 aged 23 and left behind him a band whose music will endure becuase of it's honesty and power. There is a film coming out in Spring 2007 called Control about Curtis' life directed by Anton Corbjin who took many of Joy Divisions black and white photographs that added much to the image that the band subsequently had. Corbijn also directed a posthumous Joy Division video for Atmosphere (another great, great song) so I'm optimistic for the film. It has to be better than that god-awful 24 Hour Party People. The song I've chosen here is is off an album that I think will always be in my top three of all time: Closer. I thought it was a good album when I bought it (which incidentally has probably the best cover all time as well (click on the Deacdes link below to see it) but has been ruined since all JD's recordings are now relesed by London who have kindly made it look a bit yellow - horrible) but when I read the lyrics some months later I was ensnared. It's hard to explain. It took the album to a completely different level. I struggled between Heart and Soul or Decades as to which song to put on here but I plumbed for Heart and Soul because of the words that (yes,yes) are probably the greatest lyrics of all time. Don't ask me why. One day soon I'm gonna do a video for a JD song called Exercise 1. It's just one of those songs I can picture a video for, so, I'll probably stick it on YouTube when it's done. The link to Heart and Soul is at the top. Here's a decent live cover by a band called Sixteen Horsepower. But please, please listen to the original. Sorry, but I've just decided to stick the words in:

Instants that can still betray us
A journey that leads to the sun
Soulless and bent on destruction
A struggle between right and wrong
You take my place in this show-down
I'll observe with a pitiful eye
And humbly ask for forgiveness
A request well beyond you and I
Heart and soul, one will burn (2)

An abyss that lasted creation
A circus complete with all fools
Foundations that lasted the ages
Then ripped apart at their roots
Beyond all this good is the terror
The grip of a mercenary hand
When savagery returns
for good reason
There's no turning back at the last stand
Heart and soul, one will burn (2)

Existence well what does it matter
I exist on the best terms I can
The past is now part of my future
The present is well out of hand (2)
Heart and soul, one will burn (2)
One will burn, one will burn
Heart and Soul, one will burn

*

The Ecstasy of Gold
by
Ennio Morricone

Ennio Morricone: the best film soundtrack composer of ever! The Ecstasy of Gold is off of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly near the end where Tuco is frantically searching around a cemetery for Arch Stanton's grave in which is buried stacks of gold. The first music I ever really fell in love with (I must have been about 9 or 10) was Ennio Morricone's film scores for The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, For A Few Dollars More and A Fistful Of Dollars. Great films, great music. I remeber in primary school thinking I was going to woo the girl of my dreams with this music: she would hear the beauty in it and , thus, see the beauty in me and we'd fall in love. It never happened. Ah well, such are the rose-coloured dreams of love when you are young.

*

Drowning Man
by
U2

My brother used to play early U2 quite alot when I was a kid. I kind of liked some of the stuff but it was begrudged. I don't think it was very hip to like U2 back then, certainly not when you were a punk. I think it was their Christianity that brought them the kind of derision that I read at that time. I couldn't deny liking The Unforgettable Fire, though: still one of my favourite songs. It was only some years later when I decided to think for myself that I listened to them properly and made up my own mind. I'm glad I did because, early on, they did some brilliant stuff. I don't like much what they did after Achtung Baby. I'm not sure that I trust Bono much these days either. Still, Drowning Man is my favourite song by U2 and probably one of my favourite songs ever. I'm not sure exactly what it's about but I think it's sung as if the words are Jesus'. I ain't Christain but I'm not closed off to the point where I can't appreciate Drowning Man. It's an incredibaly beautiful song.

*

Song To The Siren
by
The Cocteau Twins

Okay, this song was written by Tim Buckley(whose acoustic version of this song you can hear here). This Mortal Coil did a cover version (in the early 80's, I think) with the wonderful Liz Fraser from The Cocteau Twins doing the vocals (hear it here). The link on the left is The Cocteau Twins doing a live version. I put the live version on so you can watch just how,effortlessly beautiful Liz Fraser sings this beautiful song. Entrancing. I've only really seen that beauty and ease of singing with Art Garfunkel (an example of which is below). I'm not very good at singing so I'm always enraptured by such heavenly vocals.

*

For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her
by
Simon & Garfunkel

 

Well, it was either this or Kathy's Song. On another day it might have been the latter, but Garfunkel's vocals on this are just sublime. I prefer the live version of this than the recorded one: I don't think I've heard a song sang and played so beautifully. It's amazing what one voice and one guitar can do. Once upon a time I was pretty scornful of Simon & Garfunkel because they were from the sixties in a generation which I didn't really relate to at all. But, as I got older, I actually decided to listen to them and found that some of their music is among the best I've ever heard. So much for my judgement.

*

Exile
by
Killing Joke

Killing Joke are not what they used to be. Nowadays they're edging more towards heavy metal than anything else. It's almost enough to make me cry. Exile, a hidden gem, I think, as it was a b-side when it was released, is probably my favourite Killing Joke track though I know few fans would agree with me. Believe it or not I find it one of the most romantic songs I've ever heard and I mean romantic in the sense of what is visionary and has it's heart in the imaginataion as opposed to an ideal of love (not that there is anything wrong with that, of course). I love the words to this song, so here they are:

Outside the boundaries where all the streets are empty
In such a lonely moment we reach the same conclusion
Chants of cathedral choirs, stations of iron cogs grind

Primeaval screams we heard.
Release cannot be found, no
You'll never see that water flow
You'll never see the water flowing

We that have tasted such beauties of corruption
Triumphal arches raised designed to fall again
My kingdom and place of exile
You'll never see the water flowing.

Your shouts of righteousness jaded our contributions
Too scared for anger, the cause without a rebel
No revolutions in four four time
You'll never see that water flowing.

I walk down amongst the ruins, past glories shattered me
Elysian decays, answers that we are finding
Waters of perfection fade
You'll never see the water flow
You'll never see the water flow
You'll never see the water flowing.

*

Plan 9 Channel 7
by
The Damned

First punk band to release a single, first punk band to release an album and, I think, the best punk band ever. There were three main punk bands in the late seventies that kicked it all off really and that was The Damned, The Sex Pistols and The Clash. Never been a fan of The Clash. The Pistols did some great songs and changed music forever but I just fell in love with The Damned. The Turkey Song did it for me. Having said that, I was never fussed on their first two albums. It has to be said though that The Damned were never the same after Captain Sensible left after Srawberries. One of the best guitarists ever! Love the guy. Plan 9 Channel 7 is off their third album Machine Gun Ettiqette, one of their best which saw Sensible move to playing guitar and opposed to bass on the first two albums. I wanted to put Life Goes On here but I couldn't find a link for it but Plan 9 is just a great, great song. I like the vid too.

*

Crush The Flowers
by
The Wake

I love The Wake, a hugely underrated band from Glasgow who signed to Factory in the early 80's and left, I think, mid-eighties under something of cloud and signed for Sarah Records. Crush The Flowers is a song they released under the latter label and is one of their best. It always makes me smile. It's like seeing the first snowdrops in the spring sunshine. Pop music at it's best. Wondeful!

*

Why Not Smile
by
R.E.M

I thought after Bill Berry left R.E.M after New Adventures In Hi-Fi came out that they would never make music as good as they once did. Well, how wrong can you be? This song is on the first post-Berry album Up but this version, on the Daysleeper (another damn fine song I might add) single, is an acoustic version and is just quite simply beautiful.

*

Falling Down My Stairs
by
Even As We Speak

Even As We Speak are an Australian band signed to Bristol's Sarah Records (now sadly deceased).They only released one album (Feral Pop Frenzy) but what an album it was. A hidden gem. Like Crush The Flowers above, this is another flawless pop song and, like said mentioned song, always makes me smile and think of sunshine. That can't be a bad thing.

*

Tomorrow Started
by
Talk Talk

Sadly no more, Talk Talk wrote some great music in their time. It's My Life, probably their best known song, got me into them back in 1990 when it was re-released. Tomorrow Started is off their 1984 album It's My Life. I don't mind saying it reminds me very much of a beautiful Irish girl (don't a lot of songs?) that I met back in 1992 when I worked in Clatterbridge Hospital (if your out there, hello Grace:0)). Tomorrow Started is just one of those songs that can effortlessy give meaning to the mundane. It's my favourite song by them and touches my heart quite deeply to say the least. I Believe In You is another beautiful piece of music by them that's well worth checking out.

*

'S fagain mo bhaile
by
Enya

I know I've put this up on my blog with the video I made for it, but I'm putting it here as well (any excuse will do). I won't say much about it for the risk of repeating myself but I'm just not sure if I've heard a more beautiful song, as black as it is. If you don't believe me, here's the English translation of the words from the original Gaelic:

Morning and the day's beginning
And I leave my home
My heart is breaking
My youth is long past

Night and I am alone
Endless deep black skies
Remembering days that were
Without want and without gloom
I listen to the wind
Great loneliness forever, endless

The end of the long journey
I am sad, sorrowful and broken
After me there will be no more
But children, it is our destiny
But children, it is our destiny

The day is long past
When I left my home
There is no hope in my heart
There is only death
There is only death

*

Mersey Paradise
by
The Stone Roses

Went to see a Stone Roses tribute gig the other week (The Complete Stone Roses) and it took me back to the late 80's early 90's and many happy memories. The Roses's first album is a classic and Mersey Paradise (a b-side to She Bangs The Drums) is a favourite of mine. It reminds me of waking up to the sunshine in my old bedroom and being filled with the joys of spring. It still hits the spot today. Great stuff!

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