Day 150. It's Mixed With Happiness, It's Mixed With Tears (30/5/13)

Look, if you're not taken by the music ones or don't like lists ( Hi J) it may be worth just skipping today.

Still here? Right, the thinking was this; you need more songs that will enrich your life and this is what I live for so here's 150 of the buggers. The only criteria is that they couldn't be obvious, they had to be songs that most people might not have heard. Oh, and they had to be basically bloody brilliant. (There WILL be repetition. And spelling mistakes. This took ages, I'm REALLY REALLY not doing it again. Honest.)

So, Spotify or YouTube at the ready to check these out? Here we go.......


150 Basically Bloody Brilliant Songs

The Wild Swans 'Young Manhood'  - "I don't believe in an act of war, I don't believe in empires anymore" - The Wild Swans mission statement, very English, imperial but rebelling.

The Wedding Present 'Silver Shorts' - a top 10 single every month for a year, only Elvis had done that before. An argument described in song - "I know what I said, I just changed my mind, just keep on doing as you were before I mentioned her" to Weddoes guitars. Gorgeous.

Spiritualized 'I Think I'm in Love' - all those polls that say that OK Computer is the greatest album ever? Wasn't even the greatest album of the year it came out.  'Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space' was. This is beautiful, shimmering, slow, dreamy. Then the drums kick in and it's the last thing you expect. Jason Pierce tells you everything that he thinks he is and compares it to everything that he actually is.

Gil Scott Heron 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised' - it's not rap, it's a poem. Over drums. It just happens to invent rap. 

Gay Dad 'To Earth With Love' - they were ridiculed because they were all music journos and their mates were giving them a leg up but they made one great album and this is one of the best debut singles like ever. "Well that's cool, Aerosmith rule"

The Dylans 'Planet Love' - I worked with the singer years after I bought the album. When I was introduced to him I was the tiniest bit drunk. I got very giddy. You should get giddy about great songs. That's what pop is for.

Okay, Springsteen. There wasn't enough Springsteen on day 100. Many people told me this. There'll be more today. 'Thunder Road' - it's a poem, it works as a poem, "The screen door slams, Mary's dress waves, like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays, it's Roy Orbison singing for the Lonely. Hey that's me and I want you only" Perfect.

Elvis Presley 'Tomorrow Is A Long Time' - Elvis sings Dylan, best vocal performance by a human being ever.

Elvis Costello 'Alison' Jealousy and uncertainty, love gone wrong. "I don't know if you've been loving somebody, I only know it isn't mine"

 Simon & Garfunkel 'The Only Living Boy in New York' - "Tom, get your plane right on time" Tom? Tom is Art Garfunkel (their first single was as Tom & Jerry, see what they did there?) it's Paul Simon saying goodbye, it's a love song for two men who don't talk anymore.

The Rutles 'Let's Be Natural' - No, seriously, they may have been a joke band for a comedy film but Neil Innes' album full of forensic approximations of Beatles stylings is an absolute masterclass in songwriting craft. And this is just a sodding great song.

 Primal Scream 'Star' - all dark electrics and melodica, from the very, very great Vanishing Point album, lists the great departed who stood up for what they believed in. Unfortunately listed the (at that point) very much alive Rosa Parks so tends not to appear on hits collections. What the hell, it's only a minor fail.

 Prefab Sprout 'We Let The Stars Go' - again, it's about losing love, someone he used to know, missed opportunities, letting the stars go. Blissfully sad.

 Julian Cope 'Safesurfer' - an orgy of guitars, a massive tune, it's about using condoms. "You don't need to be afraid love, 'cos I'm a safesurfer darling"

 The Turtles 'Happy Together' - forget that it's been used on rubbish adverts, it's got the greatest chorus ever. "I can't see me loving nobody but you for all my life" and tons of Ba-Ba-Bas.

 And speaking of Ba-Ba-Bas, The Teardrop Explodes 'Passionate Friend' - pure bubblegum psych pop from Mr Cope, all trumpets and mock sitars and a middle eight  where Copey  does his damnedest to actually be a trumpet.

More Liverpudlian greatness? Ian McNabb. 'Truth and Beauty' -  seven minutes of the ex-Icicle Works leader morphing into The Beach Boys and Wings at the same time. A mini symphony.

 More sixties influenced bands from the 80s. The Stone Roses then. ''What The World Is Waiting For' - most bands would make an entire career out of a song this good, the Roses put it on a B Side and left it there

And if we're talking great B Sides - The Smiths 'Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want'. Less than two minutes of pure pop perfection. Makes its point and gets out, leaving on an orchestra of mandolins. Johnny Marr really is god.

As is Scott Walker 'Mathilde' - a sheer rush of Gallic heartbreak, rumbling timpani, tambourine driven, from Scott's Jacques Brel cover obsession. Drunken accordion genius.

 And while we're in the region of S, Shack 'Oscar' - the great lost single by the great lost Scouse band. A song about a wheelchair bound bloke who wants to go to Amsterdam because he can get prostitutes on the state there. With the scousest vocal ever. Not a hit. No idea why. Mick Head is also god.

 The Sasparilla Juggernauts, 'The Girl Who Saved My Life' - never heard of it? There's a good reason. One day I'll let you in on this one.

 The Polyphonic Spree 'Younger Yesterday' - gotta love the Spree, they tend to have about 300 people on stage, usually in religious robes of some kind. Orchestral choral pop. Gorgeous.

 The Monkees. Look I'll go on about The Monkees forever. Sod the fact that they were a manufactured boy band, they could write their own stuff, could play and are behind some bloody great records. 'For Pete's Sake' was the outro for the programme, Tork wrote it and the guitar is sodding great.

 The Auteurs. 'Lenny Valentino'. Possibly the best single of the Britpop era. Lenny Bruce meets Rudolph Valentino over a great guitar line. Luke Haines was far too arsey to be a proper pop star, god bless him

 Whereas Gram Parsons would have been a great pop star if it wasn't for the fact that he wanted to be a country star. 'Streets of Baltimore' - classic country heartbreak, a violin and EmmyLou Harris on duet vocals

 The Hold Steady 'Killer Parties' - the live version just because our Matty loves it. A ten minute lesson on exactly how to close your set.

 Ian McCulloch 'Candleland (The Second Coming)' the version with Liz Fraser from the Cocteau Twins on backing vocals, title track of the ex-Bunnyman's first solo album, strings and xylophones and a hymn to Liverpool.

 Leonard Cohen. When I saw him live I only had one wish; that he play 'Famous Blue Raincoat', a forgiving letter to a friend who betrayed him. He played it, that'll do for me.

Madness. Not the obvious (but great) ska stuff. There was a run of singles later on that were as good as anything by the Kinks in the way they reflected British life. 'One Better Day' is about the homeless and it's as good as 80s pop gets.

John Cooper Clarke 'Evidently Chickentown' it's a poem. Every second word is f***ing. It's 30 seconds long and it's f***ing great.

The Pale Fountains 'Thank You' - before Shack, Mick Head was already brilliant in the much loved 'Paleys', this is an orchestral Bacharachian masterpiece. Obviously not a hit.

 John Grant 'GMF' - lovely and humorous, "you could be laughing 65% more of the time' The version on the radio has less rude words.

 John Cale 'I Keep A Close Watch' - pick the string driven 70s version or the darker 80s version (the only song ever to make bagpipes sound good) they're both the same utterly beautiful love song.

 Television 'Marquee Moon' - how could I forget 'Marquee Moon'? Ten minutes of duelling guitar genius. There was a phase where J was convinced that any tape left in our car for long enough would magically become 'Marquee Moon'

 Another Springsteen then? 'Atlantic City' - the song that got me into him. Just voice, guitar and harmonica. Meant as a demo, left as it was, worked perfectly.

 XTC 'The Mayor of Simpleton' - they have a reputation as either a one hit wonder for 'Senses Working Overtime' of for being self consciously clever but the Swindon lads had tons of great pop in their locker.

The Pogues 'Sally McLennane' - a real floor filler at The State in our early days together, vaguely gutted to find out that 'Sally...' is the name of a beer and not the girl he loved. Still the jolliest song about dying ever written.

 The Violent Femmes "Gone Daddy Gone" - acoustic punk with a xylophone solo in the middle. First two albums are great. Again, an absolute floor filler at The State. There is some modern music I like as well, honest.

 More recent but not modern, Underworld 'Mmm, Skyscraper I Love You' - I don't do dance music but this clicked when I realised that it was basically jazz. One of the best song titles ever as well.

As is 'Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadows' - The Stones at their darkest, they started as Blues, they ended as Bluesy rock but in the middle they got really odd for a while. May have been drug related.

Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra 'Some Velvet Morning' - basically two different songs welded together, this used to be routinely included in lists of the worst records ever made. By people who had no taste or understanding of beauty.

The Strypes 'Blue Collar Jane' - see, I do like new music. As long as it sounds as though it was made in 1964

Van Morrison 'Coney Island' -Van talks for two minutes about a nice day out. Much more magical than it sounds.

 Meat Loaf (Two words, very important) 'Bat Out Of Hell' - I'm probably not supposed to like this. I don't care. It's brilliant. 8 minutes of OTT pantomime

The Temptations - 'Ball Of Confusion' or Psychedelic Shack or Cloud 9 or Papa was a Rolling Stone. Basically anything after the Temps invented psychedelic soul. Loads of Wah Wah guitar

 Which brings us to Jimi Hendrix 'The Wind Cries Mary' - delicate, apologetic (genuinely an apology to his girlfriend) the song that convinced me there was more to Hendrix than rock.

Aztec Camera 'Knife' - long, slow, subdued, atmospheric, undervalued

Minne Riperton 'Les Fleurs' utterly bewitching dream-soul. Unique.

 Billy Bragg 'The Saturday Boy' - Billy's always been more than just politics. Everything he does has its roots in love. This was the first time he showed it.

The Highwaymen 'The Highwayman' - a slice of Jimmy Webb genius. You think it's an ordinary country song, it's not it's about the endless circle of reincarnation and spans centuries in 4 minutes.

The Bee Gees 'Jive Talkin'' - Disco done right. 

Okay, it's not a song, it's a sound - Nile Rodgers guitar. On anything. It's always the best part of the song.

The Stone Roses 'Shoot You Down' - I've probably told you this already but I played this to J, she said it was okay. It's a long time since she thought of it as okay. Majestic.

 The Beach Boys genius wasn't all Brian Wilson. Bruce Johnson wrote 'Disney Girls (1957)' and it's incredible. A little slice of nostalgia for a life that was already gone over 40 years ago.

Richard Harris 'MacArthur Park' - no, he can't sing, yes you think it's cheesy. You're wrong, it's glorious.

As is 'O, Superman' by Laurie Anderson. The oddest song ever to get to number 2 in the charts

Number two in the charts when it should have been number one? Go on then, 'Vienna' by Ultravox - you've heard it so often that you don't think about how 'weird' a choice of single it was

'Ghosts' by Japan. Same reasons. I've had an argument with lads in work who consider this the worst record of the eighties. God love them, they'll realise.

'Bela Lugosi's Dead' by Bauhaus. Real Goth. Weird, dubby and dark.

Nat King Cole 'Nature Boy'  "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return" - written by a hippie before hippies had been invented (look for a photo, you'll see what I mean)

MC5 'Kick Out The Jams' - pure adrenalin, punk invented in two minutes fifty two seconds. It's calling card of "it's time to......KICK OUT THE JAMS MOTHERF***ERS" was used to start...

The KLF 'What Time Is Love" and so introduce Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty's stadium house prank

Massive Attack 'Safe From Harm' - yes 'Unfinished Sympathy' is obviously great (although I didn't 'get' it at the time) but this and 'Hymn Of The Big Wheel' are the true highlights of 'Blue Lines'

Marc Bolan - I can't go for the obvious can I? So, 'Whatever Happened To The Teenage Dream?' it is then. Trust me.

The Mamas & The Papas 'Creeque Alley' - their entire history in one song.

The Psychedelic Furs 'Pretty In Pink' - no, not the horrible, glossy, Americanised version from the film, the original proper dark garage version from 1980s bloody fantastic 'Talk, Talk, Talk'

 Kraftwerk - 'Neon Lights' - for my money it's their finest moment, proves that synths can be beautiful.

OMD 'Metroland' - owes more than a bit to Neon Lights but is still the best thing OMD have done in thirty years and you've forgotten how genuinely great they were thirty years ago.

 Ooh, ooh, Lloyd Cole 'Rattlesnakes' and 'Perfect Skin' and 'Forest Fire' - look, just listen to the first album, it's one of the truly great debuts.

 LCD Soundsystem 'Get Innocuous' - sounds like Bowie singing for Kraftwerk. Obviously a fantastic thing

 As is the fact that Bowie's 'Look Back In Anger' sounds like The Beatles (1967 psychedelic Beatles that is. Have to be precise on these things)

Orange Juice 'What Presence?!' - the punctuation is very important, the bass line is more important, the attitude is vital, the fact that it wasn't a hit is bloody mystifying. Oh no, that's right, it's not. It was far too good.

Cilla Black. 'Alfie'. It just is, okay. Burt Bacharach agreed with me. Cilla was great. For about half an hour. Before she became a Tory

 Prince. How could I forget Prince? 'Raspberry Beret' is as good as pop gets. It's the way he drops in and out of the melody "Now overcast days never turned me on but something 'bout the clouds and her mixed"

Paul Simon 'Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After The War' from the great 'Hearts & Bones' album - a record so good that no bugger bought it and he had to go away and make Graceland which I suppose worked out okay - presupposes that artists are into Doo wop.

Which they should be. Especially The Penguins and The Moonglows but especially The  Penguins' 'Earth Angel' because this is beauty.

 Teenage Fanclub 'Ain't That Enough' - could have been anything by the Fanclub but this for the line "Here is a sunrise, Ain't that enough?"

 Van Morrison - go on, I could say anything off Astral Weeks but I'll be a snob instead. 'TB Sheets' because it's dirty and nasty and smacks of despair, illness and honesty

 The Kane Gang 'Closest Thing To Heaven' - synthetic eighties soul. And beautiful with it.

Steely Dan 'Showbiz Kids' LA sounds, New York cynicism, the hideous character in the song wearing a Steely Dan Shirt. Summed up as "you know he don't give a fuck about anybody else"

Which Super Furry Animals sampled and looped. 150 times. And put it out as a single called 'The Man Don't Give a Fuck' not a great deal of airplay for that one.

 Wilco 'Impossible Germany' - I know I said this last time but... Best guitar work of the twenty first century.

 'Memo From Turner' - it's on the Performance soundtrack, it's not The Stones, it sounds like The Stones but it's not, it's Jagger and Ry Cooder and it's as good as anything the Stones were doing themselves at the time. Which would probably piss Keef off something wicked but Mick was sleeping with Keef's 'missus' at the time so he was otherwise annoyed.

Pixies 'Debaser' because; 1 - it's Pixies 'Debaser' and that's enough but mostly 2 - one night  ('bout 15 years back) J and her mates went out, they ended up in this club and 'Debaser' was playing. Everybody wanted to leave but J. Yet another reason to love my wife.

House of Love 'Beatles and The Stones' - great song about great songs. We had this bet. J thought it would be huge, I thought it was too good to be a hit. I was right. She didn't pay up.

Go on then, more Bruce. 'Jungleland' the epic closer to the 'Born To Run' album. Is there anything worse than ending up "wounded, not even dead, tonight in Jungleland? Oh, and the Big Man's genius solo.

 Scott Walker 'Jackie' - Scott does Brel (again) "if I could be for only an hour..... Cute, cute in a stupid ass way'. When Marc Almond covered this I had a promo T- shirt that said 'Cute' on the front and 'In a Stupid Ass Way' on the back. Best T-shirt ever.

I don't really go for Joni Mitchell much but lets be honest, 'Both Sides Now' is brilliant. Cries out for a stomping, jangly, garage band sound cover (there is one, buggered if I can remember who did it)

 The The 'Uncertain Smile' - not the great single version, not even the glorious 12" version, the album version with Jools Holland (yes really) tickling the ivories to great effect on the outro.

'Louie Louie' any version works but the definitive one is The Kingsmen. Simple, primitive, basic, utterly incomprehensible, a handful of guys in a garage making a fantastic sound. One that anybody could make. And did.

And while we're in the general area of Nuggets - you know how your favourite artists get you into their favourite artists? Yeah well Julian Cope covered The Craig's 'I Must Be Mad' and helped me find my way into the nooks and crannies of psychedelia

As did The Bunnymen's intro tapes; that's where my generation first heard THE Pink Floyd with 'Arnold Layne' and 'See Emily Play' but really it's 'Lucifer Sam' and its descending guitar intro that really does it. "That cat's something I can't explain"

'Band On The Run' - come on, I don't care how obvious it is, It's bloody fantastic, it'd be the peak of most artists careers. And most artists couldn't follow it immediately with something as stunning as 'Jet' (Macca and Wings for the three of you who weren't sure. I have your names in envelopes. Just like Brendan Rodgers)

 Talking Heads. I got this far without Talking Heads. I'll give you all of 'Remain In Light' right away but I've got this really soft spot for the live version of 'Life During Wartime' off of 'Stop Making Sense' - it just works.

Benny Profane. Anything. Absolutely anything at all. You've never heard Benny? They were great. Let's have 'Man On The Sauce' just because I'm convinced that it's a pun but will never know for sure.

 The Blue Nile 'God Bless You Kid' - at a month old, Tom had colic. I walked the floor with him, swaying to this song. God bless you kid, indeed.

 Okay then, 'Kid' by The Pretenders. Early Pretenders were great. Never forgive her for doing a terrible I Got You Babe with UB40 though.

Saying that, UB40 were great at first; 'King' 'Food For Thought' 'My Way Of Thinking' 'One In Ten' 'The Earth Dies Screaming' - fantastic, proper British Reggae. 

 Neil Diamond's original Red Red Wine isn't a bad song as such but if we're going for Neil then we're going for 'I Am, I Said' and its existential loneliness.

 Bob Dylan (no Dylan yet, what's going on?) I always maintained that anybody could do early Dylan, all those protest songs with acoustic guitars and harmonicas were easy to reproduce and that the high thin mercury sound of electric Dylan was his true genius but then there's 'To Ramona' that fills all those early day descriptions and is perfect.

Then again there's 'Visions of Johanna' and it's impenetrable genius. 'Ain't it just like the night to play tricks when you're trying to be so quiet' drawling loneliness and obsession. 'The ghost of electricity howls in the bones of his face' indeed.

 The Jesus and Mary Chain (not Jesus and The Mary Chain as I've been asked for so bloody often over the years) 'Taste of Cindy' was the moment that I realised that under all that feedback they were a POP band. Don't be scared of the noise and the leather and the drugs, they clearly want to be The Beach Boys

 As do Screamadelica era Primal Scream. I hate to admit that I didn't 'get' the glorious 'Higher Than The Sun' when it was first released, just too out there (something else I was wrong about) it was 'Shine Like Stars' twinkling lullaby that truly convinced me. Then it was straight back to the start.

 The Manic Street Preachers. They're great and it's always been a great song but walking on stage at our conference and introducing themselves thus; "We're The Manic Street Preachers and this is 'Motorcycle Emptiness'"? THAT was a moment. Anthemic.

 It was The Tube. A Friday night (obviously) R.E.M's first UK TV appearance "We have two more songs to play, this one's new" 'So. Central Rain (I'm sorry)' - fell further in love and stayed there for a long time. (Saw a second hand Rickenbacker today. Only 6 string, not 12. 1400 quid. Very tempted.)

 I'm trying not to do two from the same artist in succession but 'Its The End Of The World (and I feel fine) is just something else. Standard set closer from back when R.E.M. were the best damn band on the planet.

But The Waterboys were pretty damn close to them. I always regret that I've never seen them do 'Rags' live. First track of the second album. An album so good that I wouldn't buy their third initially 'cos it couldn't be as good as 'Pagan Place'. Their third was 'This Is The Sea'. I was wrong. Very, very, wrong

 The Bunnymen. I've been saving The Bunnymen. Tell you what, on day 200 I'll tell you exactly why I love them. (I'm damned if I'm doing another bloody list, they're far too long, I mean is anybody still here?) for the moment you can have 'Angels & Devils' - all the more loved because it was a B-side. In the face of all the sumptuous 'Ocean Rain' orchestration the Bunnymen went back to the garage.

 Speaking of Garage, when UK Garage kicked in and it was all horrible two step and poor rappers, Mike Skinner became The Streets and started talking about how life really was at the time with his 'Specials' infused 'Let's Push Things Forward' - "You say everything sounds the same, then you go buy them" Wise words mate.

 It's nice to have a statement now and then. The Beat made one 'Whine and Grine/ Stand Down Margaret' - that's an anthem, that's how pop does politics. "I see no joy, I see only sorrow, I see no hope for your bright new tomorrow so stand down Margaret, stand down please, stand down Margaret'. She'd been in power a year and they had her measure already.

 Big Audio Dynamite. You may not remember but when Joe kicked Mick out of The Clash everybody came down on Mick's side. 'The Bottom Line' was the sound of a punk going (more) multi cultural and playing with rap to wonderful effect "When you reach the bottom line the only thing to do is climb."

Heaven 17. '(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang' - see I do like dance music. I liked it thirty bloody years ago and nobody has done it better than this in the intervening years.

 More Bruce then? Since we're doing political and economical protest songs? 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' - Bruce at his low key, acoustic 'Nebraska-esque best. It's a telling of the tale of the lead character of The Grapes of Wrath and proves that absolutely nothing has changed since Steinbeck wrote his masterpiece.

 And if we're talking American icons, do you know how many albums Buddy Holly released under his own name during his lifetime? None. At. All. One album under the band name The Crickets and that was it. 'It Doesn't Matter Anymore' purely because he understood that there were sounds out there that he could use in ways that others hadn't. Ahead of the game when it came to studio recording.

 Two American Icons for the price of one; Elvis sings Dylan 'Tomorrow Is A Long Time' is both the greatest cover version ever AND the greatest vocal performance by a human being in recorded history. Not hyperbole, look it up then get back to me to let me know exactly how right I am.

 Tom Waits. One day I'll tell you about 'Tom Traubert's Blues' and I've already told you about 'Martha' but for tonight let's have 'Heartattack and Vine' because it gives you a place, an atmosphere, characters and a groove "Philly Joe Remarkable looks on in disbelief" as Tom moves from singer songwriter to threatening growl. "Don't you know there ain't no devil, that's just God when he's drunk"

  I've gone back to Bruce a few times now so it's only fair that I go back to Mick Head again. The Pale Fountains. 'Jean's Not Happening' As. Good. As. Pop. Gets. All those people that didn't buy it? Wrong wrong wrong.

 The Associates. So much to choose from. Tempted by 'Party Fears Two' mostly due to the fact that J hates it so much (she's not wrong about many things, this she's wrong about) but I'm going for 'White Car In Germany' to be really bloody minded. I love it but most people will hate it and I mean really hate it (and I can see why, but their reasons for hating it are mine for loving it - monotonous, overblown, odd) But I could have gone for 'Message Oblique Speech' for all the same reasons

 What do you mean it's all from the past? Everything's from the past. Be specific. Oh, nothing modern. I see. You want something great from this year? Something by a new artist? How about.....errmmmm.......no, bugger all there. Somebody new and young needs to write something incredible (Daft Punk don't count, they're my age and they've been going for twenty bloody years) so you're getting BOWIE. THE NEXT DAY. That's how you do a comeback, prove at the age of 66 that you've still got more bollocks than people FIFTY years younger than you. Youth of British pop! Sort your bloody selves out.

 The Go Betweens. 'Bye Bye Pride' - "when a woman learns to walk she's not dependent anymore, a line from her letter May 24" - no idea what that means but it's glorious and romantic and lost and foolish and beautiful. As was everything that they did. "I didn't know that someone could be so lonesome, didn't know a heart could be tied up and held for ransom" - I know what that means, we all know what that means. My band was compared to The Go Betweens once. That'll do for me.

 'Jupiter and Teardrop' by Grant Lee Buffalo. An outlaw love story, pure and simple.

Neil Young? Have I done any Neil yet? Just in case - 'Cortez The Killer' - I could have gone for the sheer pop simplicity of 'Cinnamon Girl' and its two minute rush but Cortez just stretches out on endless solos. Neil in his purest essence.

 Paddy McAloon 'I Trawl The Megahertz' - it's not a song, it's a piece, it's the first 22 minutes of the album of the same name, a story about stories and found words. It's what he did while he was losing his sight. It's perfect.

 Paris Angels 'Perfume' - THIS. THIS was Madchester. More than Rave On by the Mondays (I'm not even listing The Roses as being Madchester, they're for the ages, they're immortal, this is of its time and wonderfully so)

 Fat Larry's Band 'Zoom' . No. Really. Honestly. F***ing brilliant single. Incredible middle eight.

 127? I've got as far as 127 with no mention of 'Atmosphere' by Joy Division? I spent most of the eighties thinking this was possibly the greatest song ever written. Very little has dissuaded me of that notion in the last twenty years. "Don't walk away in silence" and shimmering bells echo.

 Obviously the other song that vied for that title in the early 80s was Scott Walker's 'Such A Small Love' - epically, elegantly sad, an orchestra that sounds like a bank of synths and (as mentioned on many occasions) Scott is God.

 The Triffids ' Bury Me Deep In Love' - ignore the fact that (bizarrely) it was used for a wedding in bloody Neighbours. You may not have heard this but trust me, Arcade Fire have. And they understood how great The Triffids were.

 Iggy Pop 'Turn Blue' if only for the line "Jesus? This is Iggy"

 Which is kind of echoed in The Human League's 'Love Action' - "This is Phil talking"

 Go on, I'll throw it in....Blue Rondo A La Turk 'Klacto V Sedsteen' - hyped beyond belief in 1981 but they had two great singles. This was even better than the title

 One hit wonders? Furniture 'Brilliant Mind'. Magical.

 I don't appear to own 'Caution Horses' by 'Cowboy Junkies' which is a major oversight as it contains the utterly sublime 'Cause Cheap Is How I Feel' - the point when modern country really kicked in.

 As opposed to 'Ear Bleeding Country' which is the greatest hits collection of Dinosaur Jr's work - I'll give you either 'The Wagon' or 'Feel The Pain' : both loud, both great, tons of feedback. Which is obviously a truly fine thing.

 XTC managed to sell more records when they decided to stop being XTC and pretended to be a great lost 60s band called 'The Dukes Of Stratosphear' - '25 O'Clock'  is magnificently over the top, thoroughly daft, accurately 60sish and got their producer The Stone Roses job.

 But as XTC they gave us the lovely 'The Meeting Place' from the wonderful 'Skylarking' album.

 If somebody loves you, it's no good unless they love you 'All The Way' - thank you Mr Sinatra.

 But when love goes wrong you need a good heartbreak song. It's okay, Gram Parsons is here for you with his tale of how he lost his lady to 'The Streets Of Baltimore'

 Heartbreak songs? How about 'Songs Of Strength and Heartbreak' by the very great Mr Pete Wylie? Contains the current national anthem of my home town, 'Heart As Big As Liverpool' (and it's about Bill Shankly so it's a win/win situation)

 Gruff Rhys appears to be living apart from Super Furry Animals at the moment. If he keeps throwing up solo tracks like the epic, hypnotic meandering 18 minute long 'Skylon' I think I may be able to cope.

 Have I put in a Half Man Half Biscuit song yet? No? Okay, 'Ballad of Climie Fisher' it is then. The heart rending tale of Climie and Fisher's life after fame. Of how Climie opened a gravel company and Fisher's bitterness toward his ex-colleague who issues the threat "you're a dead man, Fisher." All fictional of course. Unfortunately, by the time the album came out Rob Fisher actually had passed away. Bad timing.

 The Jam. 'Tales From The Riverbank' - Jam fans knew that B-sides were where it was at. This is one of the best even if "it's only a dream mixed with nostalgia"

 Talk Talk, whose journey from synth poppers supporting Duran Duran to blissed out modern hippie-dom channelling Ornette Coleman is a thing of beauty. 'Happiness Is Easy' is a good point to watch the change kick in.

 The Clash 'Straight To Hell' - the Vietnam experience in six minutes. Sampled by M.I.A. For 'Paper Planes' - the net effect being that it made you want to listen to 'Straight To Hell'

 Whereas Status Quo's 'Paper Plane' sits alongside the best of anybody. Genuinely. John Peel agreed in this point.

 One last Springsteen before the end, then. 'Racing In The Streets' - broken lives, lost souls, people drifting apart in depressed times. Everything that he does well in other words.

 148 and suddenly all I can think about is all the songs that I've managed to miss. I'm worried that I'll have to start again and it'll take forever and then there's all the hassles of transferring the whole thing from 'pages' across to 'blogger.com' - anyway, 148 is 'Roxy Music' and the magnificent 'Editions Of You' - just post Eno leaving, still early enough to have that weirdness factor intact but carrying a rush that signals the oncoming punk era. Roxy were bloody great.

 Ryan Adams 'New York, New York' from his still unbettered 'Gold' album. The single was notable at the time for a video that featured the Twin Towers filmed in the week of 9/11, the song itself is a glorious love song to a city 

 And I get to end with a bit of indulgence. Don't go looking for this because you won't find it (although you can try googling it if you like, see what happens) 'Ken Harris Said' by Vanilla Beserk. The song that made Radio Merseyside's Roger Hill compare us to The Go Betweens. (He also compared us to Wispa bars, 'very nice but I wouldn't want to live on them" he said. Fine, I could happily live on Wispa Bars myself. So popular that they had to bring them back last year) just a four piece, me, Geoff, Mally and Mark, it's simple, acoustic-y and straightforward, named for Mark's mate Ken and in tribute to Julian Cope's 'Bill Drummond Said' - if anyone's interested I can probably sort you out a copy, I'm sure the band will be okay with the idea




And then I ended. And I watched Paul Weller on an old 'Later...' And I realised that there was no Weller here, or Elbow, or The Who, or Patti Smith or The Skids, Scars, Robyn Hitchcock, Original Mirrors, Ian Brown, Robert Forster, Grant McLennan.........
And day 200 started looming......