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I'm notorious for my top ten favourite music tracks.
Mainly because there's around a hundred songs that qualify!
The entries on this profile probably represent an attempt by my sub-conscious to try and produce the definitive list of music that is most precious to me.
Hey world! It's time I took control of this. I'm actually quite interested to find out what that list might be. How can I go to my grave and not know the songs which define me?
The problem is how do I find out what they are?
Well, one thing I've learned over the years is that a song or artist I rave about when they first appear can quickly go off the boil as I tire of them or they develop their music in a direction I don't like which subsequently takes some of the enjoyment out of their previous work.
This means that new tracks can never make it onto the list until there has been some distance between the present and the original release.
Also they need to always make me feel like I want to listen to them. It can't be an all-time favourite if the track appears randomly on my mp3 player and I want to skip it because I don't feel like listening to it.
It just doesn't sit right with me.
The clincher though is that I want to listen to it. If I flick through the playlist looking for a track to kick off with then it has to grab me and make me say 'Yes! I want to listen to you again!'.
Even with these criteria there are still more than the requisite ten that I could easily come up with if I sat down and thought about it.
So I'm not going to think about it. I'm just going to let the stand out tracks make their presence known.
The first track that has been cropping up lately to secure its place in my 'Hall of Fame' is Humanoid by Stakker.
If my memory serves me right it started life as the theme in a Def II ident around the time Acid House was the underground sound although its quite possible that it had been around before that but gained recognition and minor chart success because of the exposure. The thing that cemented it in my mind was Radio 1 playing the 12” version quite a lot. It lasted for ages and slowly built up to the acid bass hook. Alas I've only ever managed to get hold of the single version and I'm sure the 12” version could never stand up to the memory of it now anyway.
I think part of the reason I can never get enough of it was because for so long it was hard to get hold of and it never got any major airplay so it was difficult to get tired of it.
In some ways its very much of its time but it epitomises a lot of the tracks that were out at the time and listening to this one track leaves me feeling like I don't have to listen to any other 303 based track ever again.
enjoy!
I grew up looking out of the window.
Literally and metaphorically.
There are two songs which capture my teenage sleepless nights spent watching life go past. One is 'Orange Crush' by REM and the other is De La Soul's 'Me, Myself and I'.
Its nothing about the lyrics or the music itself but more the memories associated with them.
They conjure up images of my staying up until the early hours writing or sketching and in between those chilling out, listening to Radio 1 and the local commercial stations such as Red Dragon or Galaxy 101.
The backdrop of those quiet hours sat on my window sill was stillness brought to life by music.
The darkest hours of the night were punctuated by the occasional illumination of street lamps and intermittently populated by a car or mysterious individual.
Looking out over the tops of the houses I wondered at the life beyond, of the possibilities of the world as well chewing on whatever angst troubled my young soul back then.
Probably girl-related.
There were other songs that came along and enhanced that late night feel. Most notably 'Riders on the Storm' by The Doors. That was awesome as it enveloped the night with its atmospheric rumbling and tainted the following hour with its eerie foreboding.
The two songs mentioned above also represent the conflicting paths of my musical taste.
I guess with most teenagers your greatest desire is just to belong. Unfortunately I found myself fighting against that feeling and ended up carving out my own little niche.
Usually your musical tastes give you a natural alignment with your peers but as most of the guys were into Guns and Roses et al I was apart from that as I couldn't relate to all that posturing.
As indie music and hip hop gained more mainstream attention it gradually filtered through to my little part of Wales and I found myself with something in common with some unexpected individuals who I would otherwise have had nothing to do with were it not for our shared tastes in music.
Unfortunately, I still lament the ascent of Gangsta Rap. Although I can still appreciate its roots from the awesome NWA I think it totally exaggerates and glorifies some of the worst excesses of humanity.
I wish De La Soul had been the future.
I guess Hip Hop now has the same effect on me that Rock and Roll had on people in the 50's which I feel slightly embarrassed about but the fifties were slightly repressed in expressing themselves. For something to shock or repulse these days it has to be pretty offensive in a way people probably couldn't even imagine fifty years ago, so I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything.
Those nights spent thinking about the world in front of my window feel like one of the few times in my life when I was able to assert my own mind on matters and work out why I felt, thought or believed those things. Now, with a family and other responsibilities I feel like I have to lean on those times even more as I don't get much opportunity to assess my current angst.
One day I'm going to be grandad who puts on old hip hop records.
What are my Grandkids going to be listening to?!!
Gorecki is a cool word.
I don't know why but just the look of it.
The way you say it.
Its a word I like to say.
Apparently its also the name of a classical composer.
To me though it represents the song that captures how I feel about my wife.
So much so, that we had it played when we got married.
Unfortunately there was little we were in control of at our wedding so when we we left the church instead of striding out to this glorious anthem playing over the PA system it was stuck on a tinny stereo that you could hardly hear.
Probably because they didn't like the thought of music that wasn't a few hundred years old!
When we redo our vows, hopefully sometime in 2008, this song will be played and given much more prominence.
Another track, Cotton Wool, from the same album also stirred similar sentiments but ultimately Gorecki is the one.
I can just close my eyes and lose myself in the feeling of love expressed through the lyrics.
The music works well in enhancing that feeling and doesn't drown out the tender thoughts being voiced.
Knowing that this song captured how I felt about my wife back then means that listening to it kinda recharges my batteries and inspires those feelings in me once again.
If only I could find a song like that for everything in life!
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i'll never tire of the 303 or the 808. i may tire of certain artists who use them, but never the music possible with those machines. classics! great post here.