'ball of confusion' - the temptations
    the temptations were one of the great motown bands coming up with many a hit including most famously: 'my girl'. 'ball of confusion' was made at the beginning of the 70s in the funk era of motown... this is the song reached #3 in the us and #7 in the uk... it has a perfect union of a thumping beat, great melody and fun lyrics... this is music you can really dance to!
 

'truely, madly, deeply' - savage garden
    a new aussie band with a wider than usual (at least for the 90s) range of styles... this one is a 'god isn't the world great' song of epic proportions... just play this loud while outside on a wonderfully sunny day looking out on nature and you'll see what i mean.... one thing i'd like to make clear is that under no circumstances should you buy or even listen to their remix album... it's horrendous... get the real thing.
 

'romeo and juliet' - dire straits
    about the only thing this has in common with the play by will is that it's about love... the style is however somewhat different... 'you and me babe, how about it?'... the usual great guitar play from dire straits and by far their best tune, almost as sorrowful as 'private investigations' and definitely as upbeat as 'money for nothing'.

'an innocent man' - billy joel
    one of my favourite artist... lyrics of gold and wonderful melodies on that piano (my favourite instrument)...
this one's another love song, and i think it's just great.

'part time love' - elton john
    elton's songs like billy joel's have great lyrics and wonderful piano melodies... this is my favourite of his... it's basically an antihypocrasy song done in a fun fashion... the lyrics also come in handy play tennis or something similar:- call 'you' and invariably the opposition will cry 'me, everybody needs a part time love'!

'i wish it would rain down' - marvin gaye
    have you ever noticed that walking in the rain listening to music on headphones is a great way to calm down the agitated soul? well this is by far the best song to listen to... in fact it's so good that you don't actually have to do the walking in the rain bit for it have its effect! marvin is by far my favourite artist... pure silk in a glass.

'the diary of horace wimp' - elo
    i don't how they do those strange effects in their music, but i love it... this song is the story of a very shy person overcoming fear to get the girl... not only is it a great tune, it's also quite funny... and is my favourite of their songs, although 'turn to stone' and 'i'm alive' are pretty close competitors.

'will you?' - hazel o'connor
    hazel does mostly punky stuff, but with more of a tune than most... this however is totally different: for me this is the top love song ever... lovely voice, pretty lyrics and that sax... what more do i need to say?

'real good time' - alda
    this is the only single i've ever bought, and it's well worth it... very simple, very bouncy... a great pick me up.

'i don't like mondays' - the boomtown rats
    a girl goes into school with her father's gun and starts shooting people... when asked why, all she'd say was "i don't like mondays"... this is not  a figment of the rats' imagination, it happened... grim story... great song... the lyrics, strings and piano mix beautifully.

'glad to be gay' - the tom robinson band
    this is by far the best protest song that  i've ever heard... in the 70s sodomy and homosexuality was illegal, the british police were brutal in their anti queer activities, and their other activities for that matter... it's through the work of people like this, who stood up for freedoms across the board that we live in a far more humane society than they did... the lyrics are wonderfully sarcastic and o so carefully put together, the tune is simple and direct... the basic message is 'fuck you' and it is done very eloquently...

'irish ballad' - tom lehrer
    one of the best comic song writers ever... this one is poking fun at the hordes of folk song affieonardos: "i'd like now to turn to the folk song, which has become the particularly fashionable form of idiocy amongst the self styled intellectuals"... however even without that extra level of humour this is a most amusing song about a charming irish maiden who does away with her family.

'flash' - queen
    i'm afraid i don't actually like this song that much... it's ok but a bit, well unspectacular... the reason it's here is that it has become my theme tune amongst some of my friends... at one of the many 'tree mansion' parties larry(2) put my queen cd on and, in his capacity of dj, proceeded to skilfully insert 'fennel' in the place of 'flash'; so i'm now 'fennel, saviour of the universe'!

grieg
    airy and light... always happily majestic, i love his stuff it's just happy, and i enjoy being happy!

chopin
    the piano is my favourite instrument and chopin is by far the best 'pianist' i've ever had the pleasure to listen to... it can lead to mental overload, so be careful.

gregorian chant
    pure vocals... the way the different voices blend into each other is calm, tranquil and soothing... and it does this in a totally undistracting way, which unusual and very helpful when you want get some work done.

marvin gaye
    one of motown records' biggest successes.... however he apparently wasn't too happy, considering the material he was give too commercial... towards the end of the 60s he started to get more artistic freedom and started doing songs of a more social and political nature, including a war protest, an environmentalist song and a lament for the violent deaths of abraham lincoln, jfk and martin luther king. he also wrote many songs of a blatently sexual nature, which just wasn't done. by the end of the 70s he was dead... shot by his father, a baptist minister who apparently didn't take kindly to the nature of his songs. he has a large catalogue of great songs, probably the most famous of which is 'i heard it through the grapevine'... apparent this was one of his least favourite songs.

the temptations
    a while back i knew this band for only one song: 'my girl', and that song is still one of my favourites... however i recently started collecting a series of motown cds and many a time i have been pleasantly surprised by a new direction in their music... their variety and quality despite it is phenomenal... in particular their work in the early 70s including 'ball of confusion' and 'psychedelic shack' showed wonderful control of beat, making theirs some the most 'danceable' music around.

dire straits
    guitars... some people have the knack some don't... dire straits have that knack... from the song that started mtv ('money for nothing') to the classic love song ('romeo and juliet') to the soft spoken attack on society's endless desire to poke its nose where it doesn't belong ('private investigations') to the many just fine tunes in between ('telegraph road', 'walk of life',.....), dire straits seems to have to ability play the 'air guitar' with style.

elo
    most of their songs have this weird special effect, which i haven't the foggiest what is.... it gives their music a wonderful haunted quality, that combined with the wonderful tunes and lyrics, and sometimes the silky voice of olivia newton-john, combine to give some great songs.... 'the diary of horace wimp', 'turn to stone', 'i'm alive', 'xanadu', 'blue sky', 'all over the world' and 'roll over beethoven'.

billy joel
    this guy has quite a life... screwed by the record company from the start... when that was finally sorted out: a divorce... years later he finds the person he'd trusted to run his finances had been quite literally robbing him blind, at which point his second wife gets a divorce... he played the first foreign rock concert in the ussr... and through  this all he has managed to be content with his lot... venting his spleen with some wonderful music... apparently he's now decided to stop writing lyrics and instead write full orchestra pieces... in some ways a shame i think, but i haven't heard the new stuff yet.
    his repertoire includes 'the piano man', 'scenes from an italian restaurant', 'she's always a woman', 'my life', 'honesty' (this song describes perfectly my problems with finding 'the' right girl), 'uptown girl', 'an innocent man', 'a matter of trust', 'we didn't start the fire' (the history of the 20th century in 4.40), 'it's still rock and roll to me' and 'leningrad'.

elton john
    another great piano playing singer... loads of good songs... he recently got loads of publicity for wrecking one of his best songs, 'candle in the wind'... a sweet idea, but not good for the ears! (it was originally a tribute to marilyn monroe not diana spenser).
    his hits include 'your song', 'rocket man', 'crocodile rock', 'goodbye yellow brick road', 'candle in the wind', 'don't let the sun go down on me', 'don't go breaking my heart', 'part time love', 'i guess that's why they call it the blues', 'kiss the bride', 'sacrifice' and 'you gotta love someone'.

the beach boys
    these guys were instrumental in moving rock and roll onto the next stages... widely attributed during the 60s and later as a major influence, their music were well crafted gems reflecting a much relaxed attitude to life than was possible in the repression of the 50s and before. they are also the only major band i know of that has theromins in their songs (good vibrations and a couple of others)... and boy does it sound good.
    if i listed their good songs i'm afraid i'd go on all night, so i won't... surfice it to say there were a few.

tom lehrer
    my favourite comic singer songwriter... as a 'kid' he worked on 'the bomb' at los alamos... he later became a maths professor at harvard, and for a short 3 albums worth wrote very funny songs, and then suddenly stopped. his subject matter ranged from parodies of various music forms to comment on current news events such as 'vatigan 2' and 'the bomb'. i can't think of a song of his i don't like so i'll forget the shortlist.

savage garden
    only one album so far if you don't count the remix (which i don't because it is such rubbish... it's so bad that i think all copies should be burnt for the good of the world population and my sensitive ears). my introduction was 'truly madly deeply' a great outdoors feel good song... 'carry on dancing' and 'break me shake me' are very good for setting a light ball rotating... 'a thousand words' is well, i don't have that much room!!... 'violet' is my favourite, mellow and chilled to -4... the rest is pretty good too.

janis joplin
    one of the best blues singers i've ever heard... the only person in that woodstock film that i liked, she has a voice that really does those songs justice... shame she lacked the judgement/will necessary to keep going.
 

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