Mor-Than-Words

  It's Raining – Shakin' Stevens   I was a big Shaky fan throughout the 80s, never really realising most of his songs I liked were cover versions of old rock n roll hits and older classics. Some of the reworking his team did on straight laced old standards like ' This Ole House ' and ' Green Door ' were quite out there when heard next to their originals. Shaky was obviously an Elvis clone, but again I didn't know that as a kid. I just liked his songs and even tried to copy some of his dance moves. He did play a young Elvis in a West End show of Elvis' life so I guess there was the blueprint, I've grown into a huge Elvis fan since then. I wasn't into the modern bands of that time, all be it I've grown to love many an 80s tune, looking back now there was some amazing music in the charts then. I guess I missed out on them first time round, but as with each generation the sound track of their youth brings back all those precious memories. The

    Humble And Kind – Tim McGraw The lyrics to this one are pretty special. Think it's a message more of us could follow. Love songs like this, simple, straight forward, no huge production or gimmicks. Just real words, well sung and understated. I bet the writer sat down and said let's just write a song about how we would want other people to treat us and everyone else. The power of music, how it can sum up how you feel and what life should really be about in three minutes. Country music has a knack of pulling on the heart strings, it's one of the things that winds up non fans, saying it's all to self worthy. But to me it's getting a point across that the world we live in isn't always an easy place to be, but that doesn't mean you can't face your fears and make something of the hard knocks. I love all kinds of music but when a song can change the way you feel in a moment, that's class. Favourite lyric : Don't take for granted the love this life g

  You've Lost That Loving Feeling – Righteous Brothers   There used to be a nightclub in a town about half hours drive from where I lived, we used to go there quite often as a crowd. This was around the time of the music that's now called 'Old Skool' but then it was just dance music to us. We had to dress up in those days to just get in the door, past the bouncers, park your coat in the cloakroom and hit the bar. There was always a need for a few pints before even thinking about putting a toe near the dance floor. The club had a great light system and they would show it off by doing a launch theme and all the lights going off in stages building up the excitement of the evening. Then when enough beer had been consumed to pluck up the courage a few braver souls would attempt to dance to the sounds of the day, trying not to embarrass themselves and not crash into the people next to them. It was then like tag wrestling as some of the crowd would replace the early starters

Moves Like Jagger – Maroon 5 ft. Christina Aguilera If you've read a few of my past posts you may have picked up on my love of all things Rolling Stones . So it's no wonder that this song pricked my ears up, all about one of my main men and his distinctive dance moves. This was such a big song in 2011, I've been known to try and do the odd Mick impression at various birthday parties, so when this song drops it's hard to resist. I'm also a big fan of Christina Aguilera , her voice is one of the most strong and powerful of recent times. Maroon 5 suprised me with this one, I thought they were quite a laid back band, really like their song ' She Will Be Loved ' for example. But why not mix up your sound, plenty of remixes doesn't seem to hurt. This song is very critically acclaimed for it's arrangement and their performances. There's not a lot to say about the lyrics on this one, apart from it pays respect to one of rock musics best front men. I

    All Along The Watchtower – The Jimi Hendrix Experience So weirdly I never came across Jimi Hendrix to much later in life. I remember the other lads at school referencing him as part if their dads record collections as a big part of their 60s music, but my parents never had any of his stuff so I was none the wiser. As with lots of my influences I cottoned on to him at some point, like other previous posts I first heard this song on the soundtrack album of the film Stardust that I had on LP. That was enough to lead me to find out more. Apparently this is a Bob Dylan folk song that Jimi revved up. Think this is a very cool sound and I adore the riff, not really sure what the song is all about. I’ve since explored Jimi's greatest hits and really like other tracks like Hey Joe and Voodoo Child . But when you see footage of him over playing at the famous festivals and setting his guitar alight it sort of ruins his genius for me. No need for gimmicks when you’ve got r

Walk The Dinosaur – Was Not Was Open the door, get on the floor. What a fun song this is. Was Not Was is a great name for a band, sort of silly thing you never forget. We had this one on vinyl, proper old 45 single. I can still remember it blaring out in our front room, our young neighbours from over the road walking their dinosaurs up and down the lounge carpet. It’s such a catchy song, great tempo and plenty of clever hooks and silly rhythms. Boom Boom. All the chanting is a sure way to drive the listener mad, but I remember all of it so it proves it works. Even in 1987 it wasn’t your usual offering, wonder where the concept ever came from. But that could be said about loads of these silly song’s that inspire dance moves. My other memory of this song is that they played it at a Florida theme park when introducing their caveman show. All the presenters were dancing around in Flintstones type outfits and whooping the crowd up in the baking heat, all part of another brillia

Summer Of '69 – Bryan Adams One of my favourite songs, I've seen Bryan Adams a number of times and in a number of sized venues. He did an acoustic show at my local theatre a few years a go, it was amazing to hear some of his big rock hits like this one stripped back to an acoustic guitar and a piano. It's also a great memory to recall him rocking a massive crowd at Wembley Arena or the O2. Either way he's a real entertainer and a pretty solid songwriter. I've a couple of weird links to the Summer of '69, but that has nothing really to do with my love for this song. It's more about digging guitar driven songs, made up of a few chords, fantastic riffs and husky vocals, what's not to like. Not many of my Saturday nights, when I was going out regularly, didn't have me air guitaring to this song. I see this type of song in a direct line from earlier artists such as Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry . Great simple lyric which conjures up what it was like growi

  End Of The Line – The Traveling Wilburys As super groups go, The Traveling Wilburys must be pretty hard to beat. With a Beatle, Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison in their midst I think they had rock royalty covered. The others were only Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne , George Harrison did a good job of getting his mates together to start up a band. Big fan of this lot as individual artists and together they were different class, this amount of songwriting expertise should produce the goods. This song all about looking towards the end of your future it's an interesting concept for the ageing rock stars. To that end poor Roy Orbinson didn't even live long enough to get in the video. I think it proves his iconic status when just your guitar in a rocking chair is enough to establish your presence.  Their voices all blend so well together and it's not hard to pick them out for each line of the lyric. Both the albums they released are so under rated, these are quality tunes. I think pro

  Back Home Again – John Denver   Got introduced to this one by my dad, he used to play this song with his mates in a band made up from workers on a building site. I can remember him playing it when I was a teenager and a few years later, when I picked up a guitar, he taught me how to play it. We even sang it together under an star spangled Arizona sky one night, sat next to a roaring camp fire on a real cowboy ranch. We did a sort of City Slickers night stay in a tent and we had a real character for a guide, Cowboy Dave played every cowboy song you could think of. Then he passed his guitar round the small crowd and we all had a go, what a great sing along. I've grown to love John Denver , he's a proper songwriter. He writes in such a way you can picture everything he's singing about, real paint a picture with words stuff. Some of the subtle references in this song are so clever, in this one you get the yearning from the singer how much he wants to be back home. Most of hi

  Bridge Over Troubled Water – Simon & Garfunkel For my 50th post I thought I'd grab a song from 50 years ago, picked this absolute classic of a tune. Released in 1970, this song stands out for me for being such a special lyric, the concept being how to overcome your problems by relying on friendship. A universal subject if there ever was one. For some reason, I always seemed to listen to Simon & Garfunkel when I'm on a plane to America, I've made quite a few trips across the pond. I guess they were a very safe bet for any airline radio station programmer to pick out, but I can't help but feel like I'm off somewhere amazing when I hear this played. The setting of the song is so well structured and cultured, it's so reassuring throughout and you get the sense the singer really cares and wants the best for you. Paul Simon is such a clever song writer and to know of the troubled relationship between these two characters makes songs like this seem all the

    Eve Of Destruction – Barry McGuire Apologies for adding to the misery at the moment, but this one came to mind today.    A very thought provoking song, showing music can be political and have a real message. Weirdly it was used as an example of what was wrong with the youth of the 60s, with the establishment  using it to point out that young people are often seen as the trouble makers. Whereas their usually the ones that stand up against the cruelty and injustices in the world. Sadly this song is still appropriate today, lots of people still don't believe what's going on around them, or maybe some don't care. It's a very honest lyric with lots of powerful images, no big judgement on the non believers just raising questions to say, have you thoughts about this? I heard this song on a 60s compilation back when I was in my teenage years and it always struck me how out of place it must have been in the pop charts. There were lots of protest songs back then, mostly folk

Down Under – Men At Work I have great memories of visiting Australia, so this song will always be special as it reminds me of those fun times. It's about the singers travels around the world, all the Ozzie references conjure up some great images. It was always a big party song before I ever set foot Down Under, it plays like a soundtrack to one of the best holidays I ever had.   I found it funny when I visited back in 2001 when I got chatting to the locals, it was very much like this song in reverse. As much as you would expect we know lots about each others culture through TV shows and the like. It was amazing how many different sayings we had for things and how we would even phrase stuff in our own ways. They picked me up a lot on my British accent and it made for some very funny conversations as we explored the silly differences between us. Lovely people, very welcoming and I made some good friends.   Men At Work is a cool name for a band, I think this was the only time they tro

    Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay – Otis Redding Another one of those songs that I've no idea where I first heard it, but as soon as I did hear it I was sat beside Otis on that dock. A brilliant lyric that takes you on a journey and helps you drift away to a happier place. The groove of this one so soothing and relaxing. I heard the story of how and where this song was written, Otis was actually sat on a house boat acting out exactly what he was describing in the words. Sat there in the morning sun just letting the day past him by, he thought to himself what's it all about? Love the fact it ends up by him just whistling over the backing, it's just what you would do as you were sat there contemplating life and let your mind wander.   Sadly this was recorded just days before his death in a plane crash. It was on the legendary STAX label and Booker T and the M.G 's did the backing like most of STAXs songs. Otis Redding was an amazing artist that broke new ground in

    Town Called Malice – The Jam   After ' The Sound of the Underground ' in my last post it reminded me of The Jam 's ' Going Underground .' I could have picked that as my favourite Jam song but it's trumped by this track, 'Town Called Malice.' I didn't follow them when they were most popular, I missed out on a lot of the 80's music. Weirdly I got more into them via a pub band we used to see on a semi regular basis at one of our locals, the lead singer was obviously a big fan and half their set was Jam covers. To be fair to him he would have been one of those on the TV show ' Stars In Their Eyes ', "Tonight Mathew, I'm going to be Paul Weller ," if had it existed at that time, he had him down pat.   This is a brilliant song with a hard meaning, a very clever way to sum up the state of play in his home town. People had it hard and music is a great way to highlight that to the world. I love the beat of this, the lyr

 Sound Of The Underground – Girls Aloud Some really good artists have come through the ranks of the TV talent shows, Carrie Underwood probably being my favourite. It's a shame these shows have managed to divide the average music fans into two camps, those that appreciate talent wherever it comes from, and those that can't get over manufactured Pop. You'd have to hope that talent wins out but that doesn't always seem to be the case. I've always had a huge soft spot for Girls Aloud, I think it's a very clever band name for starters. This being the song that they launched from Pop Stars the Rivals TV talent show, they turned out to be a really good group with lots of huge hits. But this song always stood out for me, think it's not so much the sound of the underground but more likly the sound of great surf guitar tunes of the 1950/60s. I love a good guitar rift, the quirky sound of the song is also very ear catching. The whole think put together with five grea

      Stick That In Your Country Song – Eric Church   I saw Eric Church perform at Marty Stuart ’s Late Night Jam in Nashville back in 2015, I didn’t know who he was before he came on stage. He was introduced as one of the latest outlaws of Country music. His songs and lyrics are definitely more honest than lots of other modern Country, he tells it as it is in the Willie and Waylon way. One of his latest offerings is a comment on what he must think of current Country music. The lyrics of this song pointing out all the subjects that are no longer sung about and the issues the world is facing. There are a lot of current songs about drinking, bars and trucks, but as always with trends in music once something becomes popular and makes money everyone has to have a go at replicating it. Then the next phase is for someone to highlight that and do an anti song and then that becomes the new trend and it repeats the cycle. A good and bad thing, if it throws out song’s like this one the

    Gloria – Them I was terrible at English lessons in school, I'm pretty sure I’ve got dyslexia and can spell to save my life. We used to be set assignments to read books and write long essays about them. Being a slow reader I was always still reading the book when I was meant to be giving in the homework.    We were reading a book called The Outsiders by a teenage American writer called S. E. Hinton. It was getting near the end of term and we wouldn’t have got it read in time, so on this particular day our English teacher wheeled in one of those old wooden boxed TVs they used to use at school in the 80s. He had found the movie made of the book on VHS tape and showed us the film during one double period.    Now this was much better I could understand every word and best of all it had a 1950/60s soundtrack, right up my street. Only when I re-watched it years later did I realise the big hits it had in there. This song being one of them and also a personal favourite. T

    Smoke Gets In Your Eyes – The Platters   How's this for an emotional song, love the feel of this one. A brilliant example of how voices blended together create such a sweet backing to the solo singer out front. The orchestra in the background is so beautiful, the sawing violins really sound like heart strings. Reading up about this, there have been many versions recorded of this song and by some big names. This version by US group The Platters from 1958 is the one I know from all the Rock n Roll compilation records I used to play as a kid in our spare bedroom. It made me laugh to read this song was used in the British TV drama, London's Burning , which was set in a London Fire Station. Favourite lyric : They said "someday you'll find all who love are blind" / When your heart's on fire, You must realize, smoke gets in your eyes    

  Black Horse & The Cherry Tree – KT Tunstall     My introduction to KT Tunstall was, as this video shows, her performance of this song on Later with Jools Holland . What I found fascinating was the fact she performed it solo by recording parts live into a loop pedal and basically backing herself. Very clever stuff, sort of ruinng the whole 'band' thing. It's a very cool song and she doesn't get the credit she deserves for being an innovator, seeing this performance made me go buy her album ' Eye to the Telescope '. Apparently this song is based on the famous Bo Diddley beat, maybe that's why it caught my ear so much at the time. I love a bit of Blues. I recently saw a repeat of a Shirley Bassey documentary which featured KT explaining how she wrote a song called ' Nice Men " for Shirley's 'The Performance' album. Seeing KT again reminded me of this great song. Favourite lyric : When the big black horse that looked this way

  Freedom – Robbie Williams So I used to work in a converted dog biscuit factory building in East London. It was a strange place to have a design agency, we were on the ground floor and with lots of residential flats above us. There were some interesting characters that lived there, one of which was the producer of the TV show Spitting Image . Also for some reason they also filmed scenes of the BBC TV show ' Loves Hurts ' with Adam Faith and Zoë Wanamakerin one of the flats. I can only guess there was also either a manager or music producer that lived there as one day out of the blue Robbie Williams appeared at the slope that lead up to the front door. It was very shortly after he had left Take That and to be rude he was at his largest, but it was definitely him and we all had to have a good nose out the window. I'm guessing at this stage he hadn't met Guy Chambers or got any of his own music ready to go. It's often run through my mind if I had been a bit bolder

  The Next Time – Cliff Richard   Cliff Richard has been around basically as long the popular music scene in the UK. Now very associated with his Christmas songs, back in the 50s he was our version of Elvis. His early rock ‘n’ roll songs were great, his debut ‘ Move It ’ was a great way to introduce the British take on this new musical movement. Cliff then a teenage heart throb had to change his style to be more family friendly as he gained more and more music rivals.  His move into movies was a bit hit and miss, with weak story lines and poor excuses to burst into song, they weren’t ever going to win any Oscars. But some of his best song’s fell out from those films. I love this song, it’s so simple, so understated. The theme of it is so obvious, plenty more fish in the sea, it’s what everyone says to you when you break up with someone. But he sings, what about if I’m not over you, not interested in the next one yet. This song was used in the movie Summer Holiday , I inh

  Birdhouse In Your Soul – They Might Be Giants   So I was still at school, we were told we had to go on work experience for three weeks. We had to fill out a questionnaire to figure out what we would be suited to do, I filled mine out hoping it would spit out something creative. Instead it suggested I go and stir paint for three weeks. Now I've been known to stare at the odd drying wall before, but didn't fancy this much. Luckily for me my Mum found me a friendly local design studio that was willing to take me and show me how they worked. Some of the stuff they got me to do was a bit mind numbing, like endless photocopying and re-arranging their letraset sheets. But the thing that filled my heart with joy was it turned out they were aloud to listen to the radio all day, not just as background noise but full on dance along stuff. This song just happened to be around at the time and being such a good unusual poppy hit they played it a lot. Like all good ear worm songs it has sta

 Go Your Own Way – Fleetwood Mac My friend's mum was really into this weird old band called Fleetwood Mac . Seemed whenever I went round his house or she gave us a lift somewhere they were playing on the stereo. I never took that much notice as a kid, only things I knew about them where, Mick Fleetwood and Sam Fox did the worst job ever of presenting the Brit Awards. Also if you played one of their tracks long enough it had the Formula 1 theme tune at the end. Then I grew up and started 'listening' to the music I heard, then I liked Fleetwood Mac. From early instrumentals like ' Albatross ' to their extensive catalog of thought provoking, emotional songs they are one amazing band. They have been like a Premier League football team for having some of the best players pass through their racks. But just like Doctor Who they just keep on re-generating. They must also rank up there with the strangest dynamic in a band how different members were partners at different t

    You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet – Bachman Turner Overdrive     Anyone of a certain age will remember this one as Smashie and Nicey 's theme song, otherwise know as comedians Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse. They played a couple of DJ characters that parodied the ole school Radio 1 disk jockeys of the 70s and 80s. They used to do sketches based in a radio studio then fire up the music by introducing this with a ‘Let’s Rock'. It was featured on their to show each week and that lead them to releasing an album of rock classics with this as the introduction track. I had it on cassette and there were some storming tunes on there, covering the decades of rock music. Whenever I hear this song it always makes me smile. Also the bands name was always a Trival Pursuit question, it's not your average type of band name, but it made the mystic around this song even better. Named after some of the band members, overdrive being a good word to describe what this song sounds li

My Boy Lollipop – Millie Small This one is all about the Harmonica for me, this song has such a great swing it's infectious. With the Saxophone driving the song and the sweet sounding lyrics it's a perfect example of how a song can change your mood. You only have to picture 'My boy lollipop' to know he's a real character and it makes you smile, it does make your heart go giddy up.    Apparently this song started out as 'My Girl Lollypop' as a Doo-wop release, but it got changed round for a girl to sing it. This is created as one of the first Ska songs in the UK. Millie Small was from Jamaica and had a huge No.2 hit with this both sides of the Atlantic. There was a long standing mirth that Rod Stewart played the Harmonica on this, something Rod denies. But it's a nice thought. I have this song on loads on 1960s compilations and its been span at quite a few parties. Favourite Lyric : My boy lollipop / You make my heart go giddy up

  I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry – Hank Williams I Saw The Light the biography movie of Hank Williams is on UK TV tonight. I’ve seen some bad reviews of it over the years but there’s no getting away from the fact it tells an interesting story. Hank Williams was like the prototype pop star he was looking for fame more for getting out of a hard life, needing to make opportunities and money. Once he had got those things he did his upmost to self destruct as he couldn’t help but enjoy all the excesses and torments it brings. Then like all the greats it seems they have to have a mysterious death just to add to their legend, it was a sad ending for such a talent. So young as well. For his songs to as powerful as they were he had to live out each one, you can feel the pain and torment in his words and the crack in his voice. His messages were always so simple and uncomplicated and told the listener just the truth of the matter. So relatable that they set the benchmark for all t

Sledgehammer – Peter Gabriel This song was more famous for its animated video than it was for being a banging tune. Peter Gabriel is a bit of a hard one to talk about, his days with Genesis were legendary for his silly stage outfits and their music then was a bit out there. His solo stuff had also been a mixed bag with music reflecting the different of stages of his life. I like his more mainstream stuff like this song, Games Without Frontiers and Solsberry Hill . I remember seeing the video for Sledgehammer as a teenager and being blown away by it's complex technique. Knowing a little bit about animation I realised this must have taken forever to film, every part individually animated by being moved a fraction at a time and then photographed. The dancing frozen chickens are very good for being headless. It’s become such a part of this song it’s hard to separate them, but the meaning of the song is all about going in heavy handed, being a sledgehammer and sorting out som

Blinded By Your Grace Pt.2 – Stormzy Ft. MNEK I sat down to watch another BBC4 music documentary, this time it was Mica Paris reconnecting herself to her Gospel upbringing. She picked out six Gospel songs that between them explained the history and meaning of where Gospel music comes from and how it’s gone full circle yet again and become contemporary. This is mostly down to the Grimm scene and artists like Stormzy, along with increased notoriety thanks to Harry and Megan's wedding featuring a Gospel group. It was a very interesting watch, funny how to see how American and English choirs interpreted the standard Amazing Grace so differently. Then it explained Gospel's connection to the American slaves and how it helped develop into Blues music. But the most surprising thing for me was the whole Grimm thing, showing my musical ignorance . Mica references Stormzy 's performance at Glastonbury in 2019 , a set I watched at home, purely out of interest as not being

Careless Whisper – George Michael Oh Dear. This one takes me all the way back to the fourth years leavers disco from my Junior School. I was 10 when this came out, there was so much about 1980's music I just didn't get, but a girl from my class was a huge Wham fan and idolised George , and for some strange reason me. So when the 'slow' dances came on at the end of the evening, which was probably 5PM, we were only kids, I was marched to the dance floor to take a twirl around to this. I was embarrassed enough all ready before I looked towards the double exit doors only to see my mum and her dad smiling away at their little darlings. Cringe. But for all that, it's a great memory and a great song. The sax intro sets the tone and it's very sophisticated for the time, the lyrics are incredible. I think George knew there would be a lot of 10 year old boys with guilty feet, brilliant way to portray his feelings. Wham's other songs around this time were mostly bubble

Cry Me A River – Michael Bublé What an amazing song this is, so many versions out there, I wasn't sure which to pick. But this over the top production by Michael Bublé is my winner, he belts the hell out of this classic. The orchestral backing makes it sound as dramatic as music gets, scary and sexy all at once. I think Mr Bublé is a great crooner, he's one of those artists that has been sucked into that 'associated with Christmas' trap, even though his Yuletide offering is one of the best he should be better respected for he's revival of the swing genre. The fact this video is from the British version of the X Factor proves you can make anything contemporary if it's done in the right way. The sentiment in this song is amazing who ever is singing it, as your hearing this song I bet you have a head full of who your 'you' is. The whole concept of being that upset you could produce enough tears to create a stream is great way to express the emotional toil.

As Good As I Once Was – Toby Keith Love the subject matter of this one, it's an age thing. The lyrics are very clever and as usual in a Country song tell us a good story. Any bloke that goes drinking in bars has been in that situation where a mate has dropped them in it, time to think fast and get out of there. Plus we all have total delusions of being able to attract the prettiest girl in the place. There are so many Country drinking songs, Toby Keith has a few himself, " I love this bar " being another fine example. So I suggest getting a drink from the cooler and join in the fun. Favourite lyric : I ain't as good as I once was / I got a few years on me now

I Don't Want A Lover – Texas As guitar lead songs go this one is a bit of classic, love the slide guitar in this and the beat is awesome. I’m part of The Songwriting Academy and one of the mentors is Ally McErlaine who plays guitar in the band Texas . He was doing some guitar tutoring and mentioned this song, it came flooding back how much I loved this song. It was a stand out track from it's time with what used to be described as a guitar rift, not sure such a thing still exists in current music but this whole track hangs on those few repeated notes. The lyrics are about a complicated relationship with the singer explaining she only wants to be friends. Sharleen Spiteri lyrics and voice are brilliant, Texas are a very underrated band. Favourite lyric : But you can't have it all / 'Cause I'm the one who's strong

Ain't No Pleasing You – Chas & Dave Chas and Dave were awesome, couple of Cockney blokes banging out mostly happy tunes about real life and real people. They got involved in lots of clever projects like the Courage Best beer adverts with their song Gertcha coming out of that, and silly songs like Snooker Loopy with the big snooker players of the day, the Matchroom mob from Romford, Essex where I’m originally from. Then they had proper songs like this one, a real honest account of a couple's relationship. The clever lyrics in this song tell you exactly what's going on, the subject matter set to the string orchestra makes the whole thing believable and sets the right tone. Just goes to show what talented musicians these two were, I know they were both session musicians back in the 60's and play on some big hits for other groups. Cheers for making us smile Chas and Dave but also some cracking tunes. Favorite lyric: You seem to think that everything / I ever did

Swamp Thing – The Grid Not many dance tracks feature a banjo. Out of the blue this track appeared giving everyone an excuse to dosey doe around a nightclub dance floor. I think there’s something so catchy about this tune, I expect the conversation amongst the band went along the lines of what can we do to be different from all the other hundreds of dance tracks of the time. Well their theory worked, as this was everywhere for a while, loving country music and dancing this worked perfectly for me. I had a mad dance move at the time, arms and legs going at million miles an hour and I could show it off when ever a DJ dropped this song into an evening. On the back of this track I bought The Grid 's album Evolver , there are some really interesting tracks on there, it’s not all versions of the same track as some dance albums seem to be. Mostly instrumental but a few lyrics chucked in on samples. I still listen to it now and still makes me smile. I bought the song itself of a

Wild World – Cat Stevens Another one of those random songs I first heard on a compilation cassette, this time passed to me by a neighbour after they had collected enough points at petrol station to be given a free album. It was a very odd selection with this song in the middle of it. I had no idea who Cat Stevens was, not heard of him at this point or his story of how he gave up fame and changed his name to follow his new found religion. I just thought it was a very poetic song, really simple backing and heartfelt. The singer is telling the person in the song that now their leaving him it's breaking his heart but he feels they need to be warned that the world can be a harsh place. The words don't let us know if this person is his partner or maybe his daughter, but either way you get his sentiment. The lyrics probably aren't that PC these days but you have to judge a song on it's time in history. Cat Stevens wrote some big hits along the way, ' Father and Son '

Holding Back The Years – Simply Red "Rodney, you plonker," may be a strange way to start a blog post about a great song. But if you know the reference your probably ahead of me. In my favourite ever British sitcom ' Only Fools and Horses ' this song is used in the episode that younger brother Rodney gets married. It's a fantastic scene at the very end of an eventful wedding day, Rodney finds Del Boy his older brother alone stood by the buffet table to say his goodbyes. Del is stood there on his own with this song playing out in the background, if an emotion in song could ever sum up the feelings of a moment I think this would be hard to beat. At this point in the programs history we'd been through many ups and downs with the Trotter brothers and realise the impact this one moment was going to have on changing Del's life. Any one with a brother or sister they are close to probably know that feeling, there is such a sense of joy for them mixed with feelings

Mustang Sally – The Commitments Don't know how many times I've watched this film now, it never fails to make me laugh out loud, tap my feet and sing along. It's just fun, the whole story of manager Jimmy Rabbitte creating a Soul band out of a butch of scruffy teenagers and a fruity trumpet player is so cool. He pretends to be interviewed by the legend Terry Wogan throughout the film, it's just what we all did growing up, thinking the world would be that easy to concur. With Dublin as their playgroup and all the characters that turn up it's a great snapshot of what life was like then. The music in the film is wall to wall class, I listen to the soundtrack a lot, many a Saturday night or family party has had it's Mustang moment. Andrew Strong's vocal is immense, why he never became a superstar I will never know. The original Wilson Pickett version grooves away as you'd expect but hasn't got that rawness about it. The rest of the cast take on differen

The Only One I Know – The Charlatans Just watched a brilliant documentary on TV, ' Rockfield : The Studio on the Farm ' on BBC4, it shows the history of the legendary residential studio set up in the middle of the Welsh countryside. Two brothers, gradually turned their farm into a succession of recording studios and in the process managed to record some of the most iconic songs and groups of British music. Black Sabbath , Queen , Simple Minds , Stone Roses , Maniac 's and Coldplay to name a few. Special mention of Oasis also recording there, Liam on the program and is his usual charming self, apparently it's where the ' Wonderwall ' is. But just as I hadn't thought about ' The Charlatans ' for quite until I saw them featuring in the program, I picked out this song, 'The Only One I Know' out of the bunch, not only did they record at the farm, but one of the band actually died in a car smash whilst being there. Totally tragic but some would s

Warwick Avenue – Duffy This week it was the twelfth anniversary of me moving to where I live now, previous to this I had always lived in my childhood home so it was a big deal at the time. Around then Duffy had released her ‘ Rockferry ’ album and I bought the CD and really liked it’s jazzy and soothing sounds. She had a few singles out at that point but the one she had around the time of the big move was this song ‘Warwick Avenue’. It just so happened the road I was moving to had a very similar name so it felt like fate had played a part in all of this. To the point we were waiting outside the estate agents to get the keys of our new place and I had the radio on in the car and guess which song came on next. The song is about meeting someone at the tube station to tell them goodbye and confront them how much they have hurt you, mixed in with a longing that it didn’t have to be this way. The whole concept of it being the last time they would see each other matched how I was feeling abo

Weather With You – Crowded House Crowded House were a big part of the soundtrack to my Australian adventures, as usual I made up some mix tapes to take with me to the other side of the world. This song was one of the main tunes, it still sounds so summery and joyous. It's a simple tune with lots of feeling and great references to their family home. Their other better known song ' Don't Dream It's Over ' was also on my tape, it's a fantastic song, but it's sad to think that the adventure did have to come to an end and I miss those times of being younger, braver and care free. Loved Australia and New Zealand, I have fantastic memories of those trips. As always certain songs I associate with certain places. Many years later I saw them play live at the Hammersmith Apollo , what made it more memorable for me was I should have been with my brother but he couldn't come due to work commitments. So it was one of a few gigs I've been to on me own. Just rememb

Shake It Off – Taylor Swift Before I say anything else, have a look at how many views this song has on YouTube. This is where more modern music is on a different planet to most of my taste in songs. You can't argue with the figures. I've spoken of Taylor Swift being discovered at The Bluebird Cafe in Nashville in a previous post, she started out a Country Starlet. Some of the lyrics she wrote as a teenager are simple brilliant, summing up perfectly the troubled and complicated life of someone that age. I've also been on a number of webinar courses with her original manager Rick Barker , who has explained how Taylor was one of the first artists to use social media to gain a fan base. She totally interacted with her fans, making them part of her journey to becoming a huge star. Again you would have to had been an age where you grew up with social media as part of your life to be able to get a grip of all the angles of it. Then Taylor went 'Pop' and opened up her mus