Everything on the list was finalized on schedule, but I struggled coming up with ideas for how to present it. I blanched at the idea of churning out another eight thousand word tribute. Eventually I hit on the idea of splitting the list into categories. As I wrote about previously, it wouldn't be a list of my forty all time favourite songs and so not every song could be summed up in a paragraph explaining why it was and is the best thing from this or that year. Of course many of them are all-time favourites, but just as many were great songs that were linked to memories -- early childhood memories, sad memories, joyous memories -- that are important symbols or checkpoints within the overall narrative (i.e my life). I decided on the categories two years ago, and then ... nothing.
This is my one thousandth published post on this blog. This big round number was looming and I needed something big. The post will never live up to the hype, but that that's OK.
THE PLAYLIST
THE LIST
The songs in the playlist are listed in the approximate order that they "earned" their spot on the 40 for 40 -- not the order they were released and not always the order in which I first heard them.
Hues Corporation, Rock the Boat
Donna Summer, Hot Stuff
Blondie, Heart of Glass
Toto, Africa
Duran Duran, The Reflex
Don McLean, American Pie
Def Leppard, Pour Some Sugar on Me
Neneh Cherry, Buffalo Stance
Nine Inch Nails, Down In It
Depeche Mode, Enjoy the Silence
Stone Roses, Fools Gold
Spiritualized, Anyway That You Want Me
The Orb, A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain that Rules From the Center of the Ultraworld (Peel Sessions Version)
Joy Division, Love Will Tear Us Apart
Beethoven's 9th Symphony
James, Laid
Kim Carnes, Bette Davis Eyes
ABBA, Dancing Queen
Pulp, Pink Glove
Orbital, Belfast
Drugstore, Accelerate
Adorable, Sunshine Smile
Saint Etienne, He's on the Phone
My Bloody Valentine, When You Sleep
Kraftwerk, Trans-Europe Express
Spice Girls, 2 Become 1
Godspeed You Black Emperor, BBF3
Mogwai, Mogwai Fear Satan
Primal Scream, Swastika Eyes
Fennesz, A Year In a Minute
Vainqueur, Elevations I (Version 3)
Philippe Cam, Karine
Nelly, Hot in Herre
Gordon Lightfoot, If You Could Read My Mind
Sigur Ros, Glosoli (from HEIMA)
Plastikman, Mind In Rewind
Animal Collective, The Purple Bottle
M83, Don't Save Us From the Flames
Jesu, Silver
Beach House, Irene
My Bloody Valentine, When You Sleep
Kraftwerk, Trans-Europe Express
Spice Girls, 2 Become 1
Godspeed You Black Emperor, BBF3
Mogwai, Mogwai Fear Satan
Primal Scream, Swastika Eyes
Fennesz, A Year In a Minute
Vainqueur, Elevations I (Version 3)
Philippe Cam, Karine
Nelly, Hot in Herre
Gordon Lightfoot, If You Could Read My Mind
Sigur Ros, Glosoli (from HEIMA)
Plastikman, Mind In Rewind
Animal Collective, The Purple Bottle
M83, Don't Save Us From the Flames
Jesu, Silver
Beach House, Irene
THE CATEGORIES
These categories are fluid. Many of the songs could have been placed in two or more different categories. They are not meant as rigid labels, so think of them mainly as a convenient way of breaking up the list into manageable parts.
The 70's
I have very few memories of the 70's. In the 70's there was disco dancing in the basement and a lot of songs in heavy vinyl rotation. When I think of the 70's -- actually living in the 70's as a five year old -- I think of these songs:
Hues Corporation, Rock the Boat
Donna Summer, Hot Stuff
Blondie, Heart of Glass
All time faves (80's)
The 80's for me were about singles, not albums. "Africa" was my favourite song for literally about two years. Def Leppard were largely responsible for pulling me back into music after a couple of lost years in the late 80's.
Toto, Africa
Def Leppard, Pour Some Sugar on Me
Neneh Cherry, Buffalo Stance
Kim Carnes, Bette Davis Eyes
Inescapable 80's (rated much lower by me now)
Duran Duran were inescapably huge and "American Pie" was a summer camp essential, the definitive homerian epic that transcended the age gap for anyone under 25 at the time.
Duran Duran, The Reflex
Don McLean, American Pie
I heard them and nothing would ever be the same
Some songs create something where there was once nothing. There was nothing in my life that could have prepared me for hearing a twenty minute track by The Orb after midnight on the weekend, no prototypes of this music in my house when I was growing up, no cool older brother into Eno or modern classical.
Nine Inch Nails, Down In It
Spiritualized, Anyway That You Want Me
The Orb, A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain that Rules From the Center of the Ultraworld (Peel Sessions Version)
90's staples
These four bands stood out in four completely different mini-eras in the 90's. There was nearly no overlap in my superfandom for each..
Stone Roses, Fools Gold
Spice Girls, 2 Become 1
Godspeed You Black Emperor, BBF3
Pulp, Pink Glove
90's faves that still stop me in my tracks every time
"Accelerate" has been my go-to, no time to think about it pick for the best song of the 90's for a while. #2 would probably be Depeche, and #3 on any given day could be "Laid".
Depeche Mode, Enjoy the Silence
Drugstore, Accelerate
James, Laid
Faves that seem to transcend eras, with lyrics that cut to the bone
I find it hard to idolize Ian Curtis the way I used to, partly due to his wife Deborah's thoughtful portrait of the talented, yet horribly flawed and selfish genius. "If You Could Read My Mind" may be the finest song lyric ever written.
Joy Division, Love Will Tear Us Apart
Gordon Lightfoot, If You Could Read My Mind
Will always be its own category
Beethoven's 9th Symphony
Perfect songs of the 70's
ABBA were perfect pop long before the term was invented, and "Dancing Queen" is too precious, too pristine, too immaculately structured to be duplicated ever again. "Trans Europe Express" is the oracle of modern music, it foretold the coming of several new genres, and we'll never understand exactly what they saw that regular mortals couldn't.
ABBA, Dancing Queen
Kraftwerk, Trans Europe Express
Beautiful Dance music
Dancing and getting choked up at the same time
Orbital, Belfast
Saint Etienne, He's on the Phone
Shoegaze goes pop
Noise and sugar.
Adorable, Sunshine Smile
My Bloody Valentine, When You Sleep
Noise and chaos
Noise without the sugar.
Mogwai, Mogwai Fear Satan
Primal Scream, Swastika Eyes
The vinyl era
In the early 00's I dropped more cash on music than ever before. A lot of that went towards new and used vinyl, and I became enamoured with how vinyl sounded compared to the often muddy and compressed sound of CD's. "Elevations" and "Karine" demand to be heard on vinyl. In the meantime, I became completely obsessed with finding music with the density, warmth, and sly nods to pop that Fennesz brought to his recordings.
Fennesz, A Year In a Minute
Vainqueur, Elevations I (Version 3)
Philippe Cam, Karine
Mood music
"Hot In Herre" seemed to soundtrack almost every night out for a couple of years. Afterwards, things got darker and I spent a lot of time in the suburbs of Berlin, watching the city from the train with Plastikman in my ears.
Nelly, Hot in Herre
Plastikman, Mind In Rewind
Legends of our time
These two bands survived the transition to the "post-music store" era intact. They were two of the very few. In fact, I ended up liking both of them a lot more.
M83, Don't Save Us From the Flames
Sigur Ros, Glosoli (from HEIMA)
Listened to death
The songs I spun the most over the final 7-8 years of the 40.
Animal Collective, The Purple Bottle
Jesu, Silver
Beach House, Irene
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