Prompted by Other Blogs, Part 5

I'm always cruising around the interweb, looking for interesting music. I'll see or hear something out there that sets me on a path.

This part of this series was actually prompted by two different blogs that combined to send me on this journey. 

 

Sal Nunziato runs Burning Wood blog. His life is music, so he knows it from the inside. He is most into 20th Century artists & their continuing output this centuty. Alway somehing there that we mere mortals probably missed.

Starting the week off with "Rolling Stone: Please Just Call it a Day".

About this, Sal sez:
     "I should know better. But I guess that is why it's called click bait. Rolling Stone has released their list of '50 Greatest Concept Albums' and if you can get beyond 49 without reaching for a heavy object to throw at your computer screen or crush your phone to bits, more power to you."

I haven't read fucking RS for decades. Last place I'd want to find out what's really going on in music. They're kinda just a glorified advertisement. But I read the article & all the interesting reader comment. I even checked out their list. What a load of shite. 

 

A couple days later I was visiting A History of Dubious Taste blog to catch up on things I might have missed. I have to say I don't check in with AHoDT as often as I should, but I always check out whatever is there for some suprisingly great finds.

There was a posting from October 12 that caught my attention, "The 100 Greatest UK Number 1 Singles".

After having read the Rolling Stone shitlist, I decided I should check out The Guardian's list. I figured that they had nothing to particularly gain by hyping any acts, so at least I figured their criteria would be different. Jez had been doing a series featuring these #1 songs starting with Bill Haley & the Comets - "Rock Around the Clock", #100, November 18, 2020. The Ocober 12, 2022 post was #89. It was the Sugarbabes - "Freak Like Me".

I decided to peruse The Guardian list for myself just to see how bad it was. It was worse than I had imagined. Got to #78 before I found a song I'd ever listen to, so I  decided to make a compilation of any of the songs I deemed listenable IMO. After compiling the set, I was incredulous to realize that only one song was from the 21st Century. I went back over the original Guardian list. Only twenty-five of the 100 songs were even from this century. Those were from the likes of Beyoncé, Kylie Minogue, Lil Nas X, Carly Rae Jepsen, & their ilk.

The set I compiled follows the Law of Fives & the Sacred 23, The KLF - "3am Eternal. Jimmy Cauty & Bill Drummond had already written a book on how to have a No. 1 record, The Manual. Guess they took a page from their own playbook. After that the list is in descending order from #78, a song I've posted here before. "Something in the Air" - Thunderclap Newman. Then the last track is one of my all time favorite songs from the first band I ever saw live, The Four Tops. Great place to end this crazy side-trip. Flash back much? 

 

Various - The Guardian List, NØ Comp., 2022.

3am Eternal - The KLF, 1991, #23
Something in the Air - Thunderclap Newman, 1969, #78
A Whiter Shade of Pale - Procol Harum, 1967, #75
Killing in the Name - Rage Against the Machine, 2009, #72
Come on Eileen - Dexys Midnight Runners, 1982, #68
Tainted Love - Soft Cell, 1981, #52
Can the Can - Suzi Quatro, 1973, #47
Going Underground - The Jam, 1980, #39
You Really Got Me - The Kinks, 1964, #28
Bang a Gong (Get it On) - T Rex, 1971, #21
Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick - Ian Drury & the Blockheads, 1979, #18
Great Balls of Fire - Jerry Lee Lewis, 1957, #15
Billie Jean - Michael Jackson, 1983, #6
Ghost Town - The Specials, 1981, #2
Reach Out (I'll Be There) - The Four Tops, 1966, #40

Enjoy,
NØ