Did you ever think that there would
be ten songs that would be more important to you and what you’re doing right
now than any others? Back then, right now and forever after…
The ten most influential songs of
my life. I have tried to do this without the plethora of British rock bands
that I always seem to spout at people when they ask me what sort of music I
listen to. Doing this list without The Cure, The Cult, The Smiths or Joy
Division forced me to look at the bands and songs that influenced my tastes in
somewhat more formative years and the moments of live magic that have stayed
with me ever since rather than simply repeating the names of my favourite songs
from my record collection. It has been a memorable experience recreating the
moments that shaped my musical past and present.
1. Add It Up – Violent Femmes
There was a time in my life, about
a year in fact, when you couldn’t go to a party anywhere in Auckland without
hearing the Violent Femmes first album in its entirety at least ten times over
the course of any given evening. It became an anthem for every misconstrued,
ill-thought of and awkward teenager there ever was. ‘Add It Up’ is a song about
the difficulties of getting laid as a teenager aimed squarely at a demographic
who think about nothing else. In New Zealand Gordon Gano, Brian Ritchie and
Victor DeLorenzo quickly became part of musical folklore and their concert in
Auckland touring the mighty follow up album, ‘Hallowed Ground’ was
extraordinary. Their eponymous first album went gold on our tiny islands faster
than anywhere else in the world. Gordon’s haunting and yet menacing vocals
still resonate today and it’s hard to imagine how bands such as the awesome
Placebo could have ever existed without this one coming first.
2. This Must Be The Place – Talking
Heads
‘Speaking In Tongues’ was another
album that was a revelation to my teenage ears. As was all of Talking Head’s
early albums. ‘Fear Of Music’ and ‘Remain In Light’ have to be mentioned here
as well. They opened my eyes and ears to the way that music could be looked
upon as a performance art-form as opposed to simply a recorded medium. This
culminated in their 1984 movie, ‘Stop Making Sense’ which was more like going
to see a concert than a movie at the cinema with people dancing in the aisles
and singing along to all the songs. Talking Heads become the uber-hip benchmark
for all other cool bands of the late 70’s and early 80s. David Byrne and his
collaborations with Brian Eno were also heavily influential especially their ‘My
Life In The Bush Of Ghosts’ album which I had the dubious honour of listening
to just as a dose of psilocybin was kicking in one night. ‘The Jezebel Spirit’
was indeed an interesting choice to start that night off with.
3. A New England – Billy Bragg
This was the first real love affair
I had with a musician’s work. I saw Billy Bragg five times over the course of a
year and a half in Auckland. His brutal honesty and heart-broken lyrics hit a
chord like no other performer at that time. Such simple and yet beautiful songs
performed with just a guitar slung around his neck and his heart worn on both
sleeves were a breath of fresh air in a time of synth-pop and New Romantic over-indulgences.
His plaintiff love songs sung in his unmistakeable accent were unlike anything
else we had heard in NZ before. His live concerts were raw and real with his
cover of The Clash’s ‘Garageland’ in particular bringing back the best days of
British punk. His songs rang out from the stage like poetry put to music.
Sonnets with an electric guitar commenting on everyday life through the eyes of
a realist trying so very hard not to become a cynic.
4. Jennifer’s Veil – The Birthday
Party
This song was the beginning of the
end for me. Or the beginning of the beginning, or the end of the beginning of
the end. Something like that. I’ll never know for sure. What it definitely was,
was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with the music, novels and
screenplays of Nick Cave. My friends and I conspired to get this song to the
top of Auckland student radio station BFM’s Alternative Top Ten chart and keep
it there. And we did. For almost two whole months. The Mutiny EP was the first
thing I listened to that scared me. It affected me in the same way that Stephen
King’s ‘The Shining’ did and the way the ‘The Exorcist’ did as well. It was
proof that scary could be fun. It’s beautiful (albeit in a pretty weird fucking
way) and it’s horrible too. It’s the musical equivalent of disease-ridden
wounds and trench warfare nightmares that you could never fully recover from
even if you did survive. Nick has gone on to write some of the most beautiful
love songs ever written and some of the most disturbing images ever transmitted
from one human being to another. And I love him for them both. For beauty and
disgust go hand in hand in this world. That is an inescapable truth.
5. Celebrated Summer – Husker Du
These guys were the greatest band
in the world. The first sensitive and emotionally relevant punk band. The Clash
had certainly been emotive but these guys wrote love songs. And meant them. It
heralded the beginning of something completely new in punk and ‘New Day Rising’,
‘Flip Your Wig’, ‘Candy Apple Grey’ and ‘Warehouse: Songs And Stories’ were all
staggering albums. If you were to look at the American rocks bands of the last
thirty years there wouldn’t be too many of any quality who wouldn’t cite these
guys as a significant influence. They were the first punk band to be signed to
a major label and considering that they probably never allowed themselves to
hit their potential the indent they left on music was truly unforgettable.
Nirvana and The Foo Fighters in particular owe enormous debts to the trailblazing
exploits of Husker Du. Bob Mould, Grant Hart and Greg Norton gave their all so
that others could follow in their footsteps.
6. The Mission Soundtrack – Ennio
Morricone
Okay, so this isn’t exactly a song
but I couldn’t pick one track off this soundtrack that would have told the
whole story. One night in the late 80s a group of friends and I headed to a
disused WW2 bunker under an old gun emplacement dressed as outcasts from a
Zodiac Mindwarp video. We spent the evening in there covered head to toe in
leather, bandannas and the glowing liquid contents of a dozen Cyalume sticks sprayed
liberally over every surface in the place, including ourselves. We were of
course all completely off our heads on acid at the time. There could be no
other explanation for such behaviour. The space we created looked like the
universe seen inside out and upside down from the brain of a giant insect
supernova and all the time we were listening to Ennio Morricone’s masterpiece.
It was the most religious and spiritual experience of my life and if God does
actually exist he was definitely checking us out that night. For we were on a
par with him. Morricone’s music transports you to another time and place of
your choosing. It is what cathedrals would sound like if they could make their
own music without our help. It is a recording from above delivered to us
through the ears, fingers and imagination of an Italian master. God bless him.
7. Man of Golden Words – Mother
Love Bone
The song I want to be buried to.
Andy Wood’s painful soul-aching lyrics on this track from one of the greatest
rock albums ever made can break your heart into a thousand pieces. And if you
spend too much time thinking about how he was to die shortly after recording it
they probably will. The sorrow within the songs on this album as it swells
towards its end is immeasurable. Listening to it one night (with the aid of LSD
admittedly) I realised that what on the outside appears to be a great American
psychedelic rock album is actually the journal of a truly beautiful man sliding
away from us into the arms of heroin. It starts off as a celebration of life
and spirituality with the joyous ‘This Is Shangrila’ but slowly becomes darker
and darker still until you find yourself at ‘Man Of Golden Words’ and ‘Crown Of
Thorns’.
“Wanna show you something like the
joy inside my heart, seems I've been living in the temple of the dog.”
‘Temple Of The Dog’ would become
the tribute album made in his memory shortly after his death by his flatmate
Chris Cornell and the guys who would go on to become Pearl Jam. Along with the
death of Jeffrey Lee Pierce this was one of the greatest untimely losses ever
to American rock.
8. The Ship Song – Nick Cave and
the Bad Seeds
Now I know that technically I
shouldn’t be using the same artist here twice but this seems so far removed
from his earlier days with The Birthday Party that I thought I might get away
with it. ‘The Ship Song’ was the song I wanted to get married to back in the
days when I thought I might actually wind up getting married. They’re long gone
but this is still one of the most sweepingly beautiful love songs ever written (along
with ‘Are You The One That I’ve Been Waiting For’ and ‘Straight To You’) by a
man who understands poetry as a way to woo any woman’s soul like no one else on
this planet. No one still alive anyway. If this doesn’t make you want to fall
in love your heart has long ceased to work properly. I have been fortunate
enough to have seen Nick live twice. Once with The Bad Seeds and once solo with
nothing more than a piano to aid him and frankly that’s all he needs. All his
songs begin on a keyboard and songs such as ‘The Ship Song’ don’t need anything
else.
9. My Iron Lung – Radiohead
One of the greatest live
experiences of my life. I saw Radiohead play in Sydney when they were at the
peak of their powers touring ‘OK Computer’. At that point in their career they
only had three albums to pick their set-list from which is what made the show
so good. Because those albums were three of the finest rocks albums ever. ‘Pablo
Honey’, ‘The Bends’ and ‘OK Computer’ are all completely different and that has
always been part of what makes Radiohead so unique. Never wanting to stand
still they have continually pushed the boundaries of what they have done. Thom
Yorke’s towering vocals and Jonny Greenwood’s awesome prowess as a guitar
player and multi-instrumentalist made them a true force to be reckoned with. These
guys were quite simply magical in their heyday.
10. Popplagið – Sigur Rós
The moment when the wave broke for
me (to steal a phrase from the late great Hunter S. Thompson). A massive
turning point in my life. Reduced to a gibbering speechless idiot after first
seeing these guys live in Reykjavík I was forced to admit to myself that there
was no other place on earth I wanted to live apart from Iceland. A move that
has proved to be the best thing I’ve ever done with myself. They are still the
most incredible live act I have ever seen and with six years in my twenties as
a guitar technician for a number of rock bands I have seen hundreds of live
shows. I have now seen Sigur Rós three times. I travelled to Denmark to see
them at the Roskilde Festival and have also seen them in Dublin. They are
beyond any doubt one of the ‘must see before you die’ bands in the world. The
sensory overload that they inflict upon you at their concerts has reduced a
number of people to tears. I had a girl standing in front of me at Roskilde who
wept for about three songs. Not because there was anything wrong with her but
because she was simply overwhelmed by what was going on in front of her. Their
songs are from another planet. They don’t sing about anything. They open you up
and let whatever is in there come out. Most of the time it is joy. In the shape
of tears. Popplagið is the last song they play at all there shows because after
it has finished there is simply nowhere left to go. They have taken you as far
as you can go and it is simply time for them to let you go and get back to
reality. You will probably find that your reality has changed a little bit after
seeing them in the flesh.
I did.
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