Thank you for the Music
Channel 4 has its moments. Not many of them, but it does have them. On Sunday I sat down to watch their take on the "100 best singles". The only problem? They were voted for by "You, the public".
My faith in "You, the public" is rapidly declining to the point of no return. Last time we entrusted anything to "You, the Public" you voted for George Galloway. Last time we entrusted you with anything slightly more trivial, the result was that "Wacky Races" only came 100th in Channel 4's "100 greatest cartoons", and that 80s epic "Mysterious Cities of Gold" didn't even feature.
Things went the same way on Sunday. "You, the Public" are so predictable that I could have told you the top five tracks without staying up past midnight to watch them. John Lennon and "Imagine" are always Number 1; Queen and "Bohemian Rhapsody" are always number 2. Occasionally they switch places to confuse me, but that's much variety as you get. "You, the Public" redeemed yourselves a little by passing on the Spice Girls and admitting you'd heard of Soft Cell, then you went and blew it putting Abba at number 4. Kate Bush was only number 49, and how did "You, the Public" miss the Smiths?!
To attempt to redress the balance at least a tiny bit, I thought I'd share with you the top 10 singles as voted for by "Me, the Individual"
1. Wuthering Heights - Kate Bush
2. White Riot - The Clash (if only for the guitar part in the middle)
3. Please, please please let me get what I want - The Smiths (though that might not have been a single, in which case I'll go for "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now")
4. Rat Trap - Boomtown Rats (where are the Boomtown Rats in "You, the Public's" list?!)
5. Take Your Mama - Scissor Sisters (I'm listening to it at the moment and I like it.)
6. Fairytale of New York - The Pogues and Kirsty McColl. (Originally I had It's a Beautiful Day by Queen - if you're going to have a Queen song, at least have a good one - but I'd forgotten about "Fairytale", so excuse my adapting this list.)
7. Make Me Smile - Steve Harley and the Cockney Rebel
8. What a Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong
9. Don't Look Back in Anger - Oasis (please believe me when I say I picked Blur at aged 14, but I can't find a single song for the top 10, rather I like them as an entity)
10. Alice's Restaurant - Arlo Guthrie (it lasts over ten minutes and is absolute class.)
Actually, this wasn't the easiest exercise in the world. Also vying for 10th place were Joan Baez "Diamonds and Rust", Dream Academy's "Life in a Northern Town" and the Pistols' fantastic version of "My Way".
What say you, "You, the Blog community"?
Px
My faith in "You, the public" is rapidly declining to the point of no return. Last time we entrusted anything to "You, the Public" you voted for George Galloway. Last time we entrusted you with anything slightly more trivial, the result was that "Wacky Races" only came 100th in Channel 4's "100 greatest cartoons", and that 80s epic "Mysterious Cities of Gold" didn't even feature.
Things went the same way on Sunday. "You, the Public" are so predictable that I could have told you the top five tracks without staying up past midnight to watch them. John Lennon and "Imagine" are always Number 1; Queen and "Bohemian Rhapsody" are always number 2. Occasionally they switch places to confuse me, but that's much variety as you get. "You, the Public" redeemed yourselves a little by passing on the Spice Girls and admitting you'd heard of Soft Cell, then you went and blew it putting Abba at number 4. Kate Bush was only number 49, and how did "You, the Public" miss the Smiths?!
To attempt to redress the balance at least a tiny bit, I thought I'd share with you the top 10 singles as voted for by "Me, the Individual"
1. Wuthering Heights - Kate Bush
2. White Riot - The Clash (if only for the guitar part in the middle)
3. Please, please please let me get what I want - The Smiths (though that might not have been a single, in which case I'll go for "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now")
4. Rat Trap - Boomtown Rats (where are the Boomtown Rats in "You, the Public's" list?!)
5. Take Your Mama - Scissor Sisters (I'm listening to it at the moment and I like it.)
6. Fairytale of New York - The Pogues and Kirsty McColl. (Originally I had It's a Beautiful Day by Queen - if you're going to have a Queen song, at least have a good one - but I'd forgotten about "Fairytale", so excuse my adapting this list.)
7. Make Me Smile - Steve Harley and the Cockney Rebel
8. What a Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong
9. Don't Look Back in Anger - Oasis (please believe me when I say I picked Blur at aged 14, but I can't find a single song for the top 10, rather I like them as an entity)
10. Alice's Restaurant - Arlo Guthrie (it lasts over ten minutes and is absolute class.)
Actually, this wasn't the easiest exercise in the world. Also vying for 10th place were Joan Baez "Diamonds and Rust", Dream Academy's "Life in a Northern Town" and the Pistols' fantastic version of "My Way".
What say you, "You, the Blog community"?
Px
posted by RLS at 12:45 pm
3 Comments:
Well, we know we do not have our musical tastes very much in common, but just about the only one on your list that would get a vote from me would be "Like a prayer" - Madonna. I'll get back to you with my ideas for a "Top 10" but I doubt we'll agree! (Possibly Sugababes will be in there somewhere - gotta love 'em!)
RMB - goes away to consider his taste (or lack thereof) in music.
Oh, I'm rubbish at these things - far too indecisive.
Let's just settle as them being all Ben Folds Five and leave it at that
;)
Yeah, this "You, the public" fella has a lot to answer for...
I blogged along the same lines as this a while back, when they gave Robbie Williams the Brit for 'Best British Song of the Last 25 Years', which I thought was a bit off to say the least..
http://ezycheezy.blogspot.com/2005/02/pits-of-brits.html
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