My Music Top 10s

[Paul Clement]

I've been thinking for a while about running a series of posts around my music top 10s. Basically, each week or so I will list my Top 10 songs by a specific artist or band and a little of my personal observations about my list, how I became a fan of the artist/band etc

I look forward to hopefully seeing some comments from the rest of you, even if it's just to say they are not your cup of tea.

So to start...

The Eagles

Last Resort
Hotel California
One of These Nights
Wasted Time
Doolin-Dalton/Desperado reprise
Take the Devil
Try and Love Again
Victim of Love
Witchy Woman
Seven Bridges Road

I got into The Eagles when I was around 13 years old having borrowed a cassette from my brother (pretty sure I never gave it back). That cassette was the Hotel California album, and it's still my favourite album by the band after all these years, so probably no surprise that 5 of my Top 10 come from it.
Hotel California remains my favourite album of all time and there isn't a song on there that I wouldn't rate at least 8/10. I actually feel slightly guilty by not including Pretty Maids All in a Row in my overall Top 10.
Although it only sits in 10th place in my list, I have to give a shout out to Seven Bridges Road which has possibly the best harmonies I've ever heard (although I may be biased).

So what does everyone else think? Any favourites I haven't mentioned or possibly not your cup of tea?

Next up... Suzanne Vega

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[Dirk Gently]

I've only heard Hotel California that I know of & it's a pretty good track. The Eagles are a band that I know of but never really sought out.

I might not like Dire Straits if it wasn't for my Uncle having the album Brothers in Arms.

So to sum, up I like 1 of their tracks but can't really say I like their music having not heard much.


Also as a side note, my Father-In-Law is an American called Don Henley....just not the one from the Eagles.

[MacNimon]

I love The Eagles...their music has been ingrained into my consciousness since the late 70s. Although to be honest, I can't really say that there was a particular song which got me into them, although I think I changed from casual listener to fan in the early 80s when I recognised the name of Bernie Leadon as being the composer of the Hitch-Hikers Guide To The Galaxy theme, which lead we to investigate whether a version of it had ever appeared on an Eagles album (of course, it turned out to be Journey Of The Sorceror from One Of Those nights)

That's a good Top 10 tracks there, Paul. Some classic tracks and not a dud in sight! It's just not the tracks which I'd pick myself, I think mine are more evenly spread throughout their albums. I have to disagree with you when it comes to picking a favourite album though, and am disappointed to see not a single track listed from my personal favourite, On The Border.

I love many of the solo tracks these guys recorded as well, owning a good selection of solo albums. I'll have to go and have a wee think about my own Top 10 though...

[Paul Clement]

Yeah, my 11 to 20 songs would be a much more mixed affair coming from almost all the albums, and again I felt harsh leaving songs off my Top 10 that are still massive favourites for me. One of those was Already Gone from the On The Border album (also have a soft spot for the title tune).
My one and only piece of fairly decent art I've ever managed to produce was a copy of the On The Border album cover.




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[MacNimon]

My Top 10 tracks would look something like this...

Hotel California (Hell Freezes over live version)
You Never Cry Like A Lover
The Last Resort
Saturday Night
On The Border
Take The Devil
Already Gone
After The Thrill Is Gone
Busy Being Fabulous
The Sad Cafe

I was struggling to pick between the two versions of Hotel California, I love the ending of the original but the intro of the live version from that reunion show was just amazing, especially coming at a time when I never expected to see these guys playing together again. Brilliant stuff! And looking at my list, I've just noticed that it's slightly Don Henley-heavy...that's not deliberate, but a Top 10 making sure they all got a mention would a dfferent proposition entirely!

[Paul Clement]

OK, moving on to my favourite solo artist we come to Suzanne Vega. It's definitely quite a change of direction musically from my favourite band.

Back in the early 90s, one of my brothers was living on a ship, he was having to care for a friend for a while and asked me to stay on the ship and look after it whilst he was away.
There was little to do, no TV etc so I was pretty much limited to my brothers books and music to pass the time.

The one stand out for me was the copy cassette he had with Sade's Diamond Life album on one side and Suzanne Vega's self titled first album. I played to cassette almost constantly and it was from this that my love of Suzanne Vega's music began.

Again, the initial album I came to love has a tracklisting contains the largest number of my personal faves, but there are songs from a few albums in my top 10


1. Gypsy
2. Marlene on the Wall
3. No Cheap Thrill
4. (I'll Never Be) Your Maggie May
5. In Liverpool
6. Queen and the Soldier
7. Undertow
8. Soap and Water
9. New York is a Woman
10. Small Blue Thing






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[Dirk Gently]

Again, not someone I've sought out but I do like her 2 well known tracks, Marlene on the Wall & Luka.

She seems a very understated performer & a quiet singer. Which is preferrable to someone who bellows at you.

[MacNimon]

I'm with Tim here, I'm not really familiar with the work of Suzanne Vega. Marlene On The Wall & Luka are the only two songs I know, I like them but I've just never really had the urge to investigate her work further, largely because I haven't heard them in a long time! Now that you've brought her up, I'll maybe check out some of those songs on Spotify!

[Paul Clement]

OK, so moving on to an artist where the influence for me to try their music was pretty much all me.

Bruce Springsteen:

I'd heard Born in the USA playing a few times and when a school friend of mine said he could make some cassette copies of some music, this album by The Boss was one of the first ones I asked him to get for me.
Later, when aged about 14, I saved up almost £50 to get the 1975 to 1985 Live vinyl boxed set. Still have it today, despite no record player.
That live boxed set was my gateway to some of the older Springsteen albums and at one stage I owned most of them on vinyl and cassette.

Unlike the first two acts I've looked at, my initial album foray into Springsteen is certainly not a favourite, although it did start out that way. It was surprising how few songs from Born in the USA album made my Top 10 initial sort through and in the end only one song got included.

I do have some of his more recent albums but none of them have been as good as some of his earlier stuff for me, and my Top 10 pretty much covers the 70s to 90s period

Also to add that my favourite song is possibly influenced by how great it was hearing it live when he performed at the Isle of Wight festival a few years back. It was proper goosebumps time when he opened his set with this song.

1. Badlands
2. Atlantic City
3. Brilliant Disguise
4. Born to Run
5. The River
6. Hungry Heart
7. Independence Day
8. Backstreets
9. Secret Garden
10. No Surrender

It was a close call between No Surrender, Human Touch and Tougher Than the Rest for that last spot and I could see that choice changing quite easily, leaving no Born in the USA songs in my Top 10.



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[MacNimon]

Now you're talking! I'm a huge Boss can going back a good 40 years, but I'll be struggling in a big way to put together a top ten...it often just depends on my mood! And many of his songs are actually much better in live performances than they are on the original albums...

I've plenty more to say on this over the weekend....

[Jon Masters]

Nice thread - not really into the ones looked at so far, though I do like Bruce

[MacNimon]

I'll be struggling in a big way to put together a top ten...

Simply because there are so many classics to choose from, of course!

[MacNimon]

My first taste of Springsteen's music probably came around 1980-ish, when my cousin brought a copy of Darkness On The Edge Of Town back from a Canadian holiday. The album was played often over the next few years, and my initial favourites were the catchier songs from the album such as Badlands, The Promised Land and Prove It All Night. My first Springsteen purchase came a few years later in 1984, when I spotted the 7" Dancing In The Dark single among the new releases...I was disappointed when it only reached something like number 28 in the singles charts, but of course it later rebounded back up the charts to be a huge hit. My parents brought me back a copy of the Born In The USA album that same summer (from Canada, too...we have family out there!) and it was on my turntable for months solid, I loved the album at the time (funnily enough, like Paul, it has in the years since fallen dramatically down my list of favourite Springsteen albums. Probably at the time I just didn't know enough of his music to know any better!) It's an album with a number of great songs on it, rather than a great album. And ironically, much of the best material from those sessions didn't make it onto the album. Some, such as Frankie, This Hard Land and Murder Incorporated have surfaced over the years, others such as Protection and Sugarland have still to see the Light Of Day (sorry, bad pun there...although that's another song overdue a release!) Some of these songs will certainly make my Top 10...

[MacNimon]

I gradually explored his older albums over the next couple of years, and found plenty of gems among them, it was the sheer variety of musical styles which really caught my attention though. Each album was different stylistically from the others, and I was able to put BITUSA into a bit of context...probably the catchiest album of his career to that point, but not his best. It was the live album boxset which followed which really made me into a fan, though...songs such as 10th Avenue Freeze-Out were amazing played live, the original version from Born To Run pales in comparison. And it was also my introduction to Springsteen's cover versions... his version of Tom Waits Jersey Girl still ranks among my all-time favourite songs. Then Tunnel Of Love, which I found a decent but patchy album. His 90s output though, I found to be patchy in general. As always there were some great songs but they were surrounded by more mediocre songs than was previously the case. And the E-Street Band reunion...the live music has been great, I've purchased quite a few of the official bootleg shows and the band is great. There have been some excellent songs, and the albums decent for the most part but maybe a bit stale ...again, some great songs surrounded by mediocrity. His latest album though, Letter To You, is the one I find has bucked the trend. It's the most refreshing sounding album that Springsteen has put together since the early/mid 80s, basically an album-length flip-side to that line in Glory Days (I hope when I'm old I don't sit around talking about it), packed with catchy songs which sound perfect for the full-blown E-Street Band live shows which, fingers crossed, we'll see before they're too old to perform!

What I enjoyed most about the latest album though was his decision to include three songs written and recorded as demo's back in the early 70s; people tend to think of his first two albums Greetings From Asbury Park and The Wild, The Innocent, And The E-Street Shuffle as early Springsteen when it really isn't, these albums are just another two of the phases he went through and these new/old songs fit in better with his pre-Asbury Park output. Although he didn't have a recording contract, there are bootlegs of many of those early shows (some in great quality, others not so!) which feature a great deal of unused, unrecorded original material. I used an audio editor to crop a number of them I had, and boost the sound a bit and now I have an excellent 'bonus' collection of early Springsteen originals in good quality; songs from his periods with Steel Mill, Doctor Zoom & The Sonic Boom, and The Bruce Springsteen Band such as Sweet Melinda, Last Night In Texas, Southside Shuffle, You Don't Leave Me No Choice (in which his backing singers take on lead vocals), You Mean So Much To Me and Jambalaya (also called Jumbelia - the spelling differs depending on where you read about it, that's the problem with songs not officially released but it's not a version of the Carpenters song!)

Anyway, enough of my waffling on...next post will be my Top 10.

Once I decide what to include, that is...

[MacNimon]

My Top 10 Springsteen songs would be something like this...and I hard to make a number of hard cuts to get it down to size. Out went Badlands, Thunder Road, Rosalita, Tom Joad (2014 version), Bobbie Jean, Roll Of The Dice and more...

1. Prove It All Night (1978 Darkness Tour version with the 4 minute intro)
2. Jungleland
3. Roulette
4. Frankie
5. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out (Live 1975-1985 boxset)
6. Jersey Girl (Live 1975-1985 boxset)
7. The Promise
8. This Hard Land
9. Johnny 99 (London Calling Live In Hyde Park version)
10. Wrecking Ball

[Paul Clement]

That live version of Tenth Avenue Freeze Out is really good, and Johnny 99 was another track that was close to my top 10.


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[Paul Clement]

The Live collection is one of my most prized bits of my musical collection. It must be about 33 years ago when I got it.

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[MacNimon]

I still have my copy of that as well. In fact, my entire Springsteen collection up to (and including) Tunnel Of Love is comprised of vinyl lps, the first time I bought any of his stuff on cd was the Human Touch/ Lucky Town double release.

I loved that live boxset, though. The biggest issue about it was the fact that it was comprised of snippets from many shows over a 10-year period, rather than one complete concert. That was pretty obvious though, given the title. However you don't really get a feeling of what a complete show would feel like and flow, regardless of how good any individual tracks would be.

That's one of the benefits of modern methods of music consumption, though. I don't know whether you've tried out any before, but I can highly recommend having a look at Bruce's Official Live Shows download page. Here's the catalogue. I've purchased about a dozen or so shows from here, usually in FLAC or ALAC lossless format and some of these shows are amazing. Just hearing the band in full flow in various tours from the mid-70s until 2017 is a joy, something that the boxset only hints at. Well worth checking out

[Paul Clement]

I'll check those out. I feel really fortunate to have seen him live at the Isle of Wight festival, but of course event though he was a headline act, that's just a him doing a set and not a full live show, which would be incredible to see.

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[MacNimon]

I've only seen him twice, in 1985 and 1993. Each time he's played in the last 10 or 15 years I've been unable to go for some reason, whether it be a holiday or some other commitment so hopefully will get a chance if Covid gets under control enough for touring to recommence.

The thing I like about listening to these live shows is that you get to hear performances of certain songs in context...for example, Independence Day and Point Blank performed live during the 1978 Darkness Tour (a good two years before they appeared on The River) alongside songs which would remain unreleased for much longer but covered by others, such as Because The Night.

And here's one last song which would normally come very close to the top of my list but I didn't want to include too many outtakes. Here's hoping for an expanded 40th Anniversary release of Born In The USA which would surely need to include this unreleased classic...

[Paul Clement]

Just been trying to decide which studio album of his I would consider my favourite. I'm looking at the tracks on Born to Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town and The River and there is so little in it. I'd probably give the nod to The River but it's so close, I think on another day I would be choosing a different one.


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[Dirk Gently]

This may be a pointless post but I'm not a great fan of "The Boss". Born in the USA is probably the only track I really know of & it's not great.

In short He's probably very good if you like his style, but not for me.

[Paul Clement]

OK, so into a new week and this time we're looking at The Beatles.

I was never particularly keen on The Beatles growing up, preferring other bands of the 60s, mainly the Beach Boys. There were the odd few songs I liked but some of the more renowned songs like Eight Days a Week, Hard Days Night and Love Me Do left me cold, and to be fair some of them still do.

It was some of their less successful hits and album tracks that started to change my opinion of them and most of my top 10 songs won't be ones that have charted highly.

1. Here Comes The Sun
2. Across the Universe
3. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
4. In My Life
5. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
6. You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
7. Blackbird
8. Fool on the Hill
9. Magical Mystery Tour
10. Nowhere Man




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