1. T.Rex | The Visit
I first heard this in 1970 when I was sixteen. I bought the T.Rex album and I entered another world. Bolan had somehow reconciled Chuck Berry and greek mythology and this song is coming from a strange place in the midst of an alien abduction - only very subtly alluded to - Bolan remembers his babe and calls out to her in almost elizabethan terms... Truly I do love you!
2. Big Star | Kangaroo
The sloppiest laziest song, half starting half stopping collapsing in on itself. A sleazy confused blurring slurring song of grasping lust. The strings and slide guitar frame it all in uncertainty. This song gave me a million ideas for new songs.
3. David Bowie | Sweet Thing
+ Candidate and Sweet Thing (Reprise)... Menacing sexy futuristic alien... Cynical... Wide-eyed... Wonderful... Listen to the dripping sarcasm of the piano, the mock elegance... The sound of a world gone wrong...
+ Candidate and Sweet Thing (Reprise)... Menacing sexy futuristic alien... Cynical... Wide-eyed... Wonderful... Listen to the dripping sarcasm of the piano, the mock elegance... The sound of a world gone wrong...
4. The Beatles | Within You Without You
We were talking... Oh, like hindu philosophy... Gently... Dreamy... All sweet given to you in a song... A song!!... All those lovely unisons as the sitars and orchestras lock up... Wow!
5. The Rolling Stones | Memory Motel
A fucked up aching song sung like he meant it. Keith joins in on little bridge section his rough battered voice oddly sweet... She gotta mi-i-ind of her own...And she use it well...yeah...
6. Santana | Singing Winds, Crying Beasts
This song travels, it lopes across South American plateaus and through her jungles...The cymbals lap at the song like a sea... The little jingling sounds... The guitar distorts into the shimmering distance...
7. Donovan | Atlantis
Fragile like the sunken city herself. A narration then a full tilt rocker. The first chord sequence I ever learnt to play on a guitar.
8. Freur | Doot Doot
We used to play this over and over in a house I lived in. An impenetrable almost meaningless song... So full of meaning, though... Still love it... Still wanna listen to it to figure it out.
9. Bruce Springsteen | Backstreets
Never heard anything like this before. A howling banging full screen mini-opera with enough ambiguity to let you inhabit it. The twangy guitars, mock classical piano bits, the hoarse and emotional singing!
10. Lou Reed | Intro/Sweet Jane
Off Rock 'n' Roll Animal... The best guitar playing ever! Twin leads writhe round each other like snakes... Lou walks on... The crowd go nuts... And the band lock into one of the most famous riffs in rock... Oh, God, it makes you feel so cool!
