I have always hated ads. No, wait, let me qualify that. I have always hated the kinds of ads that are not clever, not witty, not trying to achieve any other purpose than the lowest common denominator, that being the highest possible profit. The shouty, the repetetive, the badly scripted or poorly acted ads make me want to vomit and stab something at the same time. Preferably stab something with my vomit, just to be efficient. (wow. that is really gross. apologies.)
Every year, JJJ have a music poll to determine the best song of the previous 12 months. It started in 1989 as a "What is the best song of all time?" kinda poll. Joy Division, Love Will Tear Us Apart. The list is here The next year's list looked alarmingly similar. And in 1991 Kurt and the Seattle fellas knocked The Div off #1. (They still came 2nd though, as can be seen here.) And from 1993 they have had a Hottest Song Of The Current year kinda thing happening. As the years have gone by, what with the advent of the internet etc, the process has become larger, more homogeonised and generally caused a great deal of controversy. 1998, the black year, the year that shall not speak its name (mostly because years don't say anything at all).
The playing of the Hottest 100 on Australia Day has become a cultural tradition - a way for the now generation to ignore the Invasion Day conundrum, and set about doing what Australians do best on public holidays - get pissed and hedonistic.
Baydo's "bucks" barbeque, the day before the wedding day, was more of a family cricket/barbie/hottest 100 party in Cathie. Simon has a notorious party which I am still yet to make it to in Clovelly. I have in the last few years, tended to sit around with my bro in the air conditioning in the lounge room listening and taking bets on the top ten.
And every few years (this year is 20 years since year 1) the wise musical folks at the Js have another Hottest 100 of All Time to test the Musical waters of the Australian Youf. Voting has been open for about 6 weeks. And it closed about 12 minutes ago (gah! I should go to bed!).
I have, in true Danne style, been pontificating and procrastinating on the voting in this poll. The concept of choosing but 1o songs to represent me, my musical democratic vote, reflective of what I listen to, what I believe is good art and who I am as a person. Yes, I probably take it way too seriously. But I have been listening to this station since 1994, I feel like I have invested a large chunk of my adolescence into this radio network and it informs who I am as a human being. (did I mention I know I am taking this way too seriously?)
I sat down tonight to nut out my list. It was a little bit hellish. And yes, I know there are people who are accidentally slamming their octagenarian father's thumbs into car doors on the way back from doctors appointments (get my capacity for guilt from my mother) and I know there are people who have to start full time work with a completely inappropriate new boss, and I know there are people who have just found at that their recent ex has knocked up his new missus, and I know there are kids who I will teach tomorrow that have to deal with abuse, and hearing impairments, and attention defecit disorders. But for tonight... for tonight, this was the most pressing and most plaguing issue of the moment.
The first short list was 121 songs long.
So I culled. All the songs that I just Liked.
The second short list was 42.
And the third was 31.
At 22 I culled Queen & David Bowie, The Beatles, Jeff Buckley and Rage Against the Machine.
I ended up with the list below. By all means it is not exhaustive. In fact, the greatest artists of the last 3 generations are not really represented. It is not The Hottest Artists of All Time. Enough of the excuses.
You Am I - Purple Sneakers
This song is what I listed as #1, mostly because I started with You Am I, and culled it down to The Sneaks from 5 songs. The reason that I listed on the site was something trite about the song being representative of Sydney and its sound, of growing up in the 1990s, and of the beginning of the rennaissance on Australian music. Plus, Tim Rogers is a beautiful tortured soul who can spin and lyric and lick like a master weaver. I wish I was him.
Bloc Party - I Still Remember
Previous posts have alluded to the joys of this song on the road. This whole album is a killer for roadtrips to the city, and even though it came out well after I was in London, the sounds of his voice are woven into my memories of Kilburn and West Hampstead and Finchley road. Plus it is a song that makes me lament lost love with a smile on my face.
Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues
I got my love of music from my folks, and I specifically got my love of raspy Bob from my dad. This jangly spangly number with the iconic placard video clip is the one that I loves best from Dylan.
The Cure - Friday I'm in Love
Vid here
Remember Vidiot? Music quiz show on ABC in the 90s. They played the clip from this song as the basis of a series of questions, and I fell in love with Robert Smith and his smeary lipstick. Yeah, the upbeat nature of this track doesn't really reflect the back catalogue of The Cure, but I love it anyway. I also love the tshirt of this song, and am desperate for it to be reprinted so I can purchase and wear pictoral representations of its repetetive but sweet lyrics.
Damien Rice - Cannonball
This song is Dublin and Derry and Belfast. It's internet radio at the casting studios in London. It's belting out drunkenly in the flat in Bondi. It's the very damaged songwriter who doesn't greet his audience at The Enmore, and sings like his sould is written into the notes of the tune. Yeah, it's soppy and bordering on emo, but I love it. (warning: there is poo shots in this clip)
Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out
Vid here
If I was to make a list of top 10 things that make me smile no matter what, the tempo change at the beginning of this song would make the list (along with peeling the top off the butter... there, we're up to 2 already!). Alex and the gang were the subject of my wee bro's music viva voce - that is he talked about the theory of how post-punk is an amalgamation of punk riffs and disco beats. Me, I wanted to hear about how these two disperate subcultures from the 1970s could possibly be married into music in the new millenium, but apparently that wasn't the point. Another artist that is bound up in memories of London. But also gave a belting set at the Enmore a few years ago, and it was difficult to narrow the choice down to just one FF track. TMO is lucky (lucky lucky you're so lucky!!). Also, a very Scottish band. In no way are they Aussie. Just to be clear.
Machine Gun Fellatio - Unsent Letter
I didn't know who sung this haunting song for a long time. And then Love is a four letter word came out (previously swooned about), and Pinky Beecroft was involved in the killer soundtrack of that show. This song is about lamenting and confusion and the twisting of truth in the mouth and the brain and the lack of reality that exists in human interaction. Plus it reminds me that I have about a million unsent letters. Most of those are also unwritten too.
Paul Kelly - To Her Door
I've seen Paul play about half a dozen times - twice in the UK, and a few times in Tamworth. He is Australia's most brilliant song writer, even if his voice is too nasal, too ocker, too Aussie. An antipodean answer to Bob Dylan. This is a 3 minute narrative about the inception, destruction and resurrection of a relationship, of a family and of a man. It explores domestic violence, unemployment, alcoholism... Plus there is a swearword in it. I love a good curse in a love song.
Pearl Jam - Better Man
Representing the slick of grunge that runs through the veins of every person who was a teenager in the 90s. Nirvana won this poll the last 2 times it was run, and I don't know what the odds are, but I think they will do well again this year. I was always more of an Eddie girl than a Kurt chick. He is more mellow and his grungy angst was actually more for show than Kurt's messy ways - he named his daughter Francis Jellybean, I mean seriously! (this is not to mention the addictions, the suicide or the marriage to Courtney Love). And sure, Vedder's voice might resemble something of a tryhard layer on the mike, or a need to drink less dairy to deal with the mucusy membrane (ew, Danne, gross!) but Pearl Jam were really my grunge band of choice at the time when it was flannos and long dirty hair and torn jeans.
Powderfinger - My Kinda Scene
Vid here
Another of the Great Australian Rock Bands, they make consistently perfect music, and always have. I love seeing them live - they played at the first gig I ever went to - Crowded House's Farewell to The World (along with my other 2 favourite bands at the time, You Am I and Custard). Their gigs are always phenomenal. Bernard Fanning and his multitonal voice makes me want to cry and squeal and dance and shake my long red hair all over my eyes (maybe he is the reason I went ranga...?). Odyessy #5 is a brilliant album. This one is not wound up in memories of London, but memories of before London - of the halcyon days of Astolat and Moonlight Cinema and giant house parties with the beer in the clam shell paddle pool.
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