My thoughts on the top 20 songs from Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. These thoughts clearly say more about me and my taste in music than they do about the songs themselves…but I thought it was fun

  1. Robyn: “Dancing on My Own” ⭐⭐⭐⭐ I’m a sucker for a sad banger

  2. John Lennon: “Imagine” ⭐⭐⭐ I like the simplicity, but, contrariwise, I’m a bit bored with it

  3. Prince and the Revolution: “Purple Rain” ⭐⭐⭐ The only act in Rolling Stone’s top 20 that I’ve seen live, but there are a dozen Prince songs I like better

  4. Queen: “Bohemian Rhapsody” Dreadful drivel.

  5. Beyoncé feat. Jay-Z: “Crazy in Love” ⭐⭐ Resistance is futile

  6. The Beatles: “I Want to Hold Your Hand” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The best at their best

  7. The Kinks: “Waterloo Sunset” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The other best at their best…although to be honest his voice often doesn’t work for me, for some reason

  8. The Rolling Stones: “Gimme Shelter” ⭐ Every 10 years they came up with a song I loved. Gimme Shelter isn’t one of them.

  9. Stevie Wonder: “Superstition” ⭐⭐⭐ I’d like to like Stevie Wonder more than I do, but as with Ray Davies, I don’t quite get on with his singing voice

  10. The Beach Boys: “God Only Knows” ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A work of genius, but it came on the radio when someone close to me was seriously ill. I’ve not been able to listen to it since

  11. Outkast: “Hey Ya!” ⭐ I can sort of see why people like this…but I don’t. Maybe it’s too tricky for my simple taste.

  12. Fleetwood Mac: “Dreams” ⭐ Pleasant enough

  13. Missy Elliott: “Get Ur Freak On” ⭐⭐ I prefer Work It

  14. The Beatles: “Strawberry Fields Forever” ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Cleverer than I Want To Hold Your Hand, but not quite as good

  15. Marvin Gaye: “What’s Going On” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ All the stars aligned, magically

5.Nirvana: “Smells Like Teen Spirit” ⭐ A bit heavy for me….and a pale imitation of punk rock

  1. Bob Dylan: “Like a Rolling Stone” ⭐⭐ I am not a big Dylan fan, but I like the Greatest Hits

  2. Sam Cooke: “A Change Is Gonna Come” ⭐⭐ I am a big Sam Cooke fan…but this isn’t my favourite. I think this polls well with critics because they are endorsing the message as much as the song

  3. Public Enemy: “Fight the Power” ⭐⭐⭐ Loses one star for slagging off Elvis,

  4. Aretha Franklin: “Respect” ⭐⭐ It goes without saying, this is a great song, but it’s not as good as I Say a Little Prayer.

Further to the above….if I’d done a list there would be folk, and reggae, and Elvis, Eddie, Buddy, Chuck, and Smokey on it

I think the psephology of it is, in at least some cases, that some of my favourite artists had a lot of songs to choose from, whereas, say, Queen has one obvious choice, Aretha has two, Nirvana has one, and the Kinks have one.

Back in the olden days, when Twitter was a nice place to be, there was a hashtag called #PostASongLyricYouLove

“And I can play hide and seek with my fears And live my days instead of counting my years”

Goin' Back - Dusty Springfield

Happy Thanksgiving Day to all who are celebrating it today

Dirty Leicester

Ref seems to be colour-blind. Either that or he left his red card at home ⚽

Nicholas Jackson…shortly to be investigated for bullying in the workplace 😃⚽

A soccer player in a white jersey celebrates a goal with text highlighting the score and commentary above.

According to today’s Times Kemi Badenoch has appointed 20 whips to look after her 121 MPs

According to Google, the DFe says that it’s good to have 1 adult for every 6 to 10 kids on a primary school trip…so Kemi is at the top end of that

Kemi Badenoch has bizarrely appointed 19 extra whips in her shadow team and, while the Tory party has had discipline problems of late, a total of 20 whips to marshal 121 MPs does feel a little over the top. One whip to every sixth person sounds less like an opposition and more like a stag do in Amsterdam (from today's Times).