The debonair Basil Marigold's

Spotify is a music streaming service. You can have access to as much music as your ears can cope with. What I learnt this year is that it provides a playlist of the 100 most played songs during the year. It has been quite an eye opener! The basic stat is that I use it a lot when I commuting to and from work.  Here are the basic statistics; I have listened to 23,488 minutes of music (16 consecutive days). 2477 different songs 580 different artists Pretty impressive I thought. I started listening to my top 100 songs when the problem was identified. That problem was allowing the children to pick songs when we were in the car. Joshua dominated the charts with his 'Ironman music'. This is basically any song in the top 100 that is performed by AC/DC. I don't mind AC/DC; I like them quite a lot. They have, in their day, made some cracking music. They also provided the music for the soundtrack to the film Ironman 2. Hence the 'Ironman songs' title. Theref...

Day 26 - A song that makes you want to fall in love I'll still die on the hill that says Nick Cave writes the tenderest love songs. This is still one of the greatest love songs ever written. Day 27 - A song that breaks your heart Again, another difficult choice as so many songs do. However, I decided on this one as it does the job exceptionally well. From many past experiences this is almost unlistenable to me and I hadn't heard it for many years before I listened to it for this. I have adored Tori Amos since about 1993 and this comes from her, Boys for Pele album. It became a song that I played a lot as a relationship faltered and sadly came to an end. Two people heading in different directions, both incompatible at the time. I guess we are all young once. Still quite a sucker punch after all these years. Day 28 - A song by an artist whose voice you love It could only be her. I fell in love with her voice when she sang, running up that hill. I have adore...

Day 20 A song that has many meanings to you. I chose this song from the late 1980s. It is multi-layered to my mind. I love the song, but also the video which took me to where it was filmed, Prague in the 90s because I fell in love with the scenery. Day 21 A song with a name in the title. Quite a few to pick from here, but I went with one of my favourite songs, Jolene, by Dolly Parton. Except in this case I went with a  cover. Here the song is sung by Miley Cyrus. Before all the inherent daftness she was a wonderful country singer. Day 22 A song that moves you forward There can be only one. It is this one. Mighty Zeppelin! Day 23 - A song that everyone should listen too So many top pick from that I went a left field with this pick and picked, the Pixies. A great tune. Day 24 A song from a band you wish could reform. Tough one unless you can resurrect the dead. You'd need to pull that off twice to get the Beatles back together, but that would be g...

Day 17 - A song you'd duet with someone on Karaoke The embarrassment factor of Day 17 was quite strong. I haven't participated in Karaoke for about 20 years, and even then, maybe a couple of times at most. Oddly, there was only one song I ever sang on Karaoke as a duet was this one below. Please, before judging me do bear in mind that I never did this even remotely sober.      - Enough said about day 16, I think... Day 18 - A song from the year you were born A surprisingly tough on this as although 1976 was voted the best year in all time by channel 4 viewers some 3 or 4 years ago, for obvious reasons, the level of music released was not vintage! It was a pretty lean musical year. There were only three major releases I enjoyed; Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, or the Eagles. I went with the Bob Dylan classic, Hurricane.  released on the 5th January 1976, so it has sneaked in. It is classic Dylan. A song about a miscarriage of justice where a black boxing contend...

It has been terribly busy at work and I have been far too fatigued by the time I get home to keep up the daily blog of the songs of the Day. I am now about a week behind, so here goes. Day 13 - a song you like from the 1970s An obvious choice in the end and a one by a great artist, David Bowie. Sadly now passed away. This, Heroes is perhaps may favourite Bowie song. He really is a lost legend. In the current world we also need more heroes. Day 14 - A song you'd love playing at your wedding This was an easy decision of course as my choice was obvious from the start. The song that never made it to my wedding was the exit music. The compromise in the end was Samuel Barber's adagio for strings. A quite beautiful song, wonderful. But, in no way comparable to this classic. The song i choose still puts the hair up on the back of my neck every time I hear it. Day 15 - A song you like that's a cover by another artist. A remarkably tough choice this one. One of t...

We aren't going anywhere this Christmas. So today we are meeting my mum halfway at Tewkesbury. It's about 2 hrs for her from Devon, and 2 hrs for us from Nottinghamshire. It makes sense and there is a Brewers Fayre where we know we can eat reasonably well. When I was younger I experienced this quite a lot. It used to be Strensham or Gordano Services. we'd be brought up in the car in Summer or Winter and then we'd be handed over to Nannar and Granddad for a week or two and then we'd do the same for the return. A clear memory from my youth. It seemed an adventure when I was very young. Once, when we had an estate car I distinctly remember lying in the boot of the car in a blanket or a sleeping bag watching the night sky and the yellow lights flashing past as we headed north. We arrived first, but not by much. The motorway was virtually empty on our way down, even going past Birmingham, which usually slows us down. Not today, we flew down and had just started break...

Many, many years ago, when I was a preteen. Before colour, and nations, etc I was a preteen. On Day 12 you need to post a song from your Preteen years. One sticks in my mind. There was a show between 1985-88 called Dave Lee Travers Golden Oldie Picture Show. It was I seem to remember, very popular. The basic premise of the show was TV/Film makers were given classic records that had never had a video made for it and then they re-interpreted the song and created a video for it, which the show then played. There was one video that always stuck in my mind as a preteen. 1988 being my last year as a preteen. It was this song by T-Rex, Get it On. I am not a huge fan of the rest of their music. I can take it or leave it, but this song from that show when I was about 10 or 11 was just a wonderful memory that has stayed with me. I do not knowwhy, but there you go.