The Passing of the Baton

Music fills a lot of voids for me. As Jimmy Rabbitte (Robert Arkins) so eloquently put it in The Commitments, 'It grabs ya by the balls and lifts you above the shite.' For me, it just represents a very friendly home where I feel both welcome and honoured, and rarely am i as happy as when I'm toting any of my instruments.
While Irish music remains my staple aural diet, I love many types of music, particularly blues and jazz, and, after a few g &t's, nothing beats a good ri-rá's Friday Night funk-fest. But it matters not what type of tune does it for you. There are only two things to bear in mind
1. Music is subjective. There is no such thing as bad music. That doesn't mean I don't hate certain songs and bands - Keane spring immediately to mind for me - but it drives me nuts when certain hoods insist on enlightening me as to what constitutes good and bad music. Go and learn an instrument lads, and stop pontificating!
2. Music is egalitarian, and is all around us. Everyone can enjoy music in some shape or form, and its performance and appreciation should be nourished and encouraged in schools, towns, broken homes and lonely valleys.

Anyway, the point of all this is that a Musical Baton has been passed on to me by the irrepressible Stephen Brophy. So, here, for the first time ever is a not-brief-at-all synopsis of the songs and singers that rock my world...

Amount of Albums in My Collection: 322, or 17.4 Gb for all the nerds out there!

Last CD I Bought: Prés de Paris by Pierre Bensusan. This guy is amazing. Check out his website here. Never has a guitar sounded so finger-pickin good! (Incidentally, he was 17 when this album was made.)

Song Playing Right Now 'Sally Brown' by Planxty. Perhaps the best harmonies ever found in a folk song.

Ten Songs That Mean a Lot to Me:

1. 'The Blacksmith' by Planxty. Old Irish song meets bulgarian folk rythms to close out the most influential Irish album of all time. Planxty invented alternative Irish music. We have much to thank them for. The 5/4 piece at the end is otherworldly in its magnificence.
2. 'The Ballad of Little Musgrave' by Planxty. My all-time favourite band. This song is an epic. And the pipes, oh the pipes.
3. 'Lullaby of London' by the Pogues. My first favourite band. This song is a kick in the balls to anyone who considers Shane McGowan to be nothing but a talentless, rabble-rousing drunk. This song is nothing short of poetry, drenched in one of most sensitive, beautiful melodies ever written...'May the wind that blows from haunted graves never bring you misery, May they all sleep tight down in hell tonight of wherever they may be.
4. 'The Sun is Burning' by Luke Kelly. The greatest singer Ireland has ever, or probably will ever, produce. This is Kelly at his best; the protest singer, strong and impassioned. This song brings tears to my eyes. Famine and pestilence to George Murphy for disgracing the good man's memory.
5. 'Never Tire of the Road' by Andy Irvine. My greatest hero. This song is a tribute to Andy's idol, Woodie Guthrie. Some day I hope to be able to do something similar for the man who has taught me more musically than any book ever could.
6. 'As the Crow Flies' by Rory Gallagher. The master at his very best.
7. 'Bron-Y-Aur-Stomp' by Led Zeppelin. Folk and Rock collide in a raucous, playful orgy of foot-stomping brilliance.
8. 'The Reel in the Flickering Light' by Christy Moore. I think our entire understanding of the world around us is shaped by childhood, and we spend our lives trying to get back to that level of freedom and innocence. The child in me loves this song and the images in plants in my soul.
9. 'All These Things That I Have Done' by the Killers. Brilliant. Anthemic. Orchestral. If only Brandon Flowers wasn't such a tosser.
10. 'Femme Fatale' by The Velvet Underground. Nico was a femme fatale. She made Reed and Cale hate each other. What a Clown. But what a tune. Captured perfectly the essence of what the V.U. was all about; the dark side of life conveyed with haunting beauty and searing harmonies.

Just shy of the top ten are 'After All' by the Frank and Walters, 'I Heard it Through the Grapevine' by Marvin Gaye and 'Hurt' by Johnny Cash. Oh and 'Just like Honey' by the Jesus and Mary Chain.

My Favourite Bands

1. Planxty
2. The Pogues
3. The Stunning
4. The Velvet Underground
5. Lunasa
6. Led Zeppelin
7. The Frames
8. Interpol
9. The Killers
10. Kila

My Favourite Solo Artists

1. Andy Irvine
2. Martin Hayes
3. Rory Gallagher
4. Tom Waits

I now pass this Musical Baton on to Shane, perhaps the greatest musical bigot in the world. Fear not, friends, i know he will take this as a compliment. Comments, as always, are invited