The A + List Part II (Written In ANALOGUE!!!)
1. Quinn The Eskimo – Manfred Man – May I just mention that the internet is more or less down as I write this so it is being done the old fashioned way -from memory. The Dylan minor piece about hallucinations and hard drugs becomes a cheerful singalong for all the family. No threat, all fun.
2. The Christian Life – The Byrds – If this is ironic, where is the irony? When right thinking folks like Steve Crawford and myself laugh ourselves sick over the Eagles, here is what we’re comparing it to.
3. Peaceful Easy Feeling – The Eagles – For the last time: yes, you can listen to the Blue Greatest Hits and still be considered cool.
4. Nice N Sleazy – The Stranglers – Sure, they were misogynistic pigs, even here, but at least here there humor got the better of them.
5. Sonic Reducer – The Dead Boys – This one time only, the Dead Boys got it all, that’s why Pearl Jam still cover it.
6. The Love I Saw In You Was Just A Mirage – Smokey Robinson and the Miracles – How good is this? Greil Marcus named one of his books after a metaphor he uses and Dave Marsh? I will (from memory mind) for the first time ever quote him: the rest of the charts seemed somehow obscene in comparison.
7. Golden Years – David Bowie – This is a perfect song, it starts with the chorus, and those waah waah waahs, and then Bowie plays between his falsetto and baritone, and he throws in handclaps and drum machines and back up singers. And the lyric is as brilliant and overwhelmingly baroque and also dramatic as he has even. Then he adds a rap: “one of these days and it won’t be long… ” that bit. Off an album so great he reached a zenith of artistry and paranoia never to be touched again.
