I missed the news today ... and decided to rock instead
Iwas in a restaurant the other night, and it was packed – all the tables were taken and there was a queue of people in the reception area waiting for a takeaway or a table to become free. I didn’t see much social distancing. Meanwhile, no-one who supports a club in the top six tiers of English football can go and watch their team play. In the case of clubs at Havant & Waterlooville’s level, they couldn’t even travel to watch an FA Cup game at the weekend at a lower division club who WERE letting home fans in.
You couldn’t make it up; a microcosm of the most inept Government in my lifetime and their ridiculous Covid policies which just create fear, confusion and, finally it seems, increasing anger in some MPs. After all, Christopher Whitty isn’t going to have to answer to Joe Public at the next general election, is he?
But you don’t want to read about the pandemic anymore, do you? To be honest, I’m fed up writing about it. So let’s talk about something like Greatest Music Albums Of All Time. More to the point, let’s talk about the top 500 in the latest list compiled by Rolling Stone magazine.
I love a list – top 10 this, top 10 that. Perhaps it’s a bloke thing, I’ve never met a woman who seems to love a good discussion/argument/ about where Adam & The Ants should come in a list of the top 10 best bands of the 1980s.
So, obviously, I just had to scroll through RS magazine’s third attempt at listing their 500 top albums. Back in 2003, the top three was as follows – 3 Revolver (Beatles), 2 Pet Sounds (Beach
Boys), 1 Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Beatles).
Fast forward nine years and the magazine published an updated list; after all, tastes change, new genres occur, different opinions are formed. But get this – the top three remained the same, and in the same order.
Wind the clock on again to 2020 and life has certainly altered, along with the RS chart. To no-one’s surprise, albums by black and female artists appeared much higher in the list.
Sgt Pepper’s is no longer No 1, in fact it’s not even in the top 10 – it’s down at No 24.
Illustrating how much longevity true classics have, the top three albums were released a long time ago. At No 3, Blue by Joni Mitchell (1971), at No 2 Pet Sounds again (1966), and at No 1
What’s Going On (Marvin Gaye, 1971). The latter album hasn’t jumped as far as Sgt Pepper’s has fallen – it was No 6 in RS’ initial chart 17 years ago (and the fact 2003 was 17 years ago makes me feel old!)
If you’re interested – and you should be – No 4 in the new list is Songs In The Key Of Life (Stevie Wonder, 1976) and No 5 Abbey Road (Beatles, 1969). Rising to No 6 – the highest entry of any album released in the last 43 years – is Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana, 1991).
If I carried on watching the news I’d probably break down and cry ...
I remember hearing the latter album’s title track for the first time when I was standing in a kitchen in Yeovil, Somerset. It’s amazing what the mind recalls, isn’t it? I instantly went out and bought the album, even though it’s remarkable commercial success was to sound the death knell for all the 80s hard rock I loved such as Guns N Roses, though I was happy to see Appetite for Destruction in at No 64 in the latest RS chart, justifiably as it was the best 80s album regardless of genre.
I was also delighted to see the Sex Pistols’ Never Mind The B*******
( The News is a family newspaper) in at No 80. It deserves to be that high; I firmly believe every album needs to be placed in a cultural context, and Brotherhood of Man, Demis Roussos, Showaddywaddy and The Wurzels were top of the UK charts the year it was released (1976). For that reason alone, I would happily argue – indeed, have argued – that NMTB is the Greatest Album By A British Band Of All Time. But that could be why I’m a sports journalist and not someone Rolling Stone would ever wish to employ.
I’m glad I’ve written this piece, it’s cheered me up – watching the national news is just so depressing, a constant stream of negativity and scaremongering designed to whip up a fear factor.
Music, in contrast, can lift my spirits and take me away to a special place; if I carried on watching the news I'd probably break down and cry.
And if you’re now singing the chorus to Sweet Child of Mine by Guns N Roses, I salute you.