Simply Ten Of The Best (Top 10 Singles)

Member Name: The Solid Grey

Product:	Top 10 Singles
Date:	08/04/02 (681 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good music

Disadvantages: but not necessarily for you

Ten songs!, only, an impossible task. Out of the millions of songs to choose just ten that's your favourite, I don't think it can be done can it?....

Music is wonderful, I love music, all kinds, and for lots of different reasons. I tend to go for rock most, but really anything - well put it this way I can find songs I like in any style.

There are three reasons why I like music, 1. Its a great sounding song - good music IS good music. 2. It means something - weather its about life, something that happened, about how someone feels, or feels about something and/or has some kind of message. And 3. because its artistically good, the lyrics are well written, or the artist(s) have experimented to try to get a new sound or such, or simply the way they have done the song. I think most of the music I have falls into one (or more) of these reasons.

OK, so I've been wanting to write this for a while, but choosing just ten is just so difficult, I mean I can think of ten great songs without one being by my favourite artists. So I have done a list choosing one song from some of my absolute favourite artists, and a couple of really great tracks that I really have to mention.

As much as I'd like to choose some tracks, I feel I have to be honest, or perhaps I should say be strict with myself, some of the songs I've chosen may not be my absolute favourites, but it really depends on what mood I'm in and y'know, music comes and goes, I get hooked to some songs and listen to them constantly for a while then never really bother again, but there still great tracks.

And so with the disclaimer over....

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The Boy In The Bubble - Paul Simon
I used to buy (or borrow and copy) a lot of greatest hits collections of various artists I'd heard of but never listened to, Simon and Garfunkle was one of them. I really liked the music, it was lyrically brilliant and musica
lly good. So I went the next step or two, and got more albums, and a Paul Simon solo album. I think Graceland is probably Paul Simon's greatest known album and probably his best (though I can't really say), and this song is off the album.

The Boy In The Bubble is an up beat song, it has a nice beat to it, and its not heavy. I like the accordion that plays on the track, its great sounding. Its also lyrically great, the best line, and one of the best lines I've ever heard is,
'Its a turn around jump shot'
'Its a everybody jump start'
'Its every generation throws a hero up the pop charts'
A truly great piece of music.

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A Kind Of Magic- Queen
I had to choose a Queen song, I fell in love with their music sadly after Freddie Mercury died, so never got to see them live. I have pretty much all their albums and videos, with only ten choices its a hard decision to choose only one, I could choose all ten songs as Queen tracks and still have ones that should be there.

This choice was almost I Want To Break Free, Bohemian Rhapsody, We Will Rock You and Keep Yourself Alive (another one I'd like to have played at my funeral). This song was written by Roger Taylor after seeing a rough cut of the film Highlander, which Queen were to do the sound track, in the film the hero says the line 'Hey, its a kind of magic', Its a great upbeat song, it doesn't mean much but simply the plot of the film very well and succinctly put. Freddie Mercury did change the song around a bit, 'The rotter' said Roger.

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A Design For Life - Manic Street Preachers
I kept away from this band for a while, I think I was scared of them because I knew there was something different about them, they had a message and real things to say. It was after the disappearance of band member Richy Edwards and their, Everything
Must Go, album was out that I gave them a go and now they have to be one of my favourite bands, This song is from that album.

I'm not quite sure why I like the song I'm don't even know a lot of the words, but there's something about the song, its slightly depressing, which is probably the real reason and the words I know seem to echo some of my feelings. I'd like to have this played at my funeral.

I think its the last song the Manic's play at their gigs, and it always makes me think when I hear it about sadder times.
'And we don?t talk about love.........'

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Pink Floyd - Money
There are some albums I knew of before I bought them, how I knew them I don't know, but there the kind of albums that I have no real reason to know of.... well its hard to explain. I bought pink Floyd 'The Wall', I knew there was something special about it and I love the album, but this is how I got to like the band and why I started to buy their other music.

Money is off there best selling album, The Dark Side Of The Moon, a great album in itself, I think Money is one of their best selling singles. There are plenty of fantastic Pink Floyd songs, some with more meaning, or musically better than this song, but Money has that beat, its sung and played well, and is unsurprisingly about money.
'Money, its a crime'
'Share it fairly, but don't you take a slice of my pie'
One of a great amount of great songs by this band.

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The Beatles - While My Guitar Gently Weeps
I love the Beatles, and this George Harrison song is off the 'white album', I knew of this album and song long before I bought it and don't know why. George Harrison was a great song writer, and he lost a great chance by being a member of The Beatles as he said the best break he got in life was being in the Bea
tles the second was getting out of them. He writing talents were far overshadowed by Lennon and McCartney, and giving up touring in '66 meant that his playing ability was stunted.

This song was almost never realised, as the rest of the Beatles didn't reckon much to it, however George brought in Eric Clapton to play lead guitar, and it was recorded. It has few lyrics, but there're meaningful,
'I don?t know why nobody told you'
'How to unfold you love'
It is also musically good with a great guitar, It was the second to last song George played at his consorts, and is quite heavy.

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The Beatles - When I'm Sixty Four
I think its because of my dad, that I'm a fan of The Beatles, as he used to like them too, I remember he had a Beatles rock 'n roll collection, which had songs not written by The Beatles another reason why I like rock and roll.

The Beatles were a great band - the greatest show on earth (arguably), they began their recording career by writing tuneful pop songs and worked their way to write meaningful and artistically great music, almost every song is a gem and could be released as a single.

Out of all Beatles songs why this?, well I've chosen a John Lennon song and a George Harrison song in my top ten, and since Ringo wasn't the greatest song writer, a Paul McCartney track seems a good choice, and this is pretty good. Off the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, a brilliant album in itself, this song is very nice, it was used as the theme to points of view a BBC TV show, and I can also pay it on my guitar, its also nice to sing to my wife.
'Will you still need me'
'Will you still feed me'
'When I'm sixty-four'

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REM - Man On The Moon
It took me a while to get into REM, not that I tried to like them before but I never r
eally noticed them, but the music is the kind I like. I liked the song 'Shiny Happy People' first, and of course 'Everybody Hurts', I bought a single if theirs to see what they were like otherwise. I bought, E-bow The Letter, but it didn't do much for me however it never stopped me. Their music on the whole isn?t up beat, its more of the depressing kind, which is why I like it I guess.

Man On The Moon, is a nice little song, its more light relief than anything, its not heavy, and nice to sing a long to, I could have chosen Losing My Religion or Electrolite, as they're extremely good to, but I think this does it perfectly.

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Ocean Colour Scene - The Riverboat Song
This was the first Ocean Colour Scene song I knew and probably their most famous, it was used by Chris Evans as the walk on music on his TFI Friday show, and was released as a single.

I got the album and have been following them ever since, but this song I think is one of their best, its quite an up beat, fast song, great guitar and not bad lyrics
'I see trouble up ahead'.....'
'......Tell me, why does the river not flow?....'
I love the music, its a little different to the rest generally speaking, and has a quality I really adore.

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John Lennon - Instant Karma!
Being a big fan of the Beatles it seems natural enough to be a fan of John Lennon, I think he had a troubled life, and people misread what he was saying a lot because they didn?t understand, some of the things he did were a little strange, but the message of peace was always there, which is no bad thing.

He wrote a lot of songs that meant a lot, I think most of the things he wrote had a meaning in them somewhere because I think he wasn't able to write a song and keep his politics out of it.

This song isn't his best, but its one of them, he wante
d to record music and put it out there and then and not have to wait for the right time or whatever, Instant Karma!, was written, recorded and released in one week (I think). Its a good song.
'And we all shine on'
'Like the moon the stars and the sun'

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Rock And Roll Music - Chuck Berry
I love Rock 'N Roll, as much as I like my rock and all such else, I can always come back to Rock 'N Roll for a lively tune and something that will make me feel good. Though Elvis is said to be the king, and Little Richard says he invented it, to me Chuck Berry's music is everything I'd expect from rock and roll.

This song has been covered by all kinds of bands including the Beatles and Manic Street Preachers. Its a great song that really sums up what the music is
'Let me some more of that rock 'n roll music'
'Any old way you use it....'
'.......'Its got to be rock, roll music'
'If You wanna dance with me'

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So there's my choices, there are huge amount of songs I'd like to include, and I'm a little surprised by some of my choices, but choosing just one by some of my favourites isn't easy, so I chose good songs.

I see I haven't given a wide range of music, I think it proves my real love for rock/rock and roll, perhaps I'll update sometime with a totally new set of choices now that I've got these out of the way.

If you've not listened to any of my choices then give 'em a go, because its all great music.

The Solid Grey

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