Run DMC - My Adidas So back to the hip hop for a short while. Run DMC's My Adidas is an important song for me in two ways: firstly, for the adoration of the sports brand which still is my preferred choice of trainer; and secondly for a bit of a muso reason. Adidas are … Continue reading 1986
Category: Projects
The Waterboys - The Whole of the Moon This is the last song on this list that I got into at a date later than when it was released. I was introduced to The Waterboys when I met (a now long-standing friend) Becky back in 1987. The album that this came from, This is the … Continue reading 1985
Chaka Khan - I feel for you In my early teens I was into hip hop. The Street Sounds electro series of albums provided a slice of East Coast/West Coast urban culture to the mean streets of South West Hertfordshire. Once a week I'd join a bunch of assorted misfits at a church hall in … Continue reading 1984
The The - Uncertain Smile The The are a band that I came to in the late 1980s, with the wonderful album Mindbomb, but (because of the glut of wonderful memories from the late 80s) it's a track from their first proper album that makes this list. Uncertain Smile has the best piano solo on … Continue reading 1983
Joe Jackson - Steppin Out I don't know why this song has stuck with me over the years, but it has. Something about it takes me back to the early eighties. 1982 saw the beginning of the football season that would nurture the affection for Watford that has stayed with me ever since. Starting with … Continue reading 1982
The Specials - Ghost Town For a three year period in the late 70s and early 80s my parents moved to the Hertfordshire new town of Hatfield. For those of you who haven't been, Hatfield consists of a tudor-era mansion (Hatfield House - the site of Elizabeth I finding out about her succession to the … Continue reading 1981
Joyce - Aldeia de Ogum The first track from the 1980s, and another introduced to me through a Gilles Peterson compilation - this time around, Blue Brazil, a sampler of Brazilian music from the Blue Note label which became a very treasured album for me in the mid-1990s. The Joyce track has one of my … Continue reading 1980
The Real Thing - Can you feel the force? So the last track from the 1970s, and a slice of massive disco/funk. I seem to remember my dad cajoling me into buying this with my pocket money because of the crazy synth intros and stereo effects in the first few seconds. It then goes from … Continue reading 1979
The Boomtown Rats - Rat Trap The first of two examples in this count up where the number one on my birthday is the choice for the year. Rat Trap was bought on seven-inch vinyl as my eighth birthday present for me by my sister. Well, actually I presume one of my parents bought it … Continue reading 1978
Bill Withers - Lovely Day On December 6th, 2008, Enza and I got married. This is the first song we heard as a married couple. It was. It continues to be. Number one on my birthday in 1977:ABBA - Name of the Game Next year is better. Honestly. Click here for the playlist so far.
