Day 6: 13 songs that changed Smithy's life

Day 6 of the musical challenge and we hear from Geoff "Sam Gamgee" Smith. We're lucky to get away with such a small list, since he started with 200 songs to cull from!?

"I guess that the hardest part of this challenge is to come up with the life changers, as opposed to favourites! I even tried to argue for 13 songs of influence for each of the past three decades... but Jono's a strict list collector! Well, here goes, in some sort of chronological order, with apologies to the many, many omissions... a small piece of my soul exposed the cyberspace community...

1. Let it be - The Beatles, from 'Let it be'. The first film clip I can ever remember seeing. Must have been early 1970's. Not a bad song to have as an earliest memory - beautiful. Perhaps explains my love of great pop songs. Since my elder, influential, cousin was very much a McCartney man, I grew up blaming John for the demise of the Beatles - a feeling that strangely totally evaporated on the day of his assassination! Speaking words of wisdom, let it be...

2. Gary, Indiana - from the Musical "The Music Man". A little bit of my past unknown to most outside of my family... In late 1976 I was in year 6 and auditioned for a musical at the Holroyd Musical and Dramatic Society. In early 1977 this was the first song (and one of the very, very few) that I sang solo on stage. In 1988, on my first ever trip overseas, I rode a Greyhound bus past Gary, Indiana and was profoundly disappointed to see that it was essentially and industrial wasteland in middle America - the sort of place Mike Moore makes movies about.

3. Lucky Country - Midnight Oil, from 'Place Without a Postcard'. Thanks to the first Jono in my life, aka David Johnston, from Merrylands Public and High schools 1970 - 1982. This Jono decided in senior high school that our music worlds needed to expand. He organised me to go to my first concert (Devo at the Hordern Pavilion in 1981) and introduced us to music such as Midnight Oil, the Dead Kennedy's, the Sex Pistols, the Specials and others. I have selected this track as the second half of Place without a Postcard is entirely brilliant. This track provides cutting social comment, a sign of things to come, including a typical Garrett rave. When played live this used to just energise the crowd. It also reminds me of my first Midnight Oil show. Top deck, Capitol Theatre (before the renovations), November 1982, about 38 degrees, no air conditioning. Absolutely astounding. Loud, energetic, powerful. The concert was actually released as a DVD a couple of years ago... must look at it one day.

4. You can put your shoes under my bed - Paul Kelly, from 'Post'. Kelly had just moved to Melbourne, got rid of the 'Dots' (his band) and released this gem. The band playing with him largely became 'the Coloured Girls' and then 'the Messengers'. I could easily have put the whole album on, I did just about wear the grooves out of it, but I picked this largely for the grubby sax solo from Joe Camilleri. With apologies to Lloyd Cole and the Commotions whose album 'Rattlesnakes' was the other album I never stopped playing during this time. I could talk about seeing Kelly downstairs at the Victoria Hotel in 1985 with a 'new' band called 'Weddings, Parties, Anything'... but I won't.

5. The Birth of the True - Aztec Camera, from 'Knife'. My first exposure to this brilliant young Scot, Roddy Frame and his band, was a song called 'Mattress of Wire', owned by Geoff McGuirk and in my custody while he went to Honduras in 1986. This song still just makes me smile. Something of the pop sensibility developed early and mentioned in track 1 notes. I chose this ahead of a couple of other notable contenders ('Shipbuilding' from Elvis, 'Automobile Noise' from the Blue Nile and 'Begin the Begin' from REM), largely so I could also mention that the Aztec Camera show at the Enmore Theatre in 1991 is still the best live show that I ever did see, a show still mentioned in hushed tones between the three of us who went together - I even still have the review from 'On the Street' lying about somewhere! Anyway, this track is simple and beautiful - kind of like I wish my life was...

6. Under the Milky Way - The Church, from 'Starfish'. I had been listening to the Church for some time, I still reckon that 'Unguarded Moment' is one of the best debut singles from an Australian band. But in 1988 I went overseas for the first time (see comment on Gary, Indiana!). I took a box of tapes, mostly compilations, this was the only album, from memory, that I had to get a second copy sent over... I wore it our. Luscious, understated, very Australian for a young bloke in a foreign land. Still can send a shiver down my spine.

7. Gun Shy - 10 000 Maniacs, from 'In my tribe'. On the same trip, I first watched MTV. This ethereal young woman and her group were on high rotation - singing 'Like the weather'. I bought the tape and was captivated instantly. Beautiful music WITH a social justice message. The lyrics of this song still speak to me of the futility of conflict and what we do to young people when we make them into killers.

8. Stay (Far away, so close!) - U2, from Achtung Baby. This could easily have been 13 U2 songs that changed your life... but I went with this because it just speaks to me so, so clearly. Magnificent, simply stunning. Can stop me when I'm doing other things and make me listen (again!). Oh, and the Zoo TV shows were none to shabby - please reschedule this years soon... please!!!

9. Karma Police - Radiohead, from 'OK Computer'. Yep, I'd heard and loved 'Creep'. Somehow, largely through the dissolution of my marriage methinks, I pretty much missed 'The Bends'. I was in Washington DC in late 1997 on seven week trip around the planet as I sought to rediscover something else other than the pain I'd been feeling for a year. Again, I was watching MTV and this was on high rotation. I bought the CD the week after in San Francisco and it became one of the albums of my recovery. Staggeringly brilliant and enlivening for me when I needed it most.

10. Sanctuary - Luka Bloom, from 'Turf'. Geoff McGuirk gave this album to my now ex-wife in 1994. While there are others songs worthy of mention (especially 'Black is the Colour'... ahhh), this song became my crutch during the extraordinary sadness of losing my Auntie Dot in 1998. If you haven't heard it, Luka writes it as a tribute to his own mother following her death. Atmospheric, hauntingly beautiful. Regularly reduces me to tears. Vale Auntie Dot.

11. Whatever you want - Something for Kate, from 'Beautiful Sharks'. Stunning, gorgeous, lush - and I'm limiting the superlatives here. May well be my favourite opening track on any album I own or have heard. Has an uncanny ability to bring me peace. Got me through many kilometres of driving when I was a regional worker based in Wagga.

12. Untitled 3 - Sigur Ros, from '( )'. I moved to Bathurst in 2001 and discovered the best music shop I've ever been to. 'Stop 'n Rock' and I had a beautiful friendship while I was there - music AND coffee! The proprietor, Lindsay, had a good memory for people and an extraordinary musical knowledge. He introduced me to Sigur Ros via the album Ágætis Byrjun, which is quite captivating. It was a no brainer to buy when it was released. This track is so beautiful it's painful, can reduce me to tears in an instant - alternatively, it can lift me so that I feel like I'm flying... wonderful, just wonderful.

13. Strange Waters - Bruce Cockburn, from 'The Charity of night'. I moved to Bendigo in 2002, not one of my better choices in life - but this is not the place to confess poor life decisions! One of my dear mates unexpectedly sent me this album to help me through. He's a huge fan. I'd not previously paid much attention to Bruce, but it was perfect timing and I'm forever grateful. Could have mentioned 'Get up Jonah', 'Live on my mind' or 'The whole night sky', but this reworking of the 23rd Psalm is stunning. It's worth making the effort to get past his commitment to the 1980's style guitar solos to absorb the lyrics. 'Everything is bullshit but the open hand'.

PS I don't know if these will get through the editor or not... but I suspect that both 'Headlong' by the Frames and 'Hurt' by Johnny Cash. could well push someone else off this list in years to come. Both are currently very profound to me. Oh, and thanks to Jono for the enjoyable headache of doing this!"