Day 9 and urbanstone is very pleased to welcome Craig Mitchell to the musical challenge. Craig continues the eclectic diversity of Geoff and Rob - and delves back into uncharted musical waters.
"This list will show my age! I have discretly left off entries that will make me look even more soppy.
(in no particular order)
1. Something Inside So Strong - Labi Siffre
This is the first song that came to mind. I was at ICYC in Mexico in 1990, and the Europeans did a human representation of the breaking down of the Berlin Wall while this song played. I spent years hunting it down. i think Siffre must be a UK African. Fantastic song about resistance, freedom and home that stirs me to the bone. Find it any way you can.
2. Who'll Stop the Rain - Creedence Clearwater Revival
The second song off the first LP I ever owned. I remember proudly carrying it along to a youth group social evening and no-one cared - they were all into bubble gum music. The first song, "Up Around the Bend", with its "dirrng dirrng" guitar has always annoyed me, but when song 2 kicks in its all OK. And of course, the cheap plastic turntable in my room came soon afterwards, since my parents couldnt stand the stuff. (I was going to pick my first ever 45 but thats too embarrassing).
3. Won't Get Fooled Again - The Who
Of course, I'm not English and too young for the mod thing, but this was my first taste of teenage angst bottled up in a song. "Who's Next" is a fantastic album, and I discovered when I bought the CD not too long ago that I still know and love every note. I didn't realised that "meet the new boss... same as the old boss" was a political statement. But that looped synth intro and Roger Daltrey's scream are brilliant. Delighted to see House grooving to it.
4. Your Song - Elton John
I was in a youth theatre group with a guy who was a home movie buff and Elton John super-fan (he now teaches my niece drama). We made home movies of Elton John songs and mixed the sound in my bedroom. Now I realise there must have been a bit of teenage voyeurism in writing love story scripts and getting teenage friends to act them out! But this song stayed with me and is certainly one of "our songs" for my wife of 25 years and I. The song that i most wish i could play well on the piano.
5. We Shall Overcome - Pete Seeger
I only heard a recording of this a few years ago, by Bruce Springsteen on a Pete Seeger tribute album. What I member is playing this song as a fledgling guitarist in youth group. It was that great time when praise songs and 'secular' folk songs were sung side by side, and this is one of those iconic songs of hope and freedom. How I wish i had stood in a protest march and sung it aloud sometime!
6. Your Love Broke Through - Keith Green
It was that time of discovering "Christian music" that consisted of great songs, well recorded. That time when all of the teenage feelings of rejection and acceptance were caught up into discovering a God who loved you no matter what you thought of yourself. I was the first one in the youth group to hear of Keith Green or own one of his records. While you might accuse him today of being schmaltzy at times, there's also great songcraft and heartfelt lyricism here. At the time this music was soul-defining for me.
7. Hallelu - John Michael Talbot
This is the second early faith song that stays with me. Talbot's guitar playing on his first solo album is mind-boggling. But this song is a simple expression of searching and being found, of honest praise and joy. A cosmic dimensions that parallels my own experience of sitting on a beach and looking at the stars and thinking of Psalm 8. From the same album as "Would You Crucify Him?" which I first heard played live by some guy at a NSW synod youth event at Elanora in 1979!
8. The Walls Came Down - The Call
Here's another 'a-ha' music and life moment. A person of faith (Michael Been) writing and playing a great song, linking Scripture and politics, in the 'secular' realm. I didn't understand the reference to the sanctuary movement in the US for years. An early point in a whole series of discoveries of of music that didn't have to have the tag "Christian" to be faith-filled. A complete revolution for me in finding meaning and faith in the real world.
9. Sunday Bloody Sunday - U2
This probably isnt my favourite U2 song, but it kicks off the "War" album, which, like The Call, was mind-blowing in its cocktail of anger and hope. It was a rallying call to stand for something, and sing about things that mattered. In some ways, Dylan's angst reborn in the 80's. That chiming guitar is like a bugle-cry to a new generation to rally around and do and be something that matters. So it's in the list because its a herald of what was to come.
(I'm running out of numbers to include all of my songs!)
10. Beds Are Burning - Midnight Oil
Again, not my favourite Oils songs, although off one of their top albums. For me, as for many, it put into voice what i was thinking and feeling. The experience of being in the march with Aboriginal people in Sydney on Australia Day in 1988 (I sat up all night on the train from Brisbane to be there) was deeply important for me. Another call to make a stand and act for justice.
11. Montage album - Kenny G
Having music chosen by your wife playing during the birth of one of your children makes it stay with you forever......... Hearing this in a lift puts me into shock.
12. I've Got You Under My Skin - who write this? Cole Porter? Vince Jones does a nice version
I had to put in some jazz and there is so much, so many genres. But the bottom line is a simple catchy tune you can relax or dance to. I love laid-back jazz and couldnt live without it. A warm sax, tinkling ivories, a crooner, a whisky...
13. The Man is Alive - Luke Bloom
I've rarely heard a song that tells you that you are in some way the sum of who has come before you, that stirs me so deeply. Dan Fogelberg's "Leader of the Band" did it in a way, but this is much more deeply moving and challenging, in asking "who are you, what are you making of your life?"
I have not listed Eric Bogle, Kev Carmody, Van Morrison, Judy Small, Me'Shell Ndegocello, Indigo Girls, Sarah McLachlan, Bruce Springsteen, Redgum, Nick Cave, Bruce Cockburn, Beatles, etc, etc.
there you go"
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