Day 129 Nas "Memory Lane"

An amazing record – The sample in particular. If you hear Reuben Wilson's "We're In Love" it's a plodding soul jazz ballad with nothing much to recommend it, but take those few seconds here and there and stitch them together - genius.

Day 128 Etta James "Tell Mama"

The second appearance for Etta on this blog. Play it loud!

Day 128 The Ballistic Brothers "Blacker"

Ashley Beedle’s finest moment (don’t call it trip hop though). Reminds me of Camden in the mid-90's. It feels tinged with sadness now, as it features the voice of the great, and sadly now late, Gil Scott-Heron.

Day 127 Ten Benson "The Claw"

Rather good Johnny Cash meets early Fall thing from 1998 – the sort of one off that the Peel show was made for. Great band name, too.

Day 126 The Carpenters "Rainy Days & Mondays"

I have vague, awful memories of Soju and karaoke last night. Massacring this may have been involved. Apologies to all concerned.

Day 125 Miles Davis "It's About That Time"

Happy Birthday, Miles.

Day 124 The Seeds "Pushin' Too Hard"

I saw the Seeds in LA back in the early part of this century – Sky Saxon was wonderfully odd, the band were amazing. I was worried they’d be too polished, but they were as raw and loud as you like – a triumph of enthusiasm over aptitude.

Day 123 Bob Dylan "Mississippi"

Happy Birthday, Bob. I’ve been listening to your music for 30 years, and hope to be listening to it for the next 30.

I could quite easily just listen to this song for 30 years.

Day 122 Black Grape 'In The Name Of The Father"

There was life after the Happy Mondays. Though sadly not enough. Is that idiot at the beginning Mark Goodier?

Day 121 Nina Simone "Mr Bojangles"

I played this on the radio last night, and it reminded me how moving it was. Being the consumate professional, I of course kept it together.

Check out the live version if you can (from "It Is Finished")- if anything, it's even better.

Day 120 Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle "I Wish I Could Sprechen Sie Deutsch"

I'm doing a show of cover versions tonight on the radio, so here's an old favourite that is fantatstic (and proves that Germans do have a sense of humour) but wouldn't quite fit, even in the broad church that is The Soul Affair.

Day 119 Peter Gabriel "Solsbury Hill"

I'm just reading Stuart Maconie's “Adventures On the High Teas”, a journey through Middle England. The book is good in places; in others it has the feel of a man writing to pay the bills, and the shadow of Bill Bryson looms large over it. Anyway, it make me think of this – the song that evokes Middle England for me (in a good way)

Day 118 Dave Berry "Don't Give Me No Lip, Child"

Mod-tastic !

Day 117 John Cooper-Clarke "Beasley Street"

Once National's spending cuts announced in the Budget today kick in we can change to words of this to "John Key smiles/ and a baby dies/ in a box on Beasley Street"

See you at the rally

Day 116 Teenage Fanclub "Fallen Leaves"

TFC - They’re like your favourite comfy old jumper, aren’t they?

Day 115 A Guy Called Gerald "Voodoo Ray"

Best. House record. Ever.

Day 114 Double Exposure "My Love Is Free"

One song, 2 versions (Double Exposure, you see.) And an argument for DJ’s and producers getting the props. The 7" version is a good tune



Whereas the Tom Moulton mix is just the best piece of music ever created for the dancefloor. Those big piano chords, the strings, that chicken-scratch guitar…Euphoric.

Day 113 Paul Quinn & Edwyn Collins "Ain't that Always The Way

A favourite of mine from back at the dawn of time, when Music Box (a kind of poor man's MTV, but better than nothing at the time) played the 6 videos it had in constant rotation. Unlike 'Sledgehammer' or the Blow Monkeys, I never got sick of this one...

Days 111 and 112 Bill Fay "Come A Day" and Van Morrison "Sweet Thing"

A technical hitch yesterday, so two for the price of one today.

The are songs from albums - Bill Fay's "Time Of the Last Persecution" and van Morrison's "Astral Weeks" - that transcend music, that head into the realm of the miraculous - something that has been touched. Listening to these is the closest this dyed in the wool athiest will get to a religious experience.

Day 110 Prince Far I "Black Man Land"

I once had a dream where Prince Far I, Captain Beefheart and Howlin’ Wolf sang together – it was even scarier than you are imagining it to be….

Day 109 Ivor Cutler "Beautiful Cosmos"

I feel like something soothing…but strange. So here’s the great Ivor Cutler

Day 108 Orange Juice "L.O.V.E. Love"

Edwyn Collins is not only a great songwriter and (during the early mid-eighties) owner of the best haircut going. He also had the chutzpa to cover an Al Green song on his debut album and make it his own. Wonderful.

Day 107 Victor Lundberg "To The Flower Power"

Proof positive that you can find anything on the internet.

I got this from a junk shop on the Holloway Road and – scratched as it was - it was the soundtrack to the phenomenal amount of smoking that went on in our house.

“The communists will be telling you to make all the love you want…after a ten-hour ‘gig’ in the salt mine.”

Day 106 Richard & Linda Thompson "End Of The Rainbow"

It took me a long while to get around to liking Richard Thompson. He's so beloved of that English public school breed of self-satisfied rock snobs ( you know – Bob Harris, David Hepworth, Mark Ellis. All that crowd) that I'd steered well clear of him until the last couple of years. I've missed a treat.

This is a cheery number from one of his best albums...

Day 105 Johnny Leyton "Johnny Remember Me"

Strangeness from Holloway Road's finest, Joe Meek. I'm not sure the backing singers are so into it, though...

Day 104 Jean Michel Jarre "Oxygene IV"

This is what the future sounded like when I was riding round on my Grifter, looking forward to a Fray Bentos pie for tea

Day 103 Crosby, Stills & Nash "Wooden Ships"

Spooky

Day 102 Barry Stoller "Match Of The Day"

Still on the sports theme - A tune that never fails to make me feel happy

Day 101 Mel & Tim "Backfield In Motion"

Continuing the sport theme from yesterday, but taking it Stateside today.

Great song as it is, I think Mel & Tim are mixing their sports metaphors here -I spotted gridiron, baseball & boxing references in there.

Day 100 Roy Harper "When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease"

A century of posts, so I will raise my bat and post a song about cricket.

I originally heard this when John Peel played it on the first show after the death of his producer and long-time pal John Walters. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house – at least, not in my house.

Like the game, it’s silly & beautiful.