So anyway, I was thinking the other day, sometimes there seem to be some misperceptions about my musical taste. Jor seemed to think I like Hendrix a lot more than I do, for example (I mean, I like Hendrix, but usually when I'm talking about him on these forums it's in the context of discussing his musical influence, which is really huge).
So I've drawn up a Top Ten list. If my brain was a radio station, this would probably be its list.
I may sometime have to make a second post. The tracks that didn't make it; I was a DJ, there are a lot more than ten tracks that I adore. But this will do for now.
10. The Police - King of Pain
I loved The Police from the first time I heard Ghost in the Machine. But this was my theme song for high school I think. Now, I don't love it as much as I did then, but I still love it alright.
It was released as a single. I've occasionally heard reports that there was a music video for it, but I never saw one in the '80s, and I've never seen once since.
9. Sarah McLachlan - Ice
Sarah lost her edge after the release of Fumbling Towards Ecstasy. There is a rather rare live album she released after Solace along with Fumbling, which come from a time where she's hanging around with people like Delerium and getting new musical ideas, and she records some really good stuff. This is probably her best track.
It wasn't a single. There's no video, alas. Sarah made some pretty cool videos.
8. Corpus Delicti - Noxious (The Demon's Game)
All those years spent as a gothboi in the 90s were worth it for this track. Corpus Delicti were a French goth band. Most of their stuff is pretty good, but this track really stands out above the rest.
Of course being a hyper-alternative band they didn't make a music video. This one, well, the YouTuber seems to have just cut in an old silent horror movie, but it kinda fits.
7. Radiohead - Street Spirit (Fade Out)
I liked Radiohead before it was trendy to do so. I liked Creep and bought both Pablo Honey and My Iron Lung before this song came out and made them famous.
Still, there's a reason this song made them famous. It's really good.
I actually like their later albums, especially the two experimental albums Kid A and Amnesiac, better than The Bends. But this song is remarkable.
6. Kate Bush - Experiment IV (full version)
Experiment IV was recorded for Kate's compilation The Whole Story. Sadly, most of the time it is played in a heavily cut form which really turns it into a boring pop song. I first heard it in the CKDU record library; they had the EP there, which has the full nearly seven minute long version that is musically far more interesting.
The official music video, which is actually pretty cool as a video, is the short version.
5. Sisters of Mercy - Emma
Every DJ has an obscure track from a band that their listeners know about that they love. This is mine. I like Dominion a lot too but Emma is amazing. Although I have Dominion to thank for my knowledge of it, I first heard this version as a B-side on the Dominion single.
Apparently the original was released by Hot Chocolate in 1974. I've never heard it.
Like most B-sides, there was no music video.
4. Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb (live)
I know, it's unfashionable to like the post-Waters Floyd. I do. I love Gilmour's work. He's more important than Roger to the early version of this song anyway, and cut free from Roger's ego this song really shines.
I got the Delicate Sound of Thunder two-LP set in the summer of '89 and spent about two months with my free time split between listening to it and hacking. Good times.
YouTube doesn't seem to have the Delicate Sound of Thunder release. This is a bootleg from the show that Delicate Sound of Thunder was cut from.
3. Styx - Crystal Ball
I like Snowblind a lot too. Perhaps I like this one better because I never took cocaine and thus am missing the context needed to really get Snowblind.
When I was a teenager, I liked The Police a lot better than Styx. Now it seems that the pattern has reversed. I wonder what that says about me?
Styx did make a few music videos for their later albums, but at this point music videos were mostly just recorded performances from Top of the Pops and the like.
2. The Jeff Healey Band - See The Light
I first saw Jeff play live when I was nineteen. I had just recently gotten my liquor ID and could therefore go see bands in bars. (For me, that ID was a big deal. I had a really hard time sneaking into bars, I always got carded, because I have a babyface.) I went and saw him play by myself, one of the few times I've done that. It was just as well really. I wouldn't have paid a date any attention whatsoever, and in fact the other times when I did see Jeff play with a girl along that's what happened. I kinda wish I hadn't outlived Jeff, it makes me sad to meet people who are never going to be able to hear him play live.
In the liner notes to Sting's second studio album, he writes about Jimi Hendrix. He does a cover of Little Wing on the album. He says that when he saw Jimi play when he was a kid, he'd never seen anything like it, and he didn't suppose he ever would again. I think I know exactly what he means because that's how I feel about Jeff.
This performance was recorded in Germany. I think he toured Germany not long before the show where I saw him play for the first time.
1. Concrete Blonde - Tomorrow, Wendy
This might be the saddest track ever recorded. Even Joy Division were never this sad; they were bleak instead. Bloodletting is not my favourite Concrete Blonde album - that's probably Mexican Moon - but this track is amazing.
There is no official music video for this song. I don't think it ever was a single.