This is not my beautiful house ...

How did I get here. Letting the water hold me down. Like Dale Arden, Rullsenberg shouts "We have two days to ..." come up with our desert island discs. Let's make a start.

1. It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) - Bob Dylan

When I first heard this song I was doing my O-Levels and it hit me that all was pointless. The first song to really speak to me. The first song to welcome in my adolescent angst.

2. A Fairytale of New York - The Pogues and Kirsty McColl

First heard this on the jukebox Combermere Arms in Wolverhampton. Drowning my sorrows while working in a crap job (accounting, if you must ask). I just played it over and over until I sensed I was beginning to annoy people. So I stopped. But I still love how it all fits together.

3. Can U Dig It - Pop Will Eat Itself

The song that made pop culture pop culture. And, yes, Alan Moore does know the score.

4. Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) - Marvin Gaye

Just moved me to tears. This is as good as music got in the 70s.

5. Man in The Dark - David Thomas and Two Pale Boys

Dancing at the Rescue Rooms with Lisa and George. Pass the Remy Martin.

6. This Charming Man - The Smiths

That opening. That riff. "Punctured bicycle on a hillside desolate ..." Jangly guitar pop at its best. The urgency. The splendour. At Portsmouth Poly. On Top of the Pops almost the night before they played the Union. Could I get tickets. Feck as like. Did I tell people I'd been for years after? Course I did. But I didn't. I was seeking C-O-O-L by association. Life taught me that C-O-O-L never hits on those who seek it; "it droppeth as the gentle rain" on those who just are. Dancing madly, arms aloft; doing the indie boy dancing to the consternation of Rullsenberg who expressed concern I was going to knock someone over and get twatted. Ah. Dancing madly. With Rullsenberg (who was still concerned but not indifferent).

7. Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen

That small town ambition thing. Getting out of small town nowheresville. Listening to Born To Run while reading On the Road. Such was my youth. Well, a summer.

8. It Was A Lonely Day In Selma, Alabama^* / Freedom - Mingus Big Band

Heard this with Rullsenberg in Fez under Time Cafe in New York City. A great Thursday night coming at the end of a great week. It was our first trip to New York. To follow the jazz connection we even stayed in Hotel Ellington. Coming out we needed food and more drink. The city that never sleeps let us down. Maybe it was us but our hosts, grad students at Columbia, had opinions about which places it was safe to venture into, and those places that weren't safe. It took a long time wandering those streets to get food and drink. And the service was still crap. But the week was as splendid as it gets. New York was wonderful. The company was amazing. And the following night we went to the magnificent NuYorican Poets Cafe, where I bought the t-shirt from the Fat Man, but that's another story.
^*Scroll down for a splendid description.