We’ve got three episodes to go until we hit 50, so I thought it might be fun to do a track a year over episodes 48, 49 and 50.
This does create a few issues. Some years are necessarily more fertile than others. Some groups choose to produce their best work when another artist has produced an indispensable track. Some artists don’t lend themselves to a one-off showcase.
To take but one example, 1981 could just as easily have housed Ghost town, Ceremony, Dead pop stars, Tell me Easter’s on a Friday … or a track from ‘LC’ by The Durutti Column … or ‘The Only Fun In Town’ by Josef K … or …
This is not an attempt to be definitive, although I have tried to be broadly representative. You can produce another fifty tracks that should have made it, of course you can. There is a vague attempt to encompass the three Gs: genre, gender and geography. But it’s very vague.
So this in no way represents ‘The Best Of’ the last fifty years, or even my own personal favourites, for that matter (though many are). If it’s about anything, maybe it shows that times and tastes may change, but great music will get us through bad times and good.
Not a deeply profound mantra, I accept, but it’s what I’ve got. The other years to follow on.
