1 VAL DOONICAN : ‘Paddy McGinty’s Goat’
“If the idea of Rebellious Jukebox is to choose songs and singers that strike a chord that resonates throughout your life then this has to be on the list.. Around the time we first started making records, we wanted to be on ‘The Val Doonican Show’. We thought it would be a cool thing to do – better than appearing on whatever the equivalent of ‘The Word’ was. Basically, I love everything about Val Doonican. His becalming influence goes way way back to my early childhood, when I was made to sing ‘Paddy McGinty’s Goat’ to my grandmother.”
2 THE BEATLES : ‘Twist And Shout’
“Even allowing for everything else that The Beatles went on to do, ‘Twist And Shout’ is a great, great song. It’s just perfect; the testosterone rush, just everything. One of my earliest memories was my sisters watching the film of that ‘Top of the Pops’ performance and arguing over which band belonged to them – The Beatles or The Stones. For me, The Beatles had something that noone else can possibly approximate. There was a purity, a certain kind of innocence, because after The Beatles what they did was turned into an industry. They progressed so quickly that the industry had to move quick to catch up with them. After The Beatles, a whole industry was built to try and repeat what they did. And the beautiful thing is that it’s impossible. You can’t manufacture a band like that.”
3 ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK : ‘Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat’
“One of my cousins played this recently, and I realised on hearing it that I knew virtually every word. Perhaps it means so much to me because I identify with Joseph the sacrificial lamb! The fall guy in his coat of many colours! Um, then again, perhaps not.”
4 WILSON PICKETT : ‘Young Girl’
“The chorus to this used to haunt me. I didn’t appreciate its guilt ridden, ageist, sexist lyrics when I was six or seven. There’s this achingly poignant string arrangement lurking beneath it that slays me every time I hear it. I reckon there must have been a residue of frustrated genius string arrangers in the Sixties and Seventies who could only find work on otherwise mediocre soul records. String arrangements are just the best things.”
5 DAVID BOWIE : ‘Hunky Dory’ / IGGY POP : ‘Lust For Life’
“There’s a wonderful singalong quality to this. And songs like ‘Kooks’ are just perfect for f**ked-up pretentious adolescents to wallow in. The sheer panic and drama in Bowie’s delivery of ‘Five Years’ is like nothing I’ve ever heard. I wasn’t actually into Bowie the way a lot of people of my generation were. His obsession with image really irritated me. I much preferred Iggy Pop. I thought he was like Hyde to Bowie’s Dr Jekyll. Which is probably simplifying things a bit really, but the thing with Bowie was a bit too British for me; I didn’t appreciate his reserve. Iggy was more exotic. He was this wild animal from an alien culture who used to splatter the stage with his own blood. That spoke to me more than Bowie ever did.”
“When I was at school, me and some friends desperately wanted to see Iggy at the Manchester Apollo. And our only hope of being allowed to go was if we could persuade one of our teachers to take us. Eventually, we persuaded this one teacher who ran the school choir. He was socially inept, had real communication problems, and, furthermore, had never heard any rock music in his life, let alone this man covered in blood. Anyway, we went in and lost him immediately, because we figured that the moment he saw what he’d let himself in for, he’d make us leave! After the gig, we’re walking out and we bump into him and he’s totally raving about it, saying it’s the most exciting thing he’s ever seen in his life! A few weeks later, we persuaded him to take a school party to The Clash’s ‘White Riot’ tour.”
6 PATTI SMITH : ‘Heroes’
“Patti Smith is to singers what Hendrix is to guitarists. So many people are singing that wouldn’t otherwise be if it wasn’t for Patti Smith; Morrissey, Michael Stipe, Mike Scott, Siouxsie, myself. The evening Patti Smith changed my life was when I heard ‘Birdland’, a 10 minute improvised poem about Pete Reich losing his father. And I heard it on the night I thought my father was dying. And, as far as I’m concerned, there was nothing before that and nothing after that. And I know it’s the same for all those other singers. She was the best, in terms of daring, honesty, performance or self-sacrifice. I’ve got these bootlegs of just her and Lenny Kaye on guitar where’s she just improvising this poetry, and she comes in the middle of the poem. Noone has gone that far.”
7 THE BIRTHDAY PARTY : ‘Prayers On Fire’
“Apart from our bassist Jim, all of James were tremendously influenced by The Birthday Party, and you can really see it in this song. We went to see them about 15 times. I’d never seen anyone infuse their music with so much sheer violence as The Birthday Party. And I think with that song they took it as far as that violence thing can be taken with music. It was round about the time that I was at Manchester University that I was madly into The Birthday Party. I was studying drama in the same class as Ben Elton. What was he like? Lovely man. A really fast worker, too – he could polish off a play in a few days. I used to perform in a lot of them. Some of them were really shit, but even then he was incredibly funny.”
8 PIXIES : ‘Doolittle’
“Three minute songs, great ideas, a f**k you attitude and a healthy pair of lungs. There’s really nothing else to say.”
9 CHRIS ISAAK : ‘Wicked Game’ / JULEE CRUISE : ‘Floating Into The Night’
“Wicked Game is one of those songs you hear for the first time and think, ‘That may well be the greatest record I’ve ever heard.’/ You know what I mean? It’s immediate. I remember it was on Jukebox Jury and Barney from New Order was on, and he was the only one that twigged it. He said, ‘I’m going to go out and buy that record tomorrow.’ Cool f**ker ; anyway, common to both Julee Cruise and Chris Isaak is their wonderful ability to write dreamy, aquatic sex songs.”
10 MARY MARGARET O’HARA : ‘Miss America’
“Morrissey said she’s the best singer since Patti Smith, and he’s right. I went to see her perform once and she was so vulnerable. She broke down for 20 minutes after the first song, and the band had to carry on playing as she paced the stage trying to find the strength to continue. Apparently, she has 20 reels of finished record company material waiting to be released, and they’re just sitting on it. So she’s basically resigned. She can’t get her material released. It’s a f**king tragedy.”
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