For my 42nd birthday I compiled a playlist consisting of a song that I like published each year I have been alive up to 2012 (I will try to fill in 2013-2015 as I find songs). There were some difficult choices. Here is the complete annotated list. I will try to keep it up to date.
The symbol ★ indicates particularly good music videos.
1973: “Time” by Pink Floyd
Factoid: The chiming clocks were recorded by engineer Alan Parsons as a sound check; they fit the song, so he left them in.
1974: “Emma” by Hot Chocolate
Factoid: Hot Chocolate’s producer asked them to compose something a bit “darker” than their (then) usual soul fare, and this masterpiece was the result.
1975: “Love is the Drug” by Roxy Music
1976: “The Chain” by Fleetwood Mac
youtube: audio only
Valuoid: On this song, like some others on Rumours, Fleetwood Mac appear to have invented post-punk without first listening to any punk. Start listening to this song at 3 minutes in: doesn’t it sound exactly as if it was written by The Cure? It’s the bass riff that does it. “Mr McVie? Listen carefully, we don’t have much time. My name’s Simon Gallup, and I’m from the future: there’s a bass riff I have to show you…”
1977: “Pretty vacant” by The Sex Pistols
1978: “Public Image” by PIL
Factoid: Yes, that’s the same guy as the previous video. This is the actual invention of post-punk.
1979: “Transmission” by Joy Division
youtube: fan-made video
Factoid: The actors in the Ian Curtis biopic Control learned to play “Transmission” for the movie. Here’s a clip of them playing it.
1980: “Scrape away” by The Jam
youtube: audio only, live
1981: “Fade to Grey” by Visage
youtube: audio only
Factoid: The BBC’s 2010 drama Ashes to Ashes, (haven’t seen it? Do!) features a faithful recreation of the Blitz nightclub. The original members of Visage appear as extras.
1982: “Six months in a leaky boat” by Split Enz
Factoid: Split Enz are New Zealand’s great contribution to the philosophical problem of the identity conditions for bands. It’s very hard to formulate identity conditions for Split Enz that don’t end up counting Crowded House or The Swingers as the same band as Split Enz, when these are clearly three different bands.
1983: “Temple of Love” by Sisters of Mercy
youtube: audio only
1984: “East of Eden” by Dead Can Dance
youtube: audio only
1985: “Somewhere” by Hüsker Dü
youtube: audio only
1986: “Where do ya draw the line?” by Dead Kennedys
youtube: audio only
1987: “She Speeds” by Straightjacket Fits
1988: “Birthday” by The Sugarcubes
1989: “It’s a boy” by Wire
youtube: audio only
1990: “Nightmare at 20000 feet” by Pop will eat itself
youtube: audio only
1991: “Rave Down” by Swervedriver
Factoid: In the 90s, I had white-person permed-in dreads just like the singer of Swervedriver. Ah, the 90s.
1992: “Mindphaser” by Front Line Assembly
Factoids: (1) a lot people assume that Front Line Assembly named themselves after something scary out of a Philip K Dick story. Actually, it is a part of a boat. (2) Many FLA songs are built around vocal samples from cult movies. “Mindphaser” heavily samples the original Terminator film.
1993: “Souvlaki Space Station” by Slowdive
youtube: audio only
1994: “Not of this Earth” by Prong
youtube: audio only
Factoid: At the time they recorded this, Prong were: Tommy Victor (of, well, Prong); Paul Raven (of Killing Joke); and Ted Parsons (of Swans). So I guess that makes them a kind of avant-garde rock supergroup.
1995: “Splat” by Bailter Space
Factoid: the band learned to play the whole song backwards in order to record the video.
1996: “Midnight in a Perfect World” by DJ Shadow
1997: “Trip like I do” by The Crystal Method
youtube: audio only
Factoids: (1) I saw these guys play live in Canberra in 1998. They had trouble with their gear, and had to stop operating their instruments to help the roadies fix a synth …but the music kept going… (2) features samples from Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal
1998: “Buzzin’” by Asian Dub Foundation
1999: “Eurodisco” by bis
2000: “Renaissance Affair” by Hooverphonic
youtube: audio only, live video
Factoid: the live version features a full orchestra.
2001: “Memorize the City” by The Organ
2002: “Say Hello to the Angels” by Interpol
youtube: audio only, live
2003: “Satanic Versus” by Laibach
youtube: audio only
2004: “Take me out” by Franz Ferdinand
2005: “Banquet” by Bloc Party
2006: “Get out” by Fly my pretties (composition, Adi Dick)
2007: “Electric Feel” by MGMT
2008: “Farewell to the Fairground” by White Lies
Factoid: White Lies claim to be “not influenced by Joy Division”. Seriously.
2009: “Heavy Cross” by The Gossip
2010: “In excelsis” by Killing Joke
2011: “Claudia Lewis” by M83
Valuoid: M83 clearly had a lot more fun as teenagers than I did.
2012: “My Number” by Foals
Factoid: I was once thrown out of the music venue in Oxford that the guy in the video is trying to get into.
Until September 2016 I am a Tutorial Fellow in Philosophy at Corpus Christi College and an Associate Professor in the Oxford Philosophy Faculty. From then on, I'll be a Senior Adviser at the New Zealand Ministry of Transport.
My intellectual interests are mainly in metaphysics, philosophy of language, and ethics, and of course transport policy.
