Last week we looked at how our addiction to digital media, in particular but not limited to social media, can have serious negative effects on our mental health. This is particularly affecting teenagers and young people, but us oldies can't really be smug or complacent about it as it's just as easy for us to fall into a similar trap.
Working in a mental health hospital, it's clear to see a drastic increase in mental health problems among teenagers - hardly surprising if up to 50% of them are addicted to their mobile phones. In recent years, the medical profession has had to respond to a serious growth in self-harm, eating disorders and suicidal ideation, and one of the many reasons for this is constant unfiltered online conversation about these subjects. Young people are no longer exposed solely to the opinions and experiences of their immediate peer group: the whole world is out there waiting to talk to them. And a lot of the world is not very nice at all...
Lockdown often gets blamed for many of the mental health problems people are facing this decade, and I'm sure our experiences during covid had some effect... but arguably the worst thing to come out of the pandemic was the way that so much of our lives was forced online. As a teacher, I'd never taught an online lesson prior to Lockdown. I had to learn how to do so very quickly, but I really thought things would go back to normal once schools and colleges opened up again. And yet, there's been a noticeable push in certain fields of education (particularly universities) to keep at least part of the curriculum online, for reasons that have nothing to do with education and far more to do with saving money. And this has been echoed in a lot of businesses too - how many meetings do people now attend via Teams rather than by sitting around a table with a coffee and looking each other in the eye? Once Pandora opened that box, the lid was never going back on.
And so our addiction and reliance on the internet in every aspect of our lives has grown stronger. Meaning more screen time for everyone. And nobody's feeling happy about this... except the tech companies. The most recent World Happiness Report suggests that under 25s, traditionally among the happiest section of the population, are now just as stressed and miserable as their middle-aged parents. (In fact, the only generation who still manage to smile are those who've reached retirement age.)
Why are young people so miserable? Why are they having a mid-life crisis in their 20s? (They're calling that The Quarter Life Crisis, in case you think I'm making it up.) The cost of living, shrinking job market (thanks, in part, to our new AI Overlords) and slim chance of getting onto the overpriced property ladder must take some of the blame... but I don't think we can underestimate the culpability of the internet.
Young people today live their lives online. Many are spending between 7 and 10 hours a day on social media. And by doing so, they are rewiring their brains. Shorter attention spans, a constant craving for dopamine highs, the inability to concentrate on anything longer than a 280 word tweet or a 30 second TikTok video. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Their whole life is affected and controlled by the internet - relationships, education, career, self-worth...
Maybe this is just evolution. Maybe their brains need to be rewired to survive in the future. I can't say. Because older generations have been prophesying doom for wreckless youth for decades, if not longer. And I'm just another doomsayer. I wouldn't mind so much if they were happy though. Only they're just as miserable as the rest of us now... and surely that's not what being young is all about?
(Not been a lot of Self Help this week, has there? I'll try to redress the balance next time.)
Taken from Rufus Wainwright's album of Shakespeare Sonnets, Take All My Loves.
Onto the business at hand then: what did you have for me this week?
Let's start with last week's winner, Douglas, who found himself struggling a little this time...
"I can offer little new regarding the 29s from my own corpus of beloved songs and artists, despite having scoured through some 2500 LPs, 500 CDs, and a few thousand files on the hard drives and mp3s."
Blimey - that's dedication.
"So I hit the search engines, and came across a few songs that were new to me, with 29 in the title, including:"
"29" by Loic Nottet (who, despite being a young male Belgian singer, here most puts me in mind of Adele)
I can definitely hear that. "Loïc Nottet", on the other hand, is an anagram waiting to happen.
"Ryan Adams - 29 (an artist entirely on my periphery, and who, on the strength of this song, seems likely to remain there)"
Ryan Adams made two or three excellent albums early in his career, although he lost his quality control over the years and has recently been dragged into a bit of a #metoo scandal, so he loses points for that as well.
"And perhaps the best of the 3, Gin Blossoms - 29, who at very least fit in some nice jangly guitars into a pretty decent tune with some appropriately wistful lyrics."
Yes. I'm rather fond of the Gin Blossoms also, so that would be my winner from your selections.
Over to Martin, who ticked quite a few off my list...
Then came Alyson, who's petitioning for a return of Randy Tuesdays or Kenny Wednesdays. One thing at once, eh? I'm still not back up to full steam. She did have this to offer though...
"A date this week rather than a time but Chicago did an anti-war kind of song called Someday (August 29, 1968) - Included is real audio of the crowds at an infamous demonstration."
Never heard that before, but I did like it. I always enjoy early Chicago when they had a brass section.
Martin stole many of Rigid Digit's suggestions this week, but RD did dig out the following...
"Simultaneously the best and worst album ever released..."
"From it, Pachuco Cadaver opens with the philosophical line:"
A squid eating dough in a Polyethylene bag is fast and bulbous
"Fanciful nonsense?"
I've to admit, RD, I tried very hard with TMR back in the day, but couldn't ever find my way into it.
"But the 29 bit comes later:"
Got her wheel out of a B-29 Bomber, Brody knob amber
I'm less surprised nobody predicted this week's winner though. It has featured on this blog previously, but probably isn't that well known in the real world.
When I started doing these Top Tens on the old blog... probably about seven or eight years ago now... they were mostly full of indie bands. That's rarely the case these days, but every now and then a topic seems to bring them out of the woods.
Here's ten songs asking / telling you to 'Come Home!' Next week, a reply post - ten 'I'm Coming Home!' songs. (So save those for then.)
Special mention to Darlene Love's Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) which would have made the Top Three if I allowed Christmas songs in March...
A night out in London makes the Rakes want to go home. Amusing lyrics on this one.
In the bar your mates spot a celebrity
But you're not fussed by the gay guy off CBBC
Limos ferry hen-nights to the West End
The night is dragging it's heels to the end
Now he's in your face
"Got any drugs on you mate?"
You get out for some peace
Still get home by half 3 (leave the city and come home)
The opening track on Placebo's debut, back in the grand old days of 1996. Brian Molko described this one as "pop punk for postponed suicides". But he always was a bit of a one.
Very cool song from the highly acclaimed new LP from The Charlatans (which I have out on loan from the local library at the moment - and yes, it's pretty cool)... though I don't think Tim Burgess has looked like he does in this video for a LONG time now.
A typically quirky story single about an international business traveller (with a pigeon head in the video) who wakes up after a wild night of debauchery and has to make it home in time for his son's big football game. Only Neil Hannon could have written this one.
Though they only ever released two albums, Roland Gift's Fine Young Cannibals are fondly remembered round these parts. Mixing jangly guitars and a nice bit of brass with Gift's soul singer tonsils, they made some of the most distinctive pop songs of the 80s. This was their debut single from 1985, the year Marty McFly first travelled back in time.
1. James - Come Home
After 8 years knocking around the indie charts, James finally started to bother the real Top 40 in 1990. It was a dark time for decent music and James offered everything we needed in a pop band - big hooks, heartfelt choruses and a bonkers frontman. Come Home equalled its predecessor, How Was It For You, making Number 32 with a bullet... but it was a start, and not soon after Sit Down broke them into the Top Ten. Come Home is probably a better song though, with its wailing sirens, impassioned pleading and Tim Booth waving a big stick around in the desert-set video. And it still sounds fresh 25 years later...
Specials mentions to Tom Waits's excellent Nighthawks At The Diner (if albums were allowed, as well individual songs, that might have been Number One), Style Council's Café Bleu, and, of course... Sad Café.
Ryan Adams arranges a midnight rendezvous at the Starlite Diner (you just wouldn't get a caff staying open that late in the UK)... but will he be stood up?
An old couple relive their youth in an abandoned luncheonette. Quietly heartbreaking...
They sat together in the empty diner Filled with cracked china Old news was blowing across the filthy floor And the sign on the door read "this way out", that's all it read That's all it said...
Ray laments the death of olde England now that all our town centres "look like America".
Looking for the working man's café
In the shopping centre of the town
Looking for somewhere to fit in
In among the retail outlets
Bought a pair of new designer pants
Where the fruit and veg man used to stand
I always used to see him there
Selling old apples and pears
Chatting up the pretty girls
With knocked off goods in the van...
Often damned with faint praise of the "poor man's Coldplay" variety, not helped by the fact that the lead singer looks like a 20 year old David Cameron. But if you can put all that aside, this is a fantastic "you can't go home again" song celebrating the band's hometowns of Battle and Bexhill on Sea, near Hastings. It does, of course, steal all its best ideas from Glory Days era Springsteen, but you won't hear me complaining about that...
Let's go down to the rides on East Parade,
By the lights of the Palace Arcade
And watch night coming down on the Sovereign Light Café
Let's go down to the bandstand on the pier
Watch the drunks and the lovers appear
To take turns as the stars of the Sovereign Light Café
Joni meets her old friend Carol at the Chinese Café and puts Unchained Melody on repeat play on the jukebox. What an amazing lyricist. This week's contractual "I'm getting older every say" song...
This girl of my childhood games With kids nearly grown and gone Grown so fast Like the turn of a page We look like our mothers did now When we were those kids' age Nothing lasts for long...
Suzanne's biggest hit, due to the nasty DNA 90s dance-beat remix that took it to the top of the charts. I, naturally, prefer the a capella original... which youtube tells me was used by the developer of the mp3 as his reference track. Making it the first mp3 ever... apparently.If you can believe anything you read on t'internet.
Recorded "live" in a genuine New York Deli (or not), where Dean meets the woman of his dreams at 4 in the morning... but gets interrupted quite a lot by the noisy waitresses.
Hey, Louie - there's a weirdo at table four in the back... He's singing!
1. The Handsome Family - The Snow White Diner
The first Handsome Family track I ever heard (on a free Uncut CD) and still one of my favourites... although they have done many other great records. Creepy Gothic Americana at its finest...
I am eating hash browns in the Snow White Diner Outside cars are honking, flashing lights on the bridge They're pulling a car up from the bottom of the frozen lake
A woman drove her Saturn into the black water Killed herself and her two kids trapped in the backseat She'd lost her job and didn't want her kids to be poor
The diner is noisy, black coffee and sugar Baskets of dinner rolls, outside the crowd is growing Waiting by the drawbridge, hoping to see the dead woman's face...
Today isn't New Year's Day here at Top Ten Towers. It's a very special birthday for a very special person. And in celebration... here's ten songs that mention her name...
See, Jona didn't just stop the cavalry and spend all his time in the kitchen at parties. He was also a whiz on a pair of rollerskates. And, judging from his vocals in the chorus, he was also occasionally possessed by Beelzebub.
Ah, yes, our Bonnie - a voice that could sink a thousand battleships... as this video ably demonstrates. This isn't her finest hour (it wasn't written by Jim Steinman), but it did knock Neil Diamond - Hey Louise out of my countdown, so you may be grateful for that.
Jason Lytle falls foul of Louise's mother - she always hated him. Fortunately not something I have to worry about as my "mother-in-law" (the law never really got involved) is lovely.
Phil Oakey rides around on a barge, singing into a remote control, bemoaning the loss of Louise. Why did she leave him? The clue's in the mullet, Phil. (I should talk - you should see my hair at the moment.)
This is the best song in my collection with Louise in the title. So why isn't it Number One...? 1. Lloyd Cole - Perfect Skin
I choose my friends only far too well...
Ha
- got you! I never said it had to have Louise in the title. (See also Visions of Johanna by Bob Dylan.) Here's one
of Lloyd's finest, and the line "academia blues" seems a pretty accurate description for his songwriting in general. It's about the girl with "cheekbones like geometry and
eyes like sin". A lethal combination, but at least she keeps up to date
by reading Cosmo. This is a song of contradictions...
Up eight flights of stairs to her basement flat Pretty confused huh?
But if you're looking for a moral... strikes me there never has been one.
Thank you for everything, Lou. I love you, hon'. Have a great birthday.
This post was originally called "My Top Ten Songs About American Authors"... but then I discovered a band called American Authors and thought that would be too confusing for their fans.
And naturally, this one's about American Writers because I'm saving Oscar Wilde and Willy Shakespeare for another day. Actually, Bill will probably get a Top Ten all his own. I'm relying on Deano to do a Top Ten Songs About Australian Writers in reply...
Let's start with the most successful American writer ever. No, I'm not joking. With an estimated 800 million books sold, no one else comes close. Not even Dan Brown(!)
Paul Heaton doesn't appear to be a fan though...
And even photo love
With its pages filled with sin
Couldn't lick the boots of the enemy within
It can only be a chapter
'till her heart will give in
The enemy within
Nothing is as phallic
As a moaning violin
To Danielle Steele
The enemy within
Although The Old Man & The Sea and For Whom The Bell Tolls are bloody good reads, neither are as insanely exciting as Hemingway's life story... you have to wonder how far Kenny Chesney will got to find inspiration?
Ah, it's tough out there, a good muse is hard to find Living one word to the next, one line at a time There's more to life than whiskey, there's more to words than rhyme Sometimes nothing works, sometimes nothing shines Like Hemingway's whiskey Sail away, sail away, three sheets to the wind Live hard, die hard, this one's for him...
Couldn't decide between these two so I called it a draw. Natalie Merchant's is the more direct, biographical take (love the opening where she feels sorry for Jack's mum) but the Go-Betweens capture some of the Beat spirit - with beats.
More critique than tribute, yet somehow perfectly fitting for the work and reputation of the writer in question...
Woke up this morning and it seemed to me, that every night turns out to be A little more like Bukowski. And yeah, I know he's a pretty good read. But, God, who'd wanna be? God, who'd wanna be such an asshole?
Lou recorded a double album of songs based on the writings of the master of the macbre, including a dark reworking of Perfect Day.
These are the stories of Edgar Allan Poe Not exactly the boy next door The diabolic image of the city and the sea The chaos and the carnage that reside deep within me Decapitations, poisonings, hellish not a bore You won't need 3D glasses to pass beyond this door
The top male author on my list (yes, equality fans, my top three songs are all about women writers!) is also one of my own personal favourites. Chandler struggled with his reputation as a "pulp" writer, desiring instead the recognition of a "serious" novelist. History has judged him far more fairly, with many critics now treating him with almost the same respect as Fitzgerald or Hemingway. Personally, I'd rather re-read Chandler than either of those, much as I enjoyed Gatsby and The Old Man & The Sea. There's something about the classic 40s L.A. noir of Philip Marlowe that provides perfect escapism... and Chandler's much funnier than any of his more revered contemporaries.
Robyn Hitchcock's tribute was quoted word for word in a famous sequence from Jim O'Barr's comic The Crow.
See also Raymond Chandler Said by Michael Anderson... if you can find it anywhere online.
As literary girlfriends go, Sylvia Plath strikes me as the sort of woman you'd fall for as a miserable teenager. Being much older than that, I'd steer well clear, no matter how much Ryan Adams might romanticise her...
A night on the town with Dorothy Parker, on the other hand, would surely be a blast (though she'd probably cut you down to size in the process). She even makes Prince take a bubble bath with his pants on. (That may be a euphemism... one, I'm sure, Ms. Parker would approve of.)
1. Little Green Cars - Harper Lee
I only recently discovered this band but I've fallen in love with this particular song and quite a few others from their debut album. If I had to describe them, I'd say they sounded like an Irish Fleet Foxes, though others might churlishly compare them with the Mumfords. Lyrically they're far more interesting than either, as demonstrated by their excellent "tribute" to the author of To Kill A Mockingbird.
I put mice in the kitchen to see if you’d kill them
Oh no, you let them live now there’s twelve thousand kids
Oh yeah, you let them breed now I’ve got mouths to feed
Oh yeah, you let them stay now they have taken my place
Oooh yeah, you left them alone now they’re eating our home...
Maybe that was the unpublished plot of Lee's second novel? She was probably right to quit while she was ahead... To Kill A Mockingbird has been an influence on more than one rock band, however... just ask the aforementioned Boo Radleys, for a start!
Sorry I didn't post a Top Ten last week. I was too busy being a dad, being a teacher, being a constant pain in Louise's neck etc. etc. to be a blogger. Here's ten great songs beginning with the verb 'To be...'
...well, you just know that ain't gonna end well. Full credit to B.A. though: that sucker actually finds some even worse rhymes as this creaky 70s classic progresses. It's As You Like It, you know.
Too Good To Be Forgotten... as Amazulu once had it. Though, shockingly, this one appears to have fallen off the radar completely. Not even on youtube! A crime.
Ryan's debut solo effort begins with an Argument With David Rawlings Concerning Morrissey... which is exactly what it says on the tin. Once that's out of the way, this song starts the album proper... and in many ways, Mr. Adams has yet to better it.
And there's no more swimming in a guitar shaped pool
No more reporters at my beck and call
No more cocaine it's only ground chalk
No more taxis now we'll have to walk
I make no secret of my profound admiration for Mad Billy McMad. Here he covers (and changes the title) of William Bell's 60s soul classic I Forgot To Be Your Lover to the point that it's unrecognisable, all the while doing his trademark punk-Elvis impression in a boxing ring with the cast of C.A.T.S. Eyes on backing vocals. He even ropes a human version of Rowlf from the Muppets in to play the piano. They don't make 'em like Billy anymore, and that's a sad loss to the entertainment industry.
He said: "Son, I brought you here to dream Life's not what the world would have it seem The call of the wild makes you a believer I brought you into this world... to be a dreamer."
Been listening to this a lot lately, and it keeps making me cry. What a sentimental old fool Sam's dad is.
When I got the idea for this Top Ten, I figured Nils would be top dog. But, of course, I'd forgotten this...
Another one that rarely fails to reduce me to a sobbing wreck on the carpet: particularly as featured in the movie it was written for, Winged Migration. (It's a documentary about birds, but you don't have a heart in your chest if it doesn't ache for what our feathered friends put themselves through every year for a "holiday".)
1. Nick Cave - To Be By Your Side
Another one that rarely fails to reduce me to a sobbing wreck on the carpet: particularly as featured in the movie it was written for, Winged Migration. (It's a documentary about birds, but you don't have a heart in your chest if it doesn't ache for what our feathered friends put themselves through every year for a "holiday".)
To be a commenter or not to be a commenter: that is the question...
Epica are described as a "Dutch Goth Metal Band", but for the first 2 and a
bit minutes they just sound like Kate Bush fans. Then the devil voice
kicks in... although only in short doses. I quite like this: it is
sufficiently mental to maintain my interest for nearly 7 minutes. Jim
Steinman would be proud. Plus, lead singer Simone Simons is a very
pretty lady with the voice of angel. Also, unlike most of the songs on this Top Ten, this one sounds like an ACTUAL AVALANCHE!
New Thea Gilmore album just out - good to see it getting so much attention. I haven't got my copy yet, but only because I'm skint. Thea's long been one of my favourite female singer-songwriters.
1. Leonard Cohen - Avalanche
We need more songs about hunchbacks in love. No, really, we do.
I myself am the pedestal
for this ugly hump at which you stare.
From the soundtrack to Highlander. As with Flash Gordon, Queen had a habit of recording soundtrack records that were far better than the movies they became attached to.
When I was 16, I thought this record ROCKED SO HARD. The video, however, is an exercise in restrained subtlety and minimalism.
But as stupendous as the video for 'Princes of the Universe' is, it cannot compete with the b-movie genius of 'Intergalactic', possibly the Beastie Boys' finest moment.
Every now and then, I find myself rejoicing in the fact that myspace still exists. Couldn't find this one on youtube... but good old myspace - it's not just there for people trapped perpetually in 2005.
I think they’re fireworks, but they might be gunshots
They look like fireworks, but ring out like gunshots
I hope they’re fireworks, but they burn like gunshots
So bring on the fireworks
And let loose the gunshots
Download this excellent song for just fifty of your English pennies from Bandcamp. You know it makes sense.
OK, so strictly speaking Bonfire Night isn't in October. But if it was, this would be the perfect theme.
I always remember as a teenager finding November 5th a tremendously lonely night. One of those nights where all the cool lads with girlfriends hugged them in the light of the bonfire... and I just stepped closer and closer to the flames to keep warm. In 1990, I would be have been 18, so this record is pretty much bang on.
Look, I would post the Elvis Costello original, but I can't find a decent (non-live) version of it on youtube. Still, Nick Lowe also does a good job of Costello songs... and vice-versa.
You were the spice of life
The gin in my vermouth
And though the sparks would fly
I thought our love was fireproof
Sometimes we'd fight in public darling
With very little cause
But different kinds of sparks would fly
When we got on our own behind closed doors
Look, if you don't think Embrace are the very definition of the last three letters in their name, this song will prove you wrong. Why argue? 1.Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine - Born On The 5th of November
Carter write a love song - shock! And it's really quite beautiful... but that's what fireworks are for.
There was November in your eyes
There'd be no pennies for the guys
There were fireworks over London
But you weren't among them anymore...
Those are the songs I'll be hearing as the fireworks erupt over Top Ten Towers tonight... but which one is your sparkler?
Brett
Anderson's songwriting has always combined glitter and grubbiness, so
an ode to the capital city of both seemed inevitable.
9. Kasey Chambers - Hollywood
Kasey laments the fact that real life ain't like the movies. A cliche, perhaps... but that voice!
One of the more interesting new records I've discovered this year comes from ex-Fleet Fox J. Tillman aka Father John Misty. This is a standout track from his debut album (as FJM), Fear Fun.
Comic book fan David Gedge obviously didn't think Hollywood's version of Spider-Man measured up to the one he read as a kid. And of course, he turns that into a metaphor for disappointing relationships.
Look, if you don't like Billy Joel... you don't like music. The Phil Spector-esque production on this BJ classic proved irresistible to Phil's ex, lead Ronette Ronnie Spector who went on to record her own version... with a little help from the legendary E Street Band.
Sometimes side projects prove more exciting than an artist's day job. Codeine Velvet Club was the brainchild of lead Fratelli Jon Lawler and Glasgow club singer Lou Hickey. The male/female harmonies and big 60s production numbers they created on the band's 2009 debut album promised great things... though sadly, it doesn't seem they're destined to work together again.
1. Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band - Hollywood Nights
One of beardy-Bob's bristling best.
In those Hollywood nights
In those Hollywood hills
She was looking so right
In her diamonds and frills
All those big city nights
In those high rolling hills
Above all the lights
She had all of the skills
