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The ones that never date...

Bryan Burnett | 20:02 UK time, Tuesday, 18 October 2011

One theme that has always stood out for me was the one we did about songs that are out of date or no longer relevant. They included things like Telegram Sam, Free Nelson Mandella and C30,C60,C90 Go.

I suppose tomorrow night's theme is the opposite as I'll be asking you to suggest the songs that are still as relevant now as the day they were released.

Politically charged tunes like Streets of London and One in Ten will be popular but there are plenty of love songs whose message still counts today.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    Radio Gaga - Queen

  • Comment number 2.

    This was written in 1996 so not that old but 100% relevant, a favouritolen.e of my good friend Scotch Git

    Iris DeMent - Wasteland of the Free

    Superb song.

  • Comment number 3.

    #1

    Eric,

    I can't believe they played "Message in a Bottle" AGAIN!!!

    It's been played almost as often as "Hanging on the Telephone"

    Nae wunner Ah drink!


    >8-D

  • Comment number 4.

    #2

    Norrie,

    Happy to lend my support!

    :o)

  • Comment number 5.

    WEDNESDAY


    Still Gonna Die
    - Old Dogs ~ Some things never change. Gotta have a laugh!

    ;o)


    Who's Next? - Tom Lehrer ~ The ongoing nuclear arms race. Gotta have a laugh!

    ;o)


    All I Can Do is Write About It - Lynyrd Skynyrd

    Ronnie Van Zant was environmentally aware before it became trendy! The acoustic version, please, from the All Time Greatest Hits album.

    :o)

  • Comment number 6.

    #3

    The sad thing is only the clinically dead would be unable to dance to it.

  • Comment number 7.

    For an age old problem send for Dr. Clap MD - Ivor Biggin

  • Comment number 8.

    'Identity' ~~ X-Ray Spex

    ... it's a price you still have to pay ...

  • Comment number 9.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 10.

    An upbeat song from 1972...

    'Be Thankful For What You've Got' - William DeVaughn

  • Comment number 11.

    SG - happy to second Skynyrd (#5). Also:
    My way - Sinatra
    Jacob's ladder - Springsteen
    This land is your land - Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings
    Every time we say goodbye - Ella Fitzgerald
    I fall to pieces - Trisha Yearwood/Aaron Neville
    Will you love me tomorrow - Carole King
    Superstition - Stevie Wonder

    Joe
    Linlithgow

  • Comment number 12.

    Rat Trap by the Rats - the great use of words to describe parts of today's society:

    He says the traps have been sprung long before he was born
    He says "hope bites the dust behind all the closed doors
    And puss and grime ooze from its scab crusted sores
    There's screaming and crying in the high rise blocks"

    'nuff said.



    Paul in China

  • Comment number 13.

    A seventeenth hot dart…

  • Comment number 14.

    #12

    There can be nothing worse than feline parasites

  • Comment number 15.

    Ìý
    You'll have had your flea...

  • Comment number 16.

    I suppose it's better than pus in boots.

  • Comment number 17.

    Ìý
    In China, cats are lucky. I refer, of course, to

  • Comment number 18.

    Ìý
    Theme suggestion:- (Inspired by #12)


    We've had Story Songs

    The time has come for Multistorey Songs


    >8-D

  • Comment number 19.

    FRIDAY


    Fred MacAulay is on The News Quiz

  • Comment number 20.

    The Jam - Smithers-Jones

    Come in Smithers old boy
    Take a seat, take the weight off your feet
    I've some news to tell you
    There's no longer a position for you
    Sorry Smithers-Jones

  • Comment number 21.

    The Tubes - What Do You Want From Life?

    A satirical song about consumerism and celebrity culture. Sound familiar?

  • Comment number 22.

    Teenage Love doesn't really change
    * Billy Bragg - The Saturday Boy
    * Billy Bragg - A Lover Sings
    * The Saw Doctors - Red Cortina
    * The Saw Doctors - D'ye Wanna Play My Guitar
    * Mark Knopfler - Secondary Waltz

    Parenthood doesn't really change either:
    * Loudon Wainwright III - Bein' a Dad

    Mind you, teenage unemployment is just as relevant now as it was in 1983:
    * Billy Bragg - To Have and Have Not

  • Comment number 23.

    The Housemartins - Flag Day

  • Comment number 24.

    Rock And Roll Is Here To Stay - Danny and the Juniors - Prescience from 1958, the year Ian Donald took ultrasound from the shipyard to the maternity ward

  • Comment number 25.

    All written in days of yore but I think would still stand up today.

    Sweet Freedom / Michael McDonald

    The Living Years / Mike & The Mechanics

    Atmospherics Listen To The Radio / Tom Robinson

    This Is The Day / The The

    Jocelyn Square / Love & Money

    Live To Tell / Madonna

    Al.

  • Comment number 26.

    Looked through a playlist I put together for my girls, for my suggestions. Cos when you are 10 and 12 you know everything there is to know and yer auld man can tell you nothing!!... but if you hear it in a song, it MUST be true... (There's more than one way to skin a cat!)

    Only mild apologies for digging out some (predicatable?) choices

    Company Of Friends: Danny Schmidt
    Masters Of War: Bob Dylan
    The January Man: Christy Moore
    You've Got A Friend: James Taylor
    At Seventeen: Janis Ian
    Days Like These: Billy Bragg
    Cat's In The Cradle: Harry Chapin
    The World Turned Upside Down: Dick Gauchan

  • Comment number 27.

    Still relevant today ...
    John Lennon's "Imagine"
    More relevant than ever; "Imagine no religion"

    Ian
    Gartcosh

  • Comment number 28.

    Just like Soviet Russia.

  • Comment number 29.

    Shoddy mail order service is still an issue today, so this will fit

  • Comment number 30.

    #27

    yep, I always thought 'Imagine no possessions' was the killer line.

  • Comment number 31.

    Lets Get Physical - Olivia Newton John


    Norrie is living blogging proof that this is still relevant.

  • Comment number 32.

    Conversely, as the recently canonised Steve Jobs said: 'I base my business philosophy on The Beatles'.

    What Steve was referring to was the greatest philosophical statement ever made.When you consider the now famous 'Stanford address' it is almost entirely drawn form this:

    All You Need Is Love - The Beatles

    Timeless positivity and wisdom - our political masters (and the IMF) should adopt it as a mantra (I have). These lads knew how to turn a few quid and everybody was sanguine and happy about it.

    regardez vous

    henri

    p.s. moral of the story - if you love what you do - it'll be really good. If it's really good people will still pay £13:00 for an album you made in 1963, in 2011 - and £157 for a box set.

    Even more egalitarian, an accompaniment to vegetarian,is that old hippie - Morrissey!

    The Smiths box set - £210:00.There's no one you can do that can't be done, as they say.

    regardez youse

    henri

  • Comment number 33.

    Mercy Mercy Me - Marvin Gaye

    Predictions of ecological disaster from What's Going On - in fact, there's proabably not a track on that album that doesn't fit this theme:

    Inner City Blues - Marvin Gaye works just as well.

    regardez youse

    henri

  • Comment number 34.

    £157?? you didnt buy the mono box then? or if you did you got it much cheaper than me!

  • Comment number 35.

    These are all old songs which are relevant today: ~


    BLOWIN’ IN THE WIND from THE FREEWHEELIN’ BOB DYLAN by BOB DYLAN

    THE SUN NEVER SHINES ON THE POOR from HOKEY POKEY by RICHARD AND LINDA THOMPSON

    NOTHING CHANGES from STRANGE TIMES by THE MOODY BLUES

    POLITICAL LIES from THE TEN OF SONGS by ROBIN WILLIAMSON

    HEROIN from THE VELVET UNDERGROUND AND NICO by THE VELVET UNDERGROUND

    WHEN THE LIE’S SO BIG from BROADWAY THE HARDWAY by FRANK ZAPPA

    DROOLING MIDRANGE ACCOUNTANTS IN EASTER HAY from QuAUDIOPHILLIAc by FRANK ZAPPA


    and Get It On fits right in to the sentiment behind the narrative at the end of the last song.

  • Comment number 36.

    Train In The Distance - Paul Simon

    a commentary on the complex lives we lead, still true now - the idea that things could be better refuses to die....

    Every Kinda People - Robert Palmer

    yep, in praise of persistence and integrity, which alone are omnipotant, a lesson society keeps on having to relearn.I preferred Dr Fox when he used to countdown the top 20.

    Blood On The Rooftops - Genesis

    This theme has had me revisiting old hippie albums: This comes from Genesis post hippie mythology late 70's mega stardom period, just as punk put the knife in. It's a really great track though about watching TV and deciding:

    ' let's skip the news, boy
    I'll make some tea
    The Arabs and the Jews, boy
    Too much for me'

    everything changes, everything stays the same....

    Wake Up Everybody - Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes

    'The world won't get no better if we just let it be - we gotta change it, girl, just you and me...'

    Written for a Presidential candidate's campaign, we now know it's all Harold Melvin's fault that the political class are now incapable of offering us anything except 'change'. De Facto, the promise of endless change is no change at all.

    that'll do for now...

    regardez youse

    henru

  • Comment number 37.

    I can't recall a more depressing set of requests. No half-baked, utopian, "feel my pain" scribbling has been overlooked.

  • Comment number 38.

    Oh and this can go on endless repeat: Won't Get Fooled Again - The Who

    ....O yes we will...

    Do Anything You Wanna Do - Eddie And the Hot Rods

    similar, but different.

    The Game - Dory Previn a song about Casinos. Of which we have quite a few now.... and then there's Casino banking.. if only Dory hadn't said 'deal me in' at the end, we'd be on the moral high ground, but hey, that's life.

    She Works Hard For the Money - Donna Summer

    Nothing changes...sounding very like my mother on this one..

    regardez youse

    henri

  • Comment number 39.

    #37 Thank you very much

  • Comment number 40.

    Oliver's Army - Elvis Costello & the Attractions. I think about this song every time I see one of those 'Join the Forces' types ads.

    Hard Rain - the Roxy Music version. A dire warning!

    Ghost Town - The Specials

    This town, is coming like a ghost town
    Why must the youth fight against themselves?
    Government leaving the youth on the shelf
    This place, is coming like a ghost town
    No job to be found in this country

    Sadly too true - but a great song!

  • Comment number 41.

    #37

    who? surely not me, faither?

    .... I'm all positve affirmation:-)) My natural exuberance just spills out all over the place:-))

    here's a few more...

    Don't Give Up - Peter Gabriel more relevant now, if anything..


    Stormy Weather - Etta James well, we live here, this is what we get.

    No Fish Today - Kid Creole how society really works..this is fabby!!!

    Luka - Suzanne Vega the story of too many children..

    What Is Life George Harrison still we have no scoobie..

    regardez youse

    henri

  • Comment number 42.

    welkom from amsterdaam.............well since its 4 decades since i've been here and one that has never dated and first heard here........ímagine'............john lennon.......which is a poignant reminder as i'm just bac'k from a visit to the ''anne frank huis''.........................cheers frae the dam

  • Comment number 43.

    #41

    And you don't exist

Ìý

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