SPOTIFY SUNDAY: Legal Downloads

This week's Spotify Sunday playlist has been selected by David Allen Green who is head of the media practice at Preiskel & Co. and legal correspondent for The New Statesman. Last year he was named as one of the leading innovators in technology and journalism by Journalism.co.uk and shortlisted for the George Orwell prize for blogging. You can follow him on Twitter HERE and find him on Facebook HERE.

I have never written about music before, and I hardly have the detailed knowledge to show off that other contributors to this series appear to have.  But here goes: some of my choice Spotify tracks, and what I have to say about each of them.
 
Clarinet Concerto – Aaron Copland   /   Pruit Igoe – Philip Glass
I fear I am one of those described by Thomas Beecham as not understanding classical music but liking the sound it makes. I am quite happy to live with that sneer: classical music should not be the preserve of the erudite or the pretentious. These are two classical pieces, both from the 20th Century, which show how great classical music did not die with Queen Victoria.
 
Can’t Help Singing – Deanna Durbin
I was a child of the 1970s. However, I spent a lot of time when growing up with my maternal grandparents, and so I was as familiar with the music of the 1940s and 1950s. Deanna Durbin, who I’m thankful is still with us, was a wonderful 1940s musical film star of the magnitude of Judy Garland.  She then retired suddenly in 1949 and went to live in obscurity in France. I choose this track as it is one I distinctly remember my much-missed granddad playing: I think he had rather a crush on her.
 
A Foggy Day – Ella Fitzgerald with Nelson Riddle & his Orchestra
I can never tire of hearing new live and recorded interpretations of this great jazz standard by George and Ira Gershwin – but the best take on it remains that of Ella Fitzgerald and Nelson Riddle. This is my favourite singer, singing my favourite song.

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It Ain’t Necessarily So – Paul Robeson
This is perhaps an obvious choice for both a Gershwin fanatic and an atheist, but it is the song that, for me, most demonstrates the awesome voice of Paul Robeson.

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Golden Brown – The Stranglers
I have never been stoned, and so it may well be that I have missed out on the best way of listening to this song.  Though it is (deservedly) the most famous of The Stranglers’ recordings, it is not really characteristic of my favourite band, and in different moods I can quite prefer ‘Strange Little Girl’, ‘Nice N Sleazy’, or ‘No More Heroes’.
 
New Rose – The Damned
I adore their notorious interpretation of ‘Eloise’, but this is what The Damned are about: it’s fun, energetic, and rather abrupt.
 
How Soon is Now? – The Smiths
Morrissey always tries so hard to be poignant and meaningful, with his free association approach to deep-sounding slogans, but it is Marr’s guitar playing that makes this such an incredible track. Morrissey could be singing a shopping list and this would still be one of the greatest records of all time.
 
Past Present and Future – Shangri-Las   /   Dry Your Eyes – The Streets
‘Past Present and Future’ is so powerful and haunting, even without the deft use of Beethoven. The lyrics are convincing – though saddening – about a woman’s honest attitude to a potential relationship:  a good counterpoint to the sentimental tosh one often has to put up with in ‘love songs’. It can be listened to alongside The Streets’ ‘Dry Your Eyes’ so as to grasp what most ‘romances’ can be like from both perspectives.

You can listen to the rest of the playlist HERE