1. A Day In The Life - The Beatles
2. Waterloo Sunset - The Kinks
3. Wonderwall - Oasis
4. God Save The Queen - Sex Pistols
5. Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
6. My Generation - The Who
7. Angels - Robbie Williams
8. Life on Mars? - David Bowie
9. Sympathy For The Devil - Rolling Stones
10. Unfinished Sympathy - Massive Attack
it's voted by a panel of 'industry experts' rather than the likes of you and me.
The Kinks need to be in any list of quintessentially English acts, andWaterloo Sunset is one of my favourites. A Day In The Life is very English, but we could equally choose other Beatles tunes like In My Life, or Paperback Writer, or almost anything from Revolver or Rubber Soul.
Wonderwall has been lambasted elsewhere on this blog, and I'll say nothing about Robbie Williams, but it's good to see Unfinished Sympathy on there - that's a timeless, classic record.
Two possible omissions spring to mind straight away - Ian Dury (pretty much anything by him, but let's say Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick) and Common People by Pulp. I would have thought Pink Floyd were another archetypal British group, and there could also be some two tone ska on the list, eg Baggy Trousers by Madness or Ghost Town by The Specials.
What about Kate Bush? Wuthering Heights is another record which owes nothing to the 12 bar American R&B heritage and could only have come out of this country.
There really should be some Smiths on there too...The Queen Is Dead:
"I said Charles, don't you ever crave
To appear on the front of the Daily Mail
Dressed in your Mother's bridal veil ?"
it's voted by a panel of 'industry experts' rather than the likes of you and me.
The Kinks need to be in any list of quintessentially English acts, andWaterloo Sunset is one of my favourites. A Day In The Life is very English, but we could equally choose other Beatles tunes like In My Life, or Paperback Writer, or almost anything from Revolver or Rubber Soul.
Wonderwall has been lambasted elsewhere on this blog, and I'll say nothing about Robbie Williams, but it's good to see Unfinished Sympathy on there - that's a timeless, classic record.
Two possible omissions spring to mind straight away - Ian Dury (pretty much anything by him, but let's say Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick) and Common People by Pulp. I would have thought Pink Floyd were another archetypal British group, and there could also be some two tone ska on the list, eg Baggy Trousers by Madness or Ghost Town by The Specials.
What about Kate Bush? Wuthering Heights is another record which owes nothing to the 12 bar American R&B heritage and could only have come out of this country.
There really should be some Smiths on there too...The Queen Is Dead:
"I said Charles, don't you ever crave
To appear on the front of the Daily Mail
Dressed in your Mother's bridal veil ?"
1 comment:
I would go as far as to say that Common People was the last great British pop single. Can't think of anything more recent that comes close.
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