Neil McCormick's Great British Songbook includes "There is a Light" and "Please, Please, Please"

Interesting piece with short video. Neil McCormick, well-known music critic writing for The Telegraph, has compiled a Great British Songbook in response to the often-cited Great American Songbook.

He's picked out 100 songs: The Beatles, The Rollings Stones and Bowie obviously feature heavily but there's also English folk songs and standards, The Pogues, Anthony Newley, Kate Bush, Joy Division, Elvis Costello, Noel Coward, The Cure and a whole heap more. It's a great playlist and can be found on Spotify: spoti.fi/2M9dian

He has this to say about the two Smiths entries:
There is a Light That Never Goes Out – The Smiths (Marr, Morrissey), 1986
A classic by one of the greatest writing teams. Johnny Marr’s luminous gifts as a melodicist were pushed into strange realms by Morrissey’s unique lyricism.

Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want – The Smiths (Marr, Morrissey), 1984
Morrissey has rarely been so artless as he is here. The exquisiteness of the melody underlines the song’s direct plea for a change of fortune.

The whole article + video is well worth a look:

Neil McCormick's great British songbook: 100 homegrown hits - The Telegraph

This does not appear to be a 'Premium' article so should be accessible to all, but let me know if not and I can cut and paste.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
‘Bemoaning a barrage of media disinformation, it feels very much a song for our times’ should have been 1 from that top 10.
 
‘Bemoaning a barrage of media disinformation, it feels very much a song for our times’ should have been 1 from that top 10.
Yes, I would have re-jigged that top 10 slightly but I suppose it's impossible to be completely objective when compiling a list like this.
 
Yes, it’s always subjective. Only 2 of these songs in the top 10 would make my top 100 I think.
But nice effort nonetheless!
 
It's not a bad list but did they really have to put Ed Sheeran on it?

Ed. f***ing. Sheeran.
 
Morrissey was also the melodicist in The Smiths. Spellcheck just tried to change that word to malodious. Haha classic!
 
Yes, it’s always subjective. Only 2 of these songs in the top 10 would make my top 100 I think.
But nice effort nonetheless!
I'd agree with 20 of them. But The Cure have far better songs than Friday , such as Just Like Heaven, Pictures of You, Catch, 100 Years, Charlotte Sometimes, A Forest, Plainsong, etc.
Dare I say it but if I had to pick just one record to play on a desert island it would probably be a Cure record. Not sure where the electricity would come from though.
 

Trending Threads

Back
Top Bottom