Music was my first love …

… and it will be my last, or something like that.

I was sitting with some friends some time ago, and somehow we started talking about music. In a very Nick Hornby High Fidelity we soon started to make top 5 all time records lists. Not as easy as it sounds since … well there is too much music and too little time. I tried, I really did, but once the brain starts working, it never stops. Meaning once I had finished my top 5 list, I started remembering records (or CDs) that ought to be on the list or at least runner-ups. I’ll put my list – or lists, since I really have two, a long and a short term list – beneath. They are both in no particular order and one has more than five entries.

Long-term all time favourite records (those that I have known for a long time and still enjoy to listen to regularly): Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys (or really by Brian Wilson, but that is another story); Berlin by Lou Reed – a both beautiful and sad love story; The Velvet Underground and Nico by the Velvet Underground – because it is raw and that is what you hear; either Rubber Soul or Sgt. Peppers by the Beatles – can’t really decide which I like more, depends on time of day and year and …; and finally, either Songs of Love and Hate or New Skin for the Old Ceremony by Leonard Cohen – which are both beautiful in their own way. (Runner-ups: Bat out of Hell by Meat Loaf; The River by Bruce Springsteen; some old David Bowie stuff; some old Rolling Stones records; Pink Floyd; Bob Dylan; Songs for Drella, New York and The Blue Mask by Lou Reed; and I could go on and on, which I won’t)

Short-term all time favourites records (here and now, and other than long-term): Batten the Hatches by Jenny Owen Youngs – because she is funny and really there would not be as much “JOY” in my life otherwise; Soviet Kitsch by Regina Spector; Till the Sun Turns Black by Ray Lamontagne – because of the wonderful music, lyrics and especially the horn and string sections in his music; O by Damian Rice – well, I seem to be on a folk/folk-rock music trip right now and Damian started it with his wonderful music.

I could make other categories – but then this would go on forever. Thelonius Monk, Louis Armstrong, Quincy Jones and Getz/Gilberto would be on my Jazz-list. Die Ärzte, Fettes Brot and Herbert Grönemeyer would be on  my German-music list. Tobias Trier, Kim Larsen, Dicte, Randi Laubek and TV2 would be on my Danish-music list. And here I’ll stop.