Music to my ears (part 2)...

Further to my earlier list of songs and their reasons for influencing me, here's the next instalment:

Blondie (The Tide is High) - Because which teenage lad wasn't influenced by the luscious Debbie Harry?

Bob Dylan (Maggie's Farm) - The Poet Laureate, IMO. Good enough to receive the award, humble enough to turn it down.

Boston (Party) - Because everyone loves a good rock and roll party song. Many other Boston tracks could be listed here. I have memories of cruising down to the local beach in a friend's VW bug, Boston blaring out of my Hitachi boombox bought with my first salary cheque.

Boz Scaggs (What Do You Want the Girl to do?) - My first blues rock influence. Thanks, dad! And I still listen to the Silk Degrees album regularly, by far his best, IMO.

Bryan Adams (When You're Gone) - Another love lost...{sigh}...

Canned Heat (On the Road Again) - My favourite Woodstock track.

Carly Simon (Nobody does it better) - Smooth vocals.

Cee Lo Green (Bright Lights Bigger City) - Grate dance track with an excellent beat. Crank it.

Chicago (If You Leave Me Now) - Memories of slow dances with the girls at the club in the mid-1970s.

Chris Cornell (Arms Around Your Love) - Lonely times sitting in Dubai on project.

Chris Cornell (Billie Jean) - Yep, that Billie Jean. This version is raunchy, unlike MJ's bubblegum version. Crank it for goosebumps.

Chris Spedding (Motorbikin) - Influenced by my Uncle James when we went back to Scotland on holiday in 1975.

Christina Aguilera (Beautiful) - Sad song, but so much meaning to the lyrics. Phenomenal voice.

Coheed and Cambria (Ten Speed Of God's Blood and Burial) - Awesome rock track, stunning guitar riffs, sung by the guy with the biggest hair in Rock n Roll.

Cold Play (Sparks) - Heard for the first time somewhere in the Madagascar Channel on a boat, sailing to Zanzibar. Also gave M this album for her 40th birthday and she went searching the tracks for a hidden message... I thought it was obvious...

The Cranberries (Zombie) - RIP, Dolores. you were brilliant.

Crash Test Dummies (Swimming in your Ocean) - It's not often that you have to explain to your dad that he is singing about making love to a woman, but in this case I did...

Creed (With Arms Wide Open) - My favourite drunk karaoke song. I rock it.

Crowded House (Fall at your Feet) - First band I ever saw live, Standard Bank Arena Johannesburg, somewhere in the mid-1980s. Brilliant stage show.

Dance With a Stranger (African Road) - Underrated band, disappeared early in their career.

Dave Matthews Band (What Would You Say) - SA-born, moved to the USA in "protest" of conscription (chickened out, more likely). From his best album, IMO, "Under the table and Dreaming".

David Bowie (Aladdin Sane) - Memories of that first love, which also led to the eventual birth of my "Babe".

Dead or Alive (You Spin me Round) - Solo dancing on the floor at Nello's disco, Durban, mid-1980's. Entrance cost you ten bucks, your alcohol was free, you just had to pay for the mixers. Good times. Drunk times.

Deep Purple (Child in Time) - Ian Gillan's vocals were next level. Too many other DP tracks could be listed here too.

Del Amitri (It Might As Well Be You) - A track for future love.

Depeche Mode (Policy of Truth) - There are just waaaaay too many DM tracks I could list here. They are my favourite band of the New Wave era, and they have stood the test of time though there were a couple of hiccups along the way. There are always a large number of DM tracks on my New Wave playlist.

DNCE (Cake By The Ocean) - Great dance track. Crank it.

Dougie MacLean (Ae Fond Kiss) - Stunning version of Robert Burns' poem, sung by Scotland's favourite poet.

Duran Duran (Hold Back The Rain) - New Wave influence. Possibly one of their catchier tracks off the Rio album.

Dusty Springfield (Fine, Fine, Very Fine Love) - Debatably the finest female vocalist ever, sensual, perfectly in tune.

Edith Piaf (La Vie en Rose) - The best of her time. The rolling of the R's in typical French manner. And another love lost... {face palm}...

And that's me onto the E's already. Let's leave the list there for now...

Look after yourselves out there, folks. Be kind to each other...