by Matt Barr

I have enough trouble with a top 20

Someday, I've said to myself occasionally since about 1987, I'm going to make a tape -- er, CD, now, of my 20 favorite songs of all time.

So I'm extremely impressed with this and its companion website. Ordering and annotating your 500 favorite songs? Cripes.

Because, see, what's kept me from making that CD is that I've never been able to come up with good criteria for what makes the list and what doesn't. Does a song have to be at least X years old, sort of like the waiting period for the Hall of Fame? 5:15 a.m. is a song on the new Mark Knopfler CD that I like a lot, and if I made a list of my top 20 songs, might it be on it, and if so, would I come back to that CD I made a year and a half from now and go "fwah?"

But five years, for example, is too long; Lonesome Day would be on the list, but not if I had a five-year waiting period.

Lately, by which I mean for a year and a half or two now, I've been making a mental note, or, sometimes, and out loud note to my wife if she's in the same room, when a song comes on that should merit top 20 consideration. I've been sort of on-the-fly compartmentalizing them: top five, 6-10, 11-15, 16-20. The main drawback to this you might be able to guess: I'm not writing any of it down.

So I applaud, am in awe even of, Michele's effort. It's a great idea. Maybe I can keep the droves of people who are already failing to read this blog away even more by using it as a medium for writing down when I have a "top 20" moment. I think I'll do that. I'll start with some obvious ones:

1-5: Romeo and Juliet, Dire Straits; I Will Never Be the Same, Melissa Etheridge
6-10: Lonesome Day, Bruce Springsteen; With or Without You, U2
11-15: Most of the Time, Bob Dylan; Prime Mover, Rush
16-20: Heavy Metal Drummer, Wilco; Heart Shaped World, Chris Isaak; The Boy Inside the Man, Tom Cochrane & Red Rider
21-25: Truth and Bone, Heather Nova; Scenes From an Italian Restaurant; Billy Joel

The good thing about slotting songs in a range of course is that it's easier to juggle once you get 20 (or more) in there.

UPDATE 12/22: Maybe it should be a top 25. In the 21-25 slot I suspect would be Truth and Bone by Heather Nova. I have added With or Without You (Con o Sin Ropa, to resurrect a 17-year old inside joke) to 6-10, though it may end up between 11-15, and Heart Shaped World, my favorite Chris Isaak song, in 16-20.

UPDATE 1/7: Added Prime Mover by Rush and I Will Never Be the Same by Melissa Etheridge.

UPDATE 1/13: Added The Boy Inside the Man and Scenes from an Italian Restaurant.

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