Friday, 1 August 2008

Great Britain Vs The USA


Here's a hypothetical situation for you all. You're about to be dumped on a desert island for, say, 3 years. Don't worry, there'll be plenty of Food & Drink, Cigarettes and hunky men / scantily clad women for you. But here's the bad news, you can only take your entire record/CD collection from one of these 2 countries. Tough isn't it? So what's it going to be. 3 years without the Beatles. No Dylan or Velvets for 36 months. Choice is yours...
Obviously other countries make great music, so don't pull me up on that, unless you really have to.. And before I go, my stance? Well, obviously I love the Beatles. But there's a lack of any decent Soul or Jazz from over here. AND I believe I could listen to Big Star all day every day. And then there's Motown.. And Nuggets vol1 is better than vol 2. So, even though I'm a Brit, there'll be no flag waving here. It's one-nil to the States...

  1. The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour
  2. The Rolling Stones - Jumping Jack Flash
  3. The Clash - Train In Vain
  4. Sex Pistols - God Save The Queen
  5. Led Zeppelin - Communication Breakdown
  6. David Bowie - Rock 'N Roll Suicide
  7. Zombies - Friends Of Mine
  8. The Who - Happy Jack
  9. Syd Barrett - Dark Globe
  10. Small Faces - My Minds Eye
  11. The Jam - A Bomb In Wardour Street
  12. Blur - Sunday Sunday
  13. The Kinks - Autumn Almanac
  14. Donovan - Colours
  15. The Smiths - Panic
  16. PJ Harvey - Good Fortune
  17. The Cure - Love Song
  18. Roxy Music - Street Life
  19. Joy Division - Isolation
  20. Radiohead - Idioteque
  21. The Stone Roses - Sally Cinammon
  22. Elvis Costello - New Amsterdam
  23. Jesus & Mary Chain - Far Gone & Out
  24. Kate Bush - The Sensual World
  25. Bert Jansch - Veronica
  26. Nick Drake - One Of These Things First

USA

  1. The Beach Boys - God Only Knows
  2. Velvet Underground - Rock And Roll
  3. Stooges - I Wanna Be Your Dog
  4. Big Star - Way Out West
  5. Nirvana - Pennyroyal Tea
  6. Bob Dylan - Positively 4th Street
  7. The Pixies - Debaser
  8. Yo La Tengo - Mr Tough
  9. Johnny Cash - Ring Of Fire
  10. REM - Pretty Persuasion
  11. Talking Heads - Wild Wild Life
  12. The Byrds - Ballad Of Easy Rider
  13. Chuck Berry - Back In The USA
  14. MC5 - Shakin' Street
  15. Ramones - Beat On The Brat
  16. Pavement - Trigger Cut
  17. Love - My Little Red Book
  18. Neil Young - Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
  19. Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
  20. Wilco - Can't Stand It
  21. Elvis Presley - I Slipped, I Stumbled, I Fell
  22. Sly & The Family Stone - Everyday People
  23. Al Green - Tired Of Being Alone
  24. Aretha Franklin - I Say A Little Prayer
  25. Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit
  26. Woody Guthrie - Car Song

5 comments:

Doowad said...

God knows I'm not a patriot (ex-patriate more like), but I have to go with the country that gave the world Dylan, Al Green, Woody, etc.

Finn said...

Easy peasy mate. American music (at least post '65) is the clear winner for me. Wishy washy acts like The Kaiser Chiefs etc would never get away with it in the states. Interestingly a lot of people from that side of the pond still seem to have a fixation with turgid drivel that we hear on everyday radio, dunno why and have always wondered. Seems to me that The Scots and the Welsh are the only ones inventing.The Irish scene is on its arse Fred excepted and the NME tabloidization of english music depresses me no end. Living without my Swedish fix is another matter entirely. God bless 'em.

Finn said...

Get on the Fred bus BTW before they get massive, no actually they sadly never will.

Rupert Cook said...

American music comes from slaves singing in the cotton fields, sounds kidnapped from Africa. Elvis reclaimed popular music for middle class whites. The Beatles borrowed it and improved on it and made pop music acceptable. The Beatles have had the biggest influence on pop music therefore we Brits win.

Scotland vs Sweden is more interesting.

Anonymous said...

absolute stunning compilation !
very good taste, thanks for this
one.