Saturday 9 February 2013

The Saturday List #34 - My top ten juke box tracks

If you love rock and roll, you love jukeboxes. You are never truly alone with a jukebox, because you will be joined in the room by your favourite musicians playing your favourite songs. Different moods require different music and great jukebox music has to be rock and roll (IMHO). A truly great Jukebox track is one that when someone else puts it on you think "Great, that has made my day". What greater feeling in the world is there than to stack up the jukebox, and share the moment with the one you love or the one you fancy the pants off. You scream the choruses at each other and if you get a snog at the end of it, then it's a perfect night ! With the advent of gastro pubs, we're seeing a decline in the traditional pub and the jukebox. Often jukeboxes are far too quiet. So what makes a really great Jukebox track? We've already established that it must be a rock and roll song. I believe it must be up tempo. There are also two subgenres of great Jukebox songs. Ther are ones to enjoy with your mates and ones to enjoy with the person you love/fancy (delete as appropriate).

A great example of a great jukebox track to enjoy with your mates is one like "My Generation" by The Who. With my bunch of mates, if the required number of beverages have been consumed and that comes on, we will all join in with the line "People try to put us down". A great example of a jukebox track to share with someone you love or fancy the pants off is the line in Rebel Rebel by Bowie at the end of the Chorus, where he says "Hot tramp, I love you so!". If they don't swoon in your arms when you sing that to them, then you are with the wrong person!

So anyway, here's my top ten Jukebox tracks

1. I Love Rock and Roll - Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
2. My Generation - The Who
3. She Sells Sanctuary - The Cult
4. 20th Century Boy - T. Rex
5. Should I stay or Should I go - The Clash
6. You Really Got Me - The Kinks
7. Born to be Wild - Steppenwolf
8. Satisfaction - The Rolling Stones
9. Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nrirvana
10. Gimmee All Your Lovin  - ZZ Top

It's quite funny really. In researching this, I came across some truly bonkers suggestions from people who've compiled their lists. I know it's all down to musical taste, but by definition a jukebox should be somewhere that you are out to enjoy yourself and have a few beers! Suggestions such as "One in ten" by UB40 are guaranteed to make you feel miserable, why would anyone pick that.  Another one which perplexed me was "I Will always love you" by Whitney Houston. How on earth can you join in the chorus of that, unless you are Whitney? These mugs just don't get it.

Here's an idea for a night out or two.Time Out printed a list of the top ten London Jukeboxes - http://now-here-this.timeout.com/2012/11/05/londons-top-ten-jukeboxes/ - We have the list, we have the jukeboxes - what are we waiting for !

2 comments:

caroline said...

My favourite jukebox moment was when I went into a pub in, I think, Cambridge and Roadrunner by Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers was on. I enjoyed it so much I played it again, and again,and again. By the fifth play the pub had polarised into the people who were enjoying it and the people who weren't.
I believe on the sixth play I was asked to leave :)

Morris Hickey said...

Rog

My tastes in music are quite different from yours. There are literally many dozens of works that I could say embrace my favourites. You can get an impression of the range from my Blogger details. At this stage I would mention the following, in no particular order of importance:

Mendelssohn: Violin concerto in E minor, opus 64.

Mozart: Symphony 41 in C major ("The Jupiter")K551; clarinet concerto in A major K622; Cosi fan tutte, K585; The Magic Flute, K620; The Marriage of Figaro, K492.

Schubert: Symphony 9 in C major ("The Great"), D944.

Saint Saens: Symphony 3 ("The Organ") opus 78.

Haydn: Trumpet concerto in E flat; The Creation.