446. In Between Days by The Cure 1985

One of the best singles bands ever. For all the dark emotive stuff they do on their albums. For all their dark gothic fans. The Cure made a succession of classic pop singles in the Eighties.  Their greatest hits set is full of these brilliant pop songs. Where a lot of Best ofs contain album tracks their first one was just single after single.
Even when they got to their second best of album the first bunch of songs continues to be simply great.
I first heard this song at the Venetian Room in the heart of Melbourne. Ronny and Michael had this upstairs club in a pub which was very cool. Great stage. High DJ box. I even got to do a bit of DJing there myself and met Jason who would later come and help me start the Lizard Lounge. A lot of great bands played gigs there even though the place was quite small. The Go Betweens and The Church to name a couple. A totally brilliant gig. Little Murders played their final gig gig there too in 1985. We were talked into coming back and playing some bigger venues like the Prince of Wales and the Jump Club I guess to pay off bills. And we're still coming back. But that night at the Venetian is still a magical memory for me.
I've seen the Cure a few times. From playing little pubs in Melbourne on the same stages we played . Through to the huge Rod Laver Arena back in the 90s. Never got the same thrill as when I heard this song and others like it busting out of the record player though.

445. Gonna Hustle You by The Legendary Masked Surfers 1973

One of my favourite surf records ever. This song first came out years before as a Jan And Dean record until the shipment of records was halted because somebody actually woke up to what hustling some girl on the beach was all about. Subsequently they re-recorded the vocals and released it as New Girl in school. Jan and Dean fell out of fashion and Jan had a terrible car crash and that was that. Until 1973 when Dean Torrence and Brian Wilson went into the studio and recorded a bunch of tracks as the Legendary Masked Surfers.
Not a big surf fan I listened to Jan and Dean's music because Keith Moon of the Who said they were his favourite artists. So I checked them out. Some brilliant songs. Some slightly naff songs about grannies in hot rods. In 1973 they had a hit in Melbourne with Summer Means Fun as The LMS. I was riding my bike into Blackburn, crossing over Canterbury Road when this came on the transistor radio, My radio was tied to the front of my handlebars. A bike stereo you might say. DJs in those days did strange things. This DJ played Summer Means Fun and then bang into Gonna Hustle You. 3XY goes surf. Fantastic moment. And I was riding downhill, Warm weather, wind blowing my long hair back. It could of been Malibu. Unfortunately it was Nunawading.

444. These Boots Are Made for Walking by Nancy Sinatra 1966

well it would be a bit of an untruth to say I fell for this song back in the sixties when I was all cool  and groovy and iconic. But no. At the time I thought it was just a novelty song. It took the year 1977 and going to see the band The Boys next Door play as often as I could for me to love this song. I first heard of the Boys Next Door through Bruce Mine who the first time I went over to his place told me about the different punk bands already in Melbourne. But the roughest and toughest and the ones who meant it were The Boys Next Door. When I got to see them a few weeks later at a scout hall in Malvern I think I was knocked out by just how good they were. With a bunch of covers and a few of their own songs and a small crowd of punks and bystanders they just kicked down the doors. The next day my girlfriend was cutting my hair.
The band was all charisma. Especially Nick Cave. They did versions of I'm Eighteen, Andy Warhol (that was killer version of the Bowie song) and Boots. And they really kicked it with this one. The song just kept building up and up to a climax which doesn't appear on the original. Unfortunately it didn't quite work on their recorded version either. it came across, well, like a novelty song.
Nancy Sinatra's version still holds up though. And was a staple of the Rubber Soul night club. And the video once seen is not forgotten.

443. Statue of Liberty by XTC 1978

In 1977 there was a tidal wave of new bands springing up in England. In 1978 they just kept on coming. The amazing thing was not only just how good they were at the time but how good they sound now. And after the initial punk thrash of early punk (not that there was anything wrong with that)  the sounds we were hearing were increasingly diverse.
XTC have been a particular favourite of mine over the years. This was the first song of theirs I heard and it just sounded so cool coming out over the car radio one Sunday afternoon in Nunawading. With all this new music we had to find new radio stations. Luckily we were able to pick up Triple R way out there in the suburbs and we'd listen to it on Sunday afternoons when they seemed to play new music from the UK.
In my memory it seems that they played a lot of XTC.  Or maybe the sound was just perfect for radio. All tinny guitars and bleeps and heavy rhythm.
I was driving the crappy Datsun Bluebird. A carburettor held together with band aids and chewing gum. Terry towelling seat covers. Blue of course. A box on wheels. But when songs like this were blasting from the radio or from the cassette player we travelled on sound. And that was good enough.