70. Daft Punk is Playing At My House by LCD Soundsystem 2005

Just one of those songs the family and I like to jump up and down to when we get in the mood to dance. Also since it's release it quickly found a regular spot on my Robtober party list. Robtober? Back in the mid 90's I used to have a birthday month. I'd start with a BBQ round my house close to my birthday. Then I'd organise a Robtober softball match. Usually anyone who was first base usually ended up in hospital. then on Cup Eve my friend Lisa Martini and I would throw a birthday party in a nightclub. The Bank, Motel, whatever Ding Dong used to be. The Russian Bar under the Prince of Wales. These parties were always in November.

Sadly with the coming of kids Robtober kind of died. No more Cup Eve parties. And when I throw a birthday party now I usually hold back until November when the weathers warmer. And sometimes we get a dance going. But a lot of parties nowadays is about catching up.
One year Ronnie Williams came over and got people dancing in the garage.
And I still make my mixtapes or playlists. And I still look forward to dancing to this song. and I wonder if I ever will.

69. Know Your Product by The Saints 1978

When this song came out it blew a hole in my idea of what punk was. I thought their first single Stranded was great but didn't care much for the album. Then they came out with One Perfect Day and this song. The horns, the ad-libs and the sheer power of the song blasting out of my speakers. It also pointed me back towards my soul past and the Northern soul discos I frequented a few years before. I was a punk who loved sixties music. This pointed me in a good direction.

 In 1978 I was living just up the road from the Tote in Collingwood in a share house with bars on the window . I had a back room with windows with bars on the window but at least it was upstairs. The Tote was just a pub then.
Summer was brilliant there. We'd sit on the balcony drinking beer and listening to 3RRR playing all the new wave songs. Wellington Street was close to a few pubs so there were always people walking up and down the street which gave it a kind of vibe. Playing loud New wave/punk music was just showing off really.

68. Telstar by The Tornadoes 1962

I keep trying to figure out which song first got to me and apart from Little White Bull by Tommy Steele which I'd rather forget this is the earliest song I can remember. I can't hear it now without thinking of all those Gerry Anderson shows that came before Thunderbirds in particular Fireball XL5 and Stingray. (Four Feathers Fall was a puppet western so it doesn't count.) I would watch these shows regulary on our black and white telly in the living room. One night a new show started that actually scared the crap out of me. Doctor Who! But the scariest was The Outer Limits especially one about the Zanti Misfits which was ants with alien heads.

Anyway Telstar still holds up today and is far from a novelty hit. Produced by Joe Meek and released in 1962 it is so modern in a sixties fashion. I recall seeing Models do covering this song and doing a bloody good job of it too.
As for Fireball XL5 it featured Venus. If one could have a crush on a puppet she would be the one!

67. Ranking Full Stop by The Beat 1979

In January 1980 my girlfriend and I hire a car and drive up to Edinburgh from Blackpool to check out Scotland. Driving through the moors on a cold winter night was quite scary and at times it felt we were on another planet. We finally got to our destination which was a little bed and breakfast.
Digging out the NME to check for bands we notice The Purple Hearts, one of the new mod bands were playing at a club called Clouds. So off we went into the cold of the city.
Inside I'm given a hard time for drinking half pints by the local Scots who find this slightly feminine. Luckily I put on the Australian and manoeuvre away from the danger.
The Purple Hearts are great and do their "hit" Millions Like Us twice but what impresses me is the DJ who doesn't just play between bands but is the support act and actually compliments the act. It was an idea I brought back to use at our Mod nights at the Market Hotel. No crappy support act just good tunes.
Anyway this is what got me up to dance that night. I loved the sound of The Beat. Of all the ska bands I thought they actually took ska music somewhere different in their sound. This was the b-side of Tears of a Clown. One night we were watching Top of The Pops on TV when The Beat came on, then Madness then The Specials. Magic!

66. Marjorine by Joe Cocker 1969

At the age of 15 I started noticing girls in a big way. My first crush was Bernadette from Box Hill South. Then I met a Bernadette from Nunawading South. She lived in the new developments there. Her dad was a teacher. He made homemade ginger beer that he stored under the house and it tasted heavenly. Bernadette and I didn’t go out together. I went round her place and played Canasta, a card game she introduced me to.  She only seemed to have one record “Cocker Happy” the best of Joe Cocker. I never liked Joe Cocker but some of the songs started to get to me. This one especially.

She knew I liked her. We kissed a couple of times but I think she just enjoyed having boys competing over her. On New Years Eve she came to the party hand in hand with some dude with black cords and a black linen shirt. My time was up.

65. Badge by Cream 1969

When I was fifteen years old I crossed to the other side of Middlesborough Road and mixed with the Box Hill South gang. It was the first bunch of kids I hung around with that were a little bit wild.  It was the first time I tasted beer without lemonade. And it was time for my first real crush. Her name was Bernadette. I thought she was gorgeous. Trouble is everybody else liked her too. She was very popular. And the other guys were much cooler than I was.

One day I got my chance though. I dropped into see her when she was babysitting. She put Cream’s Greatest Hits on the record player. And we fumbled around on the couch. Every time the kids ran in we would jump up. The record player was automatic so every time it reached the end it would start again. I listened to that Cream ( just the first side) record 3 times in a row. I didn’t want to get off the couch and I didn’t want her to go either. Now I can’t hear this song without thinking of fumbling around on a couch with young catholic girl from the other side of Middlesborough Road. Never really saw her again after that.

64. When You Dance I Can Really Love by Neil Young 1970

 

In 1976 I was at a Youth Camp up in  Beaufort Victoria staying in tents. My friend Alan had just been to Thailand and he brought back all of these cassette tapes that he got for like 20 cents each. He had a panel van in which he had actually built a cassette rack above the windscreen. After the Goldrush was one of the tapes he brought along and for three days it was all we played. Released six years earlier and being a cool record to sit at the front of your stereo it was it's availability on cassette that took it out of the bedroom and out to the country. The album was full of great songs that we would sit round the bonfire and listen to. We were used to Harvest but this was so much better.

It was this song that did it for me though. Maybe it was Neil just going I need a break from the folk singer bit lets strap on an electric guitar and rock a little while. And rock he did. It also kind of gave me permission to put the word  “dance “ in my songs without being trivial, A few years later I was introduced to him at the Jump Club in Collingwood. He was wearing platform thongs. A true individual.