A meme from Psychochicken, in which you have to list your ten most played artists, then answer some random questions about each one.
You’re supposed to base this on which artists feature most in your iTunes or last.fm playlist, but I play all my music by putting CDs into the stereo. So this list is very much a guess, based on what albums have been getting a lot of plays in the last few months.
- Marillion
- Porcupine Tree
- Mostly Autumn
- The Reasoning
- Fish
- Rush
- Blue Oyster Cult
- Within Temptation
- Thereon
- Rainbow
What was the first song you ever heard by 6?
Can’t actually remember. My first encounter with Rush’s music was from a college friend that played me their live album “All the World’s a Stage”. So it was probably ‘Bastille Day’, the opening track on the album.
What is your favorite album of 2?
“Fear of the Blank Planet”, their latest. An amazing piece of work that manages to combine all the best elements of all their earlier work. The fact that one or two tracks are vaguely reminiscent of Dream Theater is a feature, not a bug.
What is your favorite lyric that 5 has sung?
I’m more of a ‘music’ person than a ‘lyrics’ person, which makes it difficult to choose a lyric without it being coloured by whether or not I really like the song musically. But Fish has written some great lyrics in his time, both acidic political stuff, and heart-on-sleeve personal ones. Let’s go for one of the former, ‘Big Wedge’.
I found a new religion yesterday
I’d just cleared immigration JFK
A priest got in a Cadillac
The shoeshine boys sang gospel
And God and his accountants drove away
You’ll see him coast to coast on live TV
In a stadium rocked by Satan just the night before
The collection from the faithful it is tax free
It will pay for his presidential campaign and his yacht
How many times have you seen 4 live?
Twice, once at the Uplands Tavern in Swansea, once at the Limelight Club in Crewe
What is your favourite song by 7?
‘Astronomy’, especially the live version from the album “Some Enchanted Evening” with that superb solo from Buck Dharma. Incredible combination of atmospherics and hard rock, with wonderfully high wierdness lyrics. Frustrating that I’ve seen the band live five times and have yet to hear it live; they’ve always played it on other dates on the same tour, but their rotating setlists catch me out everytime. Bah!
What is a good memory you have involving the music of 10?
Hearing ‘Eyes of the World’ on Nicky Horne’s late night show “Your Mother Wouldn’t Like It” on Capital Radio. That was the one song that turned me on to symphonic hard rock, and made me realise there was a lot else out there than the rather one-dimensional new-wave stuff that was all the fashion at the time.
Is there a song of 3 that makes you sad?
Would have been “Find the Sun”, except that knowing how the story ends doesn’t leave me feeling sad any more. Then the intro of “Heroes Never Die” brings a lump to my throat every time I hear it, but that’s not a complete song. So I’ll go for”Half the Mountain”.
How did you get into 3?
I first bought their album “The Last Bright Light” after hearing ‘Half the Mountain’ on a magazine cover disk. But it wasn’t until two years later when I first saw them live that everything clicked, and my life has never quite been the same since.
What was the first song you heard by 1?
Can’t actually remember. First time I heard any of their music was the 1981(?) Reading Festival, before they’d released anything on record, and I don’t remember the setlist. “Forgotten Sons” was the one that stuck in the mind, though.
What is your favorite song by 4?
Presumably their superb live version of Karnataka’s ‘Talk to Me’ is disqualified on the grounds that this meme is about recordings rather than live performances. And their album “Awakenings” is so full of great songs that no single one really stands out. I’ll go for ‘Fallen Angels’ since it’s the one that keeps getting stuck in my head.
How many times have you seen 9 live?
Never. They’re one of these bands that seldom tours the UK, and when they do come over here it’s just a one-off date in London.
What is a good memory you have involving 2?
Seeing them live at Preston last month.
Is there a song of 8 that makes you sad?
Can’t think of one off the top of my head.
What is your favorite album of 5?
Difficult one; although his career’s had it’s ups and downs, there have been several good ones over the years. I think “Raingods with Zippos” is my current favourite.
What is your favorite lyric that 3 has sung?
Now, I’ll readily admit that Mostly Autumn are not really about deep and meaningful lyrics; they’re very much about music first and lyrics second. But there’s something about the apocalyptic imagery in “Fading Colours” that’s appealed to me enough to use it as inspiration for an space opera RPG character.
They tore the rudders from our ships
And turned the forests inside out
The broke the ladders
That took us to the moon
And pulled the anchors from the sky
Yes, that’s where the collapsing beanstalk elevator from Gavilan comes from. The song also explains why on this forum I’m nowhere near Telford anymore, not even over the rainbow.
What is your favorite song of 1?
One song? That’s impossible!
What is your favorite song of 10?
‘Eyes of the World’, as previously mentioned.
How many times have you seen 8 live?
Never. They played Manchester a couple of months back, but it sold out too quickly.
What is your favorite album of 1?
They’ve done many great albums, and their best ones are so different from each other that they’re hard to compare. But I always keep coming back to “Brave”.
What is a great memory you have considering 9?
Not having seen the band live, I don’t have any really strong memories. I do remember discussing their music with someone wearing a Thereon t-shirt at a Karnataka gig in Manchester.
What was the first song you heard by 8?
‘Intro’, the opener from “The Silent Force’. One of those tracks with vocals but no lyrics, so whether it really qualifies as a ‘song’ is questionable. But it’s still great, with that sweepingly cinematic choral intro followed by Sharon den Adel’s soaring soprano vocal. Not bad for something of less than two minutes in length.
” in it’s entirity. That’s one of my favourite Fish era Marillion albums, and marked the point where they left the ghost of Gabriel-era Genesis behind for good. Although it was to be the last album Fish recorded with Marillion, it seems to me that it set the template both for Fish’s subsequent solo career, and the music Marillion produced after Fish. While I’d like to hear more of Fish’s lengthy solo back catalogue, it will still be great to hear CaS live again.