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Quadrophenia (1979)
Crime, culture, music, identity, fashion? From family belonging to sheer survival, there are many reasons to join a gang, but how do you get out? From street kids to Mafia organisations, this huge and colourful subject has inspired many songs …
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Italian street harpist in 19th-century London
It’s time to take the show on the road and pick out videos of street music with all the spirit, authenticity and vivaciousness that comes from the passing setting, the spontaneity, urgency, oddness, originality or unexpected brilliance
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Just before the second plane hit the South Tower
Twenty years on from that most dramatic and tragic day of 9/11, from anger and outrage to soft, sensitive memorials, guest playlister Loud Atlas picks a poignant and sensitive set of lists from an outpouring of excellent nominations
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New York, 11th September 2001
Songs about the shock, panic, in remembrance, tributes, heroism, terrorism, consequences, conspiracy theories and how things bite back? This week, 20 years on, it’s time to try and capture memories and thoughts of this world-changing tragedy
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Robert Smith has already been kept up with songs that whisper
Rockabye? Close your eyes, but open your ears. This week let's expand the idea of the lullaby beyond children to any song that uses the term or encourages, whether loudly or softly, a state of drifting into the unconscious
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The look of 2020
Writing from a viral hotbed of Covid-19 lockdown - New York - guest playlister magicman recounts isolation, social chaos, cohesion, anger and laughter with his infectious collection of superb songs nominated by a global Song Bar audience
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Spring bluebells quietly getting on with it
Tranquillity, calm and serenity, or concentration, slow stirring, unrest, plotting and revolution? There are all kinds of quiet out there, and this week it’s time to explore these as described or captured in song lyrics
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Charles Mingus
It’s time to take the A Train and continue across the five boroughs on a musical journey. Inspired by last week’s topic, NY resident magicman takes us on fabulous tour of work recorded in, and capturing the spirit of the Big Apple
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There’s more than one way of having in ball in New York. The 1930s …
It’s the city of the world that never sleeps, but this week let’s explore what kind of music, particularly instrumentals, but also lyrics, capture the particular spirit, culture, feel and rhythms of its extraordinary five boroughs
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Help! A knockout moment from Muhammed Ali and the Beatles in 1964
Every picture tells a story, but this time let’s do it with songs inspired by, or about photographs or photography, and to help inspire here’s a selection of rare and usual shots to provoke memory, imagination, mystery and wonder
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It’s just a stage I’m going through: Bregenz Music Festival in Austria
Bars, basements, intimate, sweaty or large or legendary, forests, festivals, stratospheric stadia, snug pubs to prisons, caves to operatic amphitheatres, let's musically celebrate venues and spaces mentioned by, or associated with songs
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Land of hope? The Big Apple beckons
Bollocks to the ban. This week at the bar let's fly in the face of immigration policy ignorance and welcome everyone in – with musical tales of bravery against cruelty, and human spirit seeking its way to a better life
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Once in a lifetime? Felix Baumgartner takes one giant leap in 2012
There's nothing quite like the emotions or physical impact of first, formative experiences. From first sex to seeing New York to new sounds, revisit your innocence in song, and also any that try to say 'never again'
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A classic boring postcard. Or is it?
Billericay to Barrytown, Rock Creek Park to Reno, Solsbury Hill to Stonehenge, Warwick Avenue to Waterloo? Whether inside cafes, under station clocks or in a tiny box, suggest songs that take you to a specific or lesser-known place
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