A Year in Music - 1979

For reasons known only to myself (and other closet list makers) I have been putting together compilations based on particular years. This started in a round about way when, after a string of random songs on the ipod of more or less the same age, and with no hobbies or interests or friends to speak of, I decided to group some music by year, just for the sheer edge-of-seat, surf the internet / burn a cd crazy wildness of the thing.

As a starting point I chose 1979. Don't ask me why. The lists, of course, only consist of things I would listen to. There are ridiculous omissions, whole genres ignored, but they are true to the year they purport to be. Some years seem ridiculous in the amount of decent music released, while others are dusty barren tumbleweed strewn wastelands (1986 springs to mind).

My starting year, or year zero, is 1979, and there are far too many decent songs to choose from. It was year zero for Britain also, as Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister on May 4th, and nothing was ever the same again.

So, my 1979 top picks, interspersed with a couple of vids are

London Calling - The Clash
ELO - Don't Bring Me Down
AC/DC - If You Want Blood
Amii Stewart - Knock on Wood
The Charlie Daniels Band - The Devil Went Down to Georgia

Elvis Costello - Accidents will Happen
Joe Jackson - Is She Really Going Out With Him
Joy Division - She's Lost Control
Eddie Grant - Livin' on the Front Line

Madness - The Prince
Motorhead - Overkill
Rainbow - All Night Long
The Beat - Rankin Full Stop
Stiff Little Fingers - Alternative Ulster
Sugarhill Gang - Rappers Delight
The Cure - Killing an Arab
The Jam - Eton Rifles
The Undertones - Teenage Kicks
XTC - Making plans for Nigel