Today's #CrucialTracks theme is #NittyGrittyDiveBar - songs that you might expect to hear in a dive bar. I've gone for Jeremy which, for some reason, sticks in my mind as something that would be playing while my friends and I sit and drink beers. One of my favourite Pearl Jam jams with relatively slow pacing, catchy riffs and viceral lyrics.

Tomorrow I'm going on vacation so this is appropriate musical fare.

I love this song, it conjures up holidays, beaches, coconuts and pina coladas in my mind.

It is one where you unfortunately have to separate the art from the artist though!

Today's entry is part of the TuneTuesday challenge on Mastodon. Today's theme is #NotMyCircusNotMyMonkeys or "circus related music"

I'm a big fan of Massive Attack and this track is great. It was used as the theme music for Idris Elba's Luther.

What song feels like a personal anthem right now?

Against the backdrop of current world affairs and the way the world works, I'm really feeling the rage recently!

Share a song that represents rebellion or freedom to you.

My first choice, and I imagine it's a common one, was Born in the USA by The Boss. However, I wanted to showcase Sam Fender who I'd opine is "the geordie Bruce Springsteen" in both style and lyrical depth. Hypersonic Missiles

Hypersonic Missiles is a modern protest song that celebrates the little wins in life. From wikipedia

Its main focus is on the world around the narrator, who is a complete tin foil hatter. They are convinced the world is on its last legs; they know that it is rife with injustice but feel completely helpless and lacking the necessary intelligence to change it while remaining hopelessly addicted to the fruits of consumerism. Amongst all the chaos is love and celebration, there is this glimmer of hope that runs through the song, a little notion that no matter what happens, these two people are gonna have a fucking good time regardless of the tyrants that run their world, and regardless of the imminent doom from these 'Hypersonic Missiles'.

In a world that's full of overwhelming injustice, where does one try to help? We start at home, in our communities. Those efforts ripple outwards!

What's a song with lyrics you didn't fully understand until you were older?

My dad used to play this song in the car all the time and I thought it was about a cool rock star who had everything he wanted. When I got older I realised it was more about how money doesn't buy happiness and the emptiness of fame and fortune.

What's a song that feels larger than life to you?

Don't look back is a brilliant demonstration of Boston's distinctive "wall of sound" where Tom Scholz layered multiple guitar tracks together to create this powerful driving force. I remember hearing this track for the first time about 20 years ago after telling my dad I liked "More than a Feeling" and he went and dug out his Boston Greatest Hits compilation.

This song, for me, creates a sound that is disproportionately huge and "larger than life" even if you're listening on headphones. It sounded incredible on my dad's hifi system.

What song makes you feel understood when no one else does?

I've already used Supertramp's Logical Song for an earlier prompt and I'm a little early in my crucial tracks career to be recycling songs.

I've gone for this Rush Deep Cut which was a classic break up song for me (before I met my wife 10 years ago). However, I kind of see it as more than just a romantic breakup song. It is a melancholy reminder of diversity of thought and action and how not everyone is the same.

What's a song you initially disliked but now love?

An easy choice - when this first came out in 2007 I couldn't stand this song, I found the synth intro really grating. I'm not sure why, perhaps there was just something about how it interacted with my late-teenage eardrums. These days I'm a big fan of MGMT and this song is a bit of a classic that reminds me of University and the late 00s.

What song feels like a secret between you and the artist?

I'm gonna cheat a little and use a song that was part of a social media challenge I did earlier. I discovered Tito Paris in a book shop in Aberystwyth during university. I really like his music and his style but I don't speak Cape Verdean Creole so I have no idea what he's singing. I listened to Dança Ma Mi Criola quite a lot in my final year of university and nobody I know had ever heard of him.