Tried and failed to get to Stonehenge for winter solstice this morning. This was as close as we got...but now we're past the solstice I'm consoling myself with this song

More Christmas

This slightly reminds me of Nancy and Lee....which is high praise indeed as far as I'm concerned

Another festive favourite

This feels like it has everything but the kitchen sink...a children's choir, a vaguely reggae-ish beat, a Cajun-y accordion*, and Cyndi's wonderful voice on top of it all

*I am totally un-musical so take this with a pinch of salt

This is from a Cajun Christmas CD I bought many years ago

Another Christmas song.

JC Lodge doing a reggae version of Joy to the World

I first heard this in 1988, in a pub near Kew Gardens, which was an unexpected place to hear a reggae version of anything

I'm not a great letter writer, so I'm posting a Christmas song.

I love this song. I love the fact that I hear it in shops, and pubs and clubs, and on the radio. I hear drunk people singing it on the way home from the pub.

It's kind of magical that this rather niche punky-folky band with a genius song writer had this one big, beautiful hit that comes out once a year and my fanboy cult-ish enthusiasm suddenly becomes mainstream for a month or so.

This live version is great. It's just Christy and his guitar with a very funny spoken word intro

I love you baby too!

What's your favorite song to listen to in the rain?

Having a favourite song to listen to in the rain seems slightly superfluous on this damp little island....it rains too much.

So I've picked a favourite song that mentions the rain.

"On the first day of March it was raining, it was raining worse than anything that I have ever seen"

I liked the idea of the Pogues initially because I liked the idea of a combination of two of my favourite sorts of music - punk and Irish folk

This was the song when I realised that there was more going on in their songwriting than just that fusion.

Includes swears. There's a slightly less swear-y version that I prefer but I don't think it's on Apple

Share a song that captures the feeling of being seventeen.

The words of this song resonate in bits rather than in its entirety...dressed like that you must be living in a different world etc....but it's got the adrenaline -rush of being 17 and getting out and about

Also, no matter what anyone tells you, it's a better song than Teenage Kicks. Possibly.

Share a song that sounds like your ideal Sunday morning.

Sunday morning needs something that gets you moving (at least in your head), without being too insistent

That's what I think anyway!

What song makes you feel grateful?

I posted this for JukeboxFridayNight on Mastodon this week, which had the hashtag 'Travellers'

Back in the 1940s, 50 or so people came over to Salisbury from Ennis, in the County Clare, to work in the NHS

One of them was my partner's dad, so although this isn't a song of gratitude, it always makes me feel very, very grateful