What's your favorite opening line from any song?

There were a lot of candidates when this post came around before, so I'm pleased to have another crack at it

My choice today is

"Dig if you will the picture, of you and I engaged in a kiss"

Surprisingly this is my first Prince track so far. It's not my favourite of his songs, but I love that first line

Share a song that makes you feel invincible.

When I was about 30 years old, we used to go to a pub on a Friday lunchtime, and play pinball. I used to put this on the jukebox. I was pretty good at pinball.

What song do you turn to when you need to cry?

I'm answering a different question here

This is a live version of the song, from just after it was released.

I only heard it this morning, and it starts with the crowd chanting "Kirsty, Kirsty"

I don't usually get very emotional about the deaths of people I never knew, but there was something really sad about the loss of Kirsty MacColl

What song feels like a personal anthem right now?

I am always feelin groovy.

This is a great reggae version by Sugar Minott

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

Wikipedia tells me that this came out in 1997, but it feels as fresh as a daisy, and, I guess, as big as a sycamore.

Share a song that represents rebellion or freedom to you.

As a (very) late-middle-aged 'centrist dad', I'd have to say that freedom from crime is one of the most important freedoms....but this is gorgeous

You might know Benjamin Zephaniah from Peaky Blinders, but he was mainly a poet. We saw him in the 1980s at the Elephant Fayre, but more recently he was on BBC Radio 4 a lot. He came across as an all-round good guy

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

There are probably a lot of candidates, as I often don't understand much!

Obvious ones would be American Pie, or My Name is Michael Caine ( I didn't know what that was about until a couple of weeks ago), or lots and lots of songs about Irish history.

The track I'm picking is a song that I didn't appreciate until I got older. This is because I think it's about aging, and looking back

I've posted Dusty's version before, so it's the Byrds this time. I really like the Pretenders version too but I don't think it's on Apple Music

Describe the perfect song for a road trip and why it works.

A nervy, indie, slightly wistful song from the 1980s about a road trip in the north of England

"You know, I like this suburb we're going through

And I've been around here many times before

When I was young we were gonna move out this way

For the clean air, healthy, you know

Away from the factories and the smoke

I like that shop, too

You can get anything there"

What song would you use to describe your current relationship?

This song sums it up.

Not at all connected with my current relationship, but I had a friend, Kathy, who was from Philadelphia. She was once, in hospital, in a bed next to someone who said she was a friend of the Stylistics. The group came to visit, and Kathy was joshing with them, saying "you're not The Stylistics", and eventually "prove it"....so she ended up with the Stylistics singing to her in a hospital bed.

I never knew what Kathy was in hospital for....but it may well have been worth it

Describe music that reminds you of a specific place you've traveled.

I've been to a few places as more-or-less a 'music tourist' - I've been to Memphis, and Liverpool, and bits of Ireland. I think you could argue that that was more the place reminding me of the music rather than vice versa.

So there are two choices where it's very much the other way round.

I worked for a few years for Sony and we had some sort of conference in Dublin. From memory I think around half the presentations started with a video soundtracked by either 'Beautiful Day' or 'Vertigo'. I like U2...but it got rather wearing.

Anyway, the song for today is the theme to a 1970s slightly naff, and very, very English BBC sitcom.

I was stuck in a hospital in New Orleans for a few days in the early 1990s and I had nothing to read apart from the Times-Picayune. The paper had a three-page spread about Are You Being Served?

Reading about the show wasn't how I was expecting to be spending my time in New Orleans

Apple doesn't seem to have the original theme, but it's a good song (better and more amusing than the show tbh) and Matt Berry does a good version.

Let the good times roll!