Readers recommend playlist: your songs about pride
Here is this week’s playlist – songs picked by a reader from hundreds of suggestions on last week’s callout. Thanks for taking part. Read more about how our weekly series works at the end of the piece.
Pride is a funny thing: there’s nothing wrong with a little self-satisfaction in a job well done, but too much vainglory can, according to proverb, lead to a fall. I’m not sure I’m terribly proud of my first selection, which is there mainly for reasons of nostalgia – it being one of the very first records I ever owned. But I still think Val Doonican’s Walk Tall has some merit; perhaps it’s the guitar of Jimmy Page that makes the difference.
Listen to the playlist on YouTube.
Merle Haggard’s sense of pride comes from the place he comes from, Muskogee, Oklahoma. Some regard Okie from Muskogee as a parody song, but I think it offers genuine love for the forgotten millions who live in the America’s hinterlands.
The Exciters take pride in their loved one in Do Wah Diddy, extolling the virtues of their man. A great slice of 60s pop from a band that made some truly excellent records.
Joan Jett’s take on pride is somewhat different – she has to swallow hers in order to stay in her lover’s good books. “I hate myself for loving you” is the result. I think a lot of us can relate to this raucous rocker.
Speaking of swallowing one’s pride, the Ramones do so brilliantly on Swallow My Pride. Their trademark musical and lyrical economy results in a kind of punk haiku. To express so much emotional complexity in so few words is an art few are capable of.
Mink Lungs are full of Awesome Pride. A brief, fuzzy and slightly rude bit of punk that’s very much my kind of thing.
When you’ve got it, there’s no point in hiding your light under a bushel, Chesney Hawkes informs us that “I Am the One and Only” – and you have to believe him. Proper earworm material, this one.
Chesney is from Swindon and is the son of “Chip” Hawkes of the Tremeloes We’ve all come across characters like Ken McKenzie, their stories so peculiar that you don’t know whether they are true or not. I Ludicrous, from their 1987 flexidisc cut Preposterous Tales, introduces us to said Ken and his wild exaggerations.
Taylor Swift has some advice for us. “Shake It Off” she tells us – have some belief in yourself and ignore the haters. A fine piece of pop, and I find the video most amusing.
Listen on Spotify. Spotify
Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich’s The Loos of England is certainly not your bog-standard 1960s pop. It’s not a great song, to be truthful, but earns its place simply for its sheer bizarreness: a song in praise of our national toilets. And why not?
Lions, as implied by the collective noun, are proud animals. So it’s fitting, I think, that Hakuna Matata, performed by Jimmy Cliff and Lebo M here, joins the list.
The last couple are epics. Dexy’s Midnight Runners’ My National Pride finds Kevin Rowland musing on his roots at considerable length. I love the bassline backing.
Lastly, those of us with English blood in our veins will find it hard to resist Elgar’s Land of Hope and Glory, mainly known from it’s regular appearance at Last Night of the Proms. It’s such a stirring tune but the words are, perhaps, a little out of date. Anyway, why not wallow in a bit of misplaced nostalgia once in a while?
Not all the songs appear on the Spotify list as some are unavailable on the service.
New theme: how to join in
The new theme will be announced at 8pm (BST) on Thursday 19 October. You have until 11pm on Monday 23 October to submit nominations.
Here is a reminder of some of the guidelines for readers recommend:
If you have a good idea for a theme, or you would like to volunteer to compile a playlist from readers’ suggestions and write a blog about it, please email matthew.holmes@theguardian.com.
There is a wealth of data on RR, including the songs that are “zedded”, at the Marconium. It also tells you the meaning of “zedded”, “donds” and other strange words used by RR regulars.
Many RR regulars also congregate at the ’Spill blog.