It's probably some of my favourite music anytime really but what's a headline between friends. Here's what I listened to this evening...
The East German government of the time got waaaaay more than it bargained for when Bruce was invited to perform:
He played to a gazillion people in East Berlin the year before The Wall came down. Just look at the pride in his body language singing Dylan's Chimes of Freedom...and it may be just my romantic sense of nostalgia but there seems to be a real sense of urgency coming through from the crowd.
Needless to say he gets an ovation :) And this performance helped inspire young people to make a change. And that was remarkable then, and it will for ever be so.
Next up is Lindisfarne. I saw them live once in the mid-70s. Wonderful gig...I remember us singing along and dancing together to songs like this:
'I've made some mistakes,
Had my share of the breaks'
Indeed I have...
Then there's Elton & Bernie's Sacrifice. Turns out he recorded this in Denmark where, coincidentally, I shall be at the end of this week.
Here he is doing it solo...well, ok, it's a smart piano but I still think it's brilliant.
Speaking of Denmark, I still get the shivers hearing Procol Harum's Gary Brooker's voice in these opening lines, sung with such feeling:
Only in Denmark would you have a full orchestra and a breathtaking open air venue in which to enjoy a song like this... but we'll have to make do with YouTube.
Cat Stevens made the best love song ever:
A lovely feel-good song that's always guaranteed to make me smile from Kenny Loggins & Jim Messina:
'Count all the bees in the hive,
Chase all the clouds from the sky'
The best outro ever is this masterpiece from Mark Knopfler:
It takes you from quiet soulful melancholy, through aching anticipation, to total ecstasy in less than 5 minutes. Quite an achievement.
Alan Clark's piano stirs the soul in the finale but look at the way drummer Terry Williams deals with that monster kit from 6:46 in to the end. Just heroic. You can see him say, just before the final note, "Effin' good one'. Couldn't agree more.
And just in case you were in any doubt, here's another version:
Perfection.