My mate Greg at work gave me a CD of a playlist he’d come up with.  It was his idea of a perfect Sunday morning listening. Now, one of my ideas of heaven is a full tank of diesel, a long road, and loads of music on shuffle in the car. I constantly update the songs on my iPhone so when I plug it into the car’s stereo and hit random, I have 30 minutes of  sheer pleasure before I get home from work. And I make sure I put music in there that I either don’t know at all, or don’t listen to enough. Just so it’s not a succession of songs I already know to death.

And sing ho for the simple pleasures in life. I’m noticing them more and more. Actually, noticing’s the wrong word. Making myself more open would be a better way of putting it. We’ve all got them, haven’t we? A little something that lightens the day, raises a brief smile and makes everything OK for a moment. For me, it’s the squeak of the strings when a guitar player changes chord….finding the traffic lights that are red EVERY DAY when I get to them are suddenly green….a word of praise from someone you respect….a song you haven’t heard in ages coming on the radio….getting home to find the kids have actually tidied up….the cats crawling onto my lap for a cuddle….I could go on and on.

Back to Greg, my boss at Jack FM. The CD went into the car, and, oh boy, it was wonderful. Starting with a brief snatch  of Mayer Hawthorne’s ‘Strange Arrangement’  (thankyou, Shazam), through ‘Bare Necessities’, Buffalo Springfield’s ‘For What It’s Worth’, ‘Walk in Fire’ by the Doves and’ Re: Stacks’ by Bon Iver. And how the hell did I get to 47 and manage never to have heard ‘Thirteen’ by Big Star?!  (I confidently identified it as something by Starsailor before I got home and googled the lyrics.) Moments of pleasure, to quote the lovely Kate Bush. More from her in a moment. A propos of nothing, and because I think you can tell a lot about someone from the music collection, here’s what’s on my iPhone iPod this month:

Affirmation – Savage Garden

Afterimage – Rush

Aicha – Khaled

All I Want Is You – U2

America – Neil Diamond

America – Razorlight

American Woman – Lenny Kravitz

Apologize – OneRepublic

Are Friends Electric? – Tubeway Army

Arial – Dean Friedman

Atomic – Blondie

Autobahn – Kraftwerk

Baby Don’t Cry – INXS

Baby I Need Your Loving – The Four Tops

Babylon – David Gray

Bad Things – Jace Everett

Be My Baby – The Ronettes

Between The Wars – Billy Bragg

Book of Love – Peter Gabriel

Border Song – Tom McRae

Brand New Day – Ryan Star

Break The Night With Colour – Richard Ashcroft

Brimful of Asha – Cornershop

Bring On The Night – The Police

Brown-Eyed Girl – Van Morrison

Building a Mystery – Sarah McLachlan

Butterfly – Crazy Town

Can’t Take My Eyes Off You – Andy Williams

A Canterbury Tale – Dreadzone

Cars – Gary Numan

Cash Machine – Hard Fi

Celebrity Skin – Hole

Chemistry – Semisonic

City of Blinding Lights – U2

Climbatize – The Prodigy

Connected – Stereo MCs

Corpses In Their Mouths – Ian Brown

Cry Me A River – Justin Timberlake

Desert Rose – Sting

A Design For Life – Manic Street Preachers

Diesel Power – The Prodigy

Distant Sun – Crowded House

Dr Who theme – OST

Don’t Falter – Mint Royale with Lauren Laverne

Don’t Need a Reason – Beth Orton

Don’t Panic – Coldplay

Don’t Stop Believing – Journey

Don’t You – Simple Minds

Drops of Jupiter – Train

Duel – Propaganda

Electric Trains – Squeeze

Erase/Rewind – The Cradignas

Even Better Than The Real Thing – U2

Fantasy – Earth Wind adn Fire

Feeling a Moment – Feeder

Fix You – Coldplay

For You – Judie Tzuke

(Forever) Live and Die – OMD

Forget About You – The Motors

Four Seasons In One Day – Crowded House

Friday I’m In Love – The Cure

The Game Is Won – Lucie Silvas

The Game of Love – Santana

Give A Little Bit – Supertramp

The Golden Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll – Mott The Hoople

Gravity – Embrace

Happiness is Easy – Talk Talk

Here Comes the Flood – Peter Gabriel

Hometown Glory – Adele

How Soon Is Now? – The Smiths

Human – The Human League

Human – The Killers

Human Remains – Tom McCrae

Hymn To Her – The Pretenders

I Spy – Pulp

I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For – U2

I Want It That Way – The Backstreet Boys

I Will Follow – U2

(I’m Always Touched By Your) Presence Dear – Blondie

If I Had You – The Korgis

If You Tolerate This – The Manic Street Preachers

In Your Eyes – Peter Gabriel

Intervention – The Arcade Fire

Into the Nightlife – Cyndi Lauper

Invincible – Muse

Is It Any Wonder? – Keane

It Feels So Good – Sonique

It Must Be Love – Madness

It’s My Life – Bon Jovi

It’s My Life – Talk Talk

Julia – Chris Rea

Just Like Fred Astaire – James

Just The Way I’m Feeling – Feeder

Keep On Rocking In The Free World – Neil Young

King Of Pain – The Police

Last Goodbye – Jeff Buckley

The Last Of The Melting Snow – The Leisure Society

Late Night Grande Hotel – Nanci Griffith

Let’s Get Rocked – Def Leppard

Letter From America – The Proclaimers

Life’s What You Make It – Talk Talk

Little Britain – Dreadzone

Lonely Boy – Andrew Gold

Love is Here – Starsailor

Love Over Gold – Dire Straits

Make You Feel My Love – Adele

Making Plans For Nigel – XTC

Map Of The Problematique – Muse

Messages – OMD

Michael Caine – Madness

Miracle of Love – Eurythmics

Miss Sarajevo – U2

Missing – EBTG

Monkey Dead – Sunhouse

Moving – Supergrass

Mr Blue Sky – ELO

My Love – Justin Timberlake

My Sharona – The Knack

Mystify – INXS

Nature’ Law – Embrace

Never Forget – Take That

Never Never – The Assembly

A New Day Has Come – Celine Dion

News 24 Theme (3 minute cut) – BBC News

The Night Is Still Young – Billy Joel

No Tomorrow – Orson

Northern Star – Melanie C

Nothing Else Matters – Lucie Silvas

Nothing Lasts Forever – Echo and the Bunnymen

Oh Yeah – Roxy Music

Oliver’s Army – Elvis Costello & The Attractions

One – U2

One Better Day – Madness

One Day Like This – Elbow

Only Women Bleed – Lita Ford

Open Your Heart – Human League

The Other Side – David Gray

Our House – Madness

P Machinery – Propaganda

Patience – Take That

Perfect Moment – The Christians

Pop Muzik – M

The Power Of Love – Frankie Goes To Hollywood

Private Investigations – Dire Straits

Private Universe – Crowded House

Promised You A Miracle – Simple Minds

Protection – Massive Attack

Puncture Repair – Elbow

Ray Of Light – Madonna

Refugee – Tom Petty

Rhiannon – Fleetwood Mac

Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution -AC/DC

Rock and Roll Pt 2 – Gary Glitter (I know, I know)

Roll Away The Stone – Mott The Hoople

Romeo and Juliet – Dire Straits

Rule The World – Take That

Sail Away – David Gray

Sara – Fleetwood Mac

Senses Working Overtime – XTC

SexyBack – Justin Timberlake

Shake Your Head – Was Not Was

Shape Of My Heart – Sting

The Shape Of Things To Come – The Headboys

She Goes On – Crowded House

She Has No Time – Keane

She Will Have Her Way – Neil finn

She’s Always a Woman – Billy Joel

Shine On – The Kooks

Shoot the Runner – Kasabian

Sinful – Wah

Sing For Absolution – Muse

Skin Deep – The Stranglers

Sky – Sonique

Small Black Flowers That Grow In The Sky – The Manic Street Preachers

Smokers outside the Hospital Doors – The Editors

Smooth – Santana

So In Love – OMD

Solsbury Hill – Peter Gabriel

Some Fantastic Place – Squeeze

Something Changed – Pulp

A Song For Lovers – Richard Ashcroft

Songbird – Fleetwood Mac

Spanish Stroll – Mink de Ville

Speed of Sound – Coldplay

Starlight – Muse

Steam – Peter Gabriel

Step Into My World – Hurricane # 1

Stop And Stare – OneRepublic

The Story Of The Blues – Wah

Strength To Dream – Propaganda

Subdivisions – Rush

Suburban Knights – Hard Fi

Supermassive Black Hole – Muse

Sweet Disposition – The Temper Trap

Take Me Out – Franz Ferdinand

Talk You Down – The Script

Talkshow Host – Radiohead

Tattva – Kula Shaker

Teenage Dirtbag – Wheatus

Tell Me It’s Not Over – Starsailor

That’s Not My Name – The Ting Tings

That’s The Way it Is – Celine Dion

There Is A Light That Never Goes Out – Neil Finn version

They don’t Know – Tracey Ullman

This Summer – Squeeze

The Time is Now – Moloko

Time Is Running Out – Muse

Times Like These – Foo Fighters

Too Lost In You – Sugababes

Trash, Trampoline And The Party Girl – U2

Tsunami – The Manic Street Preachers

Tubthumping – Chumbawamba

TV Is King – The Tubes

Two Tribes – Frankie Goes To Hollywood

The Unforgettable Fire – U2

Universal – Blur

Vertigo – U2

Viva la Vida – Coldplay

Walking On Broken Glass – Annie Lennox

We Are The People – Empire Of The Sun

Wearing My Rolex – Wiley

When Love Comes To Town – U2 and B B King

When You Were Young – The Killers

Where The Streets Have No Name – U2

Wild Horses – Susan Boyle

Wild West Hero – ELO

Wire To Wire – Razorlight

Wondrous Stories – Yes

Wrong – EBTG

You Came – Kim Wilde

You Got The Love – The Source featuring Candi Staton

You Make Loving Fun – Fleetwood Mac

You Raise Me Up – Josh Groban

Zooropa – U2

99 Problems – Jay Z (and you haven’t lived till you’ve seen a matronly middle-aged white woman singing loudly along in the car to THOSE lyrics)

Back to the lovely Kate Bush. I’ll confess right now that I couldn’t think of a title for this blog, so went hunting on everyhit.com for one. (I try to use a lyric or song title for all my blogs. Usually, weirdly, the title comes before the blog itself.) The title ‘Moments of Pleasure’ sounded perfect, so I searched for the lyrics. Oh boy.

“Just being alive
It can really hurt
And these moments given
Are a gift from time
Just let us try
To give these moments back
To those we love
To those who will survive”

One trip to YouTube later, and I’d heard the song itself. It’s utterly lovely. Today’s little gift from time. A real moment of pleasure. May you find yours.

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