THE FIRST SONG I REMEMBER HEARING
Creedence Clearwater Revival – ‘Proud Mary’
“I have this very distinct memory of being in the car with my mom around 1969, and ‘Proud Mary’ came on the radio. I refused to get out of the car until the song had ended, and I think at that point my mom should’ve figured out that I was going to spend my life as a musician – and that I was also probably an addict.”
THE FIRST SONG I FELL IN LOVE WITH
CW McCall – ‘Convoy’
“It was the first single I ever bought. It was such a huge single that they made a movie based on it. I bought the single and – I’m not exaggerating when I say this – I listened to it 40 times in a row.”
THE FIRST ALBUM I EVER BOUGHT
George Martin – ‘Live and Let Die OST’
“I just bought it for the song ‘Live And Let Die’. It amazed me because it was so deceptive – it starts off so innocent and then it becomes one of the darkest, most evil songs ever recorded.”
THE FIRST GIG I EVER WENT TO
Yes – Madison Square Garden, 1979
“My mom dated local musicians so she dragged me to local nightclubs to hear whatever band her boyfriends were playing in. I was 13, but the concert itself wasn’t the most exciting part about it – it was the fact that it was in New York City on a school night surrounded by older kids smoking pot.”
THE SONG THAT REMINDS ME OF HOME
Ace Frehley – ‘New York Groove’
“I grew up 45 minutes from Manhattan so I revered New York City. I hated the suburbs where I lived and all I wanted was to be there. Then when I moved back to New York, especially when I started drinking and doing a lot of drugs, that song became my anthem for a good night out. So it was both aspirational from when I was growing up and utterly debauched from when I actually lived there.”
THE SONG I WISH I’D WRITTEN
David Bowie – ‘Heroes’
“Every time I hear it, I love it, and I’m happy that I was able to become friends with David Bowie. We did an acoustic version of it together at Carnegie Hall and one of my greatest memories was when we rehearsed in my living room, just the two of us, me playing guitar and him singing.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tgcc5V9Hu3g
THE SONG I DO AT KARAOKE
50 Cent – ‘In Da Club’
“I think there’s something funny about a skinny middle-aged white guy doing hip-hop songs.”
THE SONG I CANT GET OUT OF MY HEAD
Donna Summer – ‘MacArthur Park’
“A friend of mine talked me into joining a dating site and ‘MacArthur Park’ is the song that I have for my chosen song on the website. Sadly no one has commented on it – I keep waiting for someone to say what an inspired choice of music it is before I realise how old I am and most people don’t know the song.”
SONG I CAN NO LONGER LISTEN TO
Bob Marley – ‘Three Little Birds’
“I’ve heard some of those songs so many times in the worst context. ‘Three Little Birds’ is such a beautiful song but I’ve heard it in terrible bars and at frat parties, so as much as I love Bob Marley, his music was embraced and adopted by the people I really loathed growing up.”
THE SONG I WANT PLAYED AT MY FUNERAL
Cat Stevens – ‘Morning Has Broken’
“That was the song my mom had played at her funeral. I was too hungover and I missed it, so it would be an acknowledgement of that. Unsurprisingly, I’m sober now. It’s clearly a sign that things aren’t working out when you sleep through your mom’s funeral.”
Moby’s new album ‘Everything Was Beautiful, And Nothing Hurt’ is out now