Top Twenty Tunes by Dave Rigby

Eight of us standing on a suspended walkway

Staring down at the swirling waters below.

A riverside walk, followed by a canalside walk,

Followed by a couple of pints in the sunshine.

Talk of this and that.

Someone says – why don’t we each make a list of our top ten tunes?

Ten’s not enough, somebody else says. Make it twenty.

In time for the next meet-up.

It’s agreed.

We only get together every three months, so there’s bags of time.

Back home, pen and paper. Don’t overthink it. Just jot down what comes into your head first.

Good progress.

Apache by The Shadows – the first single I ever bought.

All or Nothing, Small Faces. What a voice!

I Heard it Through the Grapevine. How can you not dance to it?

Before I know it, there’s a list of thirty on my piece of paper.

And I’m not even out of the 80’s yet.

OK. A bit of pruning needed. Maybe even a lot of pruning.

That’s better. Twenty five. And now there’s even some 21^st century tracks!

Tinariwen … Camelphat … that’ll show ‘em.

But hang on! What about Bob Dylan? And what was that great B52s track?

More pruning.

Then a check of the CD shelves and that box of old singles, to see what else I might have missed.

Werewolves of London!

Hong Kong Garden?

The list is re-written for the third time.

A reserve list springs out of nowhere.

Forget about don’t overthink?

I’m going to need the full three months to finalise this.

… and seconds after the list is released to critical gaze …

… there’ll be that thought …

… how could I have missed off …?