Kylie - good picks all for the sixties, you're absolutely right that none of those artists could be excluded, and there are at least another five in the same boat.

Funny thing is I didn't really get the sense that you were picking songs you love, just ones that you knew to be important, influential, etc...which of course is the point of the exercise, it's just a different conundrum than the one I have. Am I right? More importantly, am I engaging in a general, far-from-subtle dis-ing designed to antagonize and produce "ballsy" eighties picks from Kylie? (you be the judge).

To focus on your choices for a moment, I'll say that, while The Beatles have to be there, I wouldn't have chosen an early number, 'cause, though it was these recordings that created the phenomenon and showed amazing promise, the songs don't have the complexity, either musically or lyrically, that their middle/mature/late work offers. To put it another way, She Loves You is a great and fun pop song, but if they hadn't gone on to make Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's, or the White Album would it still be on yourt list? "Satisfaction" is a great choice, can't miss, shoulda been on the CBC list, and can't be faulted (though I'll choose a different Stones later). Dylan is also a great choice but I prefer his early electric work from '65-'67. He never quite worked for me as an earnest cause-based folk writer, once I came to know him as the king of biting sarcasm and surreal wit. Frankly, your choice here smacks faintly of a cynical "must include Dylan" reflex (getting ballsy yet?). I love the Mamas and Papas and that's a great song...but only top twenty for me, likely. As for Motown, I reluctantly admit it has to be there, assembly-line music or not there are tons of memorable songs that emerged. The Four Tops are among my fave Motown acts and that's also a great song (damn, I finished a little weakly on the whole ballsy thing).

Music from the sixties is, generally, some of my very favourite - I went through a phase when I was about fifteen where I got totally hooked, and searched out and listened to as much of it as I could. Kind of like your first girlfriend (well, not mine, but that's a separate story), when I hear it again (no matter how many times, apparently) it just gets me right in the heart. OK so maybe that's not like your first girlfriend, either. I had real trouble narrowing this down to five, and ended up just going with the songs I like the best.

My 60's choices and (not all that) brief explanations:

The Beatles - A Day in the Life...... haunting melody, sadly surreal lyric (sung so beauitfully), post-modern bridge, amazing use of the orchestra, this one was so far ahead of its time that time may not yet have caught up. Sure we've all heard it a few hundred times (it's the Beatles for Chrissake), but listen again with fresh ears if you can.

The Velvet Underground - Heroin... Actually takes strong nerves to sit all the way through it even today (at least for me). Released in the Summer of Love, but this one's not about the fun drugs. Lou Reed always thought the "sixties" and all that they stood for were bullshit. As he so often does and did, he writes and sings about something no one else had the balls or the brains to. The Velvets influenced as many if not more musicians than the Beatles, and here's why. Creepy and amazing.

The Rolling Stones - Street Fightin' Man....from Beggars Banquet, recorded when they were at their artistic peak (though they had a great rersurgence in the early seventies), this one has all of the venom and punk energy of the best Stones, but also reflects the turbulent street clashes of the time. Amazing production with the intro's supercharged acoustic and punding drums melding into electric guitar drones and reverbed piano of the chorus, trumpet blares and airborne arpeggios in the outrun. And Jagger sings his balls off.

Interlude...notice how each explanation is longer than the last? well, I'm not drinking scotch, if that's what you were thinking.

Love - Alone Again Or....interestingly, this is one of two songs on the famous "Forever Changes" record not written by Arthur Lee (Brian Maclean, the "other" songwriter in the band, managed to pen this classic). A mix of psychedelia, confessional singer-songwriter stylings, and lush orchestral pop unlike anything recorded before or since. Above all that, a truly beautiful song. Love was a rare inter-racial band, based in LA and the orchestral arrangements reflect their roots - with a strong feel of Spanish/Mexican in the horns.

The Byrds - Eight Miles High....still for me the coolest single of all time. The ominous modal intro of the bass, drums, and guitar, the unheard of atonal guitar lead, then the rich, thick, minor-key harmonies, almost humming rather than singing the murky, at times indecipherable lyrics that hint of disassociation, confusion, distance. The guitar break in the middle is Coltrane re-incarnated as a white pop star. 25 years after I started listening to this song I still hear new harmonic elements in it. The band plays passionately, never sounded as good again, really, and all of these disparate pieces come together in one 3-minute moment of uncompromising brilliance.

OK, I'm done. Sorry, I got carried away. Had to leave out Dylan, The Who, the Kinks, Simon and Garfunkel, The Doors, The Zombies (damn!), Hendrix, Cream, and Motown. Plus tons of others. Fuckers weren't good enough - it's as simple as that. Have I won you over? Or do you now hate these songs with a white-hot passion? (or did you flip over to the Onion five paragraphs ago?)

I've abandoned all ambition to do the same for the 40's and 50's, but I will re-consider the seventies and onward along with CBC.