After a summer’s break I’m relaunching Life Playlists where invited guests choose five tracks which mean something to them and share the reasons why. If you’re a writer it’s also an opportunity to promote your work.
In between this I’ll have my own music feature and for this first post the guitar is definitely the star as I choose five of my favourite tracks…
Soft rock group Bread with lead singer David Gates were rarely out of the music charts in the late sixties/early seventies. The Guitar Man, the title track from their 1972 album was a departure from their normal love songs and reached No 16 in September 1972
I first heard Alone Again Or… in the late sixties when it was released by a band called Love featuring Arthur Lee. It was covered in 1987 by The Damned. However I still think this, the original version, is still the best.
Cream, Blind Faith, the Yardbirds and Derek and the Dominos are just a few of the bands Eric Clapton has played with. He’s also worked with artists like J J Cale and B B King. And of course, he’s had a solo career. This from the 1990s is one of my favourite tracks.
American traditional rock band Boston were around in the 1970s and 80s. I bought their 1978 album Don’t Look Back. Love this track although I think More than a Feeling is probably the one everyone knows best…
Another 1970s band. Remember being in the car on the way home when this came on the radio. It marked the arrival of another great guitar band.
And finally, from 1972 Paul Rodgers and Free. We were about to move house and remember being in the middle of helping pack boxes and hearing this track. Paul went on to work as lead singer with Queen for a while following Freddie Mercury’s death.
JO LAMBERT 
Wonderful seeing this back Jo. Music is always close to my heart. Not familiar with Arthur Lee and his music and not a fan of Dire Straits but really love the others. Guitars greatly feature in my life as you know, himself is plonking behind me as I type and Clapton is one of his idols. We were fortunate enough to work with Ginger Baker’s son, Kofi, and Jack Bruce’s son back in the mid-1990s when they were the backing band for some of our artists, along with two other young musicians whose names escape me as I write. Duh! Paul R is a fab singer and FREE one of my all-time favourite bands. Boston too. Going to enjoy this series return.
Thank you Jane, had some great guests in the last series so hoping the new series produces more great choices. By the way my five choices were in fact 6! I probably Icould have chosen many more! x