My Top 25 Songs of All Time

It’s that time year again. That’s right, Canada Day (July 1), and Gene asked me to provide my top 25 songs (see 2015, 2016, 2017) for a playlist.

Frankly, this was a really tough project. My musical tastes range from rock to hip-hop to blues, from Pink to Ottmar Liebert to Kendrik Lamar. My background music playlist is jazz. When my wife travels and it’s just the kids, I play Canadian bands, Springsteen, and music from the 80’s-2000’s, mostly so they can hear something different (my daughter loves Plastic Bertrand). In the car, we listen to hip-hop and rap. I like to remind my kids that they have an obligation to bring new and interesting music into the house. If I’m listening to “lame music,” I blame them.

The list includes songs from almost five decades, with a significant Canadian component. I run into a disproportionate number of Canadians in the IP business. (At the start of a significant patent licensing engagement, we learned that one of the licensing executives had been a newspaper delivery boy to my grandparents in Edmonton, Alberta.) Disclaimer: Nickelback and Justin Bieber are not my fault.

I like Victor Hugo’s view on the topic, “Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.” I hope you have a wonderful fourth of July.

Type	Artist	Album	Song	Why?
Rock	The Tragically Hip	Up to Here	New Orleans Is Sinking	The Tragically Hip somehow captured what it is to be Canadian.
Soul	Amy Winehouse	Back to Black	Back to Black	The entire album is worth listening to.
Punk	The Clash	London Calling	London Calling	A shout out to my brother who lives in London. He and I went to their concert.
Cuban	Beuna Vista Social Club		Candela	Buena Vista Social Club opened a whole new world of music for me. It’s what we play on a Sunday afternoon.
Flamenco	Ottmar Liebert	Nouveau Flamenco	Barcelona Nights	Ottmar Liebert changed my view on what you can do with a guitar.
Indie Pop	The xx	xx	Intro	The entire album is worth listening to.
Jazz	Sade		Smooth Operator	I saw her at Wembley Arena in 1985 at Live Aid. She is one of the few performers still working from that lineup.
EDM	Avicii	TRUE	Wake Me Up	For 10 years, we’ve been lucky enough to be involved with CIP and had a number of excellent student interns from the Intellectual Asset Management programs offered by universities in Sweden. Avicii created his own style of EDM by combining it with Country. His albums were great and his death was a loss to the music world.
Rockabilly	Stray Cats	Built for Speed	Stray Cat Strut	This is just fun music.
Rock	Bryan Adams	Reckless	Summer of 69	Quintessentially Canadian and part of my youth. Also, a friend’s sister used to date him so we got good tickets.
Rock	The Tragically Hip	Phantom Power	Bobcaygeon	Quintessentially Canadian
Rock	The Tragically Hip	Wheat Kings – Remastered	Fully Completely	Quintessentially Canadian
Rock	Rush	Moving Pictures	Tom Sawyer	As a high school English project, we analyzed the lyrics from Rush songs. Until then, I had not considered that rock music could simply be read as poetry.
Rock	Bruce Springsteen	Born to Run	Born to Run	Much of my family are coal miners, welders, heavy-duty mechanics and do jobs that would win approval from Mike Rowe. Even though we were Canadian, much of Bruce Springsteen’s music resonated.
Rap	Drake		Nice for What	For my wife, for all the hard work and struggles. I’m very proud or her.
Country	Blue Rodeo	Five Days in July	5 Days in May	Quintessentially Canadian
Rock	The Cowboy Junkies	The Trinity Session	Sweet Jane	Although originally a Lou Reed/Velvet Underground song, I think the Cowboy Junkies did it better and made it theirs.
Rap	Kendrick Lamar	DAMN	DNA	This album crushed it. If you wonder where the modern poets are, look for them in rap.
Rap	B.o.B.	B.o.B. Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray	Don’t Let Me Fall	Change a few words and you would have the anthem for Silicon Valley. Also, if you aren’t a fan of rap, this is a great place to start.
Rock	The Black Keys	Brothers	Tighten Up	This is my ringtone.
Rap	Eminem	The Marshall Mathers LP2	The Monster	The entire album is worth listening to.
Rock	Sam Roberts Band	We Were Born in a Flame	The Canadian Dream	Quintessentially Canadian
Grunge	Nirvana	Nevermind	Come as You Are	This album is now 27 years old and it still matters. It also reminds me of visits to the Experience Music Project. If you are in Seattle, it’s a worthwhile visit.
Rock	Linkin Park	Hybrid Theory	In the End	For fun, I used to downhill race. This album was on repeat. So was Lady Gaga, but we’re not going to talk about that.
Rock	Queen	A Night at the Opera	Bohemian Rhapsody	I saw them live at Live Aid – I have no words.

Image Source: Deposit Photos.

Kent Richardson Kent Richardson counsels clients on a variety of patent and business matters including patent buying, selling, licensing, valuation, prosecution and operations. Kent has licensing and marketing patent portfolio experiences resulting in [...see more]

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Join the Discussion

8 comments so far.

Kent Richardson
July 11, 2018 07:24 pm
@Guy – well, Gordon Lightfoot, although I like the song, falls into the Anne Murray category for me. I’m missing some of the Stompin’ Tom Connors from back east. There are a few others that I would have liked to include: The Box, The Feed (Joe Moniz at Rambus was played in the band – he’s still great on a guitar), The Pursuit of Happiness, and Doug and the Slugs.
step back
July 6, 2018 01:35 am
Another patent song appropriate for our SCOTeties is Don’t know much about … except replace “love you” with love our amicus curie (“friends” of the court):

“Don’t know much about history
Don’t know much biology
Don’t know much about a science book,
Don’t know much about the french I took
But I do know that I love [our amicus curie],
And I know that [they] love me, too,
What a wonderful world this [surely] be
Don’t know much about geography,
Don’t know much trigonometry
Don’t know much about algebra,
Don’t know what a slide rule is for
But I do know that one and one is [abstract],
And if this [abstract] one could be with [amicus curie],
What a wonderfully [abstract] world this would be
Now, I don’t claim to be an “A” student,
But I’m tryin’ to be
For maybe by being an “A” student, [amicus] baby,
I can win [amicus curie] love for me
Don’t know much about history,
Don’t know much biology
Don’t know…
Steve
July 5, 2018 02:01 pm
IN A GADDA DA VIDA; full, original 17 minute version.

For that classic, ground-breaking drum solo.

AM stations wouldn’t play the entire song bcause they didn’t want to “give up” the commercial breaks and DJ blah-blah and mumbo-jumbo all the many 2 – 4 minute songs gave them.

Had to listen to FM; usually late at night to hear it.

Or buy the otherwise nothing-special entire album. Which I did. Still have it.
Sheri Rice
July 5, 2018 12:25 pm
@Benny-
Eminem was an original for his time and subject matter. What is now commonplace was out of the norm when he started. I grew up near him (in a tougher neighborhood). He found his way to the tougher neighborhood because he didn’t feel like he fit in. Try to be more open minded about the music and what he was able to accomplish. Had he grown up in Berry Gordy’s time, he would have had different music to express. Music is an expression. Eminem did not become the success that he is without the people feeling he expressed what was inside of them. I get him because I grew up in his world. I may not agree with the content all the time, but I admire his ability to be relevant and real.
step back
July 5, 2018 12:15 pm
How about music most appropriate for patent practice?

White Rabbit (Go ask Alice) –Jefferson Airplane

https://patentu.blogspot.com/2015/06/mockingjaberwhocky-games.html
Gene Quinn
July 5, 2018 11:19 am
Guy-

Renee laughs at me, but I love “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” It really harkens back to a time when stories were passed from generation to generation in music. A lot art form.
Guy Letourneau
July 5, 2018 10:00 am
Canadian music – without Gordon Lightfoot and “The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald?”
How about Gilles Vigneault or Félix Leclerc from Quebec?
Maritime music of Newfoundland or Nova Scotia?
Benny
July 5, 2018 05:18 am
Eminem? Since when does that qualify as music? Eminem sounds like a Ritalin-deprived loud-mouth shouting abuse at the customer-complaints counter. It’s little more than aggressive shouting with samples from real musicians in the background. I understand that he grew up in a tough neighbourhood, in a deprived city with a rich history of original and groundbreaking music, but I doubt that Berry Gordy would have given Mr. Mathers the time of day.