Rock And Roll 01

Rough Trade Shops Rock And Roll 01
Rough Trade Shops, 2002

My favourite thing to listen to after a big night out is Rock And Roll 01, compiled by the staff at Rough Trade Shops, a pair of record stores in London. My friends think this is slightly insane. Why on earth would you want to treat a hangover with squealing rock and roll?, they ask. Oh, so many reasons. To clear the clouds from my head, for one. Possibly also to punish myself, just a little. But mostly, because I feed off the energy. Here are a few of my favourite songs.

Disc one, track one. The Stooges, 'I Got A Right'. Available for years only as a bootleg, 'I Got A Right' was originally recorded as a demo for Raw Power, the band's last album before they split, and then discarded. It was reissued on CD in 1990. A furious thrash of metal and attitude, it opens with one of Iggy's howls and then the screamed declaration: "Any time I want, I got a right to move, no matter what they say! Any old time!" Damn right you do, Iggy. Damn right you do.

Disc one, track twenty-one. The Fall, 'Dr Buck's Letter'. British post-punk band The Fall inspire a sort of feverish devotion among record collectors that scares even obsessive-compulsives. They've released about five thousand records (or so), and while only a fraction of them are any good, that still makes for a lot of decent cuts. 'Dr Buck's Letter' is one of them – a futuristic funeral song with a drumbeat like trudging through mud and spoken word lyrics that paint a mad scientist character as rich as you'd find in any audiobook. Creepy.

Disc two, track fifteen. Rocket From The Crypt, 'Born In '69'. Horns in rock music are a controversial topic, and for the record, I think they should be mandatory. This one's on the same disc as another good brass-in-rock song, that wonderful fuck-you to the advertising industry called 'Know Your Product' by The Saints. 'Born In '69' continues in a similar vein. Opening with a drum roll and a blast of noise, it mixes trumpets with call-and-response vocals and the gloriously bratty chorus: "I want it. I need it. I steal it. Alriiight!" San Diego shoplifters, unite!