Fairytale Of New York. A family favorite of ours … and not just at Christmas.
Fall In Love With Me. Iggy Pop or Japan by the same name found a place my desperate heart at times.
Fantastic Voyage. Not Raquel Welch in a tiny submarine that I picture with every daring medical procedure.
Faraway Eyes. If you’re down on your luck/And you can’t harmonize/Find a girl with faraway eyes.
Fascination. The greatest disco song of all time on the greatest disco album of all time, Bowie’s “Young Americans.”
Fashion. “There’s a brand new talk,/But it’s not very clear/That people from good homes/Are talking this year/It’s loud and tasteless/And I’ve heard it before/You shout it while you’re dancing/On the whole dance floor.”
Fatally Beautiful. “In a restaurant in Brussels she pulls back her hair/Picks up a candle and lights a cigarette/And she’s recognized by a tourist/Who can’t see her face but knows her silhouette … Still I couldn’t help but notice her/She was fatally beautiful/Ever since she was a girl/She was fatally beautiful.”
Feel Like Going Home. When I listened to this Notting Hillbillies cover of the Charlie Rich song, I thought I’ve known this song all my life, but why?
Fields of Athenry. Billy and his friends covering the Irish folk song for their Latin class. As Billy said, he, Jimmy and Evan are quite the Irish tenors.
Fiesta. The Latin beat of this one would always awake an already Irish-rocking Pogues concert. As Shane mumbled, “Elvis es el Rey de America.”
First We Take Manhattan. Prefer the Jennifer Warnes version. My sister Jean called more famous collaborator Leonard Cohen “Lennie.”
First Week/Last Week … Carefree. “This report’s incomplete/I see for myself/Every appointment has been moved to last week.”
Five Years. As the maestro crooned: “And all the fat-skinny people, and all the tall-short people/And all the nobody people, and all the somebody people.”
Flesh And Blood. Slick, artsy, disco pop … and irresistible.
Fly. The first Jam song I fell in love with. Pictured the British countryside. Also use of “demi-monde” that my mentor Jack Hoy used to refer to the policy world as only Jack could.
Fly On The Wall. One of many that makes XTC’s English Settlement album a masterpiece. “I know your income/Your daily crust/I know your pleasures/Your passion/Your lust/I know when you’re living and I know when you’re dust.” New meaning in light of NSA spying.
Follow. Susan Tedeschi is good. Attended Berklee, where my nephew Andrew later went, played guitar and harp and then dropped out, which legend has it is the mark of success for a Berklee student (despite all the empty talk about “retention” and “completion.”) Don’t people know what art is?
For Rose. Hard to believe Mary Gauthier ran the Dixie Kitchen in the Back Bay, where I spent some long lunches before I knew MG or her singing. My Billy is a fan or her “Sugar Cane,” a piece of cultural history I never knew until the song. “Long Way To Fall” is also a neatly packaged short story.
From A Buick 6. Remember the 45 with Positively 4th Street on the A side.
From the Flagstones. A reviewer said the Cocteau Twins vocals were like fine musical instruments. Mr. Chocolate!
Funtime. Per Iggy, “Last night, I was down in the lab/Fun/Talkin’ to Dracula and his crew/All aboard for funtime.”
