Diminutive Welsh guitarist, singer and producer Dave Edmunds is a giant of British rock music - I salute him

Yes, I've heard all the criticisms - he's derivative, predictable, stuck in a time-warp, hasn't written any classic songs, and, au fond, he's a heads-down-no-nonsense-mindless twelve-bar pub-rocker whose terrible twin, lanky Nick Lowe, was the truly creative force in their erstwhile partnership. Some of that's partly true, I think - but if it is, it's because Edmunds has always been a hugely obsessive music fan, in awe of the wonderful noise produced by his heroes and determined to discover how they managed it - and to recreate it using any means at hand, including his own considerable talents as a guitar-picker and a vastly under-rated singer.

John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillen" - the riff that launched a thousand songs

Scrub my last music post – 1972 was almost as good as 1971 for albums, even better for singles!

Okay, I’ve got my excuses ready. The reason I was so wrong about 1972 is… the cat ate my homework! Will that do? Oh, the hell with it – I just got so over-excited by becoming re-acquainted with the glories of 1971, that I began dissing its younger brother without doing proper research. Truth is, ’72 – bless it! – was only a gnat’s behind ’71 in terms of albums, and actually ahead when it comes to singles.  The singles list alone is actually awe-inspiring – and I thought the early ’70s was meant to be the era of the long-player.

Harry Smith’s “Anthology” - the greatest roots music compilation of them all

I’m ambivalent about much old-timey roots music: I start off listening to compilations of field or commercial recordings of blues and folk performers from the 1930s and 1940s with the best intentions – but after two or three tracks my brain starts saying, “Anyone fancy a pint?”

Rhythm and Blues - the very best of the grown-up music that made everything possible

Without Rhythm and Blues,  the musical genre invented by Black musicians in Chicago in the 1940s and 1950s by electrifying guitars and adding drums (and anything else they fancied) to acoustic Country Blues, there would have been no Rock ‘n” Roll, no Rockabilly, no Rock. We'd probably be listening to George Formby imitators.

"The Band": the greatest LP in Rock history from the most talented band in Rock history

The most accomplished, inventive and intriguing rock band America has ever produced is The Band.  I enjoyed their 1968 hit single, “The Weight”and 1969’s UK hit, “Rag Mama Rag”, but I had just bought my first stereo system, recorded music was expensive back then, and there was oodles of great new stuff to choose from.