Quite tempted by Bear Mcreary for the original soundtrack especially as the 'dingdingdingding ding' sinister tinkly music from BSG reminds me of ever exam I ever sat. For the non-OST however, it looks something like this:
The Pixies-Monkey's Gone To Heaven
I first heard this when I was about 12 and loved it. It is, in fact, the most cheerful song about the end of the world ever written although I didn't know that at the time.
House of Pain-Jump Around
I grew up on an island whose population was approximately one third Viking descendants, one third Irish and one third Liverpudlian. Given House of Pain's fierce pride at their celtic roots this got heavy rotation and the fact that it's a phenomenal track is just a bonus.
Guns'n'Roses-Sweet Child'O'Mine
Every school disco in my life, compressed into six minutes or less.
The Rolling Stones-Paint It, Black
My first real exposure to US series drama was to Tour Of Duty, which followed, I believe, a Marine Fire Team through their time in Vietnam. Staying up past midnight to watch it was cool enough (This is where the insomnia started) but it was the opening credits that sold me. Flash cuts of the various characters set to this, closing with three of them, in Hawaiian shirts, saluting the flag. I was hooked and years of Star Trek, 24, Prison Break, Boomtown and dozens of others would follow.
The Rolling Stones-Honky Tonk Women
I remember going to a barbecue, on the beach, in the height of Summer and having what I'd later realise was effectively a West Wing moment. I looked around at the astounding countryside, at the extraordinary people I was growing up with and this started playing. Just for a second, for a split second, everything felt like the movies as I realised how extraordinarily lucky I was. I felt invincible, I felt utterly relaxed, I felt like a rockstar.
I then spilt tomato sauce down myself but hey you can't have everything.
Johnny Cash-The Man In Black
Back in the early '90s, BBC Radio 1 was home to what was arguably the greatest radio show on the planet. Mark Radcliffe and Mark Riley were two northern DJs who ran a two hour show crammed full of some of the oddest and most interesting music they could find. Casually disregarding the playlist and, often, sense, they combined genuinely funny comedy sketches with a different diary every week, poetry, a bi-weekly book review and a bi-weekly cult film corner. This was the show that showed me it was okay to bee interested in everything, the show that also reassured me that I wasn't actually socially subnormal BECAUSE I knew these things. It was also the show that introduced me to Johnny Cash, and specifically both this track, and the moment of pure comedy gold on Johnny Cash-Live From Folsom Prison.
It being live, Cash took the opportunity to show off a little and the already very noodly opening to Folsom Prison Blues was extended by a minute or so. Clearly audible at that point is someone shouting 'GET ON WITH IT!'. In a maximum security prison. With nowhere to go.
U2-Zoo Station
The first loosely decent stories I wrote were when I was 14-16 based around a sort of pseudo cyberpunk New York. The main characters were NYPD officers who were tasked with dealing with computer crime and at least one of them was recruited out of a free community of hackers, artists and free thinkers called Zoo Station. Very few of them have stood up to the years but I'm still fond, and this track always reminds me of them.
The Stereophonics-Too Many Sandwiches
I ran a comic and game shop for seven years and there's something about the sloppy, slightly crumpled charm of this song that always reminds me of it I suspect because the shop I ran was slightly crumpled (Although the comics never were). No one does 'Everything's a bit crap but it's actually okay' quite like The Stereophonics at this stage in their career.
Sting-The Soul Cages
The entire album is pretty fantastic but The Soul Cages is one of those tracks that sticks in the mind. It's a bizarre, almost poetic story of abandoned shipyards, the battle for a man's soul and the King of the Sea. It's slightly nightmarish but the view of the sea, the combination of respect and challenge, has a lot in common with the mindset on the island.
Whistle for the Choir-Fratellis
One of those songs you find yourself whistling when things just go right.
Smashmouth-All Star
My love for Mysterymen is a pure and holy thing and due in part to this song. It jsut makes me smile and fits the version of me that I think is the real one.
Next Year-Foo Fighters
The funny thing about growing up somewhere very small is you never leave it. I'm a country mouse, even now and whilst I can now visit London without my nose bleeding there's still a part of me that's on the Isle of Man and always will be. My last two years at school were, for a variety of reasons, utterly horrific and as a result I feel a lot closer to my friends, even people I've not talked to in years, than normal. I miss them, sometimes a lot and I miss the place a lot too. This track, for some reason, sums up everything I feel about the island far better than anything I've just written.