A little musical fantasy

"I think I'm going to do a blog entry about the perfect F1 compilation album"

It's coming up to the beginning of the motorsport season, and my husband is frothing at the mouth for it. He's only really been following it properly for a couple of years, but Ben is like a star; when he finds something to fuel his interests, it burns hot and bright. There's no escaping it. You know all about it.

This isn't a bad thing at all, infact I often envy this quality of his. I'm a pretty apathetic person on the whole. There are certain things that catch my interests and ignite my passions, but if Ben is a star, I'm an oven set to medium heat. Nothing is gonna get burned in there, but it'll get cooked. And tasty. However, from the minute the BBC starts plugging the Bahrain GP (though of course this year it's had to be scrapped, and our thoughts are with those caught up in the violence and protests currently sweeping not only Bahrain, but all throughout the middle east and north Africa) Ben is there, chomping at the bit. His blog suddenly sparks to life again and it's full of videoes of spectacular crashes, overtakes and wins. I swear, if he as emotional at the birth of our children as he gets when watching the videos of Jenson Button taking the F1 world championship in 2009, I will begin to worry for his mental health. He is very much emotionally invested in this.

And I think I take this well enough. I've learned to block out most of his ranting about obscure racing series that I neither know anything nor care anything about (don't worry, he does know that I do this, he just gets over excited and, try as I might, I cannot get as excited as he does about these things. He does it with me too, so we're pretty equal) and hone in on all the juicy F1 jewels he comes out with (which I am interested in and do get excited about).

Still, there are some things I cannot escape. When he told me last night he wanted to make a fantasy F1 compilation album for his blog I first though 'yeah, another pretty blog project, that'll be an interesting read'. And then he asked what I thought. I gave a couple of suggestions (which he has included, cause I'm awesome and he knows it) and we argued over a number of his suggestions (none of mine, though :D).

Then he turned around and said, "I think you should do this on your blog too, a competing version".

Now, it's not the kind of thing I'd normally do and I've been grumbling over it. However, he set a challenge, and he wrote it so right here and, as apathetic as I may be towards it, we have a bit of an unwritten rule between us. Of course, it is no longer unwritten as of now...once the challenge is set, unless it is physically ridiculous, it must be taken.

So anyway. The rules, as set by Ben (he asked me for my input and I rather apathetically told him that it's his challenge so he has to make them) is that we're allowed duplicate entries (he claims on his blog that this is because Fleetwood Mac's 'The Chain' is none negotiable. Whilst he has a point, it's also because he wanted to steal my ideas, my ideas being 'Bulls on Parade' and 'Nobody does it better' just so you know) and that it has to be 13 songs long.

Now I'm struggling to figure what links a song to F1. Is it because the BBC happened to link it in on their F1 Forum pieces, is it what the teams play in their garages when they've won, is it just a song that is an awesome driving song? I've thought, not too long or hard mind you (sorry Ben!) and this is what I've come up with.

1 -Fleetwood Mac - The Chain



There is no compromise. This is THE definitive F1 track. There are facebook groups that spring up each year trying to get it to number one for either the beginning or end of the F1 season. If you are an F1 fan, you probably have this tucked away on your playlist somewhere.

2 - Rage Against The Machine - Bulls on Parade



What the hell does this have to do with F1 racing? Well, to me and Ben it's a bit of an unofficial Red Bull Racing theme tune ever since the beeb linked it in after Vettel won the 2010 world championship. And whilst I've never driven in my life, I can see myself cruising down the motorway with this on full blast. I dunno. Maybe that's just me.

3 - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang



Oh come on. Like I need to explain this! Gotta love Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

4 - The Allman Brothers Band - Jessica



Not perhaps the most original tune for a song relating to driving, nor is it perhaps immediately obvious as to why I've included it on an F1 playlist. Still, we've been watching Top Gear for years and it was the publicity that Top Gear gave to F1 that really got me personally thinking about it in the first place. If it weren't for Top Gear, Ben would have a hard time talking about anything remotely racing related at all, so he owes them a debt of thanks that he can at least talk to me about F1!

5 - DJ Visage - Formula '98



Otherwise known as "The Schumacher Song" this is an awesomely cheesy dance tune dedicated to he who is arguably, love or hate him, the king of F1. Schumacher, we saulte you!

6 - Cardigans - My Favourite Game



This was on one of the Grand Turismo games of years gone by. It's a general all round epic driving tune if you ask me, and a great racing song.

Ok, if I can be honest with you I'm starting to struggle.

7 - Carly Simon - Nobody Does It Better



So I'm putting this now. In a perfect world, it would be at the end. But anyway. This was used in a montage of all the british F1 champions when Button won the championship and I think it's a pretty sexy song. It's classy and sparkly and everything that F1 is.

From here on in things might get silly. Not that Chitty Bang Bang was silly. That was perfectly justified.

8 - Abba - Money Money Money



Lets face it. F1 is a rich man's sport. It's glamorous and epic. And done in Monaco. And they mention Monaco in this song.

And I love ABBA and needed an excuse to get them in somewhere.

9 - Boston - More than a Feeling



Another epic and favourite song of mine that is probably included on every "Driving Songs" album ever made, but also linked back to F1 thanks to the almighty influence of the beeb.

Seriously Ben, why 13? I know perfectly decent albums that are only ten tunes long?

Well, since Ben stole my idea's I'm going to resort to stealing his.

10 - Queen - We Are The Champions



Honestly, is there anything in particular that links this to F1 other than, once again, a Button era karaoke moment? It could arguably be linked to anything in which a champion is crowned, not just this particular one sport. Still, it's a cool song. And I is stealing Ben's shit. Haaah.

But I think I'm going to leave it there. I'm afraid I've not got the stamina for this and I have laundry that needs to be hung and a bathroom floor begging to be scrubbed (not to mention the fact that it's coming up to three o clock and I've not had lunch yet).

Ben, inevitably, you have won this one. But like I said. I'm more of a medium heat oven, baby. Yeah.