Words & Music by Peter Carroll

Fellow author, Peter Carroll, joins me to introduce his choice of songs. Peter hails from Andy Murray's home town of Dunblane and has two books published with Ravencrest Books called 'In Many Ways' and 'Pandora's Pitbull.' I'll leave you in Peter's capable hands as he lists some of his favourite tunes.

I don’t habitually listen to music while writing. Therefore, when Sinclair asked me to list my top ten tracks I like to write to, I needed to think of something else. Then an idea struck me. What do we have as common currency, us writers and musicians? Words!

So, here are ten great lyrics that I love for varying reasons. I hope you enjoy checking them out.

1. AC/DC - Ain’t No Fun (Waiting Round to be a Millionaire)

I love AC/DC and have done for nearly thirty years. This song is from early in their career (they are in fact all now multi-millionaires) and the thing I love most is a cheeky spoken word segment towards the end. Scottish born singer Bon Scott says “Hey, hello Howard (Hughes and at that time reportedly the world’s richest man). How ya doin friend? My next door neighbour. Oh yeah. Get your f*****g jumbo jet off my airport!” I smile every time I hear it...and I’ve heard it a lot!

2. Pearl Jam - Unthought Known

I love this song on so many levels, including the wordplay of the title, but the lyric I love is “See the path cut by the moon, for you to walk on.” Beautiful imagery and a beautiful song.

3. Motorhead - Ace of Spades

This song is two and a half minutes of powering rock that also qualifies as a great pop song. I love playing this song in a band and, as a bassist, the intro is a blast to play. My fave lyric is “You know I’m born to lose, and gambling’s for fools, but that’s the way I like it baby, I don’t wanna live forever!’

4. Biffy Clyro - Folding Stars

Biffy are a great wee rock band from Scotland. Lead singer Simon Neil wrote this song after his mother died from cancer. It’s so poignant, it actually made me weep the first time I heard it.

5. The Waterboys - A Man Is In Love

I really admire Mike Scott’s love poem that forms the lyrics and the lovely ‘reveal’ about who the man in love is. I also adore the traditional Irish folk music ending to the song.

6. Audioslave - I Am The Highway

Featuring ex-members of Soundgarden and Rage Against The Machine, this track has great lyrics throughout. However, I particularly like the line “I am not your carpet ride, I am the sky”.

7. Rush - The Pass

When I was in my early twenties a good friend of mine killed himself. It was an event that had a profound effect on me and was the first funeral I ever attended; and then as a pall bearer. This song is about a young man and friend of the band who also took his own life and it never fails to move me. My friend Iain, was also a Rush fan, which makes it all the more affecting.

8. Led Zeppelin - Kashmir

I love the pictures painted by the lyrics and it’s musically sublime. Not much more to say about such an iconic tune.

9. Elbow - One Of These Days

I really like the hypnotic chant as the song progresses “Throw those curtains wide, one day like this a year would see me right”. A lovely song of hope from a great British band.

10. The Honeydrippers - Sea Of Love

This version was performed by a ‘supergroup’ featuring Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Nile Rodgers and Jeff Beck. This was the song that me and the missus chose as the first dance at our wedding. I love it for all sorts of reasons but I think it’s possibly one of the most romantic lyrics ever written.

Guilty pleasure…I have always loved Duran Duran’s ‘Ordinary World’.

Thank you Peter for a brilliant collection of songs that brought back some memories.

You can read more about Peter and his work at http://petercarroll.ravencrestbooks.com and follow him on Twitter @PeterCarroll10.