>This set is why I like Nick Hornby.

OK, they’re 5 songs that would grace anyone’s mixtape.

But there’s more.

He writes about context.

“It’s what happens when people are deified. The eighteenth-century British scholar Edmond Malone calculated that Shakespeare “borrowed” two-thirds – 4,144 out of 6,033 lines – from other sources for Henry VI, Parts I,II and III, And , though Henry VI is a minor play, the point is that this stuff was out there, in the world, and Shakespeare inhaled it. What he exhaled was mostly genius, of course, but it was not genius that came out of the blue; it had a context.”

Now, buy the bloody book and find out what comes next. And if Ben Folds Five works within a context. Or if there is a context in pop music in the 90s.

And I was sorely tempted to substitute “Caravan” from “The Last Waltz” for the studio version. Later, maybe…..

16. Smoke – Ben Folds Five – Nick Hornby/31 Songs
17. A Minor Incident – Badly Drawn Boy – Nick Hornby/31 Songs
18. Glorybound – Bible – Nick Hornby/31 Songs
19. Caravan – Van Morrison – Moondance
20. So I’ll Run – Butch Hancock & Marce Lacouture – Yella Rose