Twitter and the @MickPuck Man

Mike Scott is the founding member, chief songwriter, guitar wizard and lead singer for The Waterboys, a band that has been an obsession of mine for almost 40 years. Only Bruce Springsteen has stayed in the orbit of my musical interests longer.

Mike is @MickPuck on Twitter. He’s active on the site. Shares a lot. Doesn’t hide from his politics.

This one day he was lamenting the preposterous Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, when I wrote, in response to his tweet: “An anathema to the spirit of the art it claims to represent.”

He responded: "Nicely articulated."

Mike Scott is on my Mt. Rushmore of singer-songwriters, alongside Bruce, Bill Callahan and Nick Drake. He made the cut on the two most important playlists of my life: My mother’s funeral service and my father’s funeral service. Fisherman’s Blues is probably my second favourite album of all time. And on those days when I’m feeling grumpy toward Van Morrison, it’s No. 1.

I had to tell someone about my “nicely articulated.” I phoned my girlfriend. She feigned delight.

During the next few months, I responded to a number of @MickPuck tweets but never heard back.

I was feeling like the Norman Greenbaum of Twitter. “An anathema to the spirit of the art it claims to represent” was my Spirit in the Sky, and the harder I tried to replicate the magic, the more my tweets played like Canned Ham.

Then this one day, and this speaks to the magic of following Mike Scott, @MickPuck drops a list of his 10 favourite Waterboys songs. This raw self-assessment by way of a list seemed refreshing and audacious. Bruce was once asked by Stephen Colbert to name his favourite Springsteen songs. He kind of mumbled Racing in the Street, The Rising … there might have been one other. It was all so uncomfortable.

I responded to Mike’s list: “My head would explode if I tried to do this. Pan Within, Strange Boat, Out of All This Blue, Too Close to Heaven, You in the Sky, Fisherman’s Blues, Good Luck Seeker … Can’t keep going, every selection would conflict with a rejection. My top 10 WB songs: Impossible.”

He got back: “Make it 50.”

The rest of the conversation went like this:

@waynemoriarty: “I can do that. Important question: Do ‘Still Burning’and ‘Bring’Em All In’ count? (Author’s note: His two solo albums.”

@MickPuck: “Yes.”

And so, in alphabetical order with cover songs included, my top 50 Waterboy songs:

A Life of Sundays

Always Dancing Never Getting Tired

A Man is in Love

And a Bang on the Ear

A Pagan Place

A Song for the Life

Be My Enemy

Beverly Penn

Bigger Picture

Bring ‘Em All In

Church Not Made with Hands

Do We Choose Who We Love

Fisherman’s Blues

Further Up, Further In

Good Luck Seeker

Has Anybody Here Seen Hank

Higherbound

Hosting of the Shee

In My Time on Earth

Killing My Heart

Ladbroke Grove Symphony

Long Strange Golden Road

Long Way to the Light

Mad as the Mist and Snow

Medicine Bow

Meet Me at the Station

My Wanderings in the Weary Land

Nashville, Tennessee

Open

Out of All This Blue

Pan Within

Piper at the Gates of Dawn

Politics

Saints and Angels

Savage Earth Heart

Some of my Best Friends are Trains

Spirit

Strange Boat

Sweet Thing

Take Me There I Will Follow You

The New Life

The Return of Jimi Hendrix

The Stolen Child

This is the Sea

Too Close to Heaven

We are Jonah

We Will Not Be Lovers

When Will We Be Married?

Whole of the Moon

World Party

You in the Sky

Here are Mike Scott's top 10 Waterboys songs