Inspired by the lovely Ms. Arethusa.

Music has been a central part of my life since I was 8 years old. My parent's were big music lovers and our family, household and extended family was/is multinational, so I grew up listening to music from around the world. Brasilian, American 50s and 60s rock and pop, Sinatra, Italian, Irish. Without being too longwinded about it, music has been very important to me.

Not just as entertainment, but as the art form that speaks to the very deepest part of my soul. The art form I expressed myself through. Music as the integral part of human life and history. It gave me my first social and political consciousness, my soundtrack, it has been and is a part of every important rite of passage and ritual in my life and is the poetry I revel in. Here are 25 songs from the rock/reggae category that reach me at the deepest levels. I would need separate lists for blues, jazz, classical and world. Keeping it to one song from each artists was absolutely brutal.

1. Zombie - The Cranberries

2. Perfect Day - Lou Reed

3. Bad - U2

4. Celluloid Heroes - The Kinks

5. And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda - The Pogues

6. Thunder Road - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

7. Bertha - The Grateful Dead

8. White Man in Hammersmith Palais - The Clash

9. Redemption Song - Bob Marley and the Wailers

10. This is the Modern World - The Jam

11. She Sells Sanctuary - The Cult

12. Talk About the Passion - R.E.M.

13. Baba O'Reilly - The Who

14. Sympathy for the Devil - The Rolling Stones

15. 100 Years - Blues Traveler

16. Blitzkrieg Bop - The Ramones

17. God Save the Queen - The Sex Pistols

18. 5446 That's My Number - Toots and the Maytals

19. Alive - Pearl Jam

20. Lithium - Nirvana

21. I alone - Live

22. What I Got - Sublime

23. Dear Mr. Fantasy - Traffic

24. Heroes - David Bowie

25. Wish you Were Here - Pink Floyd

-bonus track 1 Spirit of the Radio - Rush
-bonus track 2 Celebrity Skin - Hole
-bonus track 3 Bittersweet - hoodoo Gurus
-bonus track 4 Germ Free Adolescents - X Ray Specs
-bonus track 5 Fields of Gold - Sting