Readers recommend: Cruel songs | Music | guardian.co.uk
Devious ditties ... we want songs that like to kidnap puppies for their fur. Photograph: Everett Collection/Rex Features
What a great week. Every one of my adolescent phases was revisited, from pretending to be a "mod" aged 11 – even though I had no idea what a "mod" really was – through metal, up past a serious goth stage before heading into hip-hop and acid house. Pop music's ability to demarcate tribal lines, then write songs so good no one notices the boundaries any more is a continual pleasure.
What I wanted more than anything this week were voices from within the scenes themselves, unselfconscious expressions of wonder from those who had a stake in what was actually going on. And I really wanted someone to nominate the Professionals' epochal Mods Skins Punks. Heartbreakingly, no one did. But happily, the following all got the nod ...
The B-list:
The Who – The Kids Are Alright
Well, they are, aren't they? "I don't mind other guys dancing with my girl," Roger Daltrey sings, rather decently. "That's fine, I know them all pretty well." That, literally, is the attitude we are looking for. Extra points for having one of pop music's finest ever middle-eights.The Dovells – Bristol Stomp
Blame Darts – this sort of joyfully innocent doo-wop just gets me right in the guts. Written by a pair of record company executives for an a cappella group from Pennsylvania, it's about cult teen dance, the stomp. And it's 2.19 mins of total pleasure.The Specials – Do the Dog
"All you punks and all you teds, National Front and natty dreads, mods, rockers, hippies and skinheads, keep on fighting 'til your dead …" There's not that much needs adding to that, is there? Do the dog, then, "not the donkey".Blossom Dearie – I'm Hip
Incapable of making a bad record, this Dearie classic comes from a live LP recorded in 1966. It remains powerfully cool while taking the piss out of those who attempt to be exactly that. "I don't blow but I'm a fan," she sings. "Look at me swing, ring a ding ding, I even call my girlfriend man, I'm so hip …"Tony Joe White – Soul Francisco
In 1967 wah-wah fan White notices a "thing" has happened down in SF, now he's hearing about "all them childuns with flowers in their hair". Whatever it is they want, he's pleased to hear that some of them even have "things to say". A lovely record that could never have existed at any other time.Merle Haggard – Okie from Muskogee
Two years later, Haggard hit back at the hippies with this timeless tirade against marijuana, sandals, free love, LSD, the burning of draft cards ("on Main St") and letting your hair grow "all shaggy". In Muskogee, they wave Old Glory "down at the courthouse" and the kids "still respect the college dean". You're right, it sounds bloody awful.Fela Kuti – Highlife Time
More properly accredited to Fela Ransome-Kuti and His Koola Lobitos, this burst of beautiful energy was recorded in 1965. Highlife music was then the sound of young Nigeria, though Kuti was soon to tear it all to pieces and invent Afrobeat.
Minor Threat – Straight Edge
"Laugh at the thought of eating 'ludes," the grim-faced punk ascetics sing, "laugh at the thought of sniffing glue, always gonna keep in touch, never want to use a crutch." No sex, no drugs, no smoking, no booze – a discipline that never really caught on in the UK, to be honest.Television Personalities – Part-Time Punks
This is more our cup of tea. A brilliantly gentle satire on suburban wannabe punks – which is nearly all punks, really – and their quirks. "They play their records very loud," they sing, "and pogo in the bedroom, in front of the mirror, but only when their mums gone out …"Shy FX & UK Apachi – Original Nuttah
Scientists have recently proved that the bit in this record where the drums drop in – about 1:05 – is, without doubt, the single most exciting moment in pop history. This, like D-Mob from the A-list, was such a perfectly rounded evocation of the junglist scene that, almost immediately, it was being parodied.This week's topic is cruel songs, songs that really go for someone – or something – and don't let go. Extra points will be awarded for songs that include particularly sharp lyrics or themes, the more imaginatively vicious and pointedly personal, the greater the chance it'll make it the cut. Random nastiness about whole groups won't do it. We all know pop music can be a generous friend – but what about when it's an absolute bastard?
Your tools await: A-Z, archive, index and Spill. Collaborative playlist here. Now get to it you shower of buggers.