In defence of the songs of my youth | Brief letters

Brief letters: Party tunes of 1973 | Tim Winton’s Juice | Remembering times tables | Labour’s priorities | Tony Blair and irony

Zoe Williams says “no good songs were released anywhere in the world” in 1973 (I’m trying to pick the best party tunes since 1966. Why are all the real bangers from 1989?, 26 May). Anyone born, like me, in 1957 will confirm that a high proportion of the best ever songs were recorded in 1973 – Radar Love, Candle in the Wind and No Quarter, to name but three. That’s because the music you love at 16 is the music you will love for ever. Williams was, of course, 16 in 1989, a year that seems to us 1957‑ers bereft of worthwhile music.
Nick Smith
Fyfield, Essex

• Considering current European temperatures and the “heated” debate about the Guardian’s best 100 novels list (Letters, 22 May), Tim Winton’s Juice could be a contender. Its description of folk living underground to escape the heat, water harvesting, difficult food production and societal change is sobering.
Margaret Ward
Crossford, South Lanarkshire

• At school in the 1950s, it never occurred to us to calculate multiplication tables (Letters, 25 May). They were simply dinned into us by overbearing teachers. Looking back, that appears as a kind of abuse, but it was useful too, because at 73 I still know them.
David Robson
London

• If Tony Blair’s scornful essay is – justifiably – castigated because “he doesn’t mention inequality once”, as Andy Burnham pointed out (Report, 27 May), what is the verdict on the Labour manifesto of 2024, whose 136 pages mention inequality only once?
Paul McGilchrist
Cromer, Norfolk

• Tony Blair says that the Labour party has an “almost infinite capacity for self-delusion”. Has he looked in a mirror?
Karey Hunter
Leicester

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