So here we are: the last ever Readers Recommend newspaper column. In tribute to the move over RR's new home at Guardian.co.uk/music, this week we have revisited the first ever RR topic, change. There's been no place for sadness among the nominations over the last few days, only a desire for the community that has built up around this remarkable weekly debate to carry on as before. After all, change happens around us all the time, it's what we do with it, how we manage, how we bend it into shape that matters.
George Harrison considered the change within sunsets and sunrises, the endless shifts within the ebb and flow of love. He realised: "None of life's strings can last/ So I must be on my way /Face another day …" The change Wu-Tang Clan suffered was the sudden and unexpected death of a key member, Ol' Dirty Bastard. In this incredibly emotional song, rapper Raekwon steps back for a moment, remembers his beloved friend and says: "You was the chess piece on the board, that made us look true …" It was Ol' Dirty that made the change in his own life possible.
Ravi Shankar's nephew Ananda changed his life by moving from India to LA and playing with Jimi Hendrix. His track Metamorphosis presents change as something forward-looking, dramatic and naturally inclusive. Nina Simone's version of the old spiritual If He Had Changed My Name elevates the drama of the lyric – the search for identity, the desire to be understood – by thinking of the impact of religious conversion. Donald Byrd's 1972 track looks at the many troubles of the inner cities and asks: "With all that's goin' on/ Where are we gettin'?" The question all these artists are asking is: what's coming after this wave of change? What's next?
Billy Joel originally thought of Just the Way You Are as "a chick song", a crowd-pleaser, but its simple, direct and implicit rejection of change is its strength. He doesn't want clever conversation; he doesn't want to work that hard. Frankly, who does? Delta blues man Robert Pete Williams may have been the only person who cared less about conventional tunings and structures than the late Captain Beefheart, who covered his song Grown So Ugly in 1967. The change Beefheart sees in his shaving mirror is shocking. "Baby, this ain't me!" the Captain hollers, amazed.
Pop stardom changed performance artist David Bowie. In the very first verse of Changes he refers to himself as a faker, while the song insists that nothing will stand in the way of time. Pop stardom changed George Michael, too, but he uses Freedom '90 to deconstruct the commodification of his persona. The song itself becomes a vehicle for change.
Robert Wyatt's song was designed to draw attention to South Africa's illegal occupation of Namibia and called for change. Well, that's a 1985 Jerry Dammers production for you. Despite, or perhaps thanks to, the good intentions, the song is a riot of bright joyousness, a proper knees-up of a tune. As the end approaches Wyatt's "wind of change" has become, rather beautifully, "the wind of freedom". That'll do for me. Thank you. And goodbye.
1 All Things Must Pass George Harrison
2 Wu-Tang Clan Life Changes
3 Metamorphosis Ananda Shankar
4 If He Had Changed My Name Nina Simone
5 Where Are We Going? Donald Byrd
6 Just The Way You Are Billy Joel
7 Grown So Ugly Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
8 Freedom '90 George Michael
9 Changes David Bowie
10 The Wind Of Change Robert Wyatt with The Swapo Singers
