Songs for Self Assessment Season

Posted by John Stokdyk PM | on Thu, 14/01/2010 - 18:29 2456 6 comments

Members of AccountingWEB.co.uk have brought fellow professionals a bit of musical relief during the busy Self Assessment tax season with a Spotify playlist tailored to their tastes and professional concerns.

Songs for Self Assessment Season is a 2-hour, 40-song playlist compiled interactively on Spotify with contributions from music enthusiasts in AccountingWEB’s Humour and Fun discussion group.

Accountants and tax advisers regularly work 14- and 16-hour days in January, with this year’s snow adding to their woes. When he couldn’t get to the office after the recent blizzards, one AccountingWEB member said he was preparing to take a sleeping bag into work to ensure he could beat the 31 deadline and save his clients the £100 late-filing penalty.

The Spotify playlist reflects the full sweep of emotions accountants experience as pressure builds and encompasses many musical styles, from Stevie Ray Vaughan’s rocky blues treatment of George Harrison’s anthem ‘Taxman’ to the wistful pop of Pilot’s January (“Sick and tired you've been hanging on me”) and ‘Last of the Melting Snow’ from 2009’s surprise package, The Leisure Society.

The frustrations of dealing with delinquent clients and an unsympathetic HMRC are explored (‘Shot By Both Sides’ - Magazine linking into Blondie’s ‘Hanging On The Telephone’), then things turn a bit manic as deadline day stress increases (‘Time is Running Out’ - Muse; ‘Going Under’ - Evanescence). Relief begins to show as returns are completed (‘Another One Bites The Dust’ - Queen), the deadline is met and clients pay up (‘Beautiful Day’ - U2).

Continued...

31 Jan spotify

riches-watts | Fri, 15/01/2010 - 14:50 | Permalink

You have surely got to have Bon Jovi's 'Livin' on a prayer' - with the imortal words 'Oohh, we're half way there...' to encourage the troops.

Songs for Self Assessment

taxip45 | Fri, 15/01/2010 - 20:38 | Permalink

A couple of suggestions :-

Eve of Destruction - Barry McGuire

Pick Up The Pieces - Average White Band

Music for the masses

ianthetaxman | Mon, 18/01/2010 - 13:32 | Permalink

What about "9 to 5" by Dolly Parton (our playlist last year started with this one!) and "I need a holiday" by Scouting For Girls is another good one.

Some others maybe - "2 minutes to midnight" by Iron Maiden (for all those who will be working right up to the deadline), or "In The Still Of The Night" by Cole Porter or Whitesnake (the phone doesn't ring as much at 8pm).

Roll on 31 January!

Welcome to the Machine - Pink Floyd

sluglet | Mon, 18/01/2010 - 15:51 | Permalink

and not forgetting:

I think I'm going slightly mad - Queen

Taxman - The Beatles

I hate you so much right now - Kelis

A must!

Julie Baker | Tue, 19/01/2010 - 21:40 | Permalink

Still at the office at 9.35pm on 19th January so I'm thinking 'under pressure' by Queen would be a good one, and on 31st January I'll be playing 'bat out of hell' by meatloaf in the car on the way home!

Thanks for the suggestions

John Stokdyk | Fri, 20/01/2012 - 13:57 | Permalink

All the ones I could find have been added to our updated compilation for this year's Self Assessment season.