In defence of the songs of my youth | 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 SmithFyfield, Oxfordshire 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 bac