Five Recordings That Must Be Added To The National Registry of Recorded Sound

The Australian National Film and Sound Archive have today called upon the Australian people to make their submissions for recordings that ought to be included in the National Registry of Recorded Sound due to their having cultural, historical and aesthetic significance and relevance and reflecting what life in Australia is all about.

The list of recordings that have been included over the past six years is a pretty good one, but we want 2013's inclusions to be the best yet, so we've come up with four songs and a sound recording that we think must be included.

You can actually nominate these (or anything else you might want to see in there) between now and Saturday.

Cattle and Cane – The Go-Betweens

A song packed with quintessential Aussie imagery written by one of our finest writers, the sadly passed Grant McLennan. The fact it was written in London just adds to its Australian significance. Paul Kelly once remarked that he could smell this song when he first heard it. It's hard to tell what makes it evoke such powerful and striking imagery and how McLennan managed to write a song that was nostalgic, but completely lacking in both saccharine schmaltz and tribal jingoism.

Khe Sanh – Cold Chisel

Long unfairly ostracised due to “bogan” connotations, Khe Sanh has morphed from being a kind of Australian anthem to one of the most misunderstood and ignorantly panned songs by modern Australia. While Don Walker may not have served in Vietnam and the actual Australian involvement in and around Khe Sanh was minimal, it remains a brutally powerful tale of a man struggling to find his place in the world after the horror of fighting in a war. It's something that sadly far too many men and women have struggled with for decades. Perhaps its well-deserved inclusion in the National Film and Sound Archive will make people actually listen to the song and realise just how brilliant it is.

Bombora – The Atlantics

It's hard to believe that this tune isn't already in the Archive, but you can make it happen this year! One of the most iconic songs in the surf genre, a song that makes one long for hot summer days, scorching sand, salt, sunscreen and sets of waves peeling in end-to-end. There's nothing particularly Australian about the song – it did largely mimic American surf music, after all – but it bolstered the strong surf culture and showed the world that

Beds Are Burning – Midnight Oil

Far from their best song but arguably their most important; The Oils weren't shy of fighting for what they believed in and Beds Are Burning managed to take a plight that was both caused by and affecting Australian people and tell the world about the injustice. The Pintupi people were forcibly moved from their traditional land in the 1940s, their language and culture suppressed against their will. To bring shameful Australian injustice to the world stage (and make it a genuine pop hit) ought to be commended.

Richie Benaud talking about anything at all.

This has nothing to do with music, so we won't harp on about it too much. But the fact there's no Benaud in the NFSA list yet is a gross oversight and must be amended at once.

Which of these would you include?