As George and Ernie are both out on manoeuvres, and because last week's bumper edition nearly finished me off, we're having a rest from Namesakes this week. All being well, it will return to bore you next Tuesday.
At the weekend, Louise and I went to see the new stage adaptation of To Kill A Mockingbird. It was excellent. I've long been a fan of Aaron Sorkin's sparky, snappy dialogue, and he found some excellent ways to use the themes of the novel to say important (if ultimately futile) things about the state of America today. If it comes to your neck of the woods, I'd highly recommend going along to see it.
Here are some tunes related, in one way or another, to Harper Lee's famous novel...
More tracks from Sam's inexplicably favourite in-car CD...
Track 11: Pat Benatar – Heartbreaker
Not one of Pat Benatar’s UK hits, I first heard this on the
soundtrack to the movie Nobody in which Better Call Saul star Bob Odenkirk
realises his action hero side as a mild-mannered office schlub who used to be a
John Wick style badass in a previous life. You can guess the rest.
Anyway, soundtracks can often breathe new life into old
songs, and this was certainly the case here. It’s not a Benatar
original – all her biggest hits were written by other people – and the song was
originally recorded back in 1978 by West Midlands rock chick Jenny Darren.
She appears slightly miffed that Benatar was the one who used it as a springboard
to fame and fortune.
Track 12: Squeeze - Pullin' Mussels From A Shell
I remember when I was compiling this CD for Sam, I had a
slight reservation over whether to include this track. I guess by this point
I’d already used all the obvious Squeeze singles (Cool For Cats, Up The
Junction, Labelled With Love, Hourglass) and this seemed the next obvious one
on the list, even though it never actually cracked the UK Top 40. BUT… is it a
suitable for little kids? The singalong title / chorus is a huge, mucky
innuendo, isn’t it? Oh yes, it is. Although I guess the only way you’re going
to know that is if someone tells you. If you’re reading this and you never knew
that “Pullin' Mussels From A Shell” was Chris Difford’s clumsy/genius* (*delete
as appropriate) metaphor for “the use of fingers to stimulate the female sexual
organs”… then I’m really sorry if that’s ruined the song for you. Despite this,
and the song’s lack of chart success (Were the two linked? Was radio hesitant
because of the innuendo?), iffypedia claims Pullin’ Mussels is one of the
band’s catchiest and most popular tunes. And who can argue with that? It’s a
high point on this compilation.
Track 13: Liam Frost - The City Is At A Standstill
While I have listened to more songs by Jake Bugg in the
hope of finding something as strong as Lightning Bolt, I can honestly say I’ve
never made a similar effort with Liam Frost… and maybe I ought to. As of this
writing, this is the only song I know from this Manchester lad, but it’s a
belter.
I know this world is vicious darling lets make tracks now Black out all the city lights and drink till we both grown
numb And lay down to sleep I feel like I ran all day
Liam doesn’t appear to have released anything new since 2019,
so I wonder if he’s packed it all in and found a day job? Shame if he has, and
I blame myself for not paying more attention. That's right: his entire career was dependent on whether I bought a couple of his records.
I’ve been reading comics for almost fifty years now, and
many of the writers and artists who were around when my obsession began are no
longer with us. In the past few years, we’ve lost Stan Lee, John Romita, Jim
Shooter, Neal Adams, Keith Giffen and many more.
Sal Buscema, who died earlier this week, just two days shy of his 90th birthday, is one of the last of the original Marvel
artists to pass. By that, I guess I mean the artists who started out in the 60s. We
lost his older brother, John, almost a quarter of a decade ago. Maybe Sal was
always seen as working in his big brother’s shadow, but I preferred Sal's loser,
more dynamic style. He drew some of the first comics I ever read, and he drew some
of my all time favourite stories, particularly his lengthy team-up with writer J.M. DeMatteis on Spectacular Spider-Man in the 90s, a high water-mark for both storytellers.
Sal was a storyteller first and foremost. Unlike many of the
flashier artists who came later, you could read and follow the action Sal drew
without even needing word balloons or narration. His work had a sense of drama
and pace that many more stylised artists never achieve. He worked as a penciller and inker at Marvel
comics for almost fifty years, with only a brief spell at DC. In that time he
must have drawn every big Marvel character – Spider-Man, the Hulk, Captain
America, Thor, the Avengers… in my head, I can picture issues of all their
books, drawn by Sal.
And he was the first one to draw the Hulk’s love of beans.
