Hot 100 #57

Roger Daltrey illustrates this week's entry in our countdown - 57 Varieties, from The Who Sell Out.

There was an obvious answer this week, and a less obvious answer: both came from the same artist... who most of you will be aware is a favourite of mine. Which song did I choose? Wait and see. In the meantime, a few alternatives from you guys...

The Swede suggested Banging on the Door by PiL, for another Heinz-related reference...

This lot are not happy heroes, just better actors,
A hundred and one dilations, and fifty seven varieties,

Outside with the empties, keep banging the door...

He also offered Waltz 57 by minimal electronic duo Swod, from their 2004 album 'Gehen'. And of course, you lost me at "minimal electronic duo".

Lynchie popped up next with the following...

1957 by Milo Greene is quite pleasant.

Yes, it is.

Biffy Clyro - 57 on the other hand is a mess.

Yes, it is. They might as well have worn "We wanna be Nirvana!"

Lynchie adds...

I always thought he was called Biffy Giro, until I saw him on BBC Scotland's Hogmanay show.

Biffy Giro would be a better band name.

Lynchie's final suggestion would have been a serious contender most other weeks...

Come In From The Cold by Joni Mitchell opens with the words:

Back in 1957
We had to dance a foot apart
And they hawk-eyed us from the sidelines
Holding their rulers without a heart...

...words which any prepubescent boy or girl born before 1963 can identify with.

Indeed. Scary times... why do I find myself longing for that innocence again?

C turned up next, to offer something she confessed "wasn't the sort of song I'd normally nominate but it must surely be a contender..."

Crowded House - Weather With You

Walking 'round the room singing
Stormy Weather
At 57 Mt. Pleasant Street

Can't argue with that. 

Finally, Martin did his usual crack investigative job and came up with a couple of belters...

I Can See Elvis by The Waterboys has the lyric:

I can see Elvis, skinny like he was back in '57.

...and Firecracker by Sleeper, which has:

57 kids, and all of them ugly...

So, then: the winner. Most of you seemed to think I'd choose 57 Channels (And Nothing On) which is certainly a fine tune, even though it comes from Bruce's fallow period in the 90s.

For me though, this is even better. From his second album (his first with the E Street Band), this 8 minute epic points the way to Born To Run both in its length and its storytelling. It also contains what is for me one of the best lines Bruce ever wrote - or at least, one of those lines that pops into my head all the time and has done throughout my life...

"Johnny, it falls apart so easy and you know hearts these days are cheap"

There are certain lyrics that do that in my head. They've almost become part of my internal idiolect. (Other lines from Bruce that do the same thing are "if you can take a man's life for the thoughts that are in his head" from Johnny 99 and the lines at the top of the page from No Surrender. Plus most of Born To Run & Thunder Road.)

Anyway, with apologies to 90s Bruce... 70s Bruce will always win in my book...

Next week... 56? I can sense a Nobel Prize winning suggestion, but beyond that it's a pretty open playing field...