Wednesday, 10 April 2019

My Top Ten Librarian Songs



Ten songs about librarians. Shh!

(The Tori Amos "Greatest Hits" collection pictured above doesn't contain any librarian songs, but did order the songs using the Dewey Decimal System.)


10. The Research - Librarian Girl

Wakefield indie band from the early noughties. No relation to the Michael Jackson song (sic).

We're all looking for a meaning in a meaningless world.

9. Jimmy Buffet - Love In The Library

And I thought Jimmy spent all his time messing about on boats. Turns out he also hangs around in libraries, looking for love...

She gathered her books, walked while she read
Words never spoken but so much was said
You can read all you want into this rendezvous
But it's safer than most things that lovers can do

8. Hefner - The Librarian

He started to woo her in the most peculiar way
The librarian's dress was a fawner shade of grey
The books he was to borrow he would surely never read
They had an intellectual calibre he hoped that she would see

Been there. Didn't get me anywhere.

7. Eels - Baby Loves Me

Record company hates me
The doctor says I'm sick
The bad girls think I'm just too nice
And the nice girls call me "dick"
But baby loves me!

(And the librarian shushes him too. Poor E.)

6. My Morning Jacket - The Librarian

Simple little bookworm, buried underneath
Is the sexiest librarian, 
Take off those glasses and let down your hair for me

Steady on, fellas...

I like this song because it mentions both "the interweb" and "Karen of the Carpenters".

5. Haunted Love - The Librarian

I want to check out your books...

Innuendo never sounded so buttoned-up and proper!

4. The Divine Comedy - My Imaginary Friend

Remember the mobile library? Neil does...

Daddy drives the mobile library.
He works peripatetically.
He doesn't get much time to play with us
So we just read and make up stuff.
And it drives him round the bend,
Me and my imaginary friend.
You can search the whole library for another song that features the word "peripatetically"... good luck in finding one.


More early Go-Betweens - from their first ever single, the b-side to Lee Remick.

I know this girl
This very special girl
And she works in a library, yeah
Standing there behind the counter
Willing to help
With all the problems that I encounter
Helps me find Hemingway
Helps me find Genet
Helps me find Brecht
Helps me find Chandler
Helps me find James Joyce
She always makes the right choice

2. INXS - Heaven Sent

Tuesday she works in the library uptown
Some useful knowledge can always be found
Don't burn the library till you've read all the books
Sometimes in life you get a second look

Not a band that were known for their great literary offerings, but they sure could bang out a tune.

1. Nick Cave - There She Goes, My Beautiful World

Name-dropping the most famous librarian ever and notorious parent-abuser...

While Philip Larkin, he stuck it out 
In a library in Hull


Any librarians filed in your stacks? Dewey decimal placings will be required.

7 comments:

  1. I misread the strapline as Liberian songs.
    I suspect Ernie from 27 Leggiescould come up with a top 10 but you might be struggling Rol!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nine Horses featuring David Sylvian- 'The Librarian' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64ZJuuaE4Yk

    ReplyDelete
  3. Loudon Wainwright III has a neat little song called "Muse Blues" which opens with:

    I went down to the library, you know the big one way downtown
    I went down to the library, you know the big one way downtown
    I pulled out my spiral notebook and my Scripto pencil
    These, these, these are the words that I did put down


    There's a scene in the 1946 film "The Big Sleep" with Humphrey Bogart as private eye Philip Marlowe which features Dorothy Malone as a gorgeous bookstore employee who makes quite an impression on Marlowe. At the risk of being labelled sexist, I think she looks gorgeous - with or without her spectacles!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wlr7CHNpW-s

    ReplyDelete
  4. Libraries are close to my heart... not just because I work in books now but I also worked in my tiny village library for a few years, just on Sundays, on my own. The borrowers were lovely and one of them, Mr P, a retired teacher, used to bring me cakes at lunchtime, then we'd have a nice intellectual discussion. Often I'd be alone in there for a while and could help myself to some reading. Quite a cushy little job for a while!

    ReplyDelete
  5. According to the Manic Street Preachers "Libraries gave us power ..."

    Not sure about Power, but they did give me access to Asterix books

    ReplyDelete
  6. Good to see something from Jimmy Stool appear on this list, I mean Buffet.

    Back in the day I used to be on something called a Job Evaluation Committee. Scarily, the score we came up with dictated how much the incumbent would get paid. There were rules attached however and the poor librarians always turned out to be the most highly qualified underpaid staff in the organisation. Always thought it very unfair so good to know they have had a fair few songs written about them.

    ReplyDelete
  7. As someone who has a degree in library and information science, I will make a point of listening to these

    ReplyDelete

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