I don't know how come I've only just discovered Chip Taylor, when it appears he's been writing great tunes for over 50 years and has released over 25 solo albums in that time... but that's why I like the music industry. It never stops giving. There's always somebody new to discover... even if that somebody has been doing their thing for half a century.
(I'm particularly impressed that Chip Taylor released a song and an album in 2012 called Fuck All The Perfect People. That's going on the list of songs for my funeral.)
Anyway, Chip Taylor has a new album out at the moment. He's 79 now and his voice and delivery owe much to latter days Johnny Cash & Leonard Cohen. Here's the title track (with a little help from an old George Jones tune). It's a belter.
It won't mean much to most of you, but Friday's news that Disney & Sony have reached a new deal over the rights to Spider-Man was one of the few pieces of good news I've had lately. Thought I'd celebrate it with the image above.
J. Jonah Jameson is the arch-nemesis of the bloke in the costume at the top of the page. Considering I came up with this clue a couple of weeks ago, I call that synchronicity.
To get this week's Saturday Snapshots together, I done wrestled with an alligator. I tussled with a whale, handcuffed lightning, thrown THUNDER in jail. Only last week, I murdered a rock. Hospitalised a brick. I've been so mean, I made medicine sick.
All to get you ten picture and ten clues to ten great tunes. Pow!
10. I've an intuition you'll always be together.
9. Did you enjoy watching Chernobyl burn?
8. Runaway loses 50 as you arrive.
7. 12:01, Jameson's cabbage.
6. A lot's happened between Friday and today. Like killer fruit!
5. Smashed pumpkins with mixer.
4. Not as eponymous as he used to be, but nothing stays the same.
3. Found in clover, forever. In need of an umbrella.
2. This tape will self-destruct in 5 seconds: blame the crazy Jam Kennels.
1. Greens, before the Beatles, get mean.
I'll be floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee again tomorrow morning with the answers.
I used to be quite sniffy about covers albums, but lately I've heard some really good ones. And here's one of the best, from a lady who can do no wrong in my ears, Karine Polwart.
All the songs she's covered in her Scottish Songbook are from fellow Scots, and there are some great covers of artists as diverse as Deacon Blue, John Martyn, Biffy Clyro, The Waterboys, Gerry Rafferty and Chvrches. Not a bad song to be heard, some of them (whisper it) better than the originals. Here's one of my favourites, from the late, much-lamented Frightened Rabbit...
...birthday greetings to this guy, who turned 70 on Monday.
Remember when 70 was Old Man age? Three score years and ten? Time to shuffle off?
Thank god for longer life expectancies (particularly as, at the current rate of my mortgage, I'll be paying it off till I'm older than Bruce). We've lost too many stars too soon in the music business, particularly over the past few years. Thank god this one's still shining bright.
Sorry, it's no way to celebrate someone's birthday by considering the mortality. Just the way my mind's set at the moment.
Thank you, sir, for all you've given me throughout my life. Maybe you continue to do so for many years to come.
8. Killed a mockingbird then drove off in a tiny emerald.
Harper Lee wrote To Kill A Mockingbird.
Rather obscure Irish band, although I did feature them here in my Top Ten Songs About American Writers. What do you mean you don't remember!?! I do love this song though.
Saturday Snapshots... it's a very complicated case. You know, a lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what-have-you's. And, uh, lotta strands to keep in my head, man. Lotta strands in old Duder's head. Luckily I'm adhering to a pretty strict, uh, drug regimen to keep my mind, you know, limber.
Guess the song and the singer from the ten clues below, please.
This quiz really ties the room together.
10. A Partridge exclaims, "d'you wanna scrap?"
9. Eagle retrievers mixed up in brothels revery.
8. Killed a mockingbird then drove off in a tiny emerald.
7. Shhh... they've got their guns.
6. A brief continental burn.
5. Two apples... but not for Steven Dalglish.
4. I sense that a Western Scott has you rockin' and a'reelin'.
3. Plebs in space.
2. Skinny queen sees Brian, Carl and Al return to the city.
1. If I were... to catch the paper boy? I'd be a coyote botherer.
Saturday Snapshots abides. Answers tomorrow. Until then: fuck it, Dude... let's go bowling.
Office Politics, the latest album by The Divine Comedy, is a great 12 track album.
Unfortunately, it's 16 tracks long.
I read an interview with Neil Hannon where he said that after the success of his last record (my favourite album of 2106), he was emboldened to experiment a bit more with this record and add the "mucking about songs" (my words, not his... I can't quite remember how he described them) that normally get cut. He should have left them cut.
Tracks like Philip & Steve's Furniture Removal Company (imagining a world where Philip Glass and Steve Reich run a... well, you can guess the rest... which apparently they did before becoming famous composers, but really, there's a better song to be written about this subject than the repetitive nonsense here... although that's probably the point) and The Synthesizer Service Centre Super Summer Sale (I abhor alliteration) really should have ended up on the cutting room floor. They work as mildly amusing skits, but after two or three (or less) plays become annoying disruptions to an otherwise witty and musically fabulous album.
I guess in this era of streaming and downloads we can all easily edit albums to the size and shape we prefer, but us old fogies who still buy the records are stuck with the CD skip button or the lever arm on the record player.
I don't think Office Politics will be my favourite record of 2019. Still, 12 great tracks on one record is better than a lot of artists manage these days.
