31 Scars are the band I found to illustrate #31 in the Hot 100. What can I tell you about them? They like The Cranberries.
"Welcome back the songs with numbers thing!" said Lynchie.
To celebrate, I'd like to offer up Sin City written by Gram Parsons and performed by The Flying Burrito Brothers on the fab album "The Gilded Palace Of Sin". The chorus is:
This old earthquake's gonna leave me in the poor house
It seems like this whole town's insane
On the 31st floor a gold plated door
Won't keep out the Lord's burning rain
A fine tune, and one that featured on Saturday Snapshots a few weeks back, if I remember correctly. But not this week's winner.
"Good to see the return of the Hot 100, yes!" said C.
I can offer one song lyric with 31 in, from The Universal Soldier by Buffy Sainte Marie, also covered by Donovan and (I just found) more recently by First Aid Kit. A song with a theme that sadly never goes out of date.
He's five-foot-two and he's six-feet-four
He fights with missiles and with spears
He's all of thirty-one and he's only seventeen
He's been a soldier for a thousand years
Thank you, C. I'm rather partial to the Glen Campbell version myself.
"Welcome back to the 100 - time for some more spurious suggestions. Thanks for giving back the opportunity for a dose of musical tourettes," said Rigid Digit.
Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band - Death Cab For Cutie
Bad girl Cutie, what have you done
-Baby don't do it
Slipping sliding down Highway 31
-Baby don't do it
That is always worth another spin. Gave its name to one of my favourite Emo bands too.
"I too offer my welcome back and give my heartfelt thanks for bringing this series back to life," said Douglas. "I have, after all, been waiting months with baited breath to see if my Leroy Brown suggestion might finally have meant a first place finish! Missed by that much, once again."
A few great suggestions above that I would have made, and I am guessing Universal Soldier makes a strong finish. I would also have suggested Sin City, but in the spirit of offering something new and in keeping with the spirit of the musicians that seem to bring a winning touch round these parts, I will suggest the version by Billy Bragg, on the Talking With The Taxman About Poetry album.I'd forgotten all about that.
As for unique and new suggestions, how about The Cure - So What?, from Three Imaginary Boys. It is a strange song, wherein Robert Smith, in the midst of a heartache breakup song, seems to be trying to sell us a cake decorating set. Not sure if that is a metaphor for something that eludes me, but in any case, the offer seems to be time-sensitive:
Order now
Allow twenty one days
For delivery
This offer closes
31st December 1979
I can't remember why, but that has featured on this blog before. It is gloriously mad.
Seems I missed my chance to get me one of them sets by close to 40 years.
You and me both.
And if that is too festive for you, perhaps a dead dog offered up by Mr Bruce Springsteen is more your fancy, in Reason To Believe off the delightful Nebraska album:
Seen a man standin' over a dead dog lyin' by the highway in a ditch
He's lookin' down kinda puzzled pokin' that dog with a stickGot his car door flung open he's standin' out on Highway 31Like if he stood there long enough that dog'd get up and runStruck me kinda funny seem kinda funny sir to me
Yes, very funny indeed.
Another very good call, Douglas. Any other week... sadly I had another song in mind from the start this week. What was it? Well, it wasn't any of these...
The Shirelles - 31 Flavours
(One flavour less than last week's offering by Ani DiFranco.)
The Divine Comedy - 31st of May
Rory Gallagher - Too Much Alcohol (it all happens on 31st Street)
Stephen Malkmus - The Hook
By 31 I was the captain of a galleon
I was poseidon's new son
The coast of montenegro was my favorite target
It was ever so fun
We had no wooden legs
Or steel hooks
We had no black eye patches
Or a starving cook
We were just killers with the cold eyes of a sailor
Yeah we were killers with the cold eyes of a sailor
Dixie Chicks - Tortured, Tangled Hearts
The Go-Betweens - The Life At HandAfter 31 days of sleepless nights, she woke up to end it all
With "I love you" on a fresh tattoo engraved upon his chestShe tore her name right off his heartSo here's to the unblessed
A ruby waistcoat won't hide my fear
At 12:31 watch my teeth disappear
However, first out of the gate this week was Charity Chic with a very fine suggestion from an artist I've long dallied with, every since I found her first album lounging in the chuck-out box at my former workplace. (What fools!)
30 next week. This may take a while...
Titles that spring to mind...
ReplyDeleteC30, C60, C90, Go! by Bow Wow Wow
30 Years in the Bathroom by The Wonderstuff
Lyrically, God, you'll be here all day. I might as well get it out of the way and be the first to reference 30 years of hurt in Three Lions...
The Wondersuff were a fine band ... for 2 albums.
DeleteNever hit those heights again.
I heard their new track tother day - had a real whiff of Bon Jovi about it
Bonus Jovi,really? Blimey.
DeleteIronically, my favourite Wonder Stuff album is their fourth one. Not really dug anything by them since then... but if their new record channels Jon By Jovi, I might have to check that out!
DeleteAny video with a cuddly little kitten in it gets my vote!
ReplyDeleteMartin - you realise that it'll be 56 years of hurt by the time the next World Cup kicks off? I wonder if Baddiel and Skinner will rewrite the lyrics?
ReplyDeleteInfinite years of hurt, perhaps...?
DeleteManic Street Preachers - 30 Year War
ReplyDeleteLest I forget (which I did)
ReplyDeleteScott Walker - 30 Century Man
Scrolled down and down and down excitedly
ReplyDeleteDon't think that Thirty Days Out by The Montose Avenue or 30 Seconds Over Tokyo will make it two in a row
The latter being by Pere Ubu
DeleteCan't offer any 30s today I'm afraid but I love the Aimee Mann video; I reckon we could all do with a mad friend like hers from time to time!
ReplyDeleteSplendid to see the Hot 100 countdown back in action Rol, sorry I missed it last week. For No.30 I can offer: '16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought Six' by Tom Waits (which might of course make two more appearances further down the line), 'My Thirty Thousand' by Billy Bragg & Wilco, 'Thirty More Steps' by Webb Foley & 'Thirty Years' by UK.
ReplyDeleteLyrically, The Congos 'La La Bam-Bam', '...for thirty pieces of silver they sold Jah Rasta and why did they do that?' plus a selection of Bob Dylan lines; '....thirty pieces of silver, no money down...' from 'Maybe Someday', '...count up to thirty, round that horn and ride that herd - Gonna thread up!' from 'Lo and Behold!' and '...the car I drive is a Chevrolet, it was put together down in Argentina by a guy makin’ thirty cents a day...' & '...bringin’ home thirty cents a day to a family of twelve, you know, that’s a lot of money to her...' both from 'Union Sundown'.
Missed this series being back last week so forgot the point of it, and was busying myself finding 31 songs (would have been Aimee Mann). As for 30, Vonda Shepard has a song called By 7:30 and Robert Downy Jr has one called 5:30 - Time, so probably not allowed but all I've got.
ReplyDeleteGood to see you've found your blogging mojo again - was weird without you.
Hey Rol, welcome back to the countdown. All i have for number 30 is Thirty Frames a Second by Simple Minds
ReplyDeleteI second The Swede's choice of '16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought Six' by Tom Waits, although I'm sure I've mentioned it on the numbers in songs thingy before.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised how much tougher a round number like 30 was to find in my collection than I would have though. The best I could do pulled up some pretty great songs, but with references to 30 that were a little bit of a stretch, such as the time reference in "Planet Claire", by the B-52's:
ReplyDelete"Some say she's from Mars
Or one of the seven stars that shine after three-thirty in the morning
Well, she isn't!"
Another clock reference appears in the song "Brian Wilson" by The Barenaked Ladies:
"Drove downtown in the rain
Nine-thirty on a Tuesday night
Just to check out the late-night record shop
Call it impulsive, call it compulsive
Call it insane
But when I'm surrounded I just can't stop..."
Now, I have never been the greatest BNL fan, despite their origins from the streets of my own home town of Toronto and the leg-up the received in airplay and support from our then-mighty local alternative independent radio station CFNY. But they have pulled together some amusing lyrics from time to time, and I have always found the above description of compulsive record shopping very poignant and pointedly relevant to myself and my closest friends of the time.
The final time-stamp I could find was on Bruce Springsteen's "He's Guilty (The Judge's Song)"
Well the judge and the jury came into the court room
About 9:30, the 23rd of Jun
Now we're all here to try your crime
To see if we'll set you free or make you serve your time
Perhaps more directly a 30 reference is in The Beautiful South's "The Rocking Chair", where it expresses the disappointment and dissatisfaction with the situation one finds one in after the passage of years:
"So I'll take these high-heeled shoes
And yes I'll take these traditional views
I'll take this deep despair
Of a 30 year old square, to the rocking chair..."
And perhaps y'all will forgive me when I mention that when I thought of the above use of "30" to express lost hopes and dreams of youth it immediately put me in mind of a song I recall went the rounds of my grade-school playground, lyrics being parroted uncomprehendingly by innocent young'un's who must have heard it on the radio, for it did reach number 8 on Billboard's Top 40 in 1978:
"Her name is Lola, she was a showgirl
But that was thirty years ago, when they used to have a show
Now it's a disco, but not for Lola
Still in dress she used to wear
Faded feathers in her hair
She sits there so refined, and drinks herself half-blind..."
Now after mentioning that, I think I will go off and drink myself half-blind as well, for I feel sure that is the first and only time Barry Manilow will be mentioned on these pages...
Okay, I feel better now. After writing the above, I thought to do a search of the blog and found that what I said about Manilow was not true, and our esteemed author himself wrote in 2014, "...I'm not ashamed to say there are Barry Manilow records in my collection, or that I enjoy getting them out from time to time..." and in 2016, "I've never felt guilty about enjoying a bit of the old Bazzer boogie...". And "Copacabana" itself has been featured more than once in "Top Ten" lists, once reaching the giddy heights of No. 2! So perhaps, just perhaps, he may have a chance of bringing me victory at long last, and I can stop practicing my Marlon Brando voice, saying "I could have been a contender!"
DeleteI'm now kicking myself I didn't remember that 30 lyric in Copacabana - Plenty of Barry Manilow fans around here!
DeleteHas anyone above suggested 30 pieces of Silver by Hank Williams?
ReplyDeleteand Clyde McPhatter - 30 days
ReplyDeleteand The Auctioneer by Leroy van Dyke mentions a 30 dollar bid
ReplyDelete