Yes, I could have chosen the logo of Twenty One Pilots to illustrate this post, but I don't think they ever recorded a song as good as this. Feel free to disabuse me of that notion should you wish. Jim In Dubai also suggested another 12 group...
Jim's Twenty One - Throwaway Friend
...which I don't think is his own bad, but it's pretty good regardless.
Welcome to the 80th post in this series (look, I did the Maths, you work it out)... which means The Key To The Door: Number 21.
Let's start with Martin, who appears to be struggling somewhat this week...
Erm. 21. Feels like there should be loads.
Well, I found a fair few.
So Solid Crew - 21 Seconds
That... wasn't one of them.
Alanis Morrissette - 21 Things I Want In A Lover
Neither was that. Although it's a step up from So Solid Crew.
Sigue Sigue Sputnik - 21st Century Boy which is probably the first time they've rubbed up against Alanis...
Blimey, you really are scraping the barrel this week.
The Who - 1921
That's more like it.
ELO - 21st Century Man
That's not bad either. Not a winner though.
While we're in the 21st Century, we might as well get these out of the way too...
The Soundtrack of Our Lives - 21st Century Rip Off
Mike Peters - 21st Century
Laptop - 21st Century World
Toto - 21st Century Blues
Frank Hamilton - 21C
Glenn Frey - Love In The 21st Century
Frank Turner - 21st Century Survival Blues
Jamie Cullum (yes, Jamie Cullum, deal with) - 21st Century Kid
Midland - 21st Century Honky Tonk American Band
Jim in Dubai offered Luke Haines - 21st Century Man
C tried King Crimson - 21st Century Schizoid Man
The Swede had T.Rex - 21st Century Stance and The Membranes - 21st Century Man, but curiously not The Mebranes - The 21st Century Is Killing Me.
And Rigid Digit supplied Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown, which hails from the same album as Green Day - 21 Guns. Not their best, no, but no their worst either.
Finally, Douglas offered...
Bad Religion - 21st Century (Digital Boy)
But... well, let's face it: the 21st Century is pretty horrible, so I think we'll skip all those, fine songs though they may be.
Back to The Swede...
Luxuria - Lady 21
Bon Iver - 21 Moonwater
Juana Molina - Wed 21
Sounds like John Shuttleworth on the keyboards there, Swede.
Snailhouse - Twenty One Years
Personally though, The Swede concludes, I'd like to suggest Twenty One by The Apartments. What a truly wonderful band they are.
That is very nice, I have to admit it. Doesn't exist in my own record collection (yet), which is the one stipulation to be a winner on this series. But I definitely have to investigate it further.
Where's Lynchie? Putting all his eggs in one basket this week, it seems...
Well, it's obvious the winner is Twenty-One by The Eagles.
I was very tempted, I'll admit it.
Here comes Brian, who's backing The Swede's final suggestion, but also throws in this...
The Flaming Lips - One More Robot / Sympathy 3000-21
...which I'm glad he did, because somehow the trawl through my own 21s missed that. Here's a few more of those, if you're at all interested...
Jim Bob - Coach A Seat 21
Dave Gahan - 21 Days
Frank Black - 21 Reasons
The Charlatans - Come In, Number 21
Ash - Death Trip 21
Blink 182 - 21 Days
The Divine Comedy - 21st of May
Jeff Rosenstock - June 21st
And finally, Douglas had a couple more suggestions...
The Cranberries - 21
(Which owes quite a debt to Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time, if you ask me.)
Chuck Berry - 21 Blues
These lead us quite nicely into the subsection "Songs about being age 21", to which I can add...
The Paddingtons - 21
Jack White - Freedom At 21
Wilko Johnson & Roger Daltrey - Turned 21
The Shirelles - Twenty-One
The Lonesome Pine Fiddlers - Twenty One Years
And... of course... this, which was our opening suggestion this week, from Charity Chic, who almost begged...
The Adverts - No Time to Be 21, please, Rol.
C seconded that too, and, well... why not?
Life's short, don't make a mess of it
To the ends of the earth, you'll look for a sense in it
No chances, no plans
I'll smash the windows of my box
I'll be a madman
It's no time to be 21
To be anyone
To be honest, even though I'm not particularly enjoying 47... I don't think I'd fancy being 21 again. Would you?
And so we finally reach the Top 20. On your marks... get set...
Go!
Back of the net!
ReplyDelete20th Century Boy by T-Rex for two in a row?
You know me, Rol, I scrape the barrel every week.
ReplyDeleteCC has bagged the winner again, surely? But if not...
20% Amnesia by Elvis Costello
Living in the 20th Century by The Steve Miller Band
20th Century Man by The Kinks
Twenty Days and Twenty Nights by Elvis Presley (double whammy!)
Twenty-Something by Pet Shop Boys
32-20 Blues by Muddy Waters
20:20 Vision by Rory Gallagher
Twenty Miles bu Chubby Checker
See? There's another barrel below the barrel.
Good call with Elvis Martin - may well challenge my crown
ReplyDeleteT.Rex also released a quite different song called '20th Century Baby', it's not a patch on their hit that I think will be this week's winner though.
ReplyDeleteI can also offer 'In Twenty Years Or So' by Father John Misty, 'Twenty Years Ago' by Magazine 'Ten to Twenty' by The Sneaker Pimps and 'Twenty Cell Revolt' by Menomena.
Hang on...what about Eddie Cochran's 'Twenty Flight Rock'?
ReplyDeleteAnother good call
DeleteNot as good as yours.
DeleteDan Hicks & His Hot Licks - 20/20 Vision
ReplyDelete4 + 20 by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Barenaked Ladies – 20/20 Hindsight
ReplyDeleteErykah Badu - 20 Feet Tall
ReplyDeleteIt's not for everyone, in fact most of you will feel quite ill if you listen to it, but several people recorded the song Twenty Tiny Fingers back in the day - Alma Cogan, The Stargazers and the Coronets.
ReplyDeleteStatus Quo had a song called Twenty Wild Horses (one for Jez) and Placebo had one called Twenty Years.
Vaccines - 20/20
ReplyDeleteHere's my 20's songsthis week -:
ReplyDeleteEdwyn Collins - 20 Years To Late
The Undertones - Top Twenty
The Phenomenal Hand Clap Band 15-20
George Benson - 20/20 Vision
Matchbox 20 - How Far We've Come
Thermometers - 20th Century Girl
Joss Stone - 4 And 20
ReplyDeleteKenny Rogers - 20 Years Ago
Rufus Wainwright - Sonnet 20
Regina Spektor - 20 Years of Snow
I will count on seeing American power-pop band 20/20 as the art on the top of the next post in this series... preferably from their first single or their first album. Don't let me down, Rol!
ReplyDeleteSo the consensus above seems to put T-Rex in as frontrunners and obvious favourites. And I admit I too, had I not been late to the game, would have suggested the same, with perhaps Elvis Costello as an outside chance and Pet Shop Boys as a dark horse.
ReplyDeleteBut as I am late to the game, I am going to put forward not just another choice, but one which I am sure you will see has the power of research, reason, and persuasive logic behind it.
For starters, I have observed a long running tendency for our esteemed blogger to shy away from obvious front runners to surprise with some surprise underdogs. Consider, for example, a couple weeks ago when all were putting heavy money on Gene Pitney for #24, and up came Half Man Half Biscuit. I argue that T-Rex supporters going all in for a dead cert face possible extinction if there is a meteoric rise of some new kid on the Cretaceous block.
So who might that be? If you were thinking Elvis, the King (and who better than a King to dethrone the Tyrant-Lizard?) you are wrong. I have just the candidate for you: George Jones. Before you scoff, consider this:
Research shows that George has been undergoing a slow and steady upsurge in popularity within the pages of this fine blog. The "Search" box at the top reveals that his first appearance ever here was as an 8th place finish on April 15th, 2013, with "The World Worst Loser", in a Top Ten about "Losers". Before you chortle indeed and mutter something about the title being prophetic, or get off a wry comment that losing in a contest of Losers doesn't really make you a winner, wait for what comes next.
George had a comeback the following year by teaming up with Tammy Wynette, always a wise strategy. That time, on January 6th, 2014, it was a 7th place finish with "I've Seen Better"...marginal improvement, you say? Well, improvement nonetheless and it gave him the confidence to try again, and this time, with all in for a placing.
It took him a few years (his age slowing him, I suppose) but it was worth it; on April 19th, 2018, it was "The Race Is On" (ironically in a Top Ten about Horse Racing) that landed him in the Winner's Circle with a strong 2nd Place showing in a Top Ten appropriately about the races.
And that was it. George could smell victory, and there was no stopping him. He spent the next year in training, eating nothing but Wheaties and working out like a man half his age. It was Stallone in Rocky XIII (am I up to date???) all over again.
Avid readers will know that the payoff came just last week. And this would be big...not just some local, "best of show" Top Ten victory. George had his sights set higher. He wanted a win in one of the big time circuits, and he had his hopes pinned on a Saturday Snapshots #1 placing, and, miracle of miracles, just a few days ago, he came through with "He Stopped Loving Her Today". You saw it with your own eyes.
But having tasted victory, George now wants more. What, he asked himself, would be better that a Saturday Snapshot win? What giddy heights could he aspire to now with a fairy tale finish to his Cinderella story in these hallowed pages? It took some thought, but then...by George, he had it!
He would take the first spot in the final 20 countdown of the Hot 100. Let the younger kids have the final weeks (by Gad, he hoped it would not be U2 with "One"!). But he would show there was life in the old boy by having #20 all to himself. It had to be. He was made for this. He shuffled through his back catalogue, his memory stirred by a half-forgotten title. He rummaged for a few moments, past the big shiny hits, under the sleeper successes, and yes, there it was!
And out he pulled "I've Aged Twenty Years in Five".
Take that, T-Rex.
(mike drops)
I wanna give you that one just for the obsessive (slightly scary) research.
Delete