Tuesday, 31 March 2020

Hot 100 #14


Thank you to C for suggesting this week's band... 14 Iced Bears. She says...

I couldn't tell you any of their songs any more unfortunately, although have vivid memories of ordering in their singles for some devoted indie fans at the time of their release and (in my head at least) being very disparaging about their chosen name. Now I think it's rather lovely!

Indeed. And here's what they sound like...

14 Iced Bears - Come Get Me

Brian added:

I would like to back up C and proclaim that the 14 Iced Bears were awesome. Unfortunately, their sleeves were nothing to write home about. Perhaps the cover for The Importance Of Being Frank EP would suffice for art.

I'm not sure what that is above, Brian, but it was the one with the clearest 14 I could find.

Another relatively quiet week on the countdown, compared to the excesses of 16 and 17, although we're all just girding our loins in preparation for the Top Ten.

Here's what you had for me this wee, starting with Martin, who's still smarting from forgetting two Gene tracks last week...

The White Stripes - Red Death at 6.14 

...is all I have for this week. Unless I've missed something else by one of my most beloved bands...

Next up is Alyson...

Hats off to you Rol for putting this together as my brain is incapable of concentrating on anything at the moment. Yes, my choices above not really my thing, but fitted the brief.

From the same source I have just found something called:

Tomski - 14 Hours To Save The Earth

This is an open letter
From you and me together
Tomorrow's in our hands now
Find the words that matter
Say them out loud
And make it better somehow

Looking down from up on the moon
It's a tiny blue marble
Who would've thought the ground we stand on
Could be so fragile
This is a love song to the Earth

You're no ordinary world
A diamond in the universe
Heaven's poetry to us
Keep it safe, keep it safe, keep it safe
Cause it's our world, it's our world

Interesting, as dance remakes of Welcome To The Pleasuredome go. The lyrics you quote don't appear to come from that track though, Alyson. They come from Love Song To The Earth by Sean Paul, featuring Natasha Bedingfield & Paul "anything to stay cred" McCartney. As C remarks, it's apt to the current world situation... but doesn't have any 14s in it, I'm afraid.

Time for Jim in Dubai, who also found it tough this week...


Television Personalities - 14th Floor

Rigid Digit, meanwhile, is waiting for an Ocado delivery slot so he found plenty this week...

Aphex Twin - Avril 14th

I can honestly say that's the best thing I've ever heard from Aphex Twin.

Peter Gabriel - 14 Black Paintings

Palma Violets - 14

Rufus Wainwright - 14th Street

Beck - 14 Rivers, 14 Floods

Those last two are definitely worth a click. I'll let you get back to your virtual queue now, RD... because I bet you're still stuck in it, 7 days after you left that xomment.

Lynchie appeared equally stuck for inspiration this week...

I couldn't think of any songs with 14 in the title but then I discovered... 

Tiny Tim - Fourteen

...on which is voice sounds nothing like it did on "Tiptoe Through The Tulips". It's a pretty deep voice which led me to believe it might be an imposter.

The lyrics kick off with:

Fourteen!
Fourteen girls in baggy pyjamas
What if I'd gone to the south Bahamas

...and just get weirder.

I'm only guessing here, but I don't think that's the same Tiny Tim. But thank you anyway.

Thankfully, the Swede is here to restore us to sanity...

Soft Machine - Fourteen Hour Dream

Don Bailey - Fourteen Stories Down

That is one top suicide ballad, Swede. Thank you for that.

Back to C for one final moment of inspiration...

I can't believe I didn't think of this before but having indulged in '60s psychedelia in a big way in the '80s I really should have remembered... 

The Syn - 14 Hour Technicolour Dream

And, last but not least, Brian...

Kind of quiet on the 14 front. I'll add...

Nick Lowe - 14 Days 

...from The Impossible Bird. I think this is his best album, and that's saying something. 

I seem to remember there was some discussion about this over at your place recently, Brian. I'd still always plump for Jesus of Cool, but those later albums are pretty special.

OK, time to scrape the dregs from my own hard-drive...

Manic Street Preachers - 1404

Sylvain Sylvain - 14th Street Beat

Revenge - 14K

Ralph McTell - England 1914

Scott Walker + Sunn O - Herod 2014

Counting Crows - 1492

Drive-By Truckers - Feb 14

Love - Number 14

Mull Historical Society - 14 Year Old Boy

Midland - Fourteen Gears

All of which brings us to this week's winner... and to be honest with you, I pretty much thought that Rigid Digit had walked away with it. I was all set to crown this the champion...

Guns n Roses - 14 Years

...until a final scour through the library shook out this little gem. Frankly, I'm ashamed to say I'd forgotten it... and a number of my regulars will probably share that same shame.

Take it away, Billy...


Unlucky for all of us, next week is 13. Not that we need any more bad luck at the moment. Suggestions, please...



21 comments:

  1. Only one song and one album cover required for next week Rol.
    You know what to do

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. For the avoidance of doubt
      Big Star - Thirteen and Teenage Fanclub - Thirteen
      No ocntest

      Delete
    2. I thought that's what you were getting at. Although the album cover usually reflects a band name, not a song title...

      Delete
  2. Thanks for clarifying my suggestion and why it made no sense - blame Prof Google. Liked the lyrics anyway and sorry you had to do the legwork. 14 hours to save the Earth was what Flash Gordon had of course. I shall return when I’m back on a screen I can actually see.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Some excellent '60s fuzz beat comes in the form of Swedish band The Renegades' song 'Thirteen Women'. If you check out the youtube video of the band larking about in a factory full of women it's nicely daft, and the length of the singer's hair at the time must have been outrageous!
    Would also like to nominate 'Thirteen' by Big Star.

    ReplyDelete
  4. And next week's winner is........*pause for drum roll*.....................

    Bill Haley And His Comets ~ "Thirteen Women (And Only One Man In Town)" It was the original A side to "Rock Around The Clock"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah I just realised the Renegades song I mention above is a cover of this, d'oh!

      Delete
  5. In 1962, the wonderful Ann Margret released a single called "13 Men" - the same song with a woman being "the only gal in town"...

    "I had three guys dancing the mambo
    Three guys ballin' the jack
    And all the rest really did their best
    Boy, they sure were a lively pack!"

    ReplyDelete
  6. Johnny Cash - Number Thirteen is pretty awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  7. For a band, how about the 13th Floor Elevators?

    And since we've been talking about them over at my gaff, got to mention the album 13 by Blur...

    As for songs...?

    13th Floor by Ash

    13 Steps Lead Down by Elvis Costello

    13 x Forever by Garbage

    Broken Hearts (Thirteen Valleys) by Big Country

    2013 by Arctic Monkeys

    Thirteen Days by J.J. Cale

    Thirteen At The Table by Jerry Lee Lewis

    ReplyDelete
  8. Quite a few here,

    Big Audio Dynamite V Thirteen- essential Mick Jones, one of his best.
    Andrew Weatherall Thirteenth Night off his Convenanza album.
    Timothy J Fairplay Thirteenth Night
    Kevin Rowland Thirteenth Time

    ReplyDelete
  9. Edit: the Timothy J Fairplay track is a remix of Weatherall's original.

    ReplyDelete
  10. 'Thirteen Silver Dollars' - Colter Wall

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  11. Billy deserves the win.
    Out of the queue now, thinking cap on ...

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anything by the 13th Floor Elevators?
    The Damned had an EP called Friday The 13th - no song with that title though.
    But they did do this: 13th Floor Vendetta

    Anthrax - 13
    Megadeth - Thirteen
    Black Flag - Room 13
    No 13 - Pixies

    MY choice (seconding one above) is Elvis Costello - 13 Steps Lead Down

    (must resist the temptation to suggest U2 - 13 (There Is A Light). Oops)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Tough again this week, just got:

    Just Thirteen by The Lurkers
    Broken Heart (Thirteen Valleys) - Big Country

    ReplyDelete
  14. Way to go, Jim. Love the Big Country sighting.

    I'll toss out On the Thirteenth Day by the Monochrome Set from the nearly perfect album Eligible Bachelors.

    The comical July 13th 1985 by John Wesley Harding deserves a shout as well.

    I really like the cover of Thirteen by Epic Soundtracks on his album Change My Life but not nearly as much as the original.

    In the end, however, my vote goes Swiss Adam's direction with Big Audio Dynamite by an eyelash over Elvis Costello.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oops, I didn't mean to slight Martin. He had Big Country earlier.

      Delete
  15. Late entry (slow brain)

    Wonderstuff - No For The 13th Time

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  16. Swiss Adam gets my vote for V. Thirteen

    ReplyDelete