Celebrity Jukebox#46: Bela Lugosi

There are certain celebrities who are arguably more famous for the song they appear in than for their own career. I'm not sure Bette Davis is quite there yet, but all it'll take is Rhianna or Adele doing a cover of that Kim Carnes song and it'll be Whatever Happened To Bette D? Bela Lugosi, on the other hand, is surely known by more people now because of the Halloween favourite by Bauhaus than for any of his classic horror film performances.

The internet tells me "Bauhaus bass player David J wrote this song's lyric after bingeing on vampire movies that were showing on TV in England (this was before Netflix)", which is the kind of quote that makes me want to punch all Millennials in the face. Imagine true horror - "a world before Netflix"!

White on white translucent black capes

Back on the rack

Bela Lugosi's dead

The bats have left the bell tower

The victims have been bled

Red velvet lines the black box

Bela Lugosi's dead

Undead undead undead

The virginal brides file past his tomb

Strewn with time's dead flowers

Bereft in deathly bloom

Alone in a darkened room

The Count

Bela Logosi's dead

Undead undead undead

Bela Lugosi's Dead has been covered by a list of obvious suspects, including The Damned and Nine Inch Nails, but by far the best alternative version is this...

Nouvelle Vague - Bela Lugosi's Dead

David J returned to the track himself in 2013 for a completely different take...

David J featuring Jill Tracy - Bela Lugosi's Dead (Undead is Forever)

The song is considered the first Goth rock record (and my amazing powers of precognition tell me it'll be Number One in the No Badger Required "Goth! Show Me Magic" countdown which ends this morning). As such it gets its own references in the following tunes...

Falcon Heavy - Peter Murphy Says

Tried to sing Bela Lugosi's dead

But all the blood was rushing to my head

Powerman 5000 - Black Lipstick

You said life is a lie

As you laid down on the bed

Then you started to cry

And sang Bela Lugosi's dead

That's a song which warns of the dangers of taking a Goth home for a one night stand...

You left black lipstick

Black lipstick on my sheets

Don't say you weren't warned. For an alternative point of view, you might consider this...

Lee Christian - Goth Girls Do It Better

I'm Bela Lugosi baby, 

I'm your Vincent Price

Well, If I bite u once, girl, 

I've got to bite u twice

One more song that references the Bauhaus tune...

Voltaire - The Vampire Club

You'll have to listen to that one yourself if you want the reference because, "This artist does not want the lyrics to this song be posted on the internet."

And while this one doesn't mention Bauhaus directly, I reckon they had it on repeat in the studio...

Lesbian Bed Death - Béla Lugosi's Back

  

Onto more direct Bela Lugosi mentions. Let's start with Ray...

The Kinks - Celluloid Heroes

You can see all the stars as you walk down Hollywood Boulevard

Some that you recognize, some that you've hardly even heard of

People who worked and suffered and struggled for fame

Some who succeeded and some who suffered in vain

Rudolph Valentino looks very much alive

And he looks up ladies dresses as they sadly pass him by

Avoid stepping on Bela Lugosi

'Cause he's liable to turn and bite

But stand close by Bette Davis

Because hers was such a lonely life

Bela Lugosi's story is a tragic one, plagued by type casting, dwindling fame, alcoholism and drug addiction. If you've seen the movie Ed Wood, you'll remember Martin Landau's stand out performance as a latter day Lugosi. I can't help but think of that when I listen to the song above. Speaking of Ed Wood, Bela also makes a cameo appearance in this slice of glorious nonsense...

Mummula - Ed Woodn't (Oh No, No, No)

Where to go from there? How about Noddy...?

Slade - My Baby's Got It

Ohhhh I wanna be Bela Lugosi 

And the Marx Brothers rolled into one

Well baby baby baby believe me, 

I'm solid gone

Or you could imagine chatting up a Bela Lugosi lookalike in your local...

Squeeze - F-Hole

We watched each other closely

She looks like Bela Lugosi

She asked me for a ride home

I felt around for my comb

She lived down by the river

A flat the council give her

Wallpaper very scenic

Her outlook very beatnik

Here's Brian Wilson's mate, with some lyrics I can't quite make out (though I disagree with what the interweb thinks they are) although they do namedrop Bela alongside Bing Crosby and Mae West...

Van Dyke Parks - The Four Mills Brothers

While you try and decipher that, here's former High Jump Champion Amber Bollinger and her band... 

Broken Baby - Personality Party

I'm on my back like a beetle

Can't turn me on

It's an erotic kinda seething

This ain't a dance it's a full time Bela Lugosi

And if that wasn't scary enough, try some Curtiss Tigers...

Curtis Stigers - Sleeping With The Lights On

Bela Lugosi

And Boris Karloff too

Make such strange bedfellows

But how to they know you

How about some Spiders Dressed In Red? (If it's good enough for Peter Parker, it's good enough for me.)

Spiders Dressed In Red - Bela Lugosi

Or you might prefer some Drag-ula?

Sharon Needles - Dracula

Meanwhile, in Paisley, our old pal Momus is pondering biting the dust...

Momus - What Will Death Be Like?

Death will be unlike the charge of the Light Brigade 

Alfred Lord Tennyson rhymed

Death will be unlike the thin piece of paper 

That Reagan and Gorbachev sign

Death will be unlike the night thoughts of 'Late Call' 

When ministers stop being cosy

Death will be unlike 'The Pit and the Pendulum' 

Co-starring Bela Lugosi

I'll be honest: there were so many songs that referenced Bela Lugosi, I started to wonder what death would be like when faced with the prospect of listening to them all. So I gave up. But not before I'd discovered this glorious artefact from Malcolm Tucker and the Twelfth Doctor Who, Peter Capaldi, back when he was just a young lad in a post-punk band...

Snapshots #264: A Top Ten Ghost Songs

This week, we were haunted by ten songs about ghosts. Did you see them too, or were they all just in my imagination?

10. 6852 islands.

There are 6,852 islands in the archipelago of Japan.

Japan - Ghosts

9. Alas, it's grubby.

A Las Vegas... gets dirty.

Dirty Vegas - Ghosts

8. Que sera, John Wayne.

Que sera sera was Doris Day's mantra. John Wayne was The Duke.

Doris Duke - Ghost Of Myself

7. Woman joins video game movie.

The video game movie was Tron.

Ladytron - Ghosts

6. Cauliflower, fried egg, lion's mane, pink meanie.

They're all types of jellyfish.

Jellyfish - The Ghost At Number One

5. Hallucinogenic coats.

The Psychedelic Furs - The Ghost In You

4. King in need of horse meets twins in need of doctor.

Richard III would give his kingdom for a horse. The Thompson Twins wanted a Doctor.

Richard Thompson - The Ghost Of You Walks

3. Peggy throws in the towel.

Peggy Suicide. Throws in the towel being a euphemism for taking your own life.

Suicide - Ghost Rider

2. Teary Ronald.

Anagram!

R Dean Taylor - There's A Ghost In My House

1. Volunteer police.

Special constables, or simply Specials.

Can't go on no more?

Don't worry, Snapshots will be back next Saturday.

Saturday Snapshots #264

For Halloween weekend, here's a fellow who knows a fair bit about bats. But will you Dark Knight Detectives be able to solve the riddles below to uncover what crime connects this particular rogue's gallery? 

10. 6852 islands.

9. Alas, it's grubby.

8. Que sera, John Wayne.

7. Woman joins video game movie.

6. Cauliflower, fried egg, lion's mane, pink meanie.

5. Hallucinogenic coats.

4. King in need of horse meets twins in need of doctor.

3. Peggy throws in the towel.

2. Teary Ronald.

1. Volunteer police.

Keaton trying to get the answers until they're revealed tomorrow morning...

Positive Songs For Negative Times #81: Your Final Mile

Two of my favourite albums this year feature songs about the suicide of a close friend. Maybe I'm just a misery-guts. I do understand suicidal thoughts though. Like many people, I have been haunted by them at various times throughout my life. But I couldn’t ever act upon them because I know the impact it would have on my loved ones. And not just those in my immediate circle.

A year or so back, I received news than an old girlfriend had taken her own life. I hadn’t seen her in 20 odd years, but I still wondered if there was something I could have done. I don’t know if that’s egotistical. It wasn’t as though I was part of her life anymore: we’d parted on good terms (but it was her decision) and she’d gone on to marry and have children. The crazy thing is, on the outside at least, she was the happiest person I ever knew. And I know that doesn’t mean anything. But I’ll always wonder why and what if? 

Waking Up The Echoes comes from the powerful new album by American Aquarium, Chicamacomico. Lead singer BJ Barham wrote the track about the death of a close friend, although he struggled to do so for many years. “It’s about looking back on a troubled person and choosing to focus on the good times instead of the dark times.”

I wish you’d have called me

Maybe I could have talked you down

But the thing that I wish most of all

Is that you were still around

Frank Turner’s latest album, FTHC, is one of the best of his career. One of many highlights is A Wave Across A Bay, a tribute to Frank’s friend Scott Hutchinson, lead singer of the band Frightened Rabbit, who died in 2018.

Goddam, I miss you man

It was just weeks before you left that we were speaking

I just wish that you had told me you were leaving

Before you walked your final mile

I’m not pissed off at you, man

You had something in your soul that we could recognise

You were one of us, but you’d worked out how you could survive

At least for a while

Guest Post Thursday #14: A Top Ten "I Can't..." Songs (Part 1)

It's been a while since I ran any guest posts here, and the only reason for that is that nobody has offered any. Fair enough, most of you have your own blogs to worry about. Fortunately, George has got sick of reading my interminable ramblings day after day, or perhaps taken mercy on me after yesterday's bumper post, and offered not one, but two guest posts to give me what Huey Lewis would call a Couple Days Off. So Guest Post Thursday is back!

Here's George...

I was listening to one of the three cds in the Sick, Sorry and Sober set recently and I heard this:

Today I passed you in the street, And my heart fell at your feet, I can’t help it if I’m still in love with you

And I thought that it was genius: a simple lyric, a simple tune, that Hawaiian-sounding guitar, that reedy, plaintive and painful voice, combining to make an unforgettable song. I can understand why some 70s and 80s country music puts people off, but I will never understand how people could not like and admire this song.

Hank Williams - I can't help it if I'm still in love with you 

And if you can get hold of that 3 cd set I would urge you to do so.

A while later, whilst sitting around not doing much, just singing those lines, I thought of this, another simple intro, builds up a bit, that “ooo” the drum roll, then Levi Stubbs’ voice...

The Four Tops - I can't help myself

I’m spoiling you, two utterly brilliant songs, it’s got to be downhill now. There’s a lot of song titles that start “I can’t”, and an amazing number of them are great. And then there’s that abomination by crap prog turned crap pop group with that drummer-singer. So, to cleanse your ears after just polluting them with the thought of that song, here’s some hard-rock blues.

Led Zeppelin - I can't quit you baby

You’ll be pleased to now know that I have been having the sleep of the just of late, obviously not a care in the world, unlike The La’s...

The La's - I can't sleep

And Mr Mavers was somehow not satisfied with that album?

Onto more genius lyrics...

Is it day, is it night, Am I losing my sight, I can’t see me without you

Yes, another country song. Really, how can that start not make you at least smile (or laugh out loud)?

Conway Twitty - I can't see me with you

And after a busy morning eating, the goats are having a lie down, chewing their cud. They are obviously telling me to include this song:

The Velvet Underground - I can't stand it

Anita is on heat as I write this, has been for a couple of days, so much bleating round these parts, and it’s difficult to get her in the goat shed. Parsley goes in no problem, a bit of bread, corn, he’s there, but at times like these, not Anita. FORTY minutes it took on Tuesday. She’s bleating for Francisco’s young male goat:

The Who - I can't reach you

It was very frustrating, he bleated.

The Temptations - I Can't get next to you

My thoughts on this?

The White Stripes - I can't wait

Yes, I can’t wait for this bleating to be over. And one more tune...

The Stylistics - I can't give you anything but my love

Insert your own goat-on-heat joke.

So a Top Ten “I Can’t” songs. Yes, some obvious ones not there, some deliberately excluded on grounds of taste, but not Barry Manilow, oh no, but because the song is Can’t Smile WIthout You, and not I Can’t Smile Without You.

Thanks of course to Rol for allowing this to be posted. Feel free to leave your inane comment. 

And I’ve just been informed that I can write a part 2. I bet you can’t wait!

Because tradition dictates I close my posts with a video (I feel naked without them), I found another version of George's top song which is equally worthy of your ears. And I'm glad George didn't diss Barry. Less bothered about him dissing the drummer-singer. 

More goat sex I Can't Songs next Thursday...

Thanks, George.

Celebrity Jukebox #45: Cary Grant (Part 2)

Film critic Pauline Kael said of Cary Grant that "men wanted to be him and women dreamed of dating him". The actor’s typically self-deprecating response to this was, "Everyone wants to be Cary Grant—even I want to be Cary Grant". It seems Cary Grant was a screen persona that Archibald Leach became increasingly comfortable playing in real life as the years went by... with a sly wink and an arched eyebrow.

Lyrical references to Mr. Grant broadly fall into four categories then.

1. Men want to be him.

2. Women want to be with him.

3. A combination of the two.

4. None of the above.

Let’s take them one at a time, shall we?

1. Men Want To Be Cary Grant

Bill Boyan – The Kind of Man I Wanna Be

My baby’s kind of fond of Cary Grant
I tried to act like him, but I just can’t
And I don’t need my name on some marquee
But that’s the kind of man I wanna be

Paper Heart – Systematic

It’s systematic
Some say I look like Cary Grant
It’s systematic
I’ll kiss you baby ‘til I can’t

Allan Sherman – Shticks Of One and Half a Dozen of the Other

All day, all night, Cary Grant
That’s all I hear from my wife, is Cary Grant
What can he do that I can’t?
Big deal, big star, Cary Grant

Allan Sherman seems to have come back from Camp Granada rather obsessed with Cary Grant. He mentions him in three or four other songs too. Go find them yourselves though, I’ve done enough for you this week.

Meanwhile, over in France...

Dany Brillant – Suzette

Elle se serre tout contre moi
Je me crois au cinema
Je me prends pour Cary Grant
Et puis on eteint la lampe

Which roughly translates as…

She hugs me tight
I believe myself in the cinema
I take myself for Cary Grant
And then we turn off the lamp

Finally in this category, we have Ray Davies, so enamoured of Cary that he’s going to use him to create an artificial man.

Tell it to the people all across the land
We’re going to build an artificial man
With the physique of a Tarzan
And the profile of Cary Grant
Superior beings being totally made by hand
Throw out imperfection
Mould you section by section
Gonna make you the ultimate creation

The Kinks – Artificial Man

2. Women Want To Be With Cary Grant

Peggy Lee – I Love Being Here With You

And Cary Grant, oh-do-dah-day
His utter charm takes me away
But don’t get me wrong
How do you say?
I love being here with you

That's a belter.

Lila McCann – Yippy Ky Yay

When it comes to what a woman needs
You ain’t no Cary Grant

Nena – Kino

Ich warte auf das Happy-End
Arm in arm mit Cary Grant – alles klar!

You can probably translate that one yourself. Good to know Nena wasn’t just about the balloons and the nuclear war though.

Deborah Conway – It’s Only The Beginning

When we go walking along the river
Watch the old men fishing the sunny side of the pier
It’s like a movie and you’re my leading man
The way you woo me, just like Cary Grant

We need more videos set on golf courses.

Karen Jonas – Mr. Wonka

Your talk you learned from great actors
The classics, the best
Your fancy yourself Humphrey Bogart or Cary Grant
Can I hear you? Yes, I can
But you’re not making any sense

Hollis Brown – Death of an Actress

As Madam Faye, you won the role
You even danced with Cary Grant,
And you loved your fame

3. Men & Women Who Both Want A Bit Of Cary

Good Charlotte – Silver Screen Romance

You’re my Bette Davis
I’m your Cary Grant
Let’s make love all night
Don’t get up at the prohibition

I'm not sure why you'd need to get up at prohibition, but what do I know about metaphors?

Alphaville – Sounds Like A Melody

We need the ecstasy, the jealousy
The comedy of love
Like the Cary Grants and Kellys once before

Turns out they weren't just big in Japan.

Meanwhile, big in Germany...

Yvonne Catterfeld - Ganz großes Kino

Ich bin nicht Marilyn
Du bist nicht Cary Grant

I’m not going to insult your intelligence by translating that one either.

Diesel Boy – Me And Kate

I fell in love with the girl on the screen
Just me and Kate
For two hours tonight
We’ll orbit the earth like a satellite
I’m Cary Grant
She’s Sophia Loren

Television Personalities – Don’t Cry, Baby, It’s Only AMovie

You can be my Audrey Hepburn
I’ll be Cary Grant

4. None of the above

Lou Reed – Halloween Parade

There’s Crawford, Davis and a tacky Cary Grant
And some homeboys lookin’ for trouble
Down here from the Bronx

That’s from New York, my favourite Lou Reed solo album. Though I'm not sure Grant rhymes with Bronx, Lou.

Next, a track from a lockdown-recorded Americana album released just last year…

Holm & Tanz – A Dozen Roses

A dozen roses on the table
Wither in a week or two at most
From Cary Grant to Clark Gable
Every rose gives up the ghost

And here’s another lockdown song, from a singer who should not be confused with the Free and Bad Company bloke, because he had a ‘d’ in his name. Anyway, this Paul learned a lot during the pandemic...

Paul Rogers – Quarantine

Did you know that Cary Grant never won an Oscar?
And Paul McCartney wrote “The Fool On The Hill” alone?
I seen people playing poker, making million dollar bets
I’ve seen rednecks raising tigers just for pets

It’s a fact that Cary Grant never won an Oscar for any one film, only receiving an honorary award after he’d retired from acting in the late 60s. Which, frankly, is a scandal. As to The Fool On The Hill, I'll let Alyson tell you more about that.

Next up, Marlon Brando’s favourite band…

The Godfathers – If I Only Had Time

Today a new sun rises
Look in the mirror, there’s no surprises
Things ain’t what they used to be
Cary Grant’s on LSD

Doctors began treating Cary Grant with LSD in the late 50s in an effort to “make him feel better about himself and rid of all of his inner turmoil stemming from his childhood and his failed relationships”. And you think you’ve got it bad. In later years, he world remark, “taking LSD was an utterly foolish thing to do, but I was a self-opinionated boor, hiding all kinds of layers and defences, hypocrisy and vanity.” In my head, I can hear him saying that.

Punk from the other side of the pond now, though they sound like The Pogues...

The Swinging Utters – Playboys, Punks & Pretty Things

“A penny for your thoughts,” he says
As he swiftly slips from bed to bed
And the thoughtful ones are charmed by him
And the sexy ones turned on by him
And he’s knighted by Casanova’s kin
And his ladies would never turn on him
‘Cause he’s the Cary Grant of the party kings
And the playboy of your wildest dreams

Followed that with a great band name – Highly Suspect. This song has an opening line deserving of the Misanthropes’ Hall of Fame, but it settles down after that…

Highly Suspect – Serotonia

I wish that everyone I knew was dead
So that I’d never have to pick up the phone

We all have days like that.

I’m gonna move to California
I’m gonna melt into the sand
Slow dance with Elizabeth Taylor and Audrey
Bum a cigarette from Cary Grant

Nearing the end now, you’ll be glad to know.

Here’s Pete McCabe, who's having an argument with his wife about all the junk he keeps in his bedside drawers that she wants him to throw out…

Pete McCabe – The Drawers Song

There's a Cary Grant obituary looking just like me
An eight track tape that taught me we all got to be free
Birthdays cards and get well cards and playing cards, no joker
Books on Greek Philosophy and how to win at Poker
An urn that holds the ashes of my guinea pig, Alfredo
A classic meatball sandwich topped with sweet heirloom tomato

And a penultimate word from our favourite Star Wars fanboy “Geek Rock” band Nerf Herder…

Nerf Herder – Come Back Down

Celebrities, they come and go
One day you’re Cary Grant
And the next you’re Scott Baio

Note so self: got to do a Scott Baio entry here very soon.

However, I think my favourite tune today comes from a band I’d rather forgotten about. Luna were the brainchild of former Galaxie 500 frontman Dean Wareham. Rolling Stone called them “the best band you’ve never heard of”…

And at the weekly meeting of anonymous cads
You shuffle your feet and whistle out loud
Listen to what they’re saying – what a load of crap!
You ain’t no Cary Grant
But then again, who is?

Namesakes #9: Catherine Wheel

Last week, you had the choice between three different Honeys, although one of them did use a Z (much to George's horror). The votes were rather more evenly spread than in recent editions, but the Australian Honeys just took it. Will they do so again next week, having changed their name to Catherine Wheel?

As is often the case with this feature, I started out with a vague awareness of only two bands that have used the name Catherine Wheel… and ended up with four.

CATHERINE WHEEL #1

It’s hard to tell, but I’m guessing this band lot have got to the name Catherine Wheel first… but only just. The internet tells me they formed in 1989, out of the ashes of our winning Honeys from last week: Andrea Croft, Brett ‘Bert’ Thompson and Grant Shanahan. They burned brightly for a brief time, releasing a grand total of 10 songs before spluttering out in 1991.

CATHERINE WHEEL #2

Alternatively, this group of from Florida might well have been the first musical Catherine Wheel (the internet only tells me they were “part of the underground Tampa Bay music scene in the late 80s / early 90s). They lasted an even shorter amount of time than CW#1, releasing only 6 songs before changing their name to Edison Shine.

CATHERINE WHEEL #3

Definitely the most well-known of the Catherine Wheels, although hardly household names, this group of indie rockers from Norfolk started out as shoegazers in 1990, but got gradually heavier as the decade progressed, achieving far more success in the US, where they were regulars in the Alt Rock charts, than in the UK where they only troubled the Top 40 once (with the track below). Lead singer Rob Dickinson (the cousin of Iron Maiden’s Bruce) now restores Porsches for a living.

CATHERINE WHEEL #4

The Encyclopaedia Metallum informs me that this Texas Black Metal band arrived on the scene in 2020, led by Goatman (real name unknown), who is also involved in bands called Boiled In Bleach, Gothenbvrg and Grotesque Corpse Stabbing. You don’t have to listen to this one if you don’t want (especially as I could only find the full album on youtube)... but they’re still better than Oasis.

Which Catherine Wheel gets you in a spin? Vote now in the comments...

Celebrity Jukebox #45: Cary Grant (Part 1)

There are certain celebrities who are clearly too big and therefore too ubiquitous to even think about including in this feature. Marilyn being an obvious one, James Dean another. When George suggested Archibald Leach, I figured he might well fall into that category… but as I’m something of a Cary Grant fan, I figured I’d give it a go anyway.

I’ve divided the resulting Jukebox into two posts: the first for songs that feature him in the title, the second (on Wednesday) for lyrical appearances. But first, here’s a song from Bristol-born Archie Leach himself…

The most famous act to ever feature Cary Grant in a song title is The Fall. Cary also gets referred to in the lyrics of a couple more Fall tunes, so maybe Mark E. was a fan. But probably not.

The Fall – Cary Grant’s Wedding

All you’re going to is Cary Grant’s wedding
A new-wave Hollywood where everybody’s good
But not great

Curiously, this track was recorded in 1980, a year before Cary Grant’s wedding to his final wife, Barbara Harris. Those who treat Mark E. Smith with the kind of obsessive reverence I only reserve for Nigel Blackwell these days openly wonder about Smith’s amazing precognitive powers. Others suggest this whole song is a metaphor for the British music industry which Smith was dismissing by aligning it with old Hollywood for its glamour and excess.

As you’d expect, Cary Grant isn’t only beloved of the English-speaking world. Here’s Italian band Non Voglio Che Clara (“I don’t want Clara” is the literal translation, though “I want Clara and no one else” is closer to what they mean)…

Non Voglio Che Clara – Cary Grant

E poi va come Cary Grant
E la sua amante perduta
A cui han dato il veleno
E lui la segue in Brasile

Which translates roughly as…

And then it goes like Cary Grant
And his lost lover
To whom they gave the poison
And he follows her to Brazil

…though it sounds better in Italian.

Meanwhile, in Deutschland, we find a band called “Cheerfulness”, I presume with a healthy dollop of irony…

Die Heiterkeit – Wohin gehst du, Cary Grant?

Wohin gehst du, Cary Grant?
Ist an deiner Seite eventuelle noch
Platz fur mich, Platz fur mich?
Wohin gehst du, Cary Grant?

…which roughly translates as…

Where are you going, Cary Grant?
Is there still, by your side, any
Room for me, room for me?
Where are you going, Cary Grant?

But I expect Walter will correct me if I got that wrong.

A little further east in Europe, we find Bedford Falls, one of two bands I’ve discovered on the interweb named after George Bailey’s fictional hometown from It’s A Wonderful Life. They may show up again in Namesakes down the line. Anyway, this Bedford Falls hail from Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, although they do sing in English…

Bedford Falls - Cary Grant

The lyrics don’t appear to have anything to do with Cary himself though, concerning themselves instead with a man who lives in a cabin in the woods and spends his time binge-watching and “meditating with his golden good”, which may be a euphemism in Georgia.

Out of Europe and over to the USA, where we find a contemporary Illinois band who specialise in “cosmic jams, psych-pop, and all sorts of stops in between”…

Booth Blues – Cary Grant

I want to live my life like Cary Grant
But try as I might, I can’t
‘Cause I got a job
(Shit, I’m tired)

Down to St. Louis, where discover a band that’s either named itself after Superintendent Ted Hastings… or the East Lothian town in which Davy Henderson of The Fire Engines was born.

Dunbar – Cary Grant

Saw Cary Grant
In a black and white movie
Left the theatre
With the clouds above me

However, I think my favourite track with Cary in the title comes from Long Island power-pop outfit, Early Edison. This was the b-side to their 2021 single “Waiting For George Bailey”, which is the second reference in this post to It’s A Wonderful Life, a film starring James Stewart, NOT Cary Grant.

I wish I could be as smooth as Cary Grant
If I try to be so debonair
I only seem to make people stare

Come back on Wednesday for the second part of this Jukebox...

Snapshots #263: A Top Ten Why? Songs

Sufferin' succotash! It's time for some answers.

Why?

Why not?

10. Cleo’s partner does it in a more contemporary way.

Cleopatra's partner was Anthony... newly!

Anthony Newley - Why?

9. Soggy shortbread.

Limp Bizkit - Why?

8. Humble, hand-wringing clerk.

See David Copperfield.

Uriah Heep - Why?

7. Join Astaire in disarray.

"Join Astaire" is an anagram.

Joe Satriani - Why?

6. The sun’ll come out for a good man and a working bull.

"The sun'll come out tomorrow" is what Annie believes. Len Goodman + Ox.

Annie Lennox - Why?

5. Able to fly now that all appendages are complete again.

Stitched Back Foot Airman, obviously.

No, really, it is.

Stitched Back Foot Airman - Why?

4. Phantom of the Opera gets frisky.

Michael Crawford played The Phantom of the Opera.

Randy Crawford - Why?

3. Ganymede, perhaps?

The Big Moon - Why?

2. Cyril moans just like a slimy acorn.

Two anagrams for the price of one!

Carly Simon – Why?

1. The bridge in Sweden that hosts winter sports and rhythm.

"The bridge" in Swedish is Bron + Ski + Beats.

Bronski Beat – Why?

Why don't you come back for more Snapshots next Saturday?

Saturday Snapshots #263

This morning, I met the chairman of the 1922 committee, Sir Graham Brady.

We've agreed there will be a Saturday Snapshots quiz to be completed within the next 24 hours. 

Identify the artists below, then work out what connects their songs. Before I'm out of a job.

10. Cleo’s partner does it in a more contemporary way.

9. Soggy shortbread.

8. Humble, hand-wringing clerk.

7. Join Astaire in disarray.

6. The sun’ll come out for a good man and a working bull.

5. Able to fly now that all appendages are complete again.

4. Phantom of the Opera gets frisky.

3. Ganymede, perhaps?

2. Cyril moans just like a slimy acorn.

1. The bridge in Sweden that hosts winter sports and rhythm.

I will remain as Snapshots host until a successor is chosen. Answers tomorrow morning.