Snapshots #392: A Colourful Bouquet of Songs About Flowers

Twenty floral songs to brighten up your Easter Sunday... though I'm sure we could have easily found another twenty...

20. His head's in a constant spin.

He wasn't only Dizzy...

Tommy Roe - Sweet Pea

19. Murder in the home of a long-dead Stone.

The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Anemone

18. Polar knitwear comes undone.

"Polar knitwear" was an anagram...

Karine Polwart - Azalea Flower

17. Heaven's Green Patio.

(Knock knock knockin' on....) Heaven's door. Green door. Patio doors.

The Doors - Hyacinth House

16. Chandler's finest.

Raymond Chandler's finest book (although he wrote a great many fine books) was...

The Big Sleep - Bluebell Wood

15. They will check your spelling.

English Teacher - Nearly Daffodils

14. By Willard Manus!

Willard Manus was the author of the book Mott The Hoople, from which these guys stole their name...

Mott The Hoople - Jerkin' Crocus

13. Essex man without forgotten secret agent. 

David Essex, sans (Jason) Bourne...

David Sanborn - Lotus Blossom

12. In a hurricane, pets get blown about.

"Hurricane, pets" was an anagram...

Patrice Rushen - Forget Me Nots

11. Stop the Tories from messaging you on social media. 

Block that party!

Bloc Party - Tulips

10. Shorter than an operetta, longer than Jim.

Etta is shorter than an operetta. James is longer than Jim.

Etta James - Wallflower

9. Bogart takes to sea with once-yearly books about boy detectives.

Humphrey Bogart, in the ocean, with a Hardy Boys annual. Obviously!

Tough one this. Give yourself extra marks if you remembered these guys. (They're very Stiff.)

Humphrey Ocean & The Hardy Annuals - Whoops A Daisy

8. Catch the Longdancing Tourist and add some sweet sax.

The Longdancers and The Tourists were two bands that Dave Stewart was in before he formed the Eurythmics. Candy Dulfer played some sweet sax.

Dave A Stewart featuring Candy Dulfer - Lily Was Here

7. Play it again, Sam... and again... and again...

Humphrey Bogart (again) didn't actually say "play it again, Sam". He said, "You Played it for her, you can play it for me". Anyway, when he said that, he was talking to Dooley Wilson...

The Dooleys - A Rose Has To Die

I got the Dooleys in here. I can probably retire now.

6. New York punks ooze everywhere.

The New York Dolls, full of Goo and more Goo.

Goo Goo Dolls - Iris

5. Happened later, for Nick Drake.

For Nick, it was Brighter Later...

Brighter - Poppy Day

4. Found in a closed window on a Eurostar railway carriage. 

Found in a closED WINdow on a EuroSTAR Railway carriage

Edwin Starr - Ruby Begonia

3. Oy, Bezos! Arrange for Hazlewood to play at my party, will you?

Jeff! Book Lee, will you?

Jeff Buckley - Lilac Wine

Lilac Wine has been recorded by everyone from Nina Simone to Elkie Brooks... but that's my favourite version.

2. Upper class ankle socks.

Bobby sox for the gentry.

Bobbie Gentry - Sweet Peony 

...or you could have had...

Bobbie Gentry - Marigolds & Tangerines

1. We pull Earl all over the place.

"We pull Earl" was an anagram.

Paul Weller - Sunflower

And for completeness-sake, I would also have allowed...

The Jam - Carnation

Enjoy the rest of your Easter. Snapshots will be back next Saturday.

Hot 100 #67

There were a couple of 67 bands I found who might have been used to illustrate this week's edition of the Hot 100... but none of them looked as crazy as this old Vanilla Fudge album cover.

67 proved a much harder number to find songs for than our last two entries, but you still came through with some interesting suggestions...

The Swede kicked off by scouring an old hard drive (the lengths you will go to!) to dig up Habitat '67 by Eat Lights Become Lights, "a combo who were apparently once lauded by the NME for '...mixing Krautrock rhythms and celestial drones to heavenly effect...'". Or as I might have put it, "9 minutes of ambient nonsense". Thanks anyway, Swede.

Martin gave a second shout out to Chicago - Questions 67 & 68, which I must admit is really growing on me. One more question and they might have done it. He also offered Elton John - Old 67... which is not bad for 21st Century Elt. With those two suggestions, I wonder if we should start calling Martin MORtin?

Slightly less MOR was Martin's final suggestion - seconded by Rigid Digit: King's X - 67. Love the guitar on that, guys.

Lynchie suggested a classic bit of rocksteady... Melodians - Last Train To Expo '67... and a lyrical 67 from Steve Earle in Someday...

I got me a 67 Chevy, she's low and sleek and black
Someday I'll put her on that interstate and never look back...

Lynchie also offered Johnny Cash as a potential lyrical suggestion not just for this week but every week between 70 and 49. Tempting, because I love One Piece At A Time.

Finally C arrived, touting The Dave Matthews Band - Gravedigger. Never really got Dave Matthews, but I gave it a listen and it wasn't half bad.

Little Mikey Carson 67 to 75
He rode his
Bike like the devil until the day he died
When he grows up he wants to be Mr. Vertigo on the flying trapeze
Oh, 1940 to 1992

So what did I find in my own bag of tricks?

Lord Kitchener - '67

The Brian Jonestown Massacre featuring Tim Burgess - Fact 67

And then... this... which I only discovered last year when somebody recommended it for another Top Ten I wrote (might have been My Top Ten Taxi Songs). A very popular suggestion from you guys though - with Martin, C, Rigid Digit and Jim Dubai all voting for it. Yes, it's cheesy... but it's my kind of cheesy!



66 next? Too obvious? Any other suggestions gratefully received, but I think we all know the winner...

Hot 100 #75

We all know what Dave Grohl did after the sad death of Kurt Cobain and the end of Nirvana. Bassist Krist Novoselic was slightly less successful in maintaining a career in the music industry. His own post-Nirvana band Sweet 75 lasted one album, but it does give us an image to open this week's entry in the Hot 100...


Onto your suggestions for #75, the most popular of which was this...


The Connells - 74/75


A fine tune, but is it a 74 song or a 75 song? What a dilemma. It's definitely a year song. I'm not saying I won't use it next week if I get desperate... but it's not my obvious winner this week.


As well as suggesting this, Martin also offered the following. I'm not sure if any of them are in his record collection, or whether he's just resorting to google. If he does own them all, well...much respect.


Joe Nichols - Sunny & 75 (Martin told me not to youtube it. I did. I think I liked it more than he does. But then, I love cheese. Joe Nichols does seem a bit smug in the video though... but I guess I would too if I was him.)


Aaron Lewis - 75 ("Better", says Martin, "if you like that kind of thing". Aaron Lewis is the lead singer of metal band Staind, but this track is acoustic country if anything. Whisper it, but I think I enjoyed Joe Nichols more.)


Brian Jonestown Massacre - Miss June 75 (Not bad, but I think I'd still rather have Joe Nichols, smug or not.)


Any of those could have been a contender... if they were in my collection. But they're not, so let's move on.


Best lyrical suggestion of the week came from Rigid Digit and Alyson...


Billy Joel - Scenes From An Italian Restaurant

Brenda and Eddie were still going steady in the summer of '75...

...and to be honest, this would have been in serious contention most other weeks. But lyrics will always be trumped by titles, if the title song is good enough. That's not to say this week's winner is better than Scenes From An Italian Restaurant, since clearly few songs are. But the selection process is very complex in this feature. I can't even begin to explain the hierarchy of it all.


Sticking with lyrics, The Swede had another T-Rex suggestion this week (Mr. Bolan is doing very well out of this feature)…


T-Rex - Funky London Childhood

The gilded cage we call '75, some is fabulous, some is jive...

Grammatically suspect, but as we've discussed before, Marc Bolan gets a pass when it comes to his use of the English language.


The Swede also offered anything from Neu's album 75 or anything by 75 Dollar Bill. Break all the rules, but worthy of mention.


Meanwhile, Jim returned from Dubai to offer the following this week, which he describes as "a bit 60's girlyish, great little tune".


Lushy - French 75


I concur.


From my own collection then... apart from the Connells, there were just two other options. Firstly this...


Stereolab - Melochord 75


If I'm honest though, I'm not sure I get Stereolab. They're one of those bands I own music by because people in the know keep telling me I should dig them.


This, on the other hand, I love. One of the bands that rode the coat-tails of the Arctic Monkeys (they were both from Sheffield) but failed to make it out of their shadow. I still have great affection for the music they recorded before they packed it all in though.



So then... do I award week 74 to The Connells? Or do you (or I) have a better suggestion? Answers on the back of a stuck-down envelope, please...