Snapshots #423: Sampled Songs

This is Kanye West, an artist known for using lots of samples in his work. Has he used any of the songs below? Let's find out...

15. That time Lee Mavers' group played in the middle of the Church Hall, initially.

Lee Mavers was the man behind The Las. Put Las in the middle of the C H and you get...

The Clash - Straight to Hell 

Sampled in...

MIA - Paper Planes

14. Hamburger bun turns over a new leaf.

A Patty turns a Page...

Patti Page - Old Cape Cod 

Sample in...

Groove Armada - At The River

13. Spherical extraterrestrial found in West Berlin.

The spherical extra terrestrial would be a Ball ET...

Spandau Ballet - True 

Sampled in...

PM Dawn - Set Adrift On Memory Bliss

12. Take a Mallett to that Tank Engine.

Timmy Mallett goes for Thomas The Tank Engine...

Timmy Thomas - Why Can't We Live Together 

Sampled in...

Drake - Hotline

11. It's a Dalek's thing. Sort of. 

"A Dalek's thing" was an anagram.

Talking Heads - Psycho Killer 

Sampled in...

Selena Gomez - Bad Liar

10. Not the youngest Mynah Bird.

The Mynah Birds were a Canadian band active in the mid 60s, featuring one Neil Young... and the gentleman above.

Rick James - Super Freak

Sampled in...

MC Hammer - U Can't Touch This

9. Sancho Panza was a gruff one. 

Sancho Panza was a Squire (to Don Quixote). Billy was a Gruff goat.

Billy Squier - Big Beat 

One of the most sampled tracks ever, featured in over 300 different songs, including...

Jay-Z – 99 Problems

Kanye West feat Pusha T, Big Sean, CyHi Da Prynce & J Cole - Looking For Trouble

Alicia Keys - Girl on Fire

8. Fancy an ethanol salad? Tossed, of course.

"An ethanol salad" was an anagram.

Hall and Oates - I Can't Go For That 

Sampled in...

De La Soul - Say No Go

7. King's dad gets the cane.

Elvis's Dad was Vernon Presley. A cane was a birch.

Vernon Burch - Get Up 

Sampled in...

Deee-Lite - Groove Is In The Heart

6. Since when did origami contain any answers?

When did origami?

Dido - Thank You 

Sampled in...

Eminem - Stan

5. Etta & Lola get mixed up in a former London prison.

Etta Lola was an anagram... Holloway was the prison.

Loleatta Holloway - Love Sensation 

Sampled in...

Black Box - Ride On Time

4. K-pop reality show.

I'm sure you're all fans of the show in question.

Dream Academy - Life In A Northern Town 

Sampled in...

Dario G - Sunchyme

3. That time the TV Hulk met Mr. Fantastic.

The TV Hulk was Lou Ferringo. Mr. Fantastic is Reed Richards.

Lou Reed - Walk On The Wild Side 

Sampled in...

A Tribe Called Quest - Can We Kick It?

2. CC + Drake, Lowe, Berry.

CC is our own Stevie. The rest are Nicks.

Stevie Nicks - Edge Of Seventeen 

Sampled in...

Destiny’s Child – Bootylicious 

1. Rocky and his brood...but not all of them.

Rocky was Sly Stallone. Take all from Stallone and you have Stone.

Sly & The Family Stone - Into My Own Thing

Sampled in...

Fatboy Slim - Weapon Of Choice

Any excuse to watch this video again...

More of this nonsense next Saturday.

Snapshots #278: A Top Ten Edge Songs

I don't really have an opinion about The Edge. I mean, it's not as though he's the most annoying man in music. Although he does share a stage with him, and has chosen to do so for 40 odd years, which does make you wonder. Apparently they called him The Edge because of his weird shaped head. Not because he keeps edging out of the room whenever that egotistical dullard/blowhard he works with shows up. 

Anyway. Here are ten songs that have nothing to do with David Howell Evans...

10. Not Ralph, Veronica or Robert.

Not Ralph Waldo Emerson, Veronica Lake or Robert Palmer.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Knife Edge

Last time, I featured ELP here, back in Snapshots #78, Charity Chic was keen to point out that there was much more to Keith, Greg and Karl than just Fanfare For The Common Man. (Yes, you were, CC. Check here if you don't believe me.) That was April 2019. How time flies...

9. Invincible, like Elvis Costello's mouth 

Elvis Costello has a Mouth Almighty.

The Almighty - Over The Edge

8. A definite reason to be cheerful.

Ian's boy, obviously.

Baxter Dury - Picnic On The Edge

7. Ben's cursing Peter, due to a mix-up.

"Ben's cursing Peter" is an anagram.

I almost stopped myself this week, wondering "can you really justify featuring Bruce so often in these countdowns"? Then I reminded myself that this is my blog and I can do what I want. Maybe when I run out of anagrams... which doesn't look like being any time soon.

Bruce Springsteen - Darkness On The Edge Of Town

6. If you don't guess this one right, I'll call you a moderately insulting name. 

That's a pretty minor threat.

Minor Threat - Straight Edge

A song that gave its name to a movement wherein those taking part "refrain from using alcohol, tobacco, and recreational drugs, in reaction to the excesses of punk."

5. Mad as a...

Mad as a box of frogs, obviously.

A band formed by the members of the Yardbirds who didn't go on to greater things.

Box Of Frogs - The Edge

4. School of Aspiration.

Dream Academy - The Edge Of Forever

3. It's a Wonder, she's a thief.

Stevie Wonder nicks stuff.

Stevie Nicks - Edge of Seventeen

2. Fe+C.

The chemical symbol for Steel. Played by David McCallum in Sapphire & Steel.

David McCallum released four instrumental albums in the 60s, in collaboration with David Axelrod. As classically trained musician, McCallum composed many of the tracks and conducted the orchestra that performed then. His most famous track is The Edge, which has been repeatedly sampled in hip hop circles, most notably by Dr. Dre.

David McCallum - The Edge 

1. Bar.

What? You never had a Wham Bar?

(That picture really didn't need any words. The clue was in the image.)

A truly great pop song...

Edge on back this way next Saturday for more Snapshots...

Hot 100 #63

Album cover above by The 63 Crayons, a band I know nothing about, but they have a cool name. Google them if you have time, I've got just 15 minutes to write this post before my next class...

Cut & paste with your suggestions this week because of the above-mentioned time constraints. Thanks for all your contributions.

The Swede kicks us off (as is often the case) "Tanglewood 63 by Michael Gibbs springs immediately to mind, a tune quickly covered in a Jazz-Rock vein by Colosseum and several more times since."

Nice.

A lyrical offering from Charity Chic next... which could very well have been this week's winner, because it's an awesome tune...

In Winter 1963
It felt like like the world would freeze
With John F Kennedy and the Beatles

Life in a Northern Town - The Dream Academy

Lynchie & Swiss Adam both went for New Order - 1963. Now, time prevents me from telling the full story, but suffice it to say there a deep scars from my teenage years involving New Order - I basically feel out and didn't speak to one of my best friends for 6 months, and New Order were indirectly responsible for that. They remain one of the two big 80s bands that I have never been able to find a moment's time for (the other being U2). I know the high esteem that many of my blogging peers hold them in... but they're highly unlikely to ever feature here until I can afford therapy.

Martin, extremely helpfully, even provided links with his suggestions this week... let's see how well they survive the Copy & Paste...

White Flag, by Shonen Knife, for the earth-shattering lyric:

"He's a gummer. He's over 63."

Hands Up To The Ceiling, by Tracey Thorn, for better lyrics:

"Here is the street and here is the door
Same as it was before
And up the stairs and on the wall
Is, Kiss and Terry Hall
And Siouxsie Sioux and Edwin too
And Bobby Dee in '63."

And best of all, Bell Boy by The Who, with the line:

"I don't suppose you would remember me, but I used to follow you back in '63."

 

Rigid Digit offered two fine suggestions...

 

Divine Comedy - National Express

 

"Mini skirts were in style, when she waltzed down the aisle back in 63"

John Wesley Harding - The Devil In Me

 

"I shot John F. Kennedy in Dallas in 63"

But it's Walter who takes this week's prize - as seconded by CC. Alyson even adds that "I seem to remember it was the soundtrack to my first kiss down the local youth club!" Which makes it a double-winner, surely? We can't beat this...



Anyway, got to go now, there's a queue of students outside the room, waiting to be educated...

Joking.

Obviously.

Just in case the boss is reading this.

62 next week. Any ideas?

My Top Ten JFK Songs

Although it happened 9 years before I was born, I've always been fascinated by the events of November 22nd 1963. It seemed inevitable, then, that I would commemorate the 50th Anniversary of that date with a list such as this. Except... when I started looking into it, there were as many JFK songs out there as there are conspiracy theories...

For a more complete list, I suggest checking here. (A lot of those songs deal far more directly with the Kennedy assassination that many of my own choices... but it's my party and I'll stick with the ones that mean the most to me. As usual.)

Special mention for The Dead Kennedys, of course.


10. The Fall - Oswald Defence Lawyer

If Lee Harvey had made it to trial, he could have done worse than get Mark E. Smith to stand up in his defence...

How do you think that jury made up of putrid mass
Embraced theory of triangle bullet lines
Turning in circles twice,
Then incredible, marvelous, exiting back of mind?

9. The Beach Boys - The Warmth of the Sun

Written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love within hours of the news of the JFK shooting; that knowledge makes you hear these otherwise lovelorn lyrics in an entirely new light.

8. Guns N' Roses - Civil War

In Axl's earliest memory, they shot John Kennedy. (By my reckoning, he was a little over 21 months old at the time, so his memory is pretty damned good.) Still, a great camp, subtle-as-a-brick protest song as you'd expect from the Roses...

What's so civil about war, anyway?

7. Lou Reed - The Day John Kennedy Died

On the other hand, Lou's memories of that fateful day are truly visceral...

Talking stopped, someone shouted, "What!?"
I ran out to the street
People were gathered everywhere saying,
did you hear what they said on TV
And then a guy in a Porsche with his radio hit his horn
and told us the news
He said, "The president's dead, he was shot twice in the head
in Dallas, and they don't know by whom."

He goes on to dream himself the president... now, if only that could have come to pass.

6. Steve Earle - Conspiracy Theory

What if you could've been there on that day in Dallas ?
What if you could wrestle back the hands of time?
Maybe somethin' could've been done in Memphis?
We wouldn't be livin' in a dream that's died?

'Nuff said.

5. Simon & Garfunkel - The Sound of Silence

Another song written in the aftermath of 22/11/63 (no, I'm not writing it 11/22/63, not even for Stephen King).

Hello darkness, my old friend, 
I've come with talk with you again...

4. Manic Street Preachers - I Am Just A Patsy

Great track from one of my favourite Manics albums...

I am just a patsy
The Oswald in Lee Harvey

...they're just a patsy for your love.

3. The Wedding Present - Kennedy

Already Number One in my Top Ten American President Songs, which also features another track from this very list... though this time, that one wins top spot. 

2. The Dream Academy - Life in a Northern Town

Ostensibly a song about Nick Drake, this also contains the memorable refrain...

He said "In winter 1963
It felt like the world would freeze
With John F. Kennedy
And The Beatles."

...which means I can shoe-horn it in here. Good job: it's ace.

1. Okkervil River - The President's Dead 

Although it doesn't mention JFK, Oswald or Dealey Plaza, this still has enough references to that infamous day ("a shot from the crowd and a shot in the head") as well as tackling the question of "where when you when...?" that anyone who lived through November 22nd 1963 will have been asked at one time or another. Plus, it's my all-time favourite Okkervil River song, and the first song I thought of when I decided to compile this Top Ten.




Those were my Dealey (Plaza) Boppers... but which is your Love Gunman?