Saturday Snapshots #46 - The Answers

  

If you're Crazy In Love with Saturday Snapshots, time to see if we can Work It Out together. Check On It below... 

(As part of my Aretha Tribute Weekend... which continues tomorrow... it seemed the right time to include Beyoncé, who surely owes her entire career to Aretha paving the way for her.)

Anyway, a full scale scrum took place yesterday morning just after 8.30 with Charity Chic, Lynchie, C - and even George (welcome back, George) fighting to see who could type their answers fastest. No, sorry, FBCB, there are no marks for neatness in the game... although I'm pretty sure you clinched the victory this week anyway. Alyson deserves credit for working out this week's stinkers - number 9 - a song I doubt anyone remembered (even I'd forgotten it) and number 3 (Martin or The Swede might have got that, but I seriously doubt it's in Alyson's record collection). Well done to you all, and thanks for playing as always...

10. Clashing with the cops... even though one of them was a cop - completely!

Clashing with the cops would be fighting with the law. Clashing because the Clash covered this song.

I'm going to have to stop using the police clue for Bobby after today... but it made more sense here than most times I've used it.

The Bobby Fuller Four - I Fought The Law

9. Donald plants citrus seeds on the White House lawn. What will grow there?

President Trump is a fool. The White House lawn is his garden.

Citrus seeds may grow into a Lemon Tree.

Fool's Garden - Lemon Tree

8. Move the pan so the babies don't get singed.

A Jamaican cooking pot / pan is called a Dutchie. This song was originally about drugs, but when this bunch covered it, they changed the lyrics so that it was about food instead. (Ironically, Dutchie then came to be drugs slang as a result.)

Babies would represent youth. Singed is a bad pun for musical AND burned.

This generation... rules de nation... with version!

Musical Youth - Pass The Dutchie

7. Plan a social gathering with this luscious nomad.

The name Wanda actual means "wanderer"!

And then there was Luscious Jackson.

Wanda Jackson - Let's Have A Party

6. Will you go out with me? Yes? What do your friends call you? Like your heavenly body? (Slap!)

Will you go out with me?

Go on then.

Yes?

Yes. I Will Be Your Girlfriend.

What do your friends call you?

They dub me Star.

Like your heavenly body? (Slap!)

Dubstar - I Will Be Your Girlfriend

5. Throw the clairvoyant at that beauty spot.

Chuck the prophet at that freckle.

Chuck Prophet - Freckle Song

4. Char lady required for diminutive queen? You're not wrong!

The Queen is Elizabeth. A diminutive form of that is Betty.

If you're not wrong, you are right.

Char ladies clean up.

Betty Wright - Clean Up Woman

3. Hugh shares a sweet affection for the Go-Betweens' favourite actress.

Hugh Hefner.

The Go-Betweens' favourite actress would be Lee Remick. This is a completely different song though...

Hefner - Lee Remick

2. Why stand on the Big Bad when you could be going on David Copperfield's rug?

Why step on a big bad wolf when you could be riding on a magic carpet? (Originally I wanted to make that Paul Daniels' rug, because that would have been funnier, but I didn't know how well he'd be known internationally.)

Steppenwolf - Magic Carpet Ride

1. Stooping to pick up a Scouse bracelet.

Explains itself, surely?

Martin did a post recently about music videos that stop the music unexpectedly half way through. There's a great example here, courtesy of Mr. Leonard Nimoy...



If I Were A Boy... or even a Naughty Girl... I'd come back here next Saturday for some Déjà Vu. See you then.

My Top Ten Elevator Songs

I used to be a lift attendant.

"Really, how did you find that job?"

It had it's up and downs.

Special mention to the Frantic Elevators (probably the only time Hucknall will feature on this blog), Lift To Experience and the excellent Thirteenth Floor Elevators.


10. Misty's Big Adventure - Elevator, Escalator, Stairs

MBA seem to have all their up/down options covered here.

9. Jeff Lynne - Lift Me Up

Because Jeff, being an Englishman, knows we call 'em lifts. Great song; seriously bad video. 

8. Dubstar - Elevator Song

It's easy to forget Dubstar. One listen to this will remind you not to. And Sarah Blackwood is from Halifax, so extra points there too.

7. Stars - Elevator Love Letter

 An office affair with a rich girl...

My office glows all night long
It's a nuclear show and the stars are gone
Elevator, elevator
Take me home

...is a far less crude elevator-related come on than the one we'll hear at #1.  

6. The Apples In Stereo - Hey, Elevator

...although "Elevator, take me straight to your bed" is, perhaps, our least subtle offering of the night.

5. Grandaddy - Elevate Myself

Classic anti-rock star lyrics from Jason Lytle & co.

I don't wanna work all night and day
On writing songs that make the young girls cry
Or playing little solos on the keyboards
So the kids will ask me how and why...

4. Television - Elevation

You can't go wrong with a track (any track!) from the majestic Marquee Moon.

3. Jackie Wilson - (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher & Higher

All. Time. Classic.

2. Prince - Let's Go Crazy

The video, of course, is nowhere to be found on the internet because Prince hates letting people hear his songs. But if the elevator tries to bring you down... go crazy: punch a higher floor!

1. Aerosmith - Love In An Elevator

One day I'll compile a Top Ten Cheesy Spoken Intros or a Top Ten Videos That Start Before The Song Begins or even a Top Ten Sexist Gags In Rock Videos. In all three, Love In An Elevator will come top. 

I can't help but love both the song and the video though... they're everything that was (gloriously) wrong about 80's American rock.




Which floor are you getting off at today?

My Top Ten Park Songs

Fancy a walk in the park...?


Special mention to Maxïmo Park, Van Dyke Parks, South Park and Ray Parker Jr. Of course.


10. Dubstar - Cathedral Park

I always thought Dubstar was a rubbish name for a band, particularly a band with very little dub in their sound. I always liked the fact that you could hear Sarah Blackwood's northern accent in her vocals though.

The interweb tells me Dubstar are recording again and soon to release a new record. Ooh... 

9. The Auteurs - After Murder Park

A song about dead children to cheer your dark winter days. Could have been worse (?) - I could have gone with Tom Lehrer - Poisoning Pigeons In The Park.

8. Feist - The Park

Feist thinks she's seen an old love in the park... it's unlikely she'll see him there again.

Beautiful song. 

7. Georgie Fame - Sitting In the Park

Or you may prefer the original by Billy Stewart, which I only just discovered, but it is rather fine. 

6. Cinerama - Barefoot In The Park

Named after the old Jane Fonda / Robert Redford movie, this is David Gedge going all romantic on us again. Hardly the sort of thing you'd hear on Steve Wright's Sunday Love Songs, but perhaps it ought to be...

Yes it's because you're just sublime
That I think about you all the time
Don't ask me if it's true
Because how could anybody not love you?

5. Blur - Park Life

You may have expected this nearer the top... but in retrospect, isn't it just the teeniest bit annoying? Great single, but still... a bit annoying. Actually, I'm not sure who's more annoying, Damon or Phil Daniels. Probably Damon... Phil's just playing a part.

For something slightly less annoying from the Blur boys (but not half as catchy), try Trailer Park.

4. Bruce Springsteen - 4th of July, Asbury Park

Look, I'm not going to apologise for the amount of times Bruce makes My Tops Tens... but I should probably apologise that this one only got to #4. In any other chart... Number One With A Bullet.

And me, I just got tired of hangin' in them dusty arcades
Bangin' them pleasure machines
Chasin' the factory girls underneath the boardwalk
Where they all promise to unsnap their jeans
And you know that tilt-a-whirl down on the south beach drag
I got on it last night and my shirt got caught
And they kept me spinnin', dear, didn't think I'd ever get off

3.  Billy Bragg - Tank Park Salute

One of Billy's most heartbreaking songs, about a young boy coming to terms with the death of his father. Sends a shiver down my spine.  

For a much younger, much more raucous Billy, you might try: Riff Raff - Barking Park Lake.

2. Small Faces - Itchycoo Park

I feel inclined to blow my mind
Get hung up, feed the ducks with a bun
They all come out to groove about
Be nice and have fun in the sun

What did you do there?

I got high!

You don't say...

1.  Richard Harris - MacArthur Park

Yes, I could have gone with the Donna Summer version, the Glen Campbell version... or even Jimmy Webb's own version... but Richard Harris did it first, and most famously. This song gets a lot of stick, partly because as a singer, Richard Harris was a great actor... and partly because nobody can really agree on what the lyrics are about. Hell to all that - it's a metaphor, deal with it.

Classic.



Those were my favourite park songs, but... which one leaves your cake out in the rain?