It’s forty years to the day since the Challenger Space
Shuttle exploded 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members.
Among that crew was Sharon Christa McAuliffe, the first
teacher to fly into space. She was shortlisted from more than 11,000
applicants… also on that shortlist was singer-songwriter John Denver, who got
as far as the NASA induction programme. When Denver saw what happened on January
28, 1986, he was inspired to write this tribute…
Well, I guess that you probably know by now I was one who wanted to fly I wanted to ride on that arrow of fire right up into heaven And I wanted to go for every man Every child, every mother of children
I wanted to carry the dreams of all people right up to the
stars They were flying for me They were flying for everyone They were trying to see a brighter day for each and everyone They gave us their light They gave us their spirit and all they could be They were flying for me They were flying for me
Although he survived the Challenger disaster, John Denver
died 11 years later when his own home-built light aircraft crashed into Monterey
Bay, California.
Denver isn’t the only songwriter to have been affected by
what happened to Challenger. Frank Turner was only four years old in 1986, but
seeing the accident on TV had a profound effect on him. Many years later, he
would imagine hearing Christa McAuliffe’s final broadcast (there is speculation
that the crew didn’t die when the explosion happened on board the spaceship,
only when it crashed into the sea) over the ham radio he’d played around with
as a kid. A “silent key” is the term used by amateur radio enthusiasts to refer
to deceased radio operators.
This is one of my favourite Frank Turner tunes. The more I
listen to it, the more it breaks my heart.
On the 28th of January 1986 Christa McAuliffe gazed in horror as the O-rings failed And she died, and she died, and she died For the next agonising two minutes and forty-five long
seconds She called out the truth on a broken radio: "I'm alive, I'm alive, I'm alive" It came as some surprise to realise that as she lost
everything The world was revealed in a transmission so real that she
understood everything: You're still alive, you're still alive
5. The city with the longest name is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Yuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit. But we call it...?
There was also a question about what the following three cities have in common… New York, Mumbai, Istanbul. But I’ll give you the answer to that one… as I might have done to one of the questions above, being unable to resist an obvious tune.
When Sam was very small, I started making compilation CDs to play in the car whenever we were out and about, with the aim of giving him a solid introduction to the wonderful world of pop music in all most of its many varieties. I don't have a date for when I made that first CD, but he must have been about one, so it was a good 9 years ago. These were the first three tracks on CD 1...
It wasn't about choosing my favourite songs, but what I thought he'd like as a one year old. He was obsessed with cars from a very young age, so the Beatles' "beep beep yeahs" seemed like an obvious opener. I'm not sure why I chose Jet Plane next, other than that it has a similar travelling message and a soaring melody that was good to sing along to. Daydream Believer, on the other hand, is just one of the greatest and most joyful pop songs ever written. It had to be there.
That first CD included other singalong greats like Sweet Caroline, Build Me Up, Buttercup and a Motown double-whammy of I Can't Help Myself and You Can't Hurry Love. Paul Simon's You Can Call Me Al was on there because we used to listen to Graceland a lot at bath / bedtime back then. Although many of the favourite artists of my youth were present (REM, Billy Joel, Freddie Mercury), there was no Bruce or Huey, Johnny, Jarvis or anything by The Smiths. And though Glen Campbell made the final cut, he was wearing rhinestones, not searching in the sun for another overload. I rip to 80 minute CDs, so I'm always limited to between 20 and 22 tracks. That said, there were a couple of leftfield choices...
A good nah-nah-nah-nah chorus was bound to appeal to a one year old.
Anyway, I've kept making these CDs over the years and gradually broadening Sam's knowledge of popular music, though the song choices have become less obvious and more eclectic as time's gone by. Last week, I put together SAM 150, a compilation which ranged from The Staple Singers to Leo Sayer, Pete Townsend to Modern English, Joni Mitchell to Ash, The Climax Blues Band to The Trammps to The Shangri-Las. It also included the following, even less obvious choices...
Top power pop tune - one listen, and Sam was singing along.
And then there's this... a new discovery, but one that had me hooked as soon as Diamante Azzura Bovelli started belting out her tribute to the year I turned 15, like Pat Benatar or Bonnie Tyler at their best. Again, Sam was soon singing along. Which, considering he was born in 2013, is kind of like me singing about 1936 when I was a kid. Imagine that.
Not that I'm trying to make you feel old. But Diamante, in case you fancy another nail in your coffin, was herself born in 1996, nine years later than the year she dreams of dancing in.
Still, 150 CDs. You can't say I've completely wasted my life...
Reg Dwight is, of course, Elton John. (Who could have featured in this countdown with B-b-b-Bennie & The Jets.) If Elton was on tour, he might stay at the Crossroads Motel.
Those of you who know about such things will recognise that as the original version of the song that would become Plastic Bertrand's Ça Plane Pour Moi. The Elton Motello version was a bit too rude for the time, so they changed the lyrics to nonsense French and a worldwide hit was born.
Ben: One of my supervisors lives in Hebden Bridge. I'm going to forward it to him.
Ha. It is full of wankers.
Then again, so is Holmfirth.
Well.
You moved there.
You set that one up too easy.
I live in Scholes. Proper Local Shop territory, this.
You live inside Paul Scholes?
I have no idea who that is.
He played football in the 90s. My football knowledge spans a year in the 90s to the football comic "Shoot".
And to Tony Curry. Who apparently was a good Sheffield United player because every kid who had their birthday at United's ground had Tony Curry come out at the end and sign a football.
"Ooh, kids, there's a special guest soon". Always Tony fucking Curry.
And some of the kids always lost their mind.
It's like, were you not paying attention the last six birthdays we came to here?
No joke, at my parents I have a small stack of signed Tony Curry photos.
More evidence for why you need serious drugs to help you sleep.
He doesn't live in my house.
My dad's mates with this local boxer, Kell Brooks.
He took my dad to a match in the celeb suite a few years ago.
Guess who he saw there?
Tony sodding Curry
Imagine seeing this face, every time you close your eyes.
It's not fair.
I'm glad I'm not your psychiatrist.
I've been spelling his name wrong, that's how little I know. It's Currie!
Is this the boxer?
I don't believe so.
I don't know sports.
That's Kelly Brook.
Does she box?
Well, you might end up with two black eyes if you got too close to her.
Thisshows how many autographs he does... There's no market for it.
Got to respect that entrepreneurial spirit.
Unless you're a Marxist.
I think they keep him alive in a cupboard, feeding him pies and pints of mild. Let him out on matchday and kids parties.
It's another world.
He starts getting excited when he hears the opening chords to Annie's Song.
So do I.
But he's excited for the United version.
Means he gets to have a fresh pint of mild.
Rather than the keg they keep in the cupboard with him that's stale.
Some football gits have stolen Annie's Song!? That proper fills up my senses...
Like a greasy chip buttie...
Nooooo!
I am never clicking that link.
I'm not saying it's any good, just showing that it exists.
I believe you. Just another reason to despair in the human race...
You're gonna love this song. Sums up your opinion...
Fair point. And I prefer that to the bastardisation of Annie's Song.
I think you'll like the new Manchester Orchestra album from Telepath onwards. It settles back into the Americana again from that point on.
Albeit with syncopation.
If by syncopation, you mean drum machines...
I mean syncopation. I'd have said syncopated drum machines if I meant that.
Is it dance music?
No. Syncopation is just varied rhythms coming together.
At the same time.
Sounds bollocks to me.
Good Time Roll by the Cars is a good example of syncopation.
The rhythm is *off* the main beat.
The reason the term is synonymous with dance, and as such, electronic music outside of music theory is that it has to rely on syncopation to create that movement.
It forces a rhythm over melody. Cuban music in the 50s and 60s that's completely danceable is due to it having syncopated rhythm.
Don't make snarky comments about things then I won't have to give you a music theory lesson.
I used to play in a brass band, so I know what syncopation means in principle. I just wasn't sure how you were applying the term.
Please tell me it was a colliery band.
Were you in Brassed Off?
What was Pete Postlethwaite like?
How I spent my teenage years, before I got into radio. It was all very Brassed Off.
Were you trombone? Or a saxophone?
Or did you put your tall body to comedy effect with a cornet?
I have so many questions.
I played tenor horn. Mid size. There are no saxophones in a brass band.
You could have been a maverick.
Did you have a nickname?
Why would I have a nickname?
It endears the audience to the narrative.
Did you enter competitions?
Did you win?
We entered lots of competitions, but we were only the junior section of the main band. At first, anyway. By the end, I was in the main band.
Best thing was at Christmas, we went round all the pubs in the village and played carols to drunks.
Long before I drank myself.
I'm going to turn this into a film where you sit in front of a fire and tell people about your youth.
Channel Five, Bravo and Men and Motors are interested.
