Hot 100 #26

Welcome back to the Hot 100. Before Christmas we got as far as #27, so basic accounting dictates we move on to number 26, as illustrated by Australian band... erm... 26. Appropriately enough, here is their song A New Beginning. Muse fans may want to give that a spin.

OK, what do you have for me this week?

Martin?

"Marshall Mathers by Eminem has the lyric..."

Startin' shit like some 26-year-old skinny Cartman...

Good start. I still can't help but love Eminem. Good job, because Martin continues...

"Also by Eminem, My Fault has the line...

She said, 'I am 26 years old and I am not married 

I don't even have any kids and I can't cook'...

Still makes me grin.

Anything else, Martin?

"I'm revisiting Reelin' and Rockin' by Chuck Berry for the line..."

Well, I looked at my watch, it was 10:26...

That one could run and run.

"Chic had a song called 26..."

On a scale of 1 to 10, my baby's a 26...

They did indeed, and it was on my shortlist. It was on Rigid Digit's too.

"But I reckon it has to be Waiting for the Man by The Velvet Underground and Nico, for the opening verse:"

I'm waiting for my man,

Got 26 dollars in my hand,

Up to Lexington 125,

Feelin' sick and dirty,

Huh, I'm waiting for my man.

Good choice. Even Lynchie approves...

"Damn and blast. I was going to post I'm Waiting for the Man - it's one of the few Velvets songs that's any good!*"

"*There'll be complaints about that line..."

Probably. But you're entitled to your opinion. Even if it is wrong.

C was up next, going all Gallic on us...

"If, like me, you are a bit of a sucker for just about anything sung in French, then I give you Stereolab's OLV 26."

And then came Douglas, still freezing his elbow patches* off on the picket line...

(*I'm presuming Canadian teachers have elbow patches on their threadbare blazers, just like teachers in the UK.)

"I don't recall if it has been mentioned many times already for other numbers, but Roger Miller's song  Got Two Again is chock full of numbers and sums, including this verse containing our beloved number 26:

For the second verse

I need someone to give me a number

Between 12 and 14, I'll make a verse (13!)

13, ah, 13, well, 13 multiplied by 1

You still got 13 but wasn't that fun?

Now, take that same 13 multiply by 2

26 hours the train's overdue…

Never heard that before, Douglas, but I approve.

"And if the train is indeed 26 hours overdue, then that would make R.E.M.’s 26 hour road trip described in the song Departure unfortunately twice as long, at 52 hours (keeping with the sums theme, though I suspect that if they are going via Singapore and Spain to Salt Lake City I suspect their mode of travel is more likely a plane?):

Just arrived Singapore, San Sebastian, Spain, 26-hour trip

Salt Lake City, come in spring

Over the salt flats a hailstorm brought you back to me

Salt Lake City, come in spring

Over the salt flats a hailstorm brought you back to me

"And that's all I got, folks."

Both good suggestions. Not heard Departure in ages.

Finally, Rigid Digit returned with another fine lyrical offering...

Paul Hardcastle - 19

In World War II the average age of the combat soldier was 26... 

In Vietnam he was 19...

Surely that will be a shoe-in in 7 weeks' time?

OK, besides those, what did my own hard-drive have to offer?

Paramore - 26

Catfish & The Bottlemen - 26

The Charlie Daniels Band - Was It 26?

(Or this more recent version...)

Chris Stapleton - Was It 26?

Kimya Dawson - 12/26

Frank Black - 1826

Kate Jackson - Velvet Sofa From Number 26

Pavement - Robyn Turns 26

However, for this week's suggestion I'm going with 12 minutes of protest song, from Gil Scott Heron, reacting to the election of President Ronald Reagan in 1981. Listen to this today and change a few names and statistics and it can surely apply to a couple of more recent election results as well..

Well, the first thing I want to say is..."Mandate My Ass!"

Because it seems as though we've been convinced

That 26% of the registered voters

Not even 26% of the American people

But 26% of the registered voters form a mandate...

Or a landslide...

The idea concerns the fact that this country wants nostalgia

They want to go back as far as they can ...

Even if it's only as far as last week

Not to face now or tomorrow, but to face backwards

Next week, we reach the last quarter in our century. Your 25s will be much appreciated...

September #7: Kate Jackson

7. Kate Jackson - Wonder Feeling

I've talked before about how I consider The Long Blondes to be one of the last truly great indie bands, their career cut short when guitarist and songwriter Dorian Cox had a stroke in 2008.

Since then, there's been much talk of the band's lead singer, Kate Jackson (not the one from Charlie's Angels) writing new material with ex-Suede guitarist Bernard Butler. After a few years in which most of her time has been spent in Paris on her alternative career as a visual artist, Jackson's debut album was finally released earlier this year.

I have to admit that a lot of my old Britpop heroes have been rather disappointing me lately. I've hungrily sought out the new albums by Suede, James and Richard Ashcroft this year, and although they sounded exactly like I'd have expected them to, and will satisfy many longtime fans, I was starting to fear my own tastes had moved on. But Jackson's album has surprised me. Even though she herself comes from the post-Britpop era - The Long Blondes were formed in 2003 - this is a record that stands up well with the best of the female-led guitar bands of that era (think Elastica, Sleeper, Lush, et al.) while Jackson's voice remains as powerful and provocative as it was on the best of the Long Blondes records. The Britpop sound makes sense - after all, Bernard Butler was central to the evolution of that scene, while Jackson herself would have been 16 at its height. However, there's something refreshing as well as nostalgic about this album that sets it apart from many of the old lags still proudly flying the Britpop flag. Here's hoping we don't have to wait too long for Jackson's next record.

There's a girl who used to sit and read
One day a boy fell at her feet
He watched her dance made her a tape
Said he thought that her eyes were great
On the bus and in the park
In each others bedrooms after dark
Their dreams are real
I know exactly how they feel

Kate Jackson - Wonder Feeling from Spinning Arrow Productions on Vimeo.