It's been a hectic week here at Top Ten Towers - not much time for blogging.
Fortunately, George was ready to step in...
A few days ago, in the must-listen-to-every-song-all-the-way-through Namesakes series, Rol wrote that despite the title of his blog he does not actually write a Top Ten piece any more. (I'm glad to see George is finally calling that series by its proper name.) I emailed him to say that I had started several but never got to ten songs. Well, now I have. So here it is. A “Top Ten Dairy Songs”. A teacher of English would know: is it ironic that a top ten dairy list is compiled by a vegan? (Yes.)
The songs below are not in any order of preference.
1. Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band - Ice Cream for Crow
The title track of his last album, and a rollicking great, almost rockabilly, song.
In parts it sounds a game of pong gone mad. I’ve done a Rol here in stretching/ignoring the rule that the song itself must pertain to the title, but I can’t see any objection coming from either Rol or regular reader Ernie.
I object on the basis that I do remember it and wish I didn't. Ernie?
3.Billy Bragg - The Milkman of Human Kindness
One of my favourite “sing-along-with-Billy-Bragg” songs.
Anyway, components of custard are dairy, so it’s in the list. That funky bit in the song is made by a clavinet. I think.
5.Larry Williams - Peaches and Cream
Not one of his better known songs, but a fine 2 minute blast of rock and roll. And given it’s a 1950s rock and roll song, I suppose the peaches and cream of the song are not actually a fruit and a dairy product.
Bending the rules again*, but I’ve always lumped eggs in with dairy, probably from years of saying “vegetarian and no eggs no dairy”. Sung by one of my Top Ten favourite female singers. Mr CC has written (here) about our attempts to see Tarnation in Sheffield, he got the train from Glasgow, me driving up from Birmingham. Indeed he is very lucky never to have seen them twice!
And from the absolutely fantastic Quim Barreiros, from the first album of his that I purchased, “A cabritinha” (I’m 99% confident he is not referencing little female goats) and here you can see the great man in action, musically that is:
And I actually think this is a song about making an omelette. Of course, my knowledge is Portuguese entendres / sexual slang is almost zero. (I do know not to go to Mrs Woman in the veg shop and ask for tomatoes, though, only for tomato.*)
Somehow this song wasn’t banned. If anyone is thinking of doing a My Top Ten Sweetie songs, can I suggest Lollipop Mama by Wynonie Harries, a song that is of course about, according to wikipedia, a type of sugar candy usually consisting of hard candy mounted on a stick and intended for sucking or licking".
So there you are, a Top Ten Dairy Songs list, that probably only has one song about a dairy product.
And if he posts this, thanks go to Rol. Enjoy the music.
Thank you, George, for bringing the tone of this blog down several notches. Always good to see.
I'm on a diet at the moment, so putting this edition of Snapshot together was an exercise in self-flagellation. For the rest of you - feel free to indulge your sweet teeth below..
15. Non-White Raconteur.
The Raconteurs were a band featuring Jack White and...
Mal Ryder (aka Paul Bradley Couling from Wales) didn't make much of a mark on the UK music scene in the 70s... but he was very big in Italy. I include him here today because I do like a good Roly Poly.
It's been a while since I ran any guest posts here, and the only reason for that is that nobody has offered any. Fair enough, most of you have your own blogs to worry about. Fortunately, George has got sick of reading my interminable ramblings day after day, or perhaps taken mercy on me after yesterday's bumper post, and offered not one, but two guest posts to give me what Huey Lewis would call a Couple Days Off. So Guest Post Thursday is back!
Here's George...
I was listening to one of the three cds in the Sick, Sorry and Sober set recently and I heard this:
Today I passed you in the street,
And my heart fell at your feet,
I can’t help it if I’m still in love with you
And I thought that it was genius: a simple lyric, a simple tune, that Hawaiian-sounding guitar, that reedy, plaintive and painful voice, combining to make an unforgettable song. I can understand why some 70s and 80s country music puts people off, but I will never understand how people could not like and admire this song.
And if you can get hold of that 3 cd set I would urge you to do so.
A while later, whilst sitting around not doing much, just singing those lines, I thought of this, another simple intro, builds up a bit, that “ooo” the drum roll, then Levi Stubbs’ voice...
I’m spoiling you, two utterly brilliant songs, it’s got to be downhill now. There’s a lot of song titles that start “I can’t”, and an amazing number of them are great. And then there’s that abomination by crap prog turned crap pop group with that drummer-singer. So, to cleanse your ears after just polluting them with the thought of that song, here’s some hard-rock blues.
Anita is on heat as I write this, has been for a couple of days, so much bleating round these parts, and it’s difficult to get her in the goat shed. Parsley goes in no problem, a bit of bread, corn, he’s there, but at times like these, not Anita. FORTY minutes it took on Tuesday. She’s bleating for Francisco’s young male goat:
So a Top Ten “I Can’t” songs. Yes, some obvious ones not there, some deliberately excluded on grounds of taste, but not Barry Manilow, oh no, but because the song is Can’t Smile WIthout You, and not I Can’t Smile Without You.
Thanks of course to Rol for allowing this to be posted. Feel free to leave your inane comment.
And I’ve just been informed that I can write a part 2. I bet you can’t wait!
Because tradition dictates I close my posts with a video (I feel naked without them), I found another version of George's top song which is equally worthy of your ears. And I'm glad George didn't diss Barry. Less bothered about him dissing the drummer-singer.
10cc were my obvious choice for the band to illustrate our final week in double figures on the countdown, although as Jim in Dubai pointed out, I could also have had Ten City, Tenpole Tudor, Ten Years After... or, for that matter, Ten Sharp, Ten Benson, The Ten Fours or the Ten Bob Millionaires.
And my search engine also suggested The Pretenders, Yo La Tengo, Morten Harket, Frightened Rabbit, Suicidal Tendencies, Sharon Van Etten and Tennessee Ernie Ford, among others. All of which made searching for Ten songs rather difficult, since there was no way of editing out songs that included the words Listen, Pretend, Tension, Beaten, Tender... or even Extended. And there were rather a lot of songs with "Extended version" in my library.
So I'm very impressed you all came up with as many great suggestions as you did. So many, in fact, I'm going to keep the waffle to a minimum (again... we'll see how well that goes) and just plough through them, starting with The Swede...
I tell you what, all these songs about The Ten Commandments makes me think back to the originals, carved into stone, and carried down from Mount Sinai itself by the one and only...
...which, given the name of this blog, is a pretty good place to stop. Although The Swede did have one other suggestion, which he caveated: I feel I may be pushing my luck now!
Hmm. We'll come back to that.
Over to George, who only had one for us this week, but it was a big 'un...
Smut. Just pure smut. Or is it? Here's Douglas McLaren...
I have to say I was hesitating to suggest Aerosmith's "Big Ten Inch Record" because of the puerile suggestiveness of the lyrics, until after digging a little, I came across the following quote, said about a different Aerosmith jingle: "Actually, there's very little innuendo here, it's just pure smut. But Steven Tyler is such a rock star caricature, it's hard to be offended by it." (A Certain Blogger, June 23, 2017)
As always, you go above and beyond with your research, Douglas. Thank you.
Over to Swiss Adam, who had quite a few from my library. I'll let you work out which.
Fair play to Swiss Adam there, because the ones I didn't have in my collection, I now want in my collection. (With the possible exception of Sabres of Paradise, sorry.)
Alyson, who tonight, Matthew, will be Ben Elton, adds...
Can't remember what you think of UB40 but One In Ten made a big impact on me back in the day and I still have the vinyl copy. After this crisis it might have to be renamed One In Five, but that's me just being pessimistic again. It'll all be fine (she says wearing a rictus smile).
For the record, One In Ten is probably my favourite UB40 song... I even featured it in Saturday Snapshots a couple of weeks back.
You'll have to excuse me, CC, but this post is long enough with me re-running last week's links as well... besides, you're not going to top Engelbert. I'd quit while you're ahead. Although your Engelbert suggestion did lead me to dig out this...
A lot of songs with 10 in the title but most of the ones I'm finding are not even familiar to me so going to stick with what might be your most likely pick. Although C says she doesn't like it, I think you do appreciate Paul Heaton's lyrics so Perfect 10 by Beautiful South would be a possibility.
Y'know, I used to love that song, but it has started to grate a little in recent years. Perhaps because it sounds like a template for every song Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott record these days. This is better...
He even supplied the link, just in case I didn't know what he was talking about. See, I'm beginning to think you're not taking this series seriously, George.
Back to Dubai, where Jim had dug up the following...
After all those, I don't know about you, but I need a lie down in a darkened room. I doubt that anyone gives two figs for my suggestions this week (if you ever do). Still, I feel duty bound to list them So...
Way, way back in the dim and distant mists of the past when this post started, The Swede made a final suggestion which he somehow thought might be "pushing his luck now". Do you remember that? Of course you don't, you've slept since then.
Anyway, The Swede's final suggestion was a song set on 10th Avenue in New York City.
Come on guys, you've been reading this blog long enough. Was this week's winner really that big a mystery? You know my weaknesses...
This one's for Clarence.
When the change was made uptown
And the Big Man joined the band
Nine next. Hopefully there won't be as many nine songs as there were ten. But just in case... I might start writing that post now. Chip in whenever you feel like it...
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