Ernie gave a fine tribute to the late Melanie Safka, and I'm not sure there's much I can add, though I was interested to read her comments in defence of her most famous (and in certain quarters, controversial) song...
I wrote in about fifteen minutes one night. I thought it was cute; a kind of old thirties tune. I guess a key and a lock have always been Freudian symbols, and pretty obvious ones at that. There was no deep serious expression behind the song, but people read things into it. They made up incredible stories as to what the lyrics said and what the song meant. In some places, it was even banned from the radio. My idea about songs is that once you write them, you have very little say in their life afterward. It's a lot like having a baby. You conceive a song, deliver it, and then give it as good a start as you can. After that, it's on its own. People will take it any way they want to take it.
One of the greatest crimes ever committed in pop was when some fool let The Wurzels have the rights to that.
I was never a huge fan of country star Toby Keith. He was a bit too New-Nashville for me, shiny and macho, pick-up trucks, Jesus, the Star Spangled Banner etc. etc. For me, he didn't have the everyman wit of Brad Paisley, the outlaw spirit of Eric Church or even the songwriting chops of early Blake Shelton.
All that said, I was shocked to hear of his death from cancer at just 62. That's no age.
Here's a song of Toby's that I did like. It's a good one to remember him by...
Carl Weathers will best be remembered as Apollo Creed in the Rocky movies, though he also appeared in Predator, Arrested Development and The Mandalorian. Plus, for video shop kids of the 80s, he was Action Jackson. As a singer, he only ever released one record, this smooth soul number from 1981...
They even named themselves after the Fred Savage sitcom. What's not to love?
Swiss Adam wrote a superb piece of the late Wayne Kramer, guitarist with the MC5. Again, there's little I can add to that, but I will say that when Ben alerted me to Wayne's passing, my reply was four words long...
As far as I'm concerned though, you won't find a better tribute than this...
We've got Kramer coming over
To produce us
So that we can show off to our specialist friends
Go down to the Falcon in Camden and say
"I'll have a pint for myself and a pint for the ex-MC5″
Finally, my thoughts go out to Bruce, who lost his mum, Adele Springsteen, earlier this week. She was 98 and had been battling Alzheimer's for a long time... but what a legacy.
Here's the story of how she bought Bruce his first guitar...
If you've got the Hair Like Brian May Blues this Sunday morning, don't feel Under Pressure. Here are the answers to the 100th edition of Saturday Snapshots to Keep Yourself Alive.
As I write this, nobody had spotted the Extra Special Bonus Mystery which connected 10 of the songs on this list... but I guess you'd have to be pretty sad to do that. (No offence to Alyson who came close to working it out.) Different photos, different clues and different songs, but the odd-numbered artists in this list all appeared in Saturday Snapshots #1, way back in September 2017.
I think Alyson just pipped Rigid Digit to the crown this week. I was intending to work out a league table of winners from the past 100 editions, but as you probably have realised by now, my time is rather restricted at the moment. Thanks for playing along as always, everybody. Remember: this quiz is Driven By You.
20. Lennie's pal in dire circumstance. I guess Tony must have shown him the way.
George & Lennie, as anybody who's done an English exam at school in the last 50 years will know, were the unlucky duo from Of Mice & Men.
Well, two of Donald's nephews. Dewey must have been sick that day.
Still one of the greatest pop songs ever recorded...
Well, that's it, folks. 100 seems a pretty good number to bow out on, don't you think? Time to call it a day on Saturday Snapshots, maybe? Give you all a lie in next Saturday morning?
Except that's not really a song, just a snip of JFK's famous moon speech set to music... a lengthy intro to this song, which is rather timely since the new Neil Armstrong movie starring Ryan Gosling appears to have left the American flag back home, much to the chagrin of a certain Mr. Trump. Still, I never really took Brad's song as jingoistic, far more hopeful... plus I'm a sucker for songs featuring 5 year olds talking to their dads.
(Actually, what I find most interesting about listening to that JFK speech is how much he sounds like the great Pete Postlethwaite in Brassed Off. Without the swearing. Just me?)
Rigid Digit, meanwhile, came to kick out the jams...
You're all thinking this week's winner will be this, as originally suggested by The Swede and then seconded by Martin and Brian...
Sir leads the troops Jealous of youth Same old suit since nineteen sixty two
And certainly, it is one of my favourites from the early days of The Smiths. However, I'm going to throw a curveball this week and go with Jim from Dubai's suggestion... some classic 90s powerpop all the way from Sweden. A big favourite of mine back in the day...
