Snapshots Spillover: More W-onderful Places

More places beginning with W, following on from this week's Snapshots.

Let's start where Alice ended up... no, not in a Big Country.

Next we go to the current World Capital of Corruption and Idiocracy...

The Magnetic Fields – Washington DC

Hopefully that won't always be the case... though there is a worry that Michael Martin Murphey might be correct...

Michael Martin Murphey – The Wild West Is Going To Get Wilder

And back home to a Country whose name appears in far too few song titles...

The Wedding Present - Wales

Drive East from there and you might end up here...

The Capital Letters - Wolverhampton

Or even here...

Go Kart Mozart - West Brom Blues

And if you were going South East, you could be going towards...

Bleech – The Worthing Song

And on the way, you might call in here..

The Candy Skins - Wembley

Just don't stop at the services - they charge a fortune!

Roy Harper - Watford Gap

Meanwhile... yesterday, Andy Bell sang us a lovely song about Weston-Super-Mare. Just be grateful I chose that rather than...

The Wurzels - Sunny Weston-Super-Mare

Now before we head back across the pond, how about a word about one of the oldest cities in northern Europe?

Porridge Radio - Worms

Ask Walter if you don't believe me.

So then, we finish our travels back in "the land of the free"... although these guys are from Melbourne, so what do they know about it?

The Lucksmiths - Wyoming

Now Winnemucca is clearly the best place name beginning with W. Sadly, I couldn't find any songs about it... but Richmond Fontaine did name a whole after after it.

Richmond Fontaine - Out Of State (from Winnemucca)

Then there's Waco, a town famous for its infamous siege... 

The Indelicates - Something's Goin' Down In Waco

Although other things have happened there.

Ethel Cain – Waco, Texas 

Charley Crockett – The Man From Waco

I had to finish today back in Canada though. Not exactly the best tune you'll hear today... but definitely the best song title.

Celebrity Jukebox #85: Harry Belafonte

Certain stars just appear effortlessly cool. Harry Belafonte was one of them. Actor, singer and close friend and confidant of Martin Luther King, Harry was a legend. 

Let's see how he's remembered in the jukebox, starting with Tony Bennett, making up his own lyrics to a classic...

And if I never had a cent

I'd be rich as Harry Belafonte

With Barry Goldwater at my feet

On the sunny side of the street

Goldwater was a conservative Republican whom, I imagine, Harry had little time for.

Tony Bennett - Sunny Side of the Street

Quite a lot of rappers name-drop Harry, understandably given his prominent civil rights activism over the years. Here's Black Thought from The Roots with Danger Mouse...

Ayo, don't even worry 'bout it, my legendary stylin'

Between Harry Belafonte and Harry Allen

Danger Mouse & Black Thought -  Close To Famous

And here's some proper Old Skool, more my vintage...

If you compare the Big Daddy to a Caddy

I'd be an Allante, suave as Belafonte

Interplanetary and extraordinary

Big Daddy Kane - Git Bizzy

Whether rap or country, Harry was important to them all...

Raindrops thumping on my white-walled Chrysler

I'm keeping rhythm with the window wipers

Farmland's drinking every drop that falls

Lightning dancing to the fiddler's call

Black baby squeeze a hot dog bun

Grandpa's got wrinkles from too much sun

Harry Belafonte and the Dixie Dregs

Everybody's drinking from the same cold kegs

Michael Martin Murphey - Pilgrims on the Way (Matthew's Song)

Meanwhile, Aussie rockers The Church place Harry in very fine company...

Brian Wilson and William Tell
We welcome you
Harry Belafonte and Alexander Bell
We welcome you
Archangel Gabriel and Richard Hell
We welcome
And Tom Miller

The Church - Welcome

...while Jonathan Richman supported many of the same causes.

So join Nelson Mandela

And Susan Sarandon

Join Harry Belafonte as the list goes on and on

And protest with a letter, or maybe a phone call

For there on death row, stands Abu Jamal

Jonathan Richman - Abu Jamal

It seems like everyone wants to be as cool as Harry. Even the Fratellis...

Well, I'm gonna be imperious

I'm gonna be the next Harry Belafonte!

The Fratellis - Halloween Blues

Today belong to Joe Strummer though, who mentions Harry in not one, but two, of his tunes. Let's face it, if Joe Strummer namedrops you twice, you must be a legend.

Somebody's got to draw a line somewhere,
And it might as well be Harry Belafonte

Joe Strummer - Dizzy's Goatee

Because the noise inspectors with the sound detectors 

Were coming on down the beach 

And the counselors wanna pounce on us

There we go disturbing the peace 

And the Cornish sun had only just begun

To sink into the western sea 

So to keep it low so the cops don't know

I spun my Harry Belafonte