Welcome to International Noise Awareness Day, a day which seeks to highlight the detrimental effects of living in a noisy place. Now obviously, I like a bit of noise from time to time, but just imagine if every second of every day sounded like a mash-up of these...
Sometimes, you just need a bit of peace and quiet, yeah?
Loud environments don’t just overwhelm the ears. They can raise blood pressure, disturb sleep, and even slow down how well children learn. Many studies warn that constant noise wears down both the body and mind.
Today then is a day to turn the volume down and enjoy something a little gentler on the ears...
These week, the Namesakes garden is infested with cheeky little imps. Like all Pixies though, they're very hard to catch on camera. Only one set of Pixies could be linked to photographic evidence. Guess which ones...?
THE PIXIES #1
I think this is our earliest set of Pixies. Extensive research suggest that it was originally recorded in 1946 by Bob Camp & His Buddies, but that it was re-released / possibly re-recorded in 1962, by which time Bob's buddies had turned into Pixies. Despite what the internet might try to tell you, this isn't the same Bob Camp who would later create the cartoon Ren & Stimpy.
The year is 1956. Here are some more Pixies on a Christmas novelty record with Thurl Arthur Ravenscroft playing Santa. The same Thurl Arthur Ravenscroft who was the voice of Tony The Tiger. You know what that suggests about these Pixies? They're greeeeeeaaaaat!
Formed in 1986 by Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV (or Frank Black / Black Francis to his mates), Kimberley Ann Deal, Joseph Alberto Santiago and Dave the drummer, the Boston-based Pixies are surely one of the most influential indie / alt-rock acts of that or any other era. They split up in '93, reformed in 2004 and Kim managed to stick it out for another decade before finally telling Frank to Gouge Away.
Pixies carried on, though they dropped the definite article, suggesting they could no longer be THE Pixies without Kim. That interpretation does credit Frank with a little more modesty than he's famous for.
In 1992, Select magazine commissioned notorious satirist Chris Morris to produce a recording to be given away as a cover-mounted floppy disc (remember them?). Morris recorded a spoof radio show (sticking a pin in the pompous inanity that Steve Wright's Radio 1 show had become by that point). This also included a song called Mother-Banger by The Pixies (lead singer "Jet Black"). I include it here because a) it's on discogs; b) I was a huge Chris Morris fan back in the Day (Today).
Bono "fans": it's worth listening to the bit after Motherbanger in which Morris spoofs a Sun journalist into believing he's talking to the "great man" about the band's farewell gig at Alton Towers, with NWA in support.
"Between you and me, have you ever heard anything so stupid as calling yourself 'The Edge'?"
And so begins the contractually obliged countdown of my favourite albums of the year. The usual caveats apply:
the order is spurious, based on the capricious whims of the day I compiled this list, and subject to change just as easily as the wind. Only the Top 3 holds any kind of accuracy.
records released earlier in the year, which I've had longer to live with and enjoy, will doubtlessly place higher than ones I'm still getting into. I keep telling the recording industry this - if they want to score a definite Top Ten placing in my year end countdown, don't wait till bloody November to put their records out. But do they listen to me?
in the next few months, I am guaranteed to buy and/or discover a bunch of new records which would surely have deserved a place in this list... but it's hard to keep on top of it all. I still haven't heard the new Father John Misty record, for example, though I have added it to my Christmas list.
Anyway, here are some records which I enjoyed...
24. Eels - Eels Time
Mark Everett is pretty much assured a place in this countdown just by opening his front door and serenading an enormous pine cone (as seen above). It's a testament then to the strength of this year's runner and riders that he places right at the "bottom" of the list... Eels albums usually make the Top 15, at least. Eels Time!, the fifteenth Eels long player, probably isn't going to win him any new converts, but it's a warm, reassuring cuddle for those of us who've been with him from the start.
Time, there was nothing but time then Click-clack, riding down the tracks Never worried about coming back Anyplace looked good to me Why not stop and see What's there?
Time, there isn't much time now What's the fear? Well, I like it here With the ones I love so near Maybe there's just some way Dear God I can stay
23. Pixies - The Night The Zombies Came
What I said above for Mark could just as easily apply to Frank.
There are some artists you grow tired of once you've heard everything they have to say... and there are others you're happy to keep listening to even though the song remains the same. Pixies most definitely fall into the latter category - more power to Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV and his pals.
Who's gonna live? Who's gonna die? Is there any true love? Oh, I don't know why
22. Chuck Prophet - Wake The Dead
We close today with another Charles, one who's been through quite a bit over the past couple of years, following a diagnosis of stage four lymphoma. Thankfully a) he's in remission now; and b) it's not affected his work-rate one bit. While undergoing treatment, Chuck spent a lot of time listening to Cumbia music, which the google AI tells me is "a Latin American musical genre that originated in Colombia and is characterized by a blend of African, indigenous, and European influences". I'm sure Ernie can give a better description than that. Anyway, as a result of this new obsession, Chuck has teamed up with Cumbia band ¿Qiensave? for his latest record, though this doesn't mean it's a drastic departure from his regular output... perhaps just a bit more rhythmic. Still sounds good to me anyway.
We might have ourselves a picnic We might end up on the moon They might even name a planet after me If they ask you any questions go ahead and tell the truth If we have to, we can plead insanity If it’s good enough for you, it works for me
I don't know what causes me greater anxiety: the prospect of snow, or the constant reminders by every amateur meteorologist I meet that "it's gonna snow tonight - and it's gonna be a bad one!"
As it was, it wasn't that bad, was it? Still, that's enough for this winter, thanks.
Pixies have a new record out. I mention this for the benefit of those of you (like Martin, and myself) who completely missed the last one coming out until months after it had been released. I saw a sniffy review in one of the broadsheets which I didn't read because it was bemoaning the fact that Pixies don't sound like they did 35 years ago. What does, mate? It doesn't mean you can't still enjoy it...
I approach Cannonball with some trepidation. It seems far easier to write about songs, and artists, with whom I've had a lifelong connection - like Prince and Billy Bragg - or to select huge chart hits ready for reappraisal, like When You're In Love With A Beautiful Woman. than to risk confronting a track that's so beloved by the cognoscenti, but that - until recently - I'd never really appreciated in all its glory. Then again, who said writing about music was supposed to be easy?
Let's backtrack. I was always a huge fan of The Pixies, but I never really paid much attention to Kim Deal's splinter / replacement project. Of course, when I say "always a huge fan", I don't mean that I was into the Pixies back in the late 80s when all the Cool Kids were. No, I probably discovered them just about the time the original line-up was breaking up, but as soon as I did I went out and immersed myself in their back catalogue, and that presumably kept me so busy that I didn't pay much attention to what the individual band members did next. Around that time I was also a big fan of Tanya Donnelly's Belly, but this was after Tanya had left The Breeders, so again, another missed opportunity.
Of course, it was impossible to ignore The Breeders - and Cannonball in particular - altogether in the 90s, and I'm sure they made their way into my record collection via indie compilations like Shine or The Best Album In The World Ever, so if you'd asked me back then, I would have told you, "yeah, good song... Kim Deal from the Pixies, right?"... but that would have been as much as I could have written. Right now, you may be wishing I'd submitted this post back then.
So why the reappraisal after all these years? The simple answer is that I finally started to listen to Cannonball in depth when I got round to adding it to one of Sam's in-car compilation CDs. And the more I listened to it, the more I wondered... what the hell is going on in this song?
Spitting in a wishing well
Blown to hell, crash
I'm the last splash
I know you, little libertine
I know you're a real cuckoo
If you were to ask me what first draws me to a song, my answer would always be the lyrics. I love songs that tell stories...
That would be my answer, anyway: that meaningful words maketh the song.
Clearly though, this isn't always the case. I mean, I haven't a chuffing clue what Michael Stipe's on about half the time, and yet REM are one of my favourite bands.
(I always presume that Country Feedback is about the time that Michael went on Bullseye with Jim Bowen. He didn't win the caravan or the speedboat. That's why he sings, "It's crazy what you could've had" repeatedly towards the end of the song.)
Also, if words were everything, then why the hell do I like this?
I mean, that's just nonsense. And it's not even The Beatles ripping off Edward Lear or Lewis Carroll nonsense. It's just nonsense. Don't try and explain it to me.
All of which brings me back to Cannonball, a song with lyrics that, on the surface at least, are complete balderdash... and yet, that doesn't stop it being an addictive listen.
But wait! Detailed lyrical analysis has been provided by the web of lies, so let me clue you in on what Cannoball is really all about. First off, it transpires that when Kim Deal wrote the song, her sister Kelly was spending a little too much of her free time reading the complete works of the Marquis de Sade. Those crazy alt-rock chicks, right? Here's an extract from an interview with the Phoenix New Times in 1996...
KD: This magazine in Britain keeps faxing me the same question over and over. Let's see what they want . . . (Laughs) Check it out--they want to know what author has been a major influence on my work. Hah!
NT: You don't care for the question?
KD: I've just never connected music with books. Wait, that's not entirely true. "Cannonball" was inspired by the writings of Marquis de Sade.
NT: What? "I'll be the bong in your reggae song" was inspired by Marquis de Sade?
KD: Well, not that line specifically. But the message of the song as a whole was making fun of Sade and his libertarian views that if he was better off than someone, then they were just fodder for him. Playthings. It was saying, "Come on, life's not a contest."
NT: So you're pretty much anti-Sade.
KD: Well, I don't know. Later on I found out he used to suck the snot out of people's noses, and I thought that pretty much ruled.
I think I could pretty much end this post there and call it a win, don't you?
However... that's not the only lyrical interpretation of Cannonball to be found on the interweb. Pop over to Genius, a website I spend far too much time perusing, and you will discover the theory that Cannonball is actually a barbed riposte to Pixies frontman Frank Black, who famously fired Deal, and Pixies drummer David Lovering, via fax in 1993. Speculation has it that Kim was sick of being beholden to Frank's vision, rarely allowed to contribute to the songwriting in the Pixies, creatively stymied until she started a band of her own. Which supposedly explains the repetition of the line "In the shade" and even the aforementioned "bong in this reggae song" bit.
If any of that's true, then I think there's a slight irony in connecting Deal's Marquis de Sade references in the most famous Breeders song with the references to an equally contentious piece of "art", Luis Buñuel's Un Chien Andalou in arguably the most famous Pixies song... but I may be reaching here.
None of this helps explain the allure of Cannonball though... and if I can't put it down to the lyrics, then it must be the music, right?
Except... musically, from a layman's perspective at least, Cannonball is all over the place. It sounds like three or four different songs edited together - and they even left gaps at some of the edit points! Iffypedia informs me that the "demo was originally called 'Grunggae' as it merged 'island riffs and grunge'".
I can hear the grunge - that's when the really loud buzzsaw guitar cuts in out of nowhere, right? But try as I might, I can't hear the reggae influence in Cannonball, nor can I comment on the tempo, chord progression or the "bubbling bass line", "slithering guitar lick" or "slyly humorous vocal melody" delivered "with a seductive shyness". I mean, there's cuckoos and bongs, and they're quite funny, I guess... but that just brings me back to the lyrics. Despite getting a C at GCSE Music and doing Music Theory exams up to Grade 8, I've forgotten more than I ever learned about time signatures and major / minor keys... I'm always envious of bloggers like Swiss Adam for their ability to write about the musicky bits of popular music. As an English teacher, I have some confidence in commenting on lyrics, but sounds are much harder to analyse.
In closing then, I've written well over a thousand words about this song, but not come close to answering the question of why I like it. Maybe that's an answer in itself.
P.S. If you're ever putting together a mixtape and want the perfect track to follow Cannonball, can suggest the following, from Sam's 153rd CD... it works surprisingly well.
It's late Sunday night and I just want to go to bed and read a chapter of my book, when I realise I haven't done a post for Monday morning. I could just leave it. It wouldn't be the first time I've skipped a day. Or more. But I realise that if I try to read now, I'll just end up thinking about what I could be blogging, so...
There was a halo round the moon on Saturday night. I wonder if you saw it where you live? Apparently it's caused by "the refraction of moonlight from ice crystals in the upper atmosphere." My photo isn't as impressive as some of the ones you'll find on the news sites, but still, I was pleased I caught it at all.
More bright lights I captured on my late evening walk with Bertie... though I'm less impressed by these. This is a house down the end of our road which has gone overboard on the Christmas decs... and it's not even December. It's lit up like this most of the night. Hope they can afford the electricity bill.
The idea of a monkey mind dates back to ancient Buddhist philosophy, where it refers to “a state of restlessness, capriciousness, and lack of control in one's thoughts”. The idea has evolved over the centuries, being bastardised and misappropriated as all ideas are, and these days it’s hard to find a clear definition that everyone agrees on. That’s what I’m finding, the more I read into mental health, much of it is theory backed up by evidence, but it’s all down to interpretation. Some sources tell me the monkey brain is just the amygdala, those tiny brain nuts I talked about last time, while others claim that the monkey holds sway over a much bigger portion of our mind.
He takes me on a walk almost everyday
And boy does he have a lotta mean things to say
He takes me by the hand and then he starts to play
Our brain can be separated into three sections – our lizard brain, our monkey brain, and our human brain. The “lizard brain” is found at the base of the brain, and contains the cerebellum and brain stem. Lizards only have these elements of the brain, which controls our most basic instincts. The next part of the brain, the “monkey brain” includes the majority of our tissue, and controls more complex tasks as well as emotions. Most mammals lead with their “monkey brain”, which is fueled by our most basic responses to fear and desire.
The most advanced part of the brain is the “human brain”, which consists of the outer layer, surrounding the “monkey brain”. This area allows for logical, emotionless thought, as well as delayed gratification. It is by using our “human brain” that we are able to think through our responses, rather than just reacting. But, when we are faced with threats to our system, we don’t have time to stop and analyze what’s going on. During these times we are glad to have our “lizard” and “monkey” brains to get us to safety, through our fight or flight response.
For the basis of simplicity, I’m going to let sleeping lizards lie and deal only with the monkey, since it’s that little critter most sources seem to point the finger at in terms of jamming up our heads with stressful chimp-chat.
I woke up with my monkey mind raging
Going around all the things you were saying
Like let's put it on ice, it's not like we were married
Remember, the monkey mind is a very useful part of brain, because by protecting us from danger, it keeps us alive. Even when it’s maintaining our place in the monkey community rather than saving us from wild bears, it’s doing so because it thinks we have more chance of surviving as social beings than as loners.
And that is the Number One job of our brain, because if we’re not alive, we can’t do any of the other stuff our brain wants to do, such as pondering the mysteries of the universe, or writing blog posts that nobody reads or finding obscure songs from the past that everybody's forgotten...
In the 21st Century though, the monkey can start to think everything is a threat. And that’s when we get hijacked by the monkey’s screaming, anxiety takes hold… and our mental health starts to suffer.
So how do we deal with that? Paradoxically, some scientists believe that the answer is NOT To try to deal with it. To accept it… welcome it, even. We’ll get onto that. For now, the easiest first step is merely to understand it. Understand that there is a part of your brain that is programmed to panic purely as a way to keep you alive. Understand that it struggles nowadays to tell the difference between genuine immediate threats and vague, wishy-washy might-but-probably-won’t-ever-happen threats. Think of how many times the fire alarm has gone off at your place of work. And how many times has the building actually burnt down? (Unless you supplied the matches.) The monkey mind can’t tell the difference between a building on fire and a weekly test of the alarm. Once you realise that panic, anxiety and all kinds of symptoms of mental health are just the result of parts of your primitive brain doing stuff it probably doesn’t need to do anymore – once you realise that it’s not you, it’s the monkey – then you can begin to separate yourself from your thoughts. Psychologists call this defusion. Cognitive defusion – and by employing this strategy, you can defuse the bombs in your mind. Or so they tell me. Well, it’s got to be worth a try, hasn’t it? There's nothing wrong with hoping...
Try and be kind to Mr Humphries in Room 5
He gets grumpy trying to keep hope alive
And though the well is dried up
He won't give or shut up
He just keeps hoping
His advice to the young
'Always leave 'em wanting more
You can't calm the savage beast
But you can make him less of a bore.
The heart it don't need
Brave words or deeds
It just keeps hoping...'
Not that I want to give monkeys a bad name. After all, as Andre Williams reminds us, monkeys are actually a lot better creatures than human beings...
Cnut Songs is the occasional series where I find myself in the position of King Cnut, trying in vain to stop the tide of idiocy that keeps rolling over the sands of the modern world. Will I hold back that tide? Will I chuff. Still, here I go again...
This week I found myself in the uncomfortable, unusual and unenviable
position of disagreeing with Billy Bragg. This does not happen often. Over the
years, I’ve seen Billy speak on a wide range of issues, both live (at gigs, on
TV or radio) and in print, and have generally found myself in wholehearted
agreement with everything he says.
Last week though, Billy weighed in on the debate about editing
Roald Dahl’s books to remove words or thoughts which are now considered “offensive”. Including not referring to Augustus Gloop as fat and changing the Big Friendly Giant's coat so it's no longer black. Billy is in favour of some of these proposed edits, and put forward a semi-convincing
argument… but it’s one I can’t get along with.
I don’t believe we can change attitudes by blacklisting
words. I chose to use the word “blacklist” specifically, because it’s a
word some no longer feel should be used. Yes, there are many negative
connotations to the word “black”, but we won’t stamp out racial prejudice by banning
its use. I just typed “connotations of black” into google and here’s what came
up:
Woah. Are you going to edit those connotations out of every text
ever written?
Or… is it perhaps better to educate people that words can
have many multiple meanings in all kinds of different contexts, and just
because some (or many) of them might be negative, that shouldn't reflect or
interfere with more positive connotations of the same word. That's what I try to do as an English teacher anyway. (That said, this is the same idiocy that tells teachers they can't mark students' work using red pens any more, because red represents blood, danger and anger. AND NOTHING ELSE AT ALL.)
Of course, it’s very easy for me to write about misconceptions of the word black as a
middle-aged white male. So instead, let’s talk about a word I have a more first-hand experience of…
Fat.
When I was a kid, I struggled with my weight. (Still do, to
be honest, but nobody really gives a toss when you’re 50.) Maybe I wasn’t as fat
as Augustus Gloop, but I wasn’t as greedy either. (Roald Dahl chose an
unpleasant word to describe him because he’s an unpleasant character.) However,
I did get called names that referred to my less than elfin physique, especially
when Roland Browning, Grange Hill’s token fat kid, arrived on the scene.
Do I really believe that wouldn’t have happened if the kids
I went to school with had somehow been protected from ever seeing or hearing
the word fat in a negative context? Sorry, Billy… I just don’t buy it. You don’t
stop prejudice or ignorance or brutality through censorship. And certainly not
by censoring words! Because if you’re going to start removing all the potentially
insulting words or attitudes from fiction… where do you stop? Think about all
the murder and torture and abuse and horror that writers have been using in
stories since the beginning of time. Maybe if we edit all that stuff out, then people will
stop doing bad things to each other in the real world and we will truly achieve our utopia. On second thoughts, I think I might be onto something here. Let's start with The Bible, shall we?
(The) Pixies had a new album out last year which nobody told
me about. I need Frank Black to send me a letter, preferably by carrier pigeon,
when he next puts out new material, because clearly his social media team isn’t
doing their job. (Also, Frank - time to consider a new surname?)
Anyway, Doggerel is very good. Here’s a song that initially reminded
me of Elastica… until I remembered that they stole the riff from The
Stranglers. Who knows where those guys got it.
A picture of Eddie Cochran obviously, said Charity Chic in response to my request for songs with the name Edward, Eddie or Ed in them. And as he wrote obviously rather than "obvs", I went with his suggestion.
Of course, there were many other famous musical Edwards I could have gone with, including the recently departed Eddie Van Halen, Ed Tudor-Pole, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes (from George), Edward Ball, Eddie & The Hotrods, Eddie Vedder, Eddie Floyd, Eddie Boyd, Eddie Jones, Charles & Eddie (from Alyson), Eddie Rabbit, Eddie Kirk, Eddie Fisher, Eddie Holland, Eddie Money (see this week's Saturday Snapshots), Eddie Kendricks... the list goes on and on. But did any of them ever record a song as iconic as this...?
Whereas Swiss Adam directs us to Edward Barton, the poet responsible for this little ditty, originally recorded by his girlfriend Jane (long before Opus 3 got their mucky dance paws all over it)...
Anyway, that's not why we're here. We're here to celebrates songs about Edwards (or at least songs that mention them). So let's get cracking, because there's loads to go at...
And continuing on a pretty-boy rock star vibe, RD added...
Iron Maiden's omnipresent/ever changing mascot is called Eddie. He has given his name to a Maiden-based video game and a compilation album (both titled Ed Hunter)...
Coincidentally, my millennial hipster politico friend, Ben, recommended this (from the album Ed Hunter) as his favourite Maiden track this week.
...which... well, I hope you'll excuse me if I steal an explanation from elsewhere on t'internet...
This song tells the story of the beginnings of British heavy metal band Iron Maiden, personified as a gay love triangle between original lead singer Paul Di'Anno, Eddie (“Eddie the Head,” the band’s mascot who appears on their album covers, and in this song represents the band as a whole), and Bruce Dickinson, the band’s second singer who replaced Paul in 1981.
Fat Mike explains:
I was just thinking that some of their songs are so good and they were just so cool when they had Paul Di’Anno in the band. Then they got Bruce Dickinson, this falsetto fuck, and for me, it just ruined everything.
Charming. Poor old Bruce D.
Anyway, while we're here with my millennial hipster politico friend, Ben... well, he obviously had some spare time on his hands this week. His short-list was almost longer than mine...
Have to live up to this idea you have of me as a hipster!
Is that what hipsters listen to then? My current (not for much longer!) next door neighbour is a hipster and he blasts out Snow Patrol. I'm not convinced hipsters have set musical affiliations. I may be wrong.
Anyway, I have no idea what Death Grips are on about, but there were quite a few Eddies in there. Including the great Ed 'Lou Grant' Asner. God knows why.
Now this is why I keep Ben around. Because in the middle of all his hipster suggestions, he'll throw in a b-side by The Small Faces or an early John Cougar song, a track even the internet can't quite decipher the lyrics to, although most sites tend to agree that are a couple of Eddie references in there.
Ah, but wait, the mention of Edward Scissorhands allows us to zip over to Canada, where Douglas has a related suggestion...
Just one to put forward for your consideration, to prevent the lost from getting out of hand: the always delightful Lucksmiths with the song "Edward, Sandwich Hand". Delightful wordplay and a whistling riff to hook you into the chorus.
Jeff Rosenstock is someone who Ben introduced me to a while back. He produces some very cool tunes (if occasionally a little too loud for these aged ears) and has a strange attitude to the music industry in that he seems not too interested in making any money out of it. For example, you can get his latest collection of songs from Bandcamp... but he doesn't want your money.
Please do not feel obliged to spend money on this music. I do not intend for it to be monetized. Any money that comes in through Bandcamp for these songs will be donated to charitable causes, but less money will get taken out if you just do that directly on your own - which I encourage you to do if you can afford it. And if not, it's cool.
Anyway, there's another Edwards Scissorhands reference in the track above, if you can dig it out.
Which brings us, finally, to Walter, who also appeared to have a bit of spare time on his hands this week...
His blue Morris van is parked in an alley Just by Montague street His friend Eddie he did the respray So he couldn't drive it all last week And it cost most of the money That he had saved up To pay Eddie's receipt But he figures it's worth it Cause the disguise is a must When they go missing They're gonna look for the van first She whispers slowly "it'll be alright" I took some cash from my building society And my monthly check came in just right If only they knew they weren't giving it away
That came very close to making the ten, Walter. As did this...
Edward, see those alluring lights ? Tonight will be your very last night
Don't worry though, some of your other suggestions really hit home. But no, Ed fROMOHIO, singer and guitarist of fIREHOSE doesn't get a mention, if only because of his abuse of the CAPS LOCK key.
OK, time to scrap the barnacles off the side of the boat. Here's the rest of the long-list from my hard-drive this week...
But now Eddie the Eunuch is a rock and roll critic Sucking like a super star Slicker than a shoe-shine Quicker than a two-time Eddie what a thang you are Eddie makes a damn good livin', baby Putting other people down
Ah yes, songs hitting back at music critics... there's got to be a Top Ten in that somewhere.
Featuring Eddie Argos from Art Brut and David Devant (minus His Spirit Wife). Only available on MySpace, it seems. (I know, I didn't even know MySpace was still a thing either.)
Oh and there's 'Eddie & Sheena' by Wayne County & The Electric Chairs, says C, one of the first bands I ever saw down at our little local club when I was 14 (Wayne was quite something to behold, especially in 1978) and they gave everyone a free Eddie & Sheena badge at the door - soon to be defiantly pinned to my school blazer of course!
I'm always too late here nowadays, says Alyson, so will get in quick with a name-check. Brenda and Eddie - Scenes From An Italian Restaurant by Billy Joel.
A seemingly throwaway suggestion, though in the process Alyson has stuck a pin in one of my all-time favourite Billy Joel songs. (I feel my love of Billy Joel has recently been vindicated by Hughie in The Boys. If you know, you know.)
You have to wait for the tempo change, but Brenda and Eddie play an important role in this song...
I'll obv(iou)s(ly) go for Sleeper - Nice Guy Eddie, said Martin (courting disaster with his barely hidden attempt at evoking the yoof-speak I banned last week), and not just because I'd listen to Louise sing the phone book ;)
Nice Guy Eddie, of course, turned out to be not such a nice guy after all...
Most weeks this would have been Number One, as I share a similar devotion to the divine Ms. Wener as Martin. However...
This week's winner is going to be one of those where I'm biased and play to my favourites, but thankfully Walter was with me...
1. Bruce Springsteen - Meeting Across The River
Amid all the rock 'n' roll bombast of the greatest album of the 70s comes this quiet slice of desperate lowlife storytelling set over a haunting, noirish solo from jazz trumpeter Randy Brecker. And Roy Bittan's characteristic piano playing and another jazz musician, Richard Davis, on double bass.
It doesn't sound like anything else on the album (although lyrically, it follows similar themes), but it's perfectly placed as an intimate pause for breath as the penultimate track on side two before the epic finale of Jungleland.
Hey, Eddie, can you lend me a few bucks
And tonight can you get us a ride?
Gotta make it through the tunnel
Got a meeting with a man on the other side
Hey Eddie, this guy, he's the real thing
So if you want to come along
You gotta promise you won't say anything
'Cause this guy don't dance
And the word's been passed this is our last chance
We gotta stay cool tonight, Eddie
'Cause man, we got ourselves out on that line
And if we blow this one
They ain't gonna be looking for just me this time
And all we gotta do is hold up our end
Here stuff this in your pocket
It'll look like you're carrying a friend
And remember, just don't smile
Change your shirt, 'cause tonight we got style
Well, Cherry says she's gonna walk
'Cause she found out I took her radio and hocked it
But Eddie, man, she don't understand
That two grand's practically sitting here in my pocket
And tonight's gonna be everything that I said
And when I walk through that door
I'm just gonna throw that money on the bed
She'll see this time I wasn't just talking
Then I'm gonna go out walking
Hey Eddie, can you catch us a ride ?
The obvious E for a girl's name would have been Emily, but it turns out I already did that here...
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