Snapshots #354: A Top Twenty Olympic Sport Songs

Welcome to our special Olympics 2024 edition of Snapshots. I hope you got to see all the events...

20. The perpetrators in a murder mystery.

Everybody likes to know Whodunit.

The Who - Relay

19. Do you want ketchup on your ribs?

Redbone - Cycles

18. Would you buy a Z, never worn, even if it was reupholstered?

"A Z, never worn" was an anagram...

Warren Zevon - Hit Someone! (The Hockey Song)

17. This quiz would be impossible without them.

The Photos - Skateboard

16. Ice, Double, Sour.

Cream - Anyone For Tennis?

15. Bulloch, betrothed.

Sandra Bulloch, at her wedding.

Sandra's Wedding - Humberside Gymnastics

14. Don't get stuck behind these guys.

Caravan - Golf Girl

13. And definitely try not to get mixed up with a flirty swot.

"A flirty swot" was an anagram...

Taylor Swift - The Archer

12. Corn-selling sidekick, made in sections to allow for easy assembly.

Sprout was the Green Giant's annoying sidekick. Prefab houses are as described.

Prefab Sprout - I Never Play Basketball Now

11. What Billy Ocean wanted to be.

Billy Ocean wanted to be your love, lover, Loverboy.

Loverboy - Jump

10. Stairway drummer's best friend sings little bits of a Police song.

John "Bonzo" Bonham was the drummer on Stairway To Heaven. Man's Best Friend is a dog. The Police sang De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da.

Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band - The Equestrian Statue

9. Sounds like a football team made up of playful birds put out to pasture.

That sounds like the Meadowlark Eleven.

Medalark 11 - Diving

8. Buried antler covers.

Antlers are often covered in velvet. And these are underground.

The Velvet Underground - Coney Island Steeplechase

7. Scottish detective guilty of regicide with an Osprey.

Hamish Macbeth & his pet hawk.

Hamish Hawk - The Mauritian Badminton Doubles Champion, 1973

6. Biko rubs elf... he's clearly mixed up. Fortunately, Gene and Bruce can help. 

"Biko rubs elf" was an anagram. Gene Kelly meets Bruce Willis.

Robbie Fulks & Kelly Willis - Parallel Bars

5. The doctor gave me some flu lubricants - they contained everything I needed.

Flu lubricants.

Lulu - The Boat That I Row

4. Unwelcome visitors.

The Intruders - (Love Is Like A) Baseball Game

3. Mary, Queen of Scots goes fishing. 

Mary, Queen of Scots was a Stuart. She'll need a Rod to go fishing.

Rod Stewart - Sailing

2. Blur kept him under pressure, but he managed.

Blur put Pressure On Julian. But he was able to Cope. 

Julian Cope - Trampolene

That's not how I'd spell trampoline.

1. You'll find these guys nested in a baseball. 

"Nested in a baseball" was an anagram...

Belle & Sebastian - The Stars Of Track & Field

More Olympics tunes tomorrow, in a special Snapshots Spillover.

The quiz returns next Saturday...

Snapshots #285: A Top Ten Geometry Songs

This week's Snapshots was specially for all the Maths teachers reading this... well, George.

10. Did you mix up the bait, mum?

"Bait, mum" was an anagram.

Geometric Term = Point

Matumbi - Point Of View

9. Oh what a night these guys had.

Oh What A Night was in December, 1963.

Geometric Term = Angles

The Decemberists - Of Angels & Angles

8. A bar... with a extra R.

A Mars Bar... with an extra R.

Geometric Term = Volume

M/A/R/R/S - Pump Up The Volume

7. He's Sly and... the US KLF, almost.

Sly & Robbie meets an angram.

Geometric Term = Parallel

Robbie Fulks - Parallel Bars

6. Jupiter, Mars, Vulcan, Krypton. 

They're all planets.

Geometric Term = Lines

The Planets - Lines

5. I wager she'll be somewhere near the centre.

I bet she's in the middle.

Geometric Term = Distance

Bette Midler - From A Distance

4. When a Hammer met a Rebel.

Jan Hammer meets James 'Rebel Without A Cause' Dean.

Geometric Term = Curve

Jan & Dean - Dead Man's Curve

3. Enough to make your but shake.

"But shake" was an anagram.

Geometric term = pi

Kate Bush - π

2. From chairman to binman.

The Chairman of the Board was Frank Sinatra. A bin man empties trashcans.

Geometric Term = Circumference

The Trashcan Sinatras - Circling The Circumference

1. Afterwards, we're off to watch Joshua fight.

Joshua fought the battle of Jericho. 

Geometric Term = Area

1. Then Jericho - Big Area

There'll be more Snapshots for you to work out next Saturday...

Cnut Songs #14: The Dating Quagmire

There's a new dating show on TV this week in which couples act out erotic scenes from big hit films as a way of auditioning prospective partners. And another one where they choose a mate based on their karaoke voices alone. I presume these are a follow up to the one where people stare intently at the naked bodies of potential soulmates (but not their faces) before deciding the best one to go home with. You may prefer to swipe left on both. It's hardly Cilla, is it?

These kind of things make me feel very old. And yet, curiously, rather glad to be very old. I mean, who would want to be a young person trying to navigate the sexual quagmire that is the dating world in the 21st Century? A world where people can dress in as blatantly sexual a manner as they choose, and yet expressing a romantic interest in the wrong person could end you up in hot water?

It was so much easier in the good old days, when folk just went to bars to pull. Not that I ever did that. Not that I ever pulled anyone, anywhere, to be honest. But much as it seemed a pipe dream back then, it did at least seem a more realistic prospect than what goes on nowadays. Old man shouts at sea.

There is a sub-genre of music (mostly country or Americana, though I'm sure it crosses over into other genres - there's probably half a dozen Arab Strap songs that deal with it) about hooking up with people in bars. Take Todd Snider & Loretta Lynn's Don't Tempt Me for a start... 

Or Charity Chic's favourite, Parallel Bars, by Robbie Fulks and Kelly Willis (although there is a twist of Pina Colada to that one)...

My favourite at the moment comes from Hayes Carll, from the amazing KMAG YOYO album (look up the meaning behind that title title: I wanted to do a Top Ten Acronym Songs just to make that track Number One... but I couldn't come up with any others). 

Here's Hayes, alongside Cary Ann Hearst, showing how opposites really can attract... if you're pissed.

(I find the video a little distracting, to be honest. I'd recommend closing your eyes and concentrating on the lyrics. But not as a method of choosing a date.)

Snapshots #225: A Top Ten Songs That Mention Other Bands In The Title

Here are this week's answers... Cheers!

There are loads of song that mention other singers (solo artists) in their titles. I'm sure we'll have a Snapshots or two that will connect some of them in the future. But I had a devil of a time finding songs that mention other bands in the title. Well done if you worked out the connections, although hopefully the extra photos helped... and a late night / early morning guest appearance from Brian to get the ball rolling.

10A. Solo insult from a Princess.

Princess Leia called Han Solo a "Nerf Herder".

10B. Van Halen

Nerf Herder - Van Halen

9A. Major Nathan Chin.

Anagram!

9B. The Velvet Underground

Jonathan Richman - The Velvet Underground

8A. Stubby marsupials.

Sounds like a bunch of wombats to me.

8B. Joy Division

The Wombats - Let's Dance To Joy Division

7A. Howling procession.

Wolf parade!

7B. Fine Young Cannibals

Wolf Parade - Fine Young Cannibals

(Credit where it's due: Ben gave me that one. It's a cool tune though. For a Ben recommendation.)

6A. Dusty MC Oldness.

Anagram!

6B. Daft Punk (Yes, that is what Daft Punk look like under their helmets.)

LCD Sound System - Daft Punk Is Playing At My House

5A. He's crackers!

Clearly he's half a man and half a biscuit.

5B. Styx

Half Man Half Biscuit - Styx Gig (Seen by My Mates Coming out of a...)

4A. The True USA.

Anagram!

4B. The Rubettes

The Auteurs - The Rubettes

Those are some tight pants.

3. Nervous, sad celebrities.

They're stars, but they're blue. And trembling.

3B. Abba

Trembling Blue Stars - Abba On The Jukebox

2A. Four kibbles.

Anagram! (I knew CC would get this one... with a little encouragement.)

2B. Fountains of Wayne

Robbie Fulks - Fountains Of Wayne Hotline

(Robbie Fulks loves FoW, by the way. He's not taking the piss. He genuinely appreciates their skills with a catchy riff. Rightly so.)

"Oh, that Gerald..." always makes me chortle.

1A. Courtney's home!

Where does Courtney Love live? D'oh.

1B. The Beatles meeting The Stones

The House of Love - Beatles & Stones

Come back to where everybody knows your name... even if they don't know all the answers... next Saturday.