Hot 100 #43

Farenheit 43 are an Australian rock band who cite their influences as The Eagles, John Mayer and the Goo Goo Dolls.

Quite.

(Except, you know, I like the Eagles. And John Mayer made a couple of good tunes once upon a time. And Iris... Iris was a half-decent song. Still, the cool ones among you are, I'm sure, recoiling in horror despite all that.)

Anyway, Number 43 in our countdown caused a little bit of head-scratching from the gallery... but you still managed to come up with the following...

Lynchie started us off this week with...

The Pretenders - I Hurt You

I been crying like a woman 

Because I'm mad, mad, mad like a man 

If you'd been in the S.S. in '43 

You'd have been kicked out for cruelty

Wow. That Chrissie Hynde. Doesn't pull her punches, does she?

Rigid Digit was up next, offering these...

Jethro Tull - Hymn 43

David Crosby & Graham Nash - Page 43

Both acceptable to my ears.

Then came C, with a track that featured on Saturday Snapshots a few weeks back...

Wolf Alice - Bros

Oh

Jump that 43

Are you wild like me?

Raised by wolves and other beasts

The Swede, meanwhile, only managed one suggestion this week...

Shrimp Boat (Sam Prekop's pre-Sea and Cake band) - Drought of '43

No link, I'm afraid. Couldn't find that one anywhere. Maybe The Swede made it up... No, I'm sure he wouldn't do that.

Finally, Douglas McClaren offering one of my favourite songs by this particular band, "a timely reminder of a very fine fine group that will sadly record no more." Indeed.

Frightened Rabbit - Old, Old Fashioned

So give me the soft, soft static

Of the open fire and the shuffle of our feet

We can both get old fashioned

Do it like they did in '43

Oh, let's get old fashioned

Back to how things used to be

If I get old, old fashioned

Would you get old, old fashioned with me?

Before we get to this week's clear winner though, here's a couple more my own library threw up...

Country Joe & The Fish - Section 43 

Rufus Wainwright (and Bill Shakespeare) - Sonnet 43 

Ian McNabb - German Soldier's Helmet Circa 1943

Skint & Demoralised - 43 Degrees

(That last one is this week's runner-up - well worth a click.)

However, as I stated at the end of last week's post, there really was only one obvious winner for me this week, and Jim in Dubai was the one to correctly identify it... definitely my favourite song by this band.



Lovely stuff.

Next week... the answer to life, the universe and everything. What might that be?

My Top Ten Postcode Songs

OK, so I know L7 weren't named after a Liverpool postcode... but my cred is already in tatters, I'm not about to open a post with a picture of East 17.

Anyway, songs named after (British) postcodes. A challenge I just couldn't resist. I couldn't think of any named after American postcodes... or zip codes... though I'm happy for you to suggest them. The closest I came was Kitchen by The Lemonheads, because they were "thrilled to be in the same postcode as you".

Here's ten songs that even Postman Pat should be able to deliver to the right address...



10. Jonny Rubbish - Living In NW3 4JR

"A parody of the Sex Pistols." Which is all very good, but if ever there was a band that were perfectly capable of being a parody of themselves without any help from anyone else, it was the Sex Pistols.

Still, amusing for one or two listens.

9. Madness - NW5

Madness doing wot they do best. Singing abaht Lahndahn staff.

Yes I watched you climb up
I seen you come alive
From those very humble beginnings
In NW5

8. Saint Etienne - B92

No idea why Sarah and the boys think hate and fear is taking over Solihull, but why else would this tune be called B92?

And if it's not a postcode, then I respectfully submit this alternative: The Birdman of EC1.

7. Ian Brown - Longsight M13

Inner city Manchester... although the person who uploaded the song to youtube filled the video with pictures of the South Bank. You can imagine the comments!

Lets the stars shine on
Until the break of dawn
Let the stars shine on
And let her move, move like a queen
Of Longsight M13

I was disappointed to learn that M5 by The Fall is about the motorway, not Salford.

6. Splodgenessabounds - I Fell In Love With A Female Plumber From Harlesden, NW10

He can't wait to see her again. At which point, he will probably buy her Two Pints of Lager & A Packet of Crisps.

5. Ride - OX4

Ride never went too far away from Oxford without getting homesick

4. Ray Davies - Yours Truly, Confused N10

Ray writes a letter to the editor from his home in Muswell Hill, complaining about the state of Britain today... a recurring theme from the infamous Little Englander.

I close my eyes and lay back and I think of England
I dream about that green and pleasant land we knew as England
That throne of kings, that sceptred isle set in a silver sea
Has turned into a laughing stock divided without harmony

That's why I remain yours truly, confused N10

3. Skint & Demoralised - LS11 OES

I've never been a football fan, but I'm a huge fan of Matt 'Skint & Demoralised' Abbott, and although I've no interest in Leeds United (despite them being a local team to me and the team my dad followed when he was younger) I can hear Abbott's passion in every word of this chant.

2. The Pogues - NW3

I'd love to think this track was an autobiographical account of Shane's arrival in Hampstead...

When I got down to the smoke
It was 1963
I got a job doing meals on wheels
Round NW3
I was terrorising grannies
For ten lousy bob a week
I was smashed and blacked
And drunk and yawning in NW3

...except that he would have been 6 at the time. Still, this is Shane MacGowan we're talking about, so anything's possible.

I stayed in Hampstead once. Walking down the street, I saw the "comedian" Michael McIntyre talking very loudly into his phone. I'm not a violent man, but I had to be physically restrained from punching him hard in the nose.

1. New Model Army - BD3

The track that inspired this particular Top 10, so I thought it deserved to be Number One. Despite working in Bradford for 20+ years of my life, I never really listened to one of the city's biggest bands while I was there (I was always more of a Terrorvision man) but I stumbled across this pretty recently and couldn't stop listening to it. Further investigation required...

We close early when the nights are slow
Hit the Shell garage, Thornton Road
Take a long drive up on the moors
Park up in a place we know
In the back seats getting stoned
To forget everything at home
Mess about with the bleeping phone
Gazing down on the city below
Where no one's really sure if this is home

And it's not where you're from or where you've been
It's not a matter of blood or of family tree
Everybody believes what they want to believe
But they come from some kind of refugee
Running from something, turned out of somewhere
All looking for somewhere, exiled from something
And no one's really sure if this is home

Very appropriate lyrics for anyone living in Bradford. Unfortunately, when I google search Pudsey (BD3), all I get is hundred of pictures of the Children In Need bear. The video below is probably more accurate...



Know any other songs named after postcodes? Send your answers on a postcard.

My Top Ten Lipstick Songs

One for the laydeez, the cross-dressers and the Robert Smiths among you...


10. Lit - Lipstick & Bruises

Even if you're not a fan of early 21st century American punk-pop, this is worth watching for the amusing video about mullets. (Which has nothing to do with lipstick, but still.)

9. Caro Emerald - The Lipstick On His Collar

Not the sugary pop Connie Francis song from the 50s, this is way sexier...

8. Angelica - Lipstick Kiss

Only 34 youtube views? Angelica deserve more respect.

7. Christy Moore - Mystic Lipstick 

 I've only recently discovered Christy Moore, but this won't be the last we hear of him round these parts.

6. The Buzzcocks - Lipstick

Never let it be said that the Buzzcocks didn't ponder the great existential questions of our time...

When you kiss me
Does the lipstick on your lip stick on my face?

5. Benny Spellman - Lipstick Traces (On A Cigarette)

Recorded by everyone from the O'Jays to the Beautiful South to Ringo Starr, this is the original from 1962 New Orleans. Nice.

4. Elvis Costello - Lipstick Vogue

Ah, the other young Elvis... nobody did spite like him. 

Don't say you love me when it's just a rumour
Don't say a word if there is any doubt.
Sometimes I think that love is just a tumour;
you've got to cut it out.

3. Skint & Demoralised - Red Lipstick

Matt Abbott's biggest/only hit/"hit" single. It reached #100 in the hot one hundred.

Which only goes to prove that the record-buying public are idiots.

She likes red lipstick,
Fish & chips,
Orange juice and trips to the seaside...

2. Echo & The Bunnymen - Lips Like Sugar

I might be stretching the rules a little here, but I figure if she's really giving you sugar kisses, either it's a flavoured lipstick... or she's been gorging on Mars Bars prior to the snog. Either way, this is the first time I've managed to squeeze an Echo & The Bunnymen song onto this blog in 18 months, which is a crime against all reason. How the hell did it take me this long?

1. Pulp - Lipgloss

And this is why Jarvis Cocker should be canonised...

And you feel such a fool,
for laughing at bad jokes,
and putting up with all of his friends,
and kissing in public.
What are they gonna say, when they run into you again?
That your stomach looks bigger and your hair is a mess,
and your eyes are just holes in your face.
And it rains every day,
and when it doesn't,
the sun makes you feel worse anyway. Oh!

Sorry, Shaky: Lipstick, Poweder & Paint wasn't your finest hour.

But which lipstick lyric makes you want to pucker up?

My Top Twenty Albums of 2013 (20 - 11)

Will I complete this countdown by the end of the year? Perhaps a Top 30 was too ambitious with everything else I've got going on, but there were so many great records I wanted to mention, I didn't want to leave the last ten out. Anyway, here's the second third...  


20. John Murry - The Graceless Age

I knew nothing about John Murry before I tripped over The Graceless Age; I know little more now. But it is a lovely record, from the same place as The National or Father John Misty (though not as fun as the latter), with echoes of the Stones and Dylan (particularly on the opener, The Ballad of the Pajama Kid, which is heavily indebted to Knocking On Heaven's Door). Worth a punt...

Top Track - Little Coloured Balloons

19. Suede - Bloodsports

Blimey, who let Suede back in the door? I was happy enough with Brett's solo albums, but this came as a joyous surprise. Like they'd never been away...

Top Track - It Starts And Ends With You

18. Skint & Demoralised - The Bit Between The Teeth

Sadly, this turned out to be the last album under the S&D monicker from Wakefield's greatest beat-poet, Matt Abbott. Let's hope he returns soon in another guise because he's far too engaging a songwriter and storyteller to fade into obscurity. The epic, visceral and heartbreaking opening track - Jarvis Cocker meets Mike Skinner meets Martin Sorcese (!) - is worth the price of admission on its own.

Top Track - Amores Perros

17.  The Electric Soft Parade - Idiots

Always good to have the ESP lads back too, and this was possibly their best record yet: a pure blast of summertime indie that reminded me of all the best bits of 1996 with a few lashings of ELO thrown in for good measure. And let's face it, they had me at the album title.

Top Track - Summertime In My Heart

16. The Indelicates - Diseases of England

Considering every previous Indelicates album has made my Top 3 come the end of its release year (and their debut is still my favourite album of the 21st Century), Simon and Julia will probably be disappointed at a Number 16 placing (yeah, like they give a shit). Diseases of England was a fine record by anybody else's standards, but a little too all-over-the-shop to form a cohesive whole (it didn't help that they released it in three chunks due to financial hardship). Still great: just damned by comparisons to its predecessors.

Top Track - Pubes

15. Lloyd Cole - Standards

Lloyd, on the other hand, just keeps on churning them out... and every one's a gem. The record company (Lloyd and his son?) tried to differentiate this one by telling us he'd gone electric and dragged in a full band again. Whatever, it was business as usual... and what a business!

Top Track - Period Piece

14. Thea Gilmore - Regardless

Thea, too, seems incapable of making a bad record. This didn't stray far from her usual playpen, but if it ain't broke...?

Sadly, the glorious Ms. Gilmore (who's guaranteed a place in this countdown any time she releases a record) is the only female artist to make my list this year. I don't know why that is. If you want to recommend a few women I missed hearing in 2013, fill in the box below.

Top Track (well, the only one I can find on youtube) - Love Came Looking For Me

13. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Push The Sky Away

Might have placed higher if Nick hadn't roped Ray Winstone in for the x-rated Jubilee Street video. That aside, this was his most consistently satisfying records since The Boatman's Call. And The Higgs Boson Blues is the year's scariest song... not just because Nick starts perving over Miley Cyrus halfway through.

Top Track - The Higgs Boson Blues

12. Justin Currie - Lower Reaches

While JC's third solo record doesn't reach the misanthropic heights of his last two, it confirms his position as National Songwriting Treasure. Lower Reaches begins at a funeral and ends at a wedding... and I reckon Justin probably enjoys the former more than the latter. Much as he wishes he wasn't at either.

If we are going to hell
We might as well enjoy the fall...

Top Track - Falsetto

11. Eels - Wonderful, Glorious

If there's a pattern emerging in this countdown, it's that a lot of the artists I loved ten, twenty - even thirty (!) - years ago are still producing great records, and while they might no longer be troubling the charts, they're still giving me a helluva lot of pleasure. Yes, I am officially a middle aged white muso, and most of the records I buy are by the same... although you might still be surprised by a couple of my Top Ten choices. Until then... enjoy this cracker from the latest Eels album. Age does not wither E...




Next week, the Top Ten. Until then, enjoy that Christmas thing, as much as you can. Thanks for reading...

My Top Ten One Way Songs

There is only one way you'll get into this Top Ten (and it ain't "My Way"... or the highway).


10. The Darkness - One Way Ticket To Hell & Back

To anyone who considers The Darkness a one-joke band whose joke isn't funny anymore... take the ticket above, with my love.

See also One Way Ticket by Carrie Underwood, who, Louise took great pleasure in informing me the other day, started her career as a winner on American Idol. The fact that proper songwriters and genres other than pop were allowed on that show sets it streets ahead of The X-Factor in my books. Not that I'd have watched it... but it's good to see an artist as strong as Ms. Underwood come out of it. The best we've managed in this country is Ollie Murs...

9. The Allman Brothers - One Way Out

It's amazing that the Allman Brothers are still going, considering all the tragedy in their past. Some top guitar playing on show here. 

8. Skint & Demoralised - One Way Traffic

And like a street lined with litter on a Sunday morning  
You left me bitter; left me with no warning 
You had to go...and left me thinking, did you have to go?  
And then you sent me a text, and I was desperate to reply 
But to tell you that I'm happy, would have been a desperate lie 
And every time I talk to you, I struggle not to cry 
I still adore you, and I'm sure I should ignore you... 
And these lists of problems, seem to come without thinking 
Almost like they've been rehearsed, and I can feel my heart sinking...

Good to see Matt Abbott has a new S&D album out right now. Check it out here.

7. Dexys Midnight Runners - One Way Love

From the days when Kevin Rowland sang like an unintelligible drunk at a karaoke machine. And yet, he was (and still is) amazing.

Giving Kevin a run for his money in the pub singer states is lead Tinderstick Stuart Staples. See their One Way Street for a top example.

6. The Clint Boon Experience - Only One Way I Can Go

Class tune from Mr. Boon, available to download free from his website (if you can handle .ram files).

5. Bruce Springsteen - One Way Street

Back in the late 70s, Bruce recorded enough unreleased music to fill a couple of box sets, but legal issues and a crazed sense of quality control kept most of it unheard. This finally saw the light of day on the The Promise back in 2010... it was worth the wait.

4. Karine Polwart - Only One Way

My favourite KP song... and yes, Department of the Peculiar fans, this is where I stole one of my character's names.

And when a genocidal maniac talks about grief
And you kinda get the feeling that there’s nothing underneath
But you can’t believe a man would lie through such nice teeth
There's only one way 

3. Blur - There's No Other Way

See, if there's no other way... there must only be one way.

It's easy to forget that long before Britpop, Blur were baggy. If you want a good laugh, check out Damon's haircut in this video... 

2. Blondie - One Way Or Another

She's gonna get you, get you, get you, get you...

While not in the same class as Debbie, I always had a soft spot for Sophie Ellis Bextor's version too...

1. The Levellers - One Way 

Reminds me of being a young man... as so many of these songs end up doing. I hope to be able to share these songs with my own son... though I have a terrible feeling he'll rebel against his old dad and end up liking dance music, blingy r 'n' b or U2...

There's only one way of life - and that's your own!

Which is your one way? (And anyone who suggests One Direction...hang your head in shame.)

My Top Ten Lust Songs (Seven Deadly Sins #1)

Here's a Top Ten theme I originally came up with about seven years ago (for the old blog) but never got round to posting it. I'm not going to run them consecutively as that'd get boring, but I'll drop one in every now and then over the next few weeks.


The first deadly sin is lust. Turns out there's enough songs with lust in the title that I don't have to cast my net any further. That won't be the case with the rest of the sins...


10. The Raveonettes - Lust

From the album Lust Lust Lust.

Points deducted for trying too hard.

9. Sportsday Megaphone - Young Lust

Never lend the house to lovers, they leave stains... one for the Top Ten Opening Lines chart too.

8. Frank Turner - Wanderlust

Darling, he's leaving.

See also Wanderlust by Delays, Wanderlust by REM and Wanderluster by Band of Skulls.

7. Neon Neon featuring Cate Le Bon - I Lust U

No relation to Simon, you'll be pleased to hear.

This song probably has more than a passing resemblance to People Are People by our Number Three band today. Still.

And while we're with Gruff Rhys, have Atomik Lust be the Super Furries. No extra charge.

6. Skint & Demoralised - Only Lust Ignores Violence Involving Ambulances

Wakefield's finest contemporary beat poet stumbles across a girl he fancies in the local pub... then gets beaten up by her boyfriend for his sins.

It's the kind of look that shits you up
In so many different ways
It's the size of his eyes and he won't give up
Transfixed with a piercing gaze
I can get the gist
This guy's pissed
And if I don't move, he'll use his fists
See that the violence stops

5. The The - Dogs Of Lust

Featuring Johnny Marr, on guitar. 'Nuff said.

4. Juliana Hatfield - Just Lust

It doesn't mean she loves you. It doesn't even mean she likes you very much.

See also Just Lust by Joan Jett and Just Lust by The Buzzcocks. 

3. Depeche Mode - A Question Of Lust

Dave Gahan sits one out and lets Martin Gore (with his pink mushroom cloud hair) sing this one. Their follow up single was A Question Of Time. The third in the trilogy, a proposed duet with David Coleman, Emlyn Hughes and Bill Beaumont, sadly never made it to the studio*.

(*Showing my age there,  know.)

2. The Long Blondes - Lust In The Movies

I know all about fear and desire
I know all about lust et cetera

I know all about missing The Long Blondes.

1. Iggy Pop - Lust For Life

Iggy, Bowie and the Supremes combine for a song that's worth a million in prizes. Of course you've had it in your ear before...





Choose life!

But feel free to choose another lust song if you prefer... 

My Top Ten Bonfire Night Songs

Remember, remember, the 5th of November... with 10 songs about bonfire night.

10. My Life Story - November 5th

Jake Shillingford: should have been bigger than the Gallaghers. Was always far more interesting.

9. Ryan Adams - Firecracker

Well, everybody wants to go on forever
I just wanna burn up hard and bright

8. Jonny Cola & The A Grades - Fireworks / Gunshots

Every now and then, I find myself rejoicing in the fact that myspace still exists. Couldn't find this one on youtube... but good old myspace - it's not just there for people trapped perpetually in 2005. 

I think they’re fireworks, but they might be gunshots
They look like fireworks, but ring out like gunshots
I hope they’re fireworks, but they burn like gunshots
So bring on the fireworks
And let loose the gunshots

Download this excellent song for just fifty of your English pennies from Bandcamp. You know it makes sense.

7. Tom Robinson - Looking For A Bonfire

Nowadays he's a 6Music DJ playing great records. Back then, he just mad them.

6. Picture Centre - Fireworks October 1990

OK, so strictly speaking Bonfire Night isn't in October. But if it was, this would be the perfect theme.

I always remember as a teenager finding November 5th a tremendously lonely night. One of those nights where all the cool lads with girlfriends hugged them in the light of the bonfire... and I just stepped closer and closer to the flames to keep warm. In 1990, I would be have been 18, so this record is pretty much bang on.

5. John Mellencamp - Cherry Bomb 

 In which JCM models his haircut on JBJ. It must be 1987.

See also same title / different song by Ash or The Runaways (with Joan Jett). Both fine records, but JCM just about edges it for me.

4. Skint & Demoralised - Fireworks

How can you not love a band called Skint & Demoralised? Especially when they make records as wonderful as this. Go press play now.

3. Nick Lowe - Indoor Fireworks

Look, I would post the Elvis Costello original, but I can't find a decent (non-live) version of it on youtube. Still, Nick Lowe also does a good job of Costello songs... and vice-versa.

You were the spice of life
The gin in my vermouth
And though the sparks would fly
I thought our love was fireproof
Sometimes we'd fight in public darling
With very little cause
But different kinds of sparks would fly
When we got on our own behind closed doors

2. Embrace - Fireworks

Look, if you don't think Embrace are the very definition of the last three letters in their name, this song will prove you wrong. Why argue?

1.Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine - Born On The 5th of November

Carter write a love song - shock! And it's really quite beautiful... but that's what fireworks are for.

There was November in your eyes
There'd be no pennies for the guys
There were fireworks over London
But you weren't among them anymore...




Those are the songs I'll be hearing as the fireworks erupt over Top Ten Towers tonight... but which one is your sparkler?