We closed Monday's collection of Superman songs with a track by Cinerama. Comic book fan David Gedge also used the name of the most bizarre Superman foe as the title of his other band's second album: Bizarro by The Wedding Present. Sadly, he never wrote a song about Bizarro... but these guys did...
Klark Kent was an alias for Stewart Copeland of The Police, recording a song that Sting didn't want for the day job. John says, "Stewart Copeland’s debut album Klark Kent was a belter."
Clark Kent works for a newspaper called The Daily Planet. On Saturday we featured a song by the title by Arthur Lee & Love. Here's another one...
Weird coincidence department: all the bands I could find who wrote a song about Lois Lane (along with Sunday's Franz Ferdinand) began with the letter F.
But Lois wasn't Clark's first love though. That title would go to...
And he even had a fling with a mermaid once. Her name? Lori Lemaris. Can you spot a pattern here?
Not everybody with the initials LL loves Superman though. Let's not forget his arch enemy, Lex Luthor, a man who's jealousy of Superman might yet be explained that nobody has ever written a decent pop song in his honour...
That was the best I could come up with, with the wrong spelling... and he's not even a doctor! No wonder he's such a bitter, twisted sociopath...
Luthor isn't Superman's only foe. We mentioned Bizarro earlier, and Braniac earlier in the week. Then there's the Kryptonian supervillain memorably played by Terence Stamp in Superman 2, General Zod...
I met up with my former boss a week or so back. There was a work-related reason to do so, but when I told Ben I was meeting her, he screamed at me through the medium of Whatsapp. Why would I want to see someone who caused me so much grief? Well, for one thing, she's moved on now and isn't working at The Bad Place, and I recognise that the pressure she put me under back then wasn't coming from her, she was but the conduit through which shit rolled downhill from upper management. We were able to talk about that and put it behind us, I think, and that was a positive thing.
But the other reason I was willing to see her is that old maxim about never burning your bridges, particularly when it comes to employment. God willing, I'll never have to go back to work in a college again, but if I ever needed to...
All of which got me thinking about songs involving burning your bridges... or not burning them, as the case may be. Let's kick off with Canadian singer Jack Scott, who Dave Marsh of Rolling Stone once called, "undeniably the greatest Canadian rock and roll singer of all time."
The Cravats came from Redditch in 1977, with lead singers Robin Dallaway and The Shend. Now, I'm trying not to be prejudiced against The Shend because his choice of name is frustratingly reminiscent of that muppet from The Irish Band. Not as Edgy though, which is good. You may be interested to learn that the Cravats are still going strong, minus Dallaway, but with the addition of Rampton Garstang on drums, Joe 91 on bass and Viscount Biscuits on guitar. I think they might be the Viz house band.
Now it way well be that you're not actually burning your bridges to cut ties with people you no longer want to associate with. You might just be burning them to keep warm. In which case, can I suggest a nice Cardigan?
Last week, to prove how uncool I am, I included a song by unfairly-reviled New Jersey rockers Bon Jovi. It proved so popular (especially with Ernie, George and CC) that I thought I'd include another one today.
Collective Soul made a brief appearance on the UK charts (at #80 in 1994) with their debut single Shine, and were never seen again. Meanwhile, in the States, they sold enough records to fill their swimming pools with caviar. This was from the same album as Shine...
Taken from the album "Clint Eastwood Sings His Classics" (!) and the soundtrack of the movie Kelly's Heroes... although in the movie, it was performed by these guys...
Can you guess the track that sprang immediately to mind when I first considered this particular idiom?
Me and my mate Rich loved this song when we were 16. I think Rich loved it in an ironic way, because he had a much cooler taste in music than me. I would say that I loved it in an ironic way too, but given what you know about my shameless taste in music then and now, nobody would believe me. There's something about the sea shanty-esque guitar refrain which is both extremely annoying and a hopeless earworm. Even now, when I listen to it, I think, "you shouldn't like this... it's wrong". But then I can't help smiling at the Quo rock their guitars back and forth in time with the music...
I'm guessing Caroline Vincinette LoTempio changed her name to April Stevens because she was born in the fourth month of the year. Sadly she passed away April just gone, aged 93. With her brother Nino Tempo, she had a big hit in 1963 with a song that would later name a famous rock band...
The Celebrity Jukebox remembers April through two fine tunes, both referencing her tiger cub days, firstly from another of our Canadian pals...
You be April Stevens, I'll be April Wine You be Israel, I will be Palestine Come on "Teach Me, Tiger", come on and show me tricks Let me take my time and take a couple lazy licks
And secondly from our old pals Tullycraft...
From a mic stand on a milk crate To a rhinestone Butterfield 8 Audition tapes play on The house band plays behind her A pinned-down "Teach Me Tiger" The stage lights flicker on
The barkeep whispers treason And lights a flame for April Stevens And the Nino Tempo fanbase As he defends and counts the reasons The pavement shows on her skin Like the distant sounds of Berlin He's convinced to death that she’ll fail Still she paints her toenails red for him
As this is the Hot 100, there was no finer band to illustrate Number 8 on our countdown than the Hot 8 Brass Band. If this doesn't put a smile on your face, rigor mortis may have set in...
Just noticed your request regarding artist first and title second. Sorry! I'll make sure to do that next week if I come up with anything - gotta run now!
That's OK. I'm used to being ignored.
Couple missing from The Swede's list there. We may come back to those later.
George can't get up quite as early as The Swede. I'll put that down to the time difference.
And Douglas McLaren picked out an all-time favourite of mine... and Styx.
You know the 80's lover in you is having a hard time choosing a winner between Tommy Tutone's "867-5309 (Jenny)" and Styx, "Pieces of 8" (though that one came out late '79 I think). Oh well, if R.E.M. or The Byrds win out (as in justice they should), at least Tommy Tutone has a chance almost every week upcoming! And if you listen to the opening jangly guitar intro, you might almost think it was going to be an early era R.E.M. song. Until the Big Dumb Eighties production values kick in, and Tommy opens his mouth and utters the absurd pick up line lyrics.
(Have you noticed how since I asked The Swede to put the band names first, everybody has switched to doing it song titles first? Oh well, more work for the wicked.)
John Medd, meanwhile, was still smarting over my rejection of ELP last week. But once he'd got over that...
All of which brings us to the debate over this week's winner, which comes down to two songs, both of which were initially identified by early bird The Swede. First, this...
Leave it to Brian to find another version... one which I'm surprised The Swede didn't mention...
I will go along with Eight Miles High, but I'm going to throw the version by Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians into the mix. Terrific B-side to So You Think You're In Love.
But it did seem like Eight Miles High was going to walk away with the crown this week.
And then came The Swede's other big suggestion...
REM - Driver 8
Martin:Good call, Driver Eight by REM would be my nailed-on choice for this week.
Swiss Adam:R.E.M. from the 80s seem to be all over this end of the countdown don't they?
Perhaps not quite as many votes as The Byrds, but...
Driver 8 was one of the first pre-Green REM songs I really became aware of (apart from The One I Love, obviously). This was because one of my favourite comics of the late 80s / early 90s (Doom Patrol) which featured a minor character called Driver 8, and that brief reference made me go hunt down the song.
I saw a treehouse on the outskirts of the farm
The power lines have floaters so the airplanes won't get snagged
Bells are ringing through the town again
The children look up, all they hear is sky-blue, bells ringing
Next week... the most popular lucky number in the world.
It points at all the problems that it don't understand
It points at Parisians across the sea
It points at anybody who thinks different than me
If you're marching to your own drum or kneelin' in the news
My wild pointy finger prob'ly pointin' right at you
Best lyrical explanation this year of why the world's going to hell in a handbasket...
6. Tullycraft - The Railway Prince Hotel
Thanks go to Brian for turning me on to this lot in a big way this year. Witty, literate lyrics and poppy harmonies made this an irresistible summer listen. Plus, they steal part of Paradise By The Dashboard Light in the song below, so bonus points for that.
They shot their disapproving glances like a gatling gun
I couldn't vocalize the words that rested on my tongue
You never let yourself forget that this was passing
I'm sure you're not the only one
5. The Divine Comedy - Office Politics
Edit out three wearisome gag tracks which outstay their welcome after the first couple of listens and this is another great Divine Comedy album... though not quite as inspirational as Neil's last, Foreverland. It's a concept album set in an office... yet peek below the sitcom facade and it has quite a bit to say about Little England and the workaday world that inspired Brexit. Morrissey should give it a listen.
Well done to Alyson for a clear victory this week, even stepping away to let others have a go. Thanks for playing, as always. Very quick answers this week because I have to assemble some more bloody IKEA furniture...
10. Interesting snooker player in sou'wester sacrifices his glory days to music.
And thanks to CC, I just discovered Jigsaw's other "hit", Journey Into Space. Which is great, because it has almost the same tune as Sky High, with added moog effects.
The above photo couldn't help but remind me of Les McQueen...
4. Telephoto Thom in a muddle about junior Lebowskis.
I owe this one to Brian, who introduced me to the delights of Tullycraft a couple of months back. I've been listening to their latest album, The Railway Prince Hotel, ever since.
Here's 7 reasons you should also give it a go...
1. The opening line to the album (on the track Mini Midinette) goes like this...
In captivating dishabille
And who doesn't enjoy a little captivating dishabille every now and then? Nothing wrong with that.
Even better, they then go on to rhyme dishabille with glockenspiel, which is a definite winner in my book.
2. Tullycraft sound a bit like mid-period Belle & Sebastian to me. Some of these songs would fit well on Dear Catastrophe Waitress, my favourite B&S album.
3. Track 2 is called We Couldn't Dance To Billy Joel, yet it's not a trendy "isn't Billy Joel uncool?" song. It's quite respectful. Plus, the lyrics then reveal the band learned to dance and dress from listening to Pulp. So Billy and Jarvis in the same song. These guys might as well be raiding my record collection for reference points.
4. And as if that wasn't enough... track 3, Goldie & The Gingerbreads shamelessly steals the ending to the Meat Loaf classic Paradise By The Dashboard Light. Jim Steinman be praised!
