Hot 100 #49

Many thanks to Jim in Dubai for suggesting this week's opening image and reminding us all of 90s Italo House band The 49ers... though, to be honest, I could have done without the reminder.

Far more interesting was Jim's second band-related suggestion, 49 Americans with the track Should Be More Ideal...

True enough, Alan... but at least it's not Italo House.

As for the 49ers... call me an old fogey, but I far preferred Douglas McClaren's latest, Canadian-themed suggested...

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - My Darling Clementine

In a cavern, in a canyon 

Excavatin' for a mine, 

Dwelt a miner, 49-er

And his daughter, Clementine.

I have to say I never knew Neil Young had recorded that... but it's a bloody marvellous version, so it is.

Speaking of Neil, Marie suggested this fine track from some old mates of his...

Crosby, Stills & Nash - 49 Bye Byes

Back to the 49ers... here's a couple more...

The Quireboys - 49er

The I.L.Y.s - 49er Lighter

The Swede, meanwhile, returned to Old Faithful...

Bob Dylan - The Days of 49

And then, on a different hard-drive, but the same theme...

Wilco - Bob Dylan's 49th Beard

(When you've got more than one hard-drive full of music, you may need to ask yourself if you've got enough. Or at least buy a bigger hard-drive.)

The Swede also kindly provided this week's (soulful) jazz suggestion...

The Lightmen - Luke 23 32 49

...which, he assures us, we'll be hearing from again (and again) in a few weeks times.

Lynchie was up next, with one song... and loads of artists...

Big Joe Williams - Highway 49

Bukka White - Highway 49 (couldn't find that version)

Eric Clapton (with Howling Wolf) - Highway 49

Omar and The Howlers - Highway 49

To which Rigid Digit added...

George Thorogood - Highway 49

Take your pick... I'm rather partial to the Omar & The Howlers version.

Of course, Chris Rea might have been in with a shout there... had he not got lost on the way...

Chris Rea - Somewhere Between Highway 61 & 49

Lynchie also suggested my favourite lyrical suggestion of the week, and I've got to admit I was sorely tempted to run with this one...

Bruce Springsteen - Cadillac Ranch

James Dean in that Mercury '49

Junior Johnson runnin' through the woods of Caroline

Even Burt Reynolds in that black Trans Am

All gonna meet down at the Cadillac ranch

That's not our only classic car this week though, because Swiss Adam had this one...

I love the bit in Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros song Johnny Appleseed where he sings 'there it goes, Buick 49....'

Can't argue with that - probably my favourite Joe Strummer solo track.

Later, after consulting his many hard-drives, Rigid Digit returned with these beauties...

Stiff Little Fingers - Gate 49 

The number of the Departure Gate at Heathrow songwriter Henry Cluney regularly walked through to get back home to Belfast 

10CC - Rubber Bullets 

Down at Precinct 49
Having a teargas of a time

Phil Lynott & Gary Moore - Parisienne Walkways 

I remember Paris in 49
The Champs Elysees, St Michel
And old Beaujolais wine

Some serious fretwankery going on in that last track.

OK, what did I have left? How about this lot...

The Jazz Butcher - Lot 49

Jonathan Wilson - 49 Hair Flips

Paddy McAloon - I'm 49

Only a couple of years to go that on last one.

Meanwhile, lyrically...

Billy Joel - Leningrad

I was born in '49

A Cold War kid in McCarthy time...

Kind of like Russians by Sting, but not as embarrassing. (I know some of you will debate that.)

And speaking of Billy Joel...

Tom T. Hall - Don't Forget The Coffee, Billy Joe

Well, they wonder why there ain't no rabbits left this day and time

To tell the truth I guess we ate 'em all in '49

Was that yesterday or was it over 20 years ago

"Don't forget the coffee Billy Joe"

The Who - Too Much Of Anything

I can't remember before '49

But I know that '48 was there

Brilliant mathematicians, The Who.

This week's winner though was correctly identified by The Swede. Proof, if further proof were needed, that Joe Walsh was far more interesting than the Eagles gave him credit for. Remember: this man ran for President against Ronald Reagan (even though he was too young at the time to have been elected).


I have an obvious cool answer and an obvious slightly-less-cool answer for 48... but I'm sure we'll find some others too. Over to you.

2019 Contenders: How To Do A Covers Album

The news that Morrissey is about to release a covers album will no doubt be greeted with the usual calls for his public hanging from his former fanclub, and I have nothing to say about that anymore. I admire your principles if you can turn your back on the music because of the man's politics - you are far more righteous than I am. Yes, he's a dick, but the guy can still belt out a tune, and the sound of him covering one of my favourite Roy Orbison songs still makes my knees go weak...



What I've come to realise over the last few months - particularly since hearing The Evil One's tubthumping live cover of Lynn Anderson's Rose Garden - is that while the pinnacle of his songwriting days may well have passed, as a performer he's now become across between Frank and Elvis. Surely it can't be long before his Vegas residency, particular now he's gone down a storm at The Grand Ol' Opry, of all places? He's even taken to wearing a sparkly, paunch-filled jump suit. I'd start worrying that his next career move might be to drop dead on the toilet with a burger in his hand... but I guess that's still pretty unlikely.

The Dark Lord isn't the first popular musician on my shelves to release a covers album this year though. I've already spent a fair bit of time listening to Weezer's Teal album and Varshons 2 by The Lemonheads over the last few weeks... and though both bands are firm favourites in this house, Evan won this particular battle hands down.

The covers album is an easy win for bands who want to keep paying the rent without having to go to the effort of writing new songs these days. Yes, you lose out on the publishing money, but covers are more likely to get you radio play or youtube hits and keep your name in the public ear. The success of Weezer's recent throwaway cover of Africa by Toto led them to record a whole album of pop classics including Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This), Mr. Blue Sky, Paranoid and Stand By Me - but the sheer ubiquity of these particular choices, coupled with the fact that Weezer take absolutely no risks with the originals - means the result sounds like a wedding band running through requests from the dancefloor. It's not an album I'll go back to again and again.



On the other hand, Varshons 2 by the Lemonheads definitely invites return visits. I only immediately knew four of the songs here, though I did recognise a few more old faces once I stepped in the door. The two strongest tunes on here are Nick Cave's titanic Straight To You and John Prine's peerless Speed of the Sound of Loneliness, but Evan makes them his own. Beyond that there's some really eclectic choices including Round Here by contemporary country stars Florida Georgia Line (a track which benefits from the Lemonheads stripped-back approach), TAQN (Take A Quaalaude Now) by Los Angeles punks The Eyes, and Paul Westerberg's Things. I'm still trying to work out what my favourite track is: currently I'm torn between the breezy 70s pop of NRBQ's Magnet and Old Man Blank, originally by The Bevis Frond... in which Evan almost sounds like the much-loathed gentleman at the top of the page. Which works for me.



I don't feel too bad about calling the Lemonheads the winners in this particular race though - it's kind of like the Tortoise vs. the Hare. Evan Dando is famously the laziest man in pop: we wait 10 years for a new Lemonheads record and all he can manage is another bunch of covers. Rivers Cuomo, on the other hand, has already released his second Weezer album this year (the much anticipated Black Album - more on that later) with two more threatened. Evan clearly has more time to spend listening to his record collection and selecting gems... Rivers probably just picked up a couple of old Now album and thought, "yeah, they'll do".

Saturday Snapshots #73 - The Answers

In This World, there are few certainties. Sometimes people go to Extreme Ways to solve Saturday Snapshots. Other times, you Lift Me Up with your answers. No wonder this is a quiz that will Run On (for a long time).

I think Lynchie did just enough to take the prize this week, but there were good efforts from everyone else, particularly George, who confessed to helping Bill Wyman break into the charts. You're an accessory, George, you're going down for that.

You want answers, Honey? Go!


10. Put your lips together like you wanna Move On Up... but these will stop you in your tracks.

Curtis Mayfield sang Move On Up.

You put your lips together and blow, said Lauren Bacall.

Brakes will stop you in your tracks. Hopefully.

Kurtis Blow - The Breaks

9. Bees bring me out in a rash... like Public Enemy Number One.

Bees live in hives.

Hives are also a nasty rash.

Public Enemy No.1 would be the Main Offender.

The Hives - Main Offender

8. I am a musicien de célébrités... not a Geordie L'addition.

Wey aye, man - l'addition is the bill, like.

Bill Wyman - (Si Si) Je Suis Un Rock Star

Video of the week. Hell, video of the year. You will have nightmares.

7. Summer holiday at sea? Enjoy your trip...

A July cruise, perhaps?

Julee Cruise - Falling

6. Sweet home kids can't see Christ's explosive punch.

The Blind Boys of Alabama - (Jesus Hit Like The) Atom Bomb

5. Teenage revolt in the slums.

Skid Row - Youth Gone Wild

(I knew Rigid Digit would guess this one.)

4. A fantastic custom... aka Martini Tat.

Aka Martini Tat is an anagram.

Tanita Tikaram - A Good Tradition

3. A canary, like the Two Tommies.

A canary works in a coal mine.

Tommy Lee.

Tommy Dorsey.

Lee Dorsey - Working In The Coal Mine

2. Underwater breathing apparatus will burn out your retinas.

Aqualung - Brighter Than The Sun

1. MDMA overdose? Call for the army geologist.

MDMA is another name for Ecstasy.

XTC - Sgt. Rock Is Going To Help Me



Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad on a Sunday morning? Is it the knowledge that we'll have to wait another week for more Saturday Snapshots? That's Natural Blues, right there...

Saturday Snapshots #73

Hey, little sister, what have you done on a Saturday morning? Stop planning your White Wedding because it's about to get very Hot In The City with Saturday Snapshots!

Identify ten top tunes and the artists that performed them from the clues below, please. I promise, you Don't Need A Gun...



10. Put your lips together like you wanna Move On Up... but these will stop you in your tracks.

9. Bees bring me out in a rash... like Public Enemy Number One.

8. I am a musicien de célébrités... not a Geordie L'addition.

7. Summer holiday at sea? Enjoy your trip...

6. Sweet home kids can't see Christ's explosive punch.

5. Teenage revolt in the slums.

4. A fantastic custom... aka Martini Tat.

3. A canary, like the Two Tommies.

2. Underwater breathing apparatus will burn out your retinas.

1. MDMA overdose? Call for the army geologist.

In the midnight hour she cried, more, more, more... but she still had to wait till Sunday morning for the answers.

The United Kingdom of Songs #21: Whalley Range

When time is short, I have certain fallback places to go to on this feature. This week, we're a couple of miles from the centre of Manchester, in a suburb where, way back in 1982, a young band were formed called Venereal and the Diseases. Catchy, eh?

After a while they changed their name to Volume Distortion, then Model Team International, eventually shortened to Model Team, under which name they supported The Fall. Then they found themselves a lead singer and changed their name to Tribal Outlook before settling on a name that would eventually propel them to fame.

Any ideas what that name was?

(Answer right at the bottom of this post.)

Sometime later, the band in question would support another young Manchester band, whose lyricist once wrote a song that went a little like this...

What do we get for our trouble and pain?

Just a rented room in Whalley Range

What do we get for our trouble and pain?

...Whalley Range!

The first time I drove past a sign for Whalley Range in Manchester, I was on my way to visit a friend who lived not far from there. A little shudder of excitement went down my spine and this song popped into my head...


Surprisingly, Morrissey wasn't the first person to immortalise Whalley Range in song. Peter Noone beat him to it by about 20 years...

Herman's Hermits - It's Nice To Be Out In The Morning

And many years later, this Fellow(s) from Sheffield gave it a mention...

John Shuttleworth - You're Like Manchester

But... who was that famous band from Whalley Range?

Answer here, if you really want to know.