Namesakes #180: The Bluebells

If I've timed this post right, then the bluebells will be coming into bloom as you read this... so here are some appropriate bands to listen to.

THE BLUE BELLES #1

We start today in 1953 with a foolish female vocal quintet on Atlantic...

The Blue Belles - The Story Of A Fool

THE BLUEBELLS #2

Top notch brass-infused rock 'n' roll from Canada in 1957...

The Bluebells - Shakey / Squeegie 

THE BLUEBELLS #3

From the very early 60s, here are some Bluebells supporting Harry Simeone's Orchestra, from the soundtrack of the movie Snow White & The Three Stooges. Golden Age of Hollywood, folks! These Bluebells also recorded a kids album with famous Bond villain, Hugo Montenegro.

The Bluebells - Snow White and The Three Stooges

THE BLUE BELLS #4

1961 laidback surf instrumental - with added watery sfx which distract from the music, if you ask me - produced by Kim Fowley, who by all accounts was as mad as a box of frogs on a lorry.

The Blue Bells - Atlantis

THE BLUEBELLS #5

Beginning life in 1962 as The Ordettes, before changing their name to The Bluebelles, and eventually to Patti LaBelle And The Bluebells, this Philly girl group debuted with a US Top 20 hit but never managed to climb so high again. Cyndi Birdsong left to replace Florence Ballard in The Supremes and eventually the remaining Bluebells morphed into LaBelle, hitting the top spot with Lady Marmalade in 1974. Patti LaBelle went on to even greater success as a solo artist in the 80s.

The Blue-Belles - I Sold My Heart To The Junkman

THE BLUE BELLES #6

From Manchester... Georgia... some time in the 60s... comes some Country Blue Belles featuring one Prissy Sue. You can read more about her below...

As you'll see, "Sue has everything to qualify her for a place along with the other top artist". Answers on a postcard as to who "the other top artist" might be. Sheena Easton?

Not being able to find the A-side, Bingo Fool, made me very sad. We'll have to make do with the B-side...

The Blue Belles - False Dreams

THE BLUE BELLES #7

Top notch Nashville country tune from 1970, with the Blue Belles supplying backing vocals to Mr. Lance Hill. 

Lance Hill & The Blue Belles - Mister Ragged Jimmy Jack 

THE BLUEBELLS #8

A reggae take on the controversial Cancel Culture Club hit Girls by Moments & Whatnauts... produced in the UK by Eddy Grant in 1975. Whatnauts to love?

Jerry & The Bluebells ‎– Girls

THE BLUEBELLS #9

More reggae, from 1976, though this comes straight from  Lee "Scratch" Perry's Black Ark Studios at his home in Jamaica. 

The Blue Bells - Come Along

THE BLUEBELLS #10

Ah, yes, the Glaswegian Bluebells, the ones everyone knows. Originally forming in 1981, they enjoyed a smattering of chart success before splitting up in 1986. Then in 1993, the Bluebells version of Young At Heart (a song co-written by Siobhan Fahey of Bananarama - and originally featured on their album Deep Sky Diving) was used in a VW commercial and re-issued, getting all the way to the top of the charts. Since then, the band have reformed sporadically for tours, and even produced a new album in 2023. We'll go with the obvious tune, I guess...

The Bluebells - Young At Heart

LES BLUE BELLES #11

Atrocious Eurodisco bobbins from the 90s - they appear to have been inexplicably active for most of that decade, in which time they slaughtered various classic tunes including Sugar Baby Love, SOS and ELO's Shine A Little Love. This must surely be their absolute nadir though...

Les Blue Belles - Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

THE BLUE BELLES #12

These guys came from San Francisco in 2011, and the song below featured in the soundtrack to a Reece Witherspoon movie. I'm guessing Mr. Lonesome just plays guitar and leaves the singing to the ladies.

Mr. Lonesome & The Bluebelles - Just For You

THE BLUE BELLES #13

Bluegrass Blue Belles from Seattle in 2016, with their version of the old Jackson C. Frank song...

The Blue Belles - Blues Run The Game

BLUEBELLE #14

Also in 2016, we find a Canadian Bluebelle, singular, but I liked their voices so they squeezed in at the end.

Bluebelle - Bluebird

BLUBELL #15

And finally, a smoky jazz Blubell from Brazil who's been doing her thing since 2006... but here she is in 2022.

Blubell - Blue

Which are the Bluebells of the Ball... and which ones just leave you blue?

The Enigma of CD87: Part 2

Ah, the euphoria that greeted the first three tracks on this CD… “great opening”, “cracking triumvirate”, “[setting] the bar high for the rest of the CD”, said the gathered cognoscenti.

But anyone who knows anything about my dubiously higgledy piggledy taste in music will know that such glory cannot last. To thine own self be true, Rol.

 

Track 4: Van Halen - Why Can't This Be Love?

I have a particular fondness for American rock of the 80s because I grew up without anyone cool to tell me differently. The only muso I knew as a teenager tried his best to get me into The Smiths (who I rejected at the time because their singer was “a miserable bastard”) and New Order, of whom much has been written previously. But he also liked Queen, so I’m sure some of you would have had him tarred and feathered if he’d been in your class.

I never really hung out with any discerning Peel or NME acolytes, so there was nobody to tell me that it wasn’t dope, drip or rizz to adore the work of Billy Joel, Hall & Oates or even the hair metal crew. It was only when I joined the blogosphere that I truly became aware of the tribalistic prejudices that damned me forever after. But as we all know, first loves never die when it comes to pop music, the songs of our youth never grow old… which brings us to Van Halen.

The Man In The Street (UK version) will doubtless only be able to name one Van Halen song – the MTV juggernaut that Roddy Frame triumphantly turned into a suicide ballad. The band may as well be a one hit wonder in Britain – unlike the US, where they were semi-regular visitors to the Top 40 between 1978 and 1995. Yet Why Can't This Be Love? is their second biggest hit, and it was a Top Ten smash on both sides of the Atlantic. It also marked a big change for the band – David Lee Roth had gone off to become a solo star and do more cocaine, only to be replaced by Sammy Hagar, originally from 70s band Montrose, and also a successful solo artist in the early 80s. I think you have to be a true rock aficionado to spot the difference. People in the know seem to class Sammy as the better singer, but Diamond Dave is often considered the better front man. There’s an argument that the difference is immaterial because neither gets their name on the tin – this was always Eddie Van Halen’s band anyway.

Eddie died of cancer in 2020 and everyone agreed there could be no Van Halen without him. Although there have since been some disturbing rumours that his brother Alex, the band’s long-term drummer,  has considered using AI “to duplicate the style of” Eddie’s guitar work… and also looked into the possibility of hiring Robert Plant as vocalist future Van Halen records. Don’t do it, Alex!

Track 5: Madness - Michael Caine

I won’t bore you again with the story about how I never liked Madness in Junior School because all the tough kids used to go around singing Baggy Trousers like it was a badge of honour… but at some point I must have decided the band were all right, and maybe it was this song that tipped me over.

Michael Caine is very different from the chirpy, knees up singalongs that had kept Madness firmly fixed in the Top Ten for almost five years when this was released in early ’84… and ironically, it marked their departure from that section of the charts until well into the 90s. It doesn’t even have Suggs on vocals – it was written and performed by top trumpet dude Chas Smash, and it tackles the thorny subject of IRA informants, using Michael Caine’s vocal samples as a subtle reminder of spy films like The Ipcress File. Caine initially refused to blow the bloody doors off on this track, until his daughter talked him into taking part. Makes me wonder how different the song would have sounded without his contributions.

Apparently Neil Tennant gave the single a good review in Smash Hits while Tony Parsons wrote in the NME, “They never sounded less like Madness and they never sounded so good.” Maybe that’s why this proved to be the song that thawed my Madness iceberg? Or maybe my arrival in High School had distanced me enough from the Junior School tough guys to listen without prejudice.

For many years, I thought Michael Caine also made frequent vocal contributions to another big hit of the 80s… but I later learned that those samples were James Fox instead. I’m sure you can guess the song.

 

Track 6: Love Unlimited - Walkin' In The Rain

Barry White’s first hit record, from the glorious year of 1972, when all was right with the world. Barry wrote and produced this, and appears towards the end... with the very definition of a phoned-in performance.

Walkin' In The Rain has all the right ingredients to make it a classic soul song - Supremesy chorus, a slowed down talky bit like the Shangri Las, moody sfx, the hint of sex, and flourishes of orchestral glory. Plus added Barry White... what's not to love?

 

Track 7: The Lightning Seeds - Ready Or Not

What a great singles band The Lightning Seeds were, eh? I sang their praises last year after seeing Ian Broudie & co. play at the local village hall. Following on from that, I tried listening to a couple of their old albums again… and I have to be honest, it seemed to these aging ears that there was a good bit of filler on them. But the singles….? Wow. They were the tipper-most, topper-most.

I could tell you more about this song, but then I discovered that an esteemed colleague had already given it a far better write up than I could ever attempt. Here’s JC with the full lowdown.

Oh, you make me feel alright

It's like the tipper-most, topper-most high

Oh it's you you you

Crack up your face and give us a smile

Cos tonight i just wanna be wild

Snapshots #439: Religious People In Songs

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to listen to some songs about men and women of the cloth...

15. The only trains James Brown would ever take.

Grand Funk Railroad - Goin' For The Pastor

14. Hello - this is...

Joni Mitchell - The Priest

13. Black, Hammer, Simon.

Blacksmith, Hammersmith, Simon Smith...

The Smiths - Vicar In A Tutu

12. High in Antioxidants.

Black Grape - Reverend Black Grape

11. They get around, rather aimlessly.

The Drifters - Like Sister And Brother

Sisters being nuns, brothers being monks. Of course.

10. All-important band for Mr. Spock.

Essential Logic - Shabby Abbott

9. Don't confuse him with a thick Jew.

"A thick Jew" was an anagram for one of Donald Trump's least favourite pop stars... 

Jack White - Archbishop Harold Holmes

8. Paper, Black, Shoe.

Paper Lace, Black Lace, Shoelace.

Lace - The Nun

7. Able footballers and keen fans of Thelonious Monk.

Named after a Thelonious Monk album... and an amazing football shot.

The Brilliant Corners - The Pope, the Monkey and the Queen

What a great tune. Not the best Pope song I know, but this guy gets far too much exposure round thes parts...

Prince - Pope

6. Witch hunter who found wonder in the invisible world.

Check your history books.

Cotton Mather - The Words Of Shaman Roger 

5. U.N. medics.

The World Health Organisation...

The Who - Baba O'Reilly

There are days when I'm certain that is The Who's finest hour.

4. Yoof speak.

Modern Talking - Brother Louie

I was a little upset to discover I didn't own that track... I thought I had pretty much everything that ever made the Top 20 in the early 80s. Then I listened to it again and figured it was no great loss.

3. Todd gets in between Tim Booth and Morrissey.

James - Todd - Smith.

Also known as...

LL Cool J - Father

2. Walk this way!

Pavement - Box Elder

1. Deputy finds girls in muddle.

"Deputy finds girls" was an anagram for a very young Mary O'Brien...

Dusty Springfield - Son Of A Preacher Man

Please leave something in the collection plate on your way out of the church.

Saturday Snapshots #439

Great Scott! If it's Saturday, it must be time for more Snapshots. Will you prove smarter than Sherlock? More Talented than Mr. Ripley?

Let's find out... who are the folk below, and how are their songs connected?

15. The only trains James Brown would ever take.

14. Hello - this is...

13. Black, Hammer, Simon.

12. High in Antioxidants.

11. They get around, rather aimlessly.

10. All-important band for Mr. Spock.

9. Don't confuse him with a thick Jew.

8. Paper, Black, Shoe.

7. Able footballers and keen fans of Thelonious Monk.

6. Witch hunter who found wonder in the invisible world.

5. U.N. medics.

4. Yoof speak.

3. Todd gets in between Tim Booth and Morrissey.

2. Walk this way!

1. Deputy finds girls in muddle.

Answers tomorrow morning!

Another Day #7: Friday the 13th

Sometimes I'm spoiled for choice with this feature.

Today is L. Ron Hubbard Day... so I hope you're all practicing some scientology in his honour.

What if you're wrong

But then so am I?

And what really happens when we die?

And what if L. Ron Hubbard, he was right?

Well, that would bum me out

Jill Sobule - The Rapture

It's also Smart & Sexy Day... "a special moment to recognize and embrace the diverse intelligence and talents that flourish within each of us."

Whatever.

Rod Stewart - Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?

Give yourself a good laugh and watch that video if you've not seen it in awhile. Kenny Everett springs to mind.

Not only that, but it's National Coconut Torte Day. A day to contemplate sit in the dessert which "sits in that delicious gray area between cake and pastry: rich like a cake, structured like a layer dessert, and often dressed up enough to look like it belongs in a bakery window."

I don't think I've ever eaten a coconut torte. Have I been missing out.

Harry Nilsson - Coconut

It's National Jewel Day too - I did my quiz about jewels this week, but it wasn't a particularly interesting subject so I won't bother you guys with it.

Prince & The New Power Generation - Diamonds And Pearls 

It's also (no, I'm not making any of these up): National Earmuff Day, International Riesling Day, National Open An Umbrella Indoors Day (on Friday the 13th... are you mad!?!), National Freelancers Day and World Sleep Day.

The Smiths - Asleep

But all of these wonderful celebrations are trumped (I don't like using that verb any more, even in terms of metaphorical card games) by the aforementioned Bad Luck Friday... our second in a row, thanks to February's insistence on being exactly four weeks long (most of the time). 

Good luck getting through it!

Que Sunryse - Friday The Thirteenth

Atomic Rooster - Friday 13th

The Misfits - Friday 13th

Actually, there are surprisingly few decent songs about Friday 13th. Thank god then for little Bob Smith, who's clearly having another Bad Hair Day in this video... no change there then.