As many of you will know, the blogging firmament shines a little less brightly this weekend after the combined talents behind the excellent When You Can't Remember Anything made the decision to hang up their hats last week. JC, the Blogfather, has the full story here.
While I fully respect the reasons Badger, SWC and KC decided to call it a day, I'll still miss their blog a lot... and I was a pretty recent convert, so I imagine those of you who have been following their adventures for longer will be even more devastated.
Anyway, I threw out an idle suggestion in the comments of my own last post and C encouraged me to run with it (so blame her for this, not me). My favourite WYCRA feature, and one of the few blog posts that ever caused me to get out of bed earlier on a weekend, was The Saturday Song Challenge. Here, the guys would select a word (usually one word, occasionally a phrase) and encourage people to suggest songs with that exact title. Then they'd give out points to the best guesses, both from the five they'd pre-selected and for any new ones they liked the sound of. To be fair, the scoring system all got a bit crazy, and the comments section became a competitive free-for-all, but it was one of the most fun series in the blogosphere... at least until Jez resurrects The Chain.
So, in tribute, I thought I'd do something similar. Just as a one off. And as it would be way too disrespectful to steal the WYCRA idea outright, I've adapted it slightly.
And so, I present to you... My Top Ten Goodbye Songs...
10.
9.
8.
7.
6.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
No, I haven't forgotten to fill in the titles and artists. I want you to do that. I have a list, and I will give out points. In a crazy, ramshackle way I'm sure the WYCRA people would appreciate.
1 point for every one of my songs you identify.
2 points if you can guess a song's position in my Top Ten.
1 bonus point if you suggest a song that's better than one in my Top Ten.
The only rule is, it's got to be called Goodbye... and nothing else. So no Goodbye To Love, Hello Goodbye or Goodbye Girl. Just Goodbye.
Goodbye.
Always sad when blogs decide to quit. Has happened to me more times than I care to admit. But it doesn't mean the end if you keep in touch on facebook or they pop in and comment occasionally.
ReplyDeleteI can come up with three:
Goodbye by The Sundays
Goodbye by The Spice Girls
Goodbye by Mary Hopkin
Off the top of my head I've got Mary Hopkin (or preferably Macca's demo) No.5, Shed Seven No.10, The Coral No.3 and The Sundays No.2. I'd like to think that you might include 'Gudbuy Gudbuy' by Slade too, but I might be pushing my luck. I'll have a think overnight and return if I can come up with any more.
ReplyDeleteFarewell WYCRA, you'll be missed.
Goodbye songs? Off the top of my head...
ReplyDeleteGoodbye Goodbye -- Oingo Boingo (great closing song in Fast Times at Ridgemont High)
Say Hello, Wave Goodbye -- Soft Cell
Auf Wiedersehen -- Cheap Trick
Last Goodbye -- Altered Images
See You Later Alligator -- Bill Hailey and His Comets
Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye -- Bananarama
Best of luck to the team at WYCRA!
Oops. Just caught your goodbye rule. Sorry, Rol. Goodbye.
ReplyDeleteI may come back but Goodbye Mr MacKenzie will do for starters
ReplyDeleteOops - just read Brian's comment
ReplyDeleteGoodbye - Steve Earle from Train a Coming
ReplyDeleteOn further inspection, I have Goodbye's in my collection from The Universe and Jon-Rae & The River, neither of which i'd guess will feature in your Top Ten. Two that I think might make the cut though, would be Kevin Shields' instrumental piece of the same name from Lost in Translation (I'm guessing No.9) and Peter Cook & Dudley Moore's regular Not Only But Also show-ender, which I think could even be your suitably irreverent chart-topper.
ReplyDeleteGoodbye
Goodbye
We're leaving now,
Tattybye
Goodbye
We wish you all goodbye
Fartatata, fartatata..
Glad you decided to do this, Rol, a fitting tribute to a fine blog and especially as many of us are suffering withdrawal symptoms from our Saturday morning mental workout. That said I can't for the life of me think of anything other than the Spice Girls, already mentioned, and then asked Mr SDS who suggested Mary Hopkin (whom I had forgotten, but should've remembered as I had a crush on her when I was a wee bathmat, although not a big crush as I was to have on Bobbie Gentry.) Anyway Mary's already been mentioned too so it seems no points for me on the artists alone. However - to Part 2 of your challenge - where might they be in your chart, if at all?
ReplyDeleteI'll go for Spice Girls being at No.7 and Mary Hopkin being at No. 3.
Steve Earle number 3
ReplyDeleteDamn, I'm always too late to the party with these things. The Swede has beaten me to Goodbye by Pete and Dud, which should surely scoop all the points from everyone, everywhere, ever...
ReplyDeleteThat definitely has to be Number 1...
DeleteIt does, doesn't it. But to get some points, I'd better pad out my submission. Rol doesn't seem to like the Spice Girls, so I'd better go with:
Delete1. Pete and Dud
2. The Sundays
3. Frank Sinatra (from Frank Sinatra Sings For Only The Lonely)
4. The Coral
5. Elton John (from Madman Across The Water)
6. Mary Hopkin
7. Pretenders
8. Northern Uproar
9. Def Leppard
10. Air Supply
Ah - at last, The Swede has some competition!
DeleteAshamed to admit I'm not familiar with the Air Supply song though...
Don't feel shame, feel fortunate!
DeleteThanks for playing along guys. I reckon you've spotted about half the Top Ten so far... still points to be had though!
ReplyDeleteNorther Uproar? Revolver? The Pretenders? I reckon Air Supply and Def Leppard could be in with a shout too. I'm having a quiet day at home, can you tell? So, to summarise my predictions....
ReplyDelete1. Pete & Dud
2. The Sundays
3. The Coral
4. Def Leppard
5. Mary Hopkin/Paul McCartney
6. Air Supply
7. Northern Uproar
8. The Pretenders
9. Kevin Shields
10. Shed Seven
You're doing better than most... but there's no extra points to be had there, I'm afraid.
DeleteI have cheated big time. I found four that seem a bit unlikely but what do I know?! These are Miley Cyrus, Avril Lavigne, MO and Alicia Keys... hmm, no idea!
ReplyDeleteCan I throw Mary Gauthier into the mix?
ReplyDeleteFairly confident she will be in the upper echelons - number 4 perhaps
I love the fact that my musical tastes are so unpredictable, even to those of you who've been reading this rubbish for a while now...
ReplyDelete(MO?)
MØ!
DeleteI'm none the wiser.
DeleteWell, I do like this performance from the aforementioned Danish songstress!
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dylNaKMiDLU
Seems like I am always too late and The Swede had named it all in a row I can agree. The only one I can add is Tracy Chapman, a song that was played often in my town long long years gone by.-
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Alyson. I agree, of course, which is why my summer posting has been reduced... although I still intend to get back up to speed again soon.
DeleteI really don't know why you all think I'm a Spice Girls fan though... even I draw the line SOMEWHERE!
Yes, sorry I filled up the space but I know the impact it's had on my life and was concerned - As I said the time has to come from somewhere and my paid work has definitely suffered.
DeleteSo, the line is drawn at Posh, Scary, Sporty, Baby and Ginger then - Now we know!
Goodbye - Elton John (Madman Across The Water)
ReplyDeleteRol.....
ReplyDeleteIt was around this time that I stopped reading other folks' blogs....there were a nultitude of reasons, but one of them was the disappearance of WYCRA hit me hard. I'm now rectifying things by going back into everyone's archives. I've reached your place tonight, but I know from past experience that it is going to be a long but very happy task...I feel like an archaeologist poking around in your tombs!
There will be some comments, but please don't reply to any of them...I don't deserve it.
This post was a work of genius and a superb tribute. Looking forward to reading the outcome. All I could have given you were The Coral, Randolph's Leap, The Wannadies, Pete & Dud, and Slipknot!
JC
What if I want to reply to them?
DeletePlease don't read them all,JC, unless you're some kind of masochist. I wouldn't wish that kind of torture on my worst enemy...or even Bono!