Tuesday 26 March 2019

Hot 100 #47


My big plan of hosting installment #47 of this countdown on the date of my 47th birthday fell apart somewhat due to last week's lurgy... that'll teach me to try and make this blog appear organised. Oh well, I'm just about back in the land of the living today, so let's climb back on the horse.

Thanks for all the get well / birthday wishes in the meantime.

The logo at the top of the page comes from Indonesia metal Band AK47. It seemed an appropriate place to start since a couple of you suggested machine-gun related tunes, starting with Jim in Dubai who offered this interesting take on an old Buffalo Springfield number...

Oui 3 - For What It's Worth

Hold Your Fire Put Down Your Weapon, 
You'll Never Get to Heaven With An AK-47

C also dug out a couple of cool tunes referencing Rambo's favourite weapon, to wit...

Manic Street Preachers - Kevin Carter

Hi Time magazine, Hi Pulitzer Prize
Tribal scars in Technicolor
Bang bang, club AK 47 hour

Thievery Corporation - 33 Degree

Lethal make me lethal, I'm a weapon
Danger make me danger AK-47

Finally on the machine gun front, Martin offered this - always get extra points for a bit of Thea...

Thea Gilmore - Apparition No 12

And I caught the glimmer in a hurricanes eye I've seen these AK-47's with their noses to the sky  

Before all the bullets started flying, Lynchie was actually first in last time with this suggestion...
Bo Diddley - Who Do You Love? has to be a contender:
I walk 47 miles of barbed wire
I use a cobra-snake for a necktie
I got a brand new house on the roadside
Made from rattlesnake hide
I got a brand new chimney made on top
Made out of a human skull
Now come on take a walk with me, arlene
And tell me, who do you love?

Phew - you'd almost be better off taking your chances with a machine gun. Rigid Digit also suggested versions of this song by George Thorogood, Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Band and Jesus & Mary Chain. You can google those yourself though.

The Swede, bereft of Dylan this week, offered this...
June Richmond - 47th Street Jive... and what a great little clip I just found for it.
Martin came up with a few more great suggestions this week too...
Ben Folds Five - One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces

September '75 I was 47 inches high
(One of my favourites, that!)
Elton John - Island Girl
I see your teeth flash, Jamaican honey so sweet, 
Down where Lexington cross 47th Street
They Might Be Giants - Till My Head Falls Off
There were 87 Advil in the bottle now there's 30 left. 
I ate 47 so what happened to the other 10?
Kate Bush - 50 Words For Snow which, frankly, could feature here every week from now on...
Yeah, but to save me the effort, I might draw a line under that one now.

Finally, our Canadian correspondent (and fellow 47 year old), Douglas McLaren, suggested two more lyrical 47s. First this...
Nick Lowe - Born Fighter
Shoe shopping, lapping up the grooms and uppers
I don't want to have to get
Another pair of hush puppies
I keep on looking at 47-each
But one day, I'll be laughing
With the lizards on my feet

And then this, to which George remarked "there are some truly terrible songs that you could post, probably none worse than..."
Discount groceries ahoy!

My own record collection threw up a few other suggestions this week, namely these...
Mark Kozelek - Metropol 47

Dwight Twilley - 47 Moons

But the one I went with in the end was this lovely Guy Clark song, also covered by Johnny Cash on the album Look At Them Beans, which surely deserves a cover shot here...


Time was I had a rule about not posting songs with years in them, but surely we've all forgotten that rule by now?


Some of you might expect Toots & The Maytals to make a return appearance next week, but I'm afraid I can't let the same song win two different numbers. Fortunately I have another strong contender for 46 in mind... you might have others. Feel free to throw them my way.


7 comments:

  1. It's bloody shocking, but there's 'Lost On Highway 46' by Sham 69.

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  2. I'm gutted that Bo didn't make Number One but Guy Clark is a great choice. By the by, Steve Earle (with The Dukes) has a new album out - a tribute to Guy Clark with 16 covers of Guy's songs.

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  3. I know you said that Toots is excluded from consideration, but how about The Clash's 'Jail Guitar Doors', where the band quotes '54-46 was my number' as the song draws to a close.

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  4. I wonder, Rol, if you're thinking of 1941 by Nilsson, for the lines:

    Well in 1941 a happy father had a son
    And by 1944 the father walked right out the door
    And in '45, the mom and son were still alive
    But who could tell in '46 if the two were to survive


    Or The Here and the Now by Loudon Wainwright III, which starts:

    The strangest story ever told
    Was how I got to be this old
    At the close of WWII,
    My folks did the deed that the young folks do
    In '46 out I came, this world would never be the same!


    Other than that, I'm out.

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  5. Does 2 46 8 - Tom Robinson Band Count :-) you can tell i am struggling with this one.

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  6. And in a regular appearance:
    Kate Bush - 50 Words for Snow

    46 Anechoic

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  7. Douglas McLaren28 March 2019 at 02:47

    Again, a toughie. To be honest, for the only song in my collection, we would seemingly have to go reggae. I have always been a little partial to Yellowman (even my kids love to sing along to Zunguzunguguzunguzeng!), and his song amusingly entitled "Nobody move, nobody get hurt!" throws up this lyrical scenario:
    "...He said he want me to join the army
    I ain't gonna do it officer
    No way, I ain't gonna do it
    Turn out your left pocket
    A searching for a Colt automatic
    A searching if you have any ratchet
    He said what is your number? I didn't answer
    What is your number? I still don't answer
    What is the number boy? I really don't answer
    Him crank up him chopper, Mi momma!
    Then me started to answer
    Guess wha' me say?
    64, 46, BMW!
    64, 46, dat a BMW! Lord!"
    Not sure what that is a reference to, but hey it's Yellowman!

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