Hot #100 27

 

This is the Canadian band called 27. Here they are Holding On For Better Days... a sentiment many of us are sharing at the moment.

Onto this week's suggestions, and The Swede was back in full force, albeit still smarting about missing a Dylan suggestion last week...

"So far today I have 27 by Young Fathers."

Interesting noise. I like it when the bass comes in.

"I also have an album called 27 Passports by The Ex. There is no title track and, as far as I can recall, no lyrical reference to the number 27 on any track, so I'm guessing that this doesn't really count?"

Probably not. But we can hear the full album on that link.

"I assume that nothing by Tom Robinson's Sector 27 will be acceptable either?"

No, but I was completely unaware of this chapter in Tom's career. And it definitely bears further investigation. I do like Where Can We Go Tonight?

"OK, I'll go with 27 Forever by A Certain Ratio."

Watch out, that was Swiss Adam's suggestion!

Lynchie was up next with two offerings taken straight from my short-list...

"The heartbreaking Red Dirt Girl by the beautiful Emmylou Harris has this verse:

Nobody knows when she started her skid,

She was only 27 and she had five kids.

Coulda' been the whiskey,

Coulda been the pills,

Coulda been the dream she was trying to kill."

Emmylou Harris - Red Dirt Girl

"And Nick Lowe's I Knew The Bride When She used to Rock'n Roll (a chart hit for Dave Edmunds) begins:

Well, the bride looked a picture

In the gown that her mama wore

When she was married herself

Nearly 27 years before

They had to change the style a little

But it looked just fine

Stayed up all night

But they got it finished just in time"

Nick Lowe - I Knew The Bride When She Used To Rock n Roll

Alyson & C appeared next, not with a song, but a rather more morbid link to The 27 Club, a list of artists who tragically died at that very young age, including...

Jimi Hendrix 

Robert Johnson 

Janis Joplin 

Brian Jones 

Kurt Cobain

Amy Winehouse

Jim Morrison

Ritchey Edwards

There's even a song about it... 27 Forever by Eric Burdon.

A little more cheery, and all the way from Dubai: here's Jim...

"All I have this week is 1927 - That's When I Think of You, if you you allow that to count."

New to me, that lot, Jim. They don't pass because the 27 is a band not a song (see The Swede's SEctor 27 suggestion above). However, I don't disqualify years anymore. So you could have had this...

Randy Newman - Louisiana 1927

Or even this...

David Soul - 1927 Kansas City

As for breaking the rules... albeit creatively... here's mathematical genius John Medd...

999* - Emergency

* 3 x 9 = 27

Over to Rigid Digit...

Biffy Clyro - 27

Afraid the point of Biffy rather eludes me. Your next suggestion is more on the money...

Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombone

He put a spell on some poor little Crutchfield girl

And stayed like that for 27 seven years

As for your third suggestion... we'll come back to that.

Last week I said I was certain I knew what Martin's suggestion would be. But I reckon Martin was too busy preparing for his Land's End to John O'Groats bike ride to make the suggestion. (Wouldn't it be easier to do it the other way round? Surely there's more down-hill if you start in the Highlands?) Here's what I thought you were going to suggest anyway...

Martin Rossiter - 27 Strangers

That's a cover. The original is pretty cool too...

Villagers - 27 Strangers

Oh, by the way. Go sponsor Martin. Thank you.

The other thing I pondered last week was where our Canadian pal Douglas had got to. Holiday? Sadly not...

"For the record, I have not in fact been on holiday, but rather on strike. I am a teacher in the province of Ontario, Canada, and we are currently in the midst of troubled contract negotiations with the government over quality of education issues, and have been so for a while now, I regret to report.
Much to my surprise and chagrin, I have discovered that standing in a picket line in the midst of a Canadian winter is in fact not much like a holiday at all. The occasional cheery mid-finger salute from passing cars, the cheap coffee roasting on an open fire, the magically diminishing pay-checks as we prepare for the Yuletide season...very festive those.

But as we have gone from province wide strikes to rotating board-by-board strikes as of today, I had a chance to look in, and after being inspired immediately to think of "Never Had No One Ever", I realized that I was, sadly, late to the game, and it had been taken! (So perhaps in the spirit of having a horse in the game for that song, I will bypass the obvious Smith's version (perhaps the fact that a certain singer seems to be persona non grata in some quarters at the moment will mean a second-stringer may get a chance off the bench?) and suggest Billy Bragg's cover?

Other than that, I place my real serious cash down on John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High", which of course opens with some delightfully contradictory lyrics...

And I am going big money on this bet as I am confident I am on to a winner; I did my research once again, and discovered that on a certain 10th of May in 2018, Mr John Denver placed 1st in a Top Ten list with a different song, "Leaving On A Jet Plane", so I am hoping there is a soft spot there for all things Denver.

Now, back to the "job action" (and what a delightful term that is!)."

Firstly, you have my sympathy - and solidarity, Douglas. As a teacher myself - and one constantly under attack - I wish you every success in your action. Even though, realistically, we're all doomed.

As to your suggestions... can I come back to those too?

First, the inevitable trawl through my own hard-drive...

The Divine Comedy - 27th of March

The Foxboro Hottubs - 27th Avenue Shuffle

(That's Green Day pretending not to be.)

Passenger - 27

The People The Poet - Club 27

Liz Phair - Stratford On Guy

I was flying into Chicago at night

Watching the lake turn the sky into blue-green smoke

The sun was setting to the left of the plane

And the cabin was filled with an unearthly glow

In 27-D, I was behind the wing

Watching landscape roll out like credits on a screen

So, in the end, it comes down to a toss-up between Rigid Digit and Douglas's shared suggestion of...

The Smiths - Never Had No One Ever

I had a really bad dream

It lasted twenty years, seven months, and twenty seven days

(Or, if you can stomach Morrissey anymore...

Billy Bragg - Never Had No One Ever)

And Douglas's well-researched second suggestion...

John Denver - Rocky Mountain High

He was born in the summer of his 27th year

Coming home to a place he'd never been before

And to be honest, I'm really torn this week. The Queen Is Dead is still my favourite album of the 80s. But Never Had No One ever is probably the bleakest song on there, and do we really need more misery this week?

Rocky Mountain High, meanwhile, is a fine entry from Mr. Denver... but can I really choose it over The Smiths, even in the era of Mozaggedon?

Probably not. But it was closer than you'd think...

Next week - the final letter of the alphabet. #26. Go!