Tuesday 10 December 2019

Hot 100 #28


Younger Younger 28's were a fine choice to illustrate this week's post. Imagine The Human League Meets Pulp Meets Shampoo. Thanks to Jim in Dubai for recalling them and suggesting their excellent b-side Karaoke Queen (linking to another blog for that one as I couldn't find it on youtube). I was always fond of We're Going Out as well. They should have been massive.

What about the 28 songs though?

Well, Jim's other suggestion was this...

Forever 28 by Stephen Malkmaus & The Jicks

That's what I call Pavement art.

As usual, Martin had a few fine suggestions...

"I'm On E by Blondie has the line:

I used to have a car of my own, 28 or 58.

I've a feeling you may have suggested that 30 posts ago too.

Meanwhile, last week we had Lloyd Cole fretting over getting ready to turn 30. Martin also reminded us of this, which could well pop up again in 5 posts' time...

Lloyd Cole & The Commotions - Grace

Once you were an angel
Jesse, honey, is it hard to take
Does it feel so bad to be 28?

He continues... "Reelin' and Rockin' by Chuck Berry has loads of times in, including...

Well, I looked at my watch, it was 10:28, 
I gotta get my kicks before it gets too late

"And my personal favourite (even if it is atypical), from the pen of Ray Davies, Low Budget by The Kinks, which has this:
Even my trousers are giving me pain,
They were reduced in a sale so I shouldn't complain.
They squeeze me so tight so I can't take no more,
They're size 28 but I take 34."

Do you know what? I'm not sure I've ever heard that before. And if you hadn't told me it was the Kinks, I might have thought it was AC/DC. It's great though!

The Swede found slim pickings in his own record collection this week. His only offering was a bit of a surprise too...

"'Never Be the Same Again' by Puressence features the lines '...you're feeling lots of pain again, December 28 again, your famous boxing day again...' December 28th? Boxing Day? What's that all about? Great song though."

Puressence!?! Blimey. It's been a while.

My immediate reaction to this was...


And then, along came Lynchie...

Bob Dylan - I Shall Be Free No. 10

I was shadow-boxing earlier in the day
I figured I was ready for Cassius Clay
I said "Fee, fie, fo, fum, Cassius Clay, here I come
26, 27, 28, 29, I'm gonna make your face look just like mine"

Talkin' blues. I love talkin' blues.

Now before we go any further, here's a really uncool suggestion from my own hard-drive...

Styx - A.D. 1928

I put that there just so nobody would think twice about Rigid Digit's first offering this week...

Mötley Crüe - Bad Boy Boogie

We're innocent in every way
Like apple pie and Chevrolet
Sweeter pies with different shapes
38-28-38

"Other than that," he adds, "I need to invoke the "50 Words For Snow" card again...

28: Robbers Veil

Yes, you can always rely on Kate Bush for redemption.

Meanwhile, Alyson was in an existential mood this week...

"Alicia Keys has a song called 28 Thousand Days which is apparently the average lifespan so we should pack as much in as we can. Scarily I've had nearly 22,000 days already so I'd better get a wiggle on."

Don't worry, Alyson, you don't look a day over 21,999.

Finally, here's C...

"'22 Grand Job' by the Rakes, love that song and it's pure energy, and before it comes up again in 6 weeks' time for obvious reasons it could get a little preview here for the line

But he's only 28, no more 22

Shorter post than usual this week because Douglas was on holiday. Let's scrape the bottom of my barrel before we get onto the serious contenders...

The Divine Comedy - The 28th of May

Little Jackie - 28 Butts

The Boomtown Rats - Nothing Happened Today

Tomorrow's Wednesday
Today was Tuesday
And this is the date
March 28th

Art Brut - DC Comics & Chocolate Milkshake

DC comics and chocolate milkshake
Some things will always be great
DC comics and chocolate milkshake
Even though I'm 28
DC comics and chocolate milkshake
I guess I'm just developing late
DC comics and chocolate milkshake
I never got over that amazing taste

Nice try, Eddie, but I was always a Marvel boy myself.

The Velvet Underground - Velvet Nursery Rhyme

Which is really just a live "meet the band" thing from the Velvets 1993 reunion - 28 years later.

OK. This week's runner-up then.

The Gaslight Anthem - Meet Me By The River's Edge

See, I've been here for 28 years
Poundin' sweat beneath these wheels
We tattooed lines beneath our skin
No surrender, my Bobby Jean

The one where they wear their Bruce influence on their sleeves. I felt sure that would be the winner...

Until C came up with this one. Genius! Well done, C.

I'm in love with modern moonlight, 
1.28 when it's dark outside


27? I think I know what Martin will choose. What about the rest of you?

14 comments:

  1. Can't believe I missed a Dylan opportunity last week - the shame! So far today I have '27' by Young Fathers.

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  2. 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?

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  3. I assume that nothing by Tom Robinson's Sector 27 will be acceptable either? Ok, I'll go with '27 Forever' by A Certain Ratio.

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  4. 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."

    "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..."

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  5. Discovered a couple of songs with 27 in the title but unknown to me - I did discover however that 27 is the age when Jimi Hendrix, Robert Johnson, Janis Joplin, Brian Jones from The Rolling Stones and Kurt Cobain all died. Seems if you "lived fast" in those days, you only made it to 27.

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    Replies
    1. Indeed, sadly known as 'The 27 Club'...quite shocking when you see an even longer list of its members
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/27_Club

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    2. That is quite a list of club members. Amy Winehouse too it seems. If you achieved fame quite young, a fair bit of hard-living had been done before 27 - Hope they're all hangin' out together in some parallel universe, 27 Forever as the song goes.

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  6. All i have this week is 1927 - Thats When I Think of You, if you you allow that to count :-)

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  7. 27 angels from the great beyond tied Laughing Len to a table in the Tower of Song

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  8. 27 Forever by A Certain Ratio is a favourite round here.

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  9. Biffy Clyro - 27

    The Smiths - Never Had No One Ever
    "I had a really bad dream. It lasted 20 years, 7 months and 27 days"

    Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombone
    "He put a spell on some poor little Crutchfield girl
    And stayed like that for 27 seven years"

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  10. 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 the delightfully contradictory lyrics:

    "He was born in the summer of his 27th year
    Coming home to a place he'd never been before
    He left yesterday behind him, you might say he was born again
    You might say he found a key for every door..."

    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!).

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