Welcome back to the Hot 100. Before Christmas we got as far as #27, so basic accounting dictates we move on to number 26, as illustrated by Australian band... erm... 26. Appropriately enough, here is their song A New Beginning. Muse fans may want to give that a spin.
OK, what do you have for me this week?
Martin?
"Marshall Mathers by Eminem has the lyric..."
Startin' shit like some 26-year-old skinny Cartman...
Good start. I still can't help but love Eminem. Good job, because Martin continues...
"Also by Eminem, My Fault has the line...
She said, 'I am 26 years old and I am not married
I don't even have any kids and I can't cook'...
Still makes me grin.
Anything else, Martin?
"I'm revisiting Reelin' and Rockin' by Chuck Berry for the line..."
Well, I looked at my watch, it was 10:26...
That one could run and run.
"Chic had a song called 26..."
On a scale of 1 to 10, my baby's a 26...
They did indeed, and it was on my shortlist. It was on Rigid Digit's too.
"But I reckon it has to be Waiting for the Man by The Velvet Underground and Nico, for the opening verse:"
I'm waiting for my man,
Got 26 dollars in my hand,
Up to Lexington 125,
Feelin' sick and dirty,
Huh, I'm waiting for my man.
Good choice. Even Lynchie approves...
"Damn and blast. I was going to post I'm Waiting for the Man - it's one of the few Velvets songs that's any good!*"
"*There'll be complaints about that line..."
Probably. But you're entitled to your opinion. Even if it is wrong.
C was up next, going all Gallic on us...
"If, like me, you are a bit of a sucker for just about anything sung in French, then I give you Stereolab's OLV 26."
And then came Douglas, still freezing his elbow patches* off on the picket line...
(*I'm presuming Canadian teachers have elbow patches on their threadbare blazers, just like teachers in the UK.)
"I don't recall if it has been mentioned many times already for other numbers, but Roger Miller's song Got Two Again is chock full of numbers and sums, including this verse containing our beloved number 26:
For the second verse
I need someone to give me a number
Between 12 and 14, I'll make a verse (13!)
13, ah, 13, well, 13 multiplied by 1
You still got 13 but wasn't that fun?
Now, take that same 13 multiply by 2
26 hours the train's overdue…
Never heard that before, Douglas, but I approve.
"And if the train is indeed 26 hours overdue, then that would make R.E.M.’s 26 hour road trip described in the song Departure unfortunately twice as long, at 52 hours (keeping with the sums theme, though I suspect that if they are going via Singapore and Spain to Salt Lake City I suspect their mode of travel is more likely a plane?):
Just arrived Singapore, San Sebastian, Spain, 26-hour trip
Salt Lake City, come in spring
Over the salt flats a hailstorm brought you back to me
Salt Lake City, come in spring
Over the salt flats a hailstorm brought you back to me
"And that's all I got, folks."
Both good suggestions. Not heard Departure in ages.
Finally, Rigid Digit returned with another fine lyrical offering...
Paul Hardcastle - 19
In World War II the average age of the combat soldier was 26...
In Vietnam he was 19...
Surely that will be a shoe-in in 7 weeks' time?
OK, besides those, what did my own hard-drive have to offer?
Paramore - 26
Catfish & The Bottlemen - 26
The Charlie Daniels Band - Was It 26?
(Or this more recent version...)
Chris Stapleton - Was It 26?
However, for this week's suggestion I'm going with 12 minutes of protest song, from Gil Scott Heron, reacting to the election of President Ronald Reagan in 1981. Listen to this today and change a few names and statistics and it can surely apply to a couple of more recent election results as well..
Well, the first thing I want to say is..."Mandate My Ass!"
Because it seems as though we've been convinced
That 26% of the registered voters
Not even 26% of the American people
But 26% of the registered voters form a mandate...
Or a landslide...
The idea concerns the fact that this country wants nostalgia
They want to go back as far as they can ...
Even if it's only as far as last week
Not to face now or tomorrow, but to face backwards
Next week, we reach the last quarter in our century. Your 25s will be much appreciated...
25 O'Clock by The Dukes of Stratosphear
ReplyDelete2525 by Zager and Evans (double whammy!)
And The Secret of my Success by Night Ranger (from the movie of the same name) has the lyric "The secret of my success is I'm living 25 hours a day")
And, surely a contender, All The Young Dudes by Mott the Hoople (or Bowie, if you like) starts:
"Well, Billy rapped all night about his suicide,
How he'd kick it in the head when he was 25.
Speed jive, don't want to stay alive
When you're 25."
Is Mungo Jerrys In The Summertime allowed? It does have a 25 in it, but ts part of " a ton and 25" in your daddy's car
ReplyDeleteAnn Peebles!!!11 99 lbs (she has 25 lbs of tenderness, 25 lbs of pure cane sugar, 25lbs of understanding her man)
ReplyDeleteAnd I think there's a Clash song too with a 25 in it
ReplyDeleteJulie's Been Working For The Drug Squad
Delete10 years for you, 19 for you
And you can get out in 25
That is if you’re still alive
Chicago, 25 or 6 to 4.
ReplyDeleteI'd second the Ann Peebles and Chicago tracks but Johnny Cash - "25 Minutes To Go" gets my vote.
ReplyDeleteI thought you might contribute a song by The King of Soul
DeleteWell - that's a toughie. Depends on who you believe is The King Of Soul!
DeleteA few prog-ish bits and bobs scattered through my suggestions this week, some of which might meet with George's approval. 'Love Potion 25' by Xhol, '25 Yellow Doors' by Faust, '50 in a 25 Zone' by The Dream Syndicate, 'LSD 25 Ou Les Metamorphoses De Margaret Steinway' by Les 5 Gentlemen, 'Song for Elsa, Three Days Before Her 25th Birthday' by If, 'X-25' by Moving Gelatine Plates, 'Twenty-Five to Twelve' by Elvis Costello & the Attractions.
ReplyDeleteLyrically, 'New Pleasure' by Richard Hell & the Voidoids comes to mind, containing as it does the lyric '...you're in too deep you can't survive, or can't be you past twenty-five...'
The only tunes in my collection are:
ReplyDeleteOwn up if Your Over 25 by John Dummer and Helen April
And 25 Years by The Catch.
Couple of early 80's tunes.
£25 - Saw Doctors
ReplyDeleteAnd I know you're an admirer of the work of Simple Minds.
Mandela Day:
It was 25 years they take that man away
Now the freedom moves in closer every day
Wipe the tears down from your saddened eyes
They say Mandela's free so step outside
A fine sentiment, if only it wasn't done so blandly
B52s - Wig
ReplyDeleteWigs on fire. Wigs on fire. Wigs on fire.
It's 2525 and we've got the hottest wigs alive.
I forgot to mention "3 Dimes Down" by Drive-By Truckers which has the line:
ReplyDelete"Three dimes down and 25 cents shy of a slice of the Double-mint twins
Come back baby, Rock and Roll never forgets..."
I must put in a good word for young Liverpool lad Louis Berry and his cracking song '25 Reasons'. It's only a couple of years old but has that 60's R'n'B thing going on, with a pinch of Dr Feelgood too. Go for it!
ReplyDelete'Sitting on a Barbed Wire Fence' by Bob Dylan '....yes, this woman I've got, she's killing me alive, she's makin' me into an old man and man, I'm not even twenty-five...'
ReplyDelete'Happy The Golden Prince' by Robyn Hitchcock '...twenty-five hours of love in the life of "Happy the Golden Prince Rides Again"...'
ReplyDeleteDang! I blame the time zone difference here in Canada, but when I awoke at 6:00 a.m. to get an early bid in for Dukes of Stratosphear's "25 O'Clock" and Zager and Evans' "In The Year 2525", I found I was a few hours behind Martin. No problem, I think to myself, I'll give it some more thought, and get the rest of my bids in during my lunch hour. Would't you know it, when I go to check at lunch there are fifteen comments now, and Rigid Digit has taken another of my sure-fire guesses in Mandela Day.
ReplyDeleteSo I'll start instead with a couple clever covers. How about They Might Be Giants' cover of The Dukes of Stratosphear's "25 O'Clock"? I know TMBGs get a lot of love around here, so let's go with that, for the steal...
Or if that is not a winner, how about Visage's cover of "In The Year 2525"? Kind of give's an appropriately "futuristic" take on the original...
Strangely (?), I could find no one who took on a cover of Simple Mind's Mandela Day, let alone offering any kind of hope for "improvement" on the original.
So that leaves me with one original, and not for the first time, I find myself offering from among the oeuvre of one Paul Heaton that deal with his take on aging. How about "Prettiest Eyes" by the Beautiful South, which contain the following seasonally appropriate reference to Christmas:
Let's take a look at these crows feet, just look
Sitting on the prettiest eyes
Sixty 25th of Decembers
Fifty-nine 4th of Julys
Not through the age or the failure, children
Not through the hate or despise
Take a good look at these crows feet
Sitting on the prettiest eyes
Luckily, I have a few more years before I have to worry about any of that myself...
Tramp by Otis Redding and Carla Thomas. Just before the things with th Cadiallacs there's a 25 cent lyric
ReplyDeleteOoh. George could be in with a chance, citing one of the greatest duets ever recorded.
Delete