Snapshots #433: Songs About Girls Names Beginning With M

 

Ladies beginning with M was this week’s link? May you all have got it right…

 

15. What a honky prima she was!

“Honky prima” was an anagram.

Mary Hopkin - Martha

14. In Spain, I have it.

Their name means “I have it” in Spanish.

Yo La Tengo - Madeline

13. You cannot be serious!

The Notsensibles - I’m in Love With Margaret Thatcher

12. Bloody…! Howard and Tom!

Bloody Norah! Howard & Tom Jones.

Norah Jones - Miriam

11. What Spike stole from Kenny, Candy and Clarence.

Spike Milligan was a goon. Kenny G, Candy Dulfer and Clarence Clemons all played sax.

The Goon Sax – Maggie

10. Sounds like an evil despot and a moody conman.

Donald & Fagin (played by Ron Moody).

Donald Fagen - Maxine

9. Where Cats initially choose to sit.

C(ats) sit on the Mat.

CMAT – Such A Miranda

8. I am yr barn owl, somehow.

“I am yr barn owl” was an anagram.

Barry Manilow – Mandy

7. Posh fast food rulers!

Kings Of Leon - Molly's Chambers

6. Patrick, in the shower.

Dallas fans will get the clue.

Duffy – Mercy

5. Found in earthenware and blunderbusses.

Found in eARThenware and bLUNDerbusses.

Art Lund – And Mimi

4. Where to buy your Wood and your Port, man.

From the Natalie Merchant, of course.

Natalie Merchant - Maggie And Milly And Molly And May

I should have just run that one photo this week, the song pretty much covers the link for us.

3. We are Fantastic, and we’re from America.

The Fantastic 4, from the US.

The 4 of Us – Mary

2. My indignation is completely justified – they’re not related!

Righteous indignation because they’re not actually brothers.

Righteous Brothers - Unchained Melody

1. Idol Ben was an idle nob.

Two anagrams for the price of one.

Blondie - Maria

Mmmmmore Snapshots next Saturday.

Saturday Snapshots #433

 

Life is a mystery
Everyone must stand alone
I hear you call my name
And it feels like home…

Time to get Into The Groove again… who are the people below and how are their songs connected?

 

15. What a honky prima she was!

14. In Spain, I have it.

13. You cannot be serious!

12. Bloody…! Howard and Tom!

11. What Spike stole from Kenny, Candy and Clarence.

10. Sounds like an evil despot and a moody conman.

9. Where Cats initially choose to sit.

8. I am yr barn owl, somehow.

7. Posh fast food rulers!

6. Patrick, in the shower.

5. Found in earthenware and blunderbusses.

4. Where to buy your Wood and your Port, man.

3. We are Fantastic, and we’re from America.

2. My indignation is completely justified – they’re not related!

1. Idol Ben was an idle nob.

If you got them all… Take A Bow. If not, the answers will be here tomorrow morning.

Celebrity Jukebox #69: Sal Buscema

I’ve been reading comics for almost fifty years now, and many of the writers and artists who were around when my obsession began are no longer with us. In the past few years, we’ve lost Stan Lee, John Romita, Jim Shooter, Neal Adams, Keith Giffen and many more.

Sal Buscema, who died earlier this week, just two days shy of his 90th birthday, is one of the last of the original Marvel artists to pass. By that, I guess I mean the artists who started out in the 60s. We lost his older brother, John, almost a quarter of a decade ago. Maybe Sal was always seen as working in his big brother’s shadow, but I preferred Sal's loser, more dynamic style. He drew some of the first comics I ever read, and he drew some of my all time favourite stories, particularly his lengthy team-up with writer J.M. DeMatteis on Spectacular Spider-Man in the 90s, a high water-mark for both storytellers.

  

Sal was a storyteller first and foremost. Unlike many of the flashier artists who came later, you could read and follow the action Sal drew without even needing word balloons or narration. His work had a sense of drama and pace that many more stylised artists never achieve. He worked as a penciller and inker at Marvel comics for almost fifty years, with only a brief spell at DC. In that time he must have drawn every big Marvel character – Spider-Man, the Hulk, Captain America, Thor, the Avengers… in my head, I can picture issues of all their books, drawn by Sal.

And he was the first one to draw the Hulk’s love of beans.

Goodnight Sal. Thanks for so many great memories.

The Wedding Present – Spider-Man On Hollywood

Bill Callahan – The Ballad of the Hulk

Em Beihold – Spider-Man

Cover Me Thursday #20: The Man Comes Around

I stumbled across the cover version below recently. It was released late last year - I'm guessing it was an outtake from the More sessions and in days gone by would probably have been a B-side. Not that such things still exist.

I'm sure Jarvis would be the first to tell you that his version can't really compete with the original, one of the last songs Johnny Cash wrote before his death in 2003. Johnny's version is suitably apocalyptic, but Pulp make it their own, particularly towards the end when it starts to sound like a twisted cousin of Running The World.

Both versions take on a new resonance during these, the last days of the American empire...

Celebrity Jukebox #68: Christa McAuliffe

It’s forty years to the day since the Challenger Space Shuttle exploded 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members.

Among that crew was Sharon Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher to fly into space. She was shortlisted from more than 11,000 applicants… also on that shortlist was singer-songwriter John Denver, who got as far as the NASA induction programme. When Denver saw what happened on January 28, 1986, he was inspired to write this tribute…

Well, I guess that you probably know by now
I was one who wanted to fly
I wanted to ride on that arrow of fire right up into heaven
And I wanted to go for every man
Every child, every mother of children

I wanted to carry the dreams of all people right up to the stars
They were flying for me
They were flying for everyone
They were trying to see a brighter day for each and everyone
They gave us their light
They gave us their spirit and all they could be
They were flying for me
They were flying for me

Although he survived the Challenger disaster, John Denver died 11 years later when his own home-built light aircraft crashed into Monterey Bay, California.

Denver isn’t the only songwriter to have been affected by what happened to Challenger. Frank Turner was only four years old in 1986, but seeing the accident on TV had a profound effect on him. Many years later, he would imagine hearing Christa McAuliffe’s final broadcast (there is speculation that the crew didn’t die when the explosion happened on board the spaceship, only when it crashed into the sea) over the ham radio he’d played around with as a kid. A “silent key” is the term used by amateur radio enthusiasts to refer to deceased radio operators.

This is one of my favourite Frank Turner tunes. The more I listen to it, the more it breaks my heart.

On the 28th of January 1986
Christa McAuliffe gazed in horror as the O-rings failed
And she died, and she died, and she died
For the next agonising two minutes and forty-five long seconds
She called out the truth on a broken radio:
"I'm alive, I'm alive, I'm alive"
It came as some surprise to realise that as she lost everything
The world was revealed in a transmission so real that she understood everything:
You're still alive, you're still alive