Cancel Culture Club Postscript

When I began planning this series, I put together a pretty lengthy list of tunes to feature... but as time passed and enthusiasms waned, I realised it would become repetitive in many cases to go "here's another potentially racist / sexist / homophobic / transphobic tune, let's rehash the same arguments we had about the last one".

Still, I figured it might be worthwhile sharing the rest of my list with you. Most of these were found by doing google searches relating to "songs that are now considered politically incorrect" or similar. So I'm not the one pointing the finger, honest guv. Apart from maybe this one...

Here's the rest of the list. Here's what we could have talked about... and if anyone feels strongly about any of the songs below, and would like to pen a few words expressing their feelings for or against cancellation, I will happily run your thoughts in a bonus edition of the CCC at a future date.

But if nobody's bothered, that's fine too.

Elvis Costello - Oliver's Army

Carl Douglas - Kung Fu Fighting

Britney Spears - ...Baby One More Time

The Knack - My Sharona 

The Knack – Good Girls Don’t

Madonna - Like A Virgin

Sam Cooke - Only Sixteen

Ram Jam – Black Betty

Sailor - Girls, Girls, Girls

Blue Mink - Melting Pot

J. Geils Band - Angel In The Centrefold

Terry Jacks - Seasons In The Sun

Joe Tex - Ain't Gonna Bump No More With No Big Fat Woman

Ides of March - Vehicle 

Rod Stewart - Hot Legs

Rod Stewart - Tonight's The Night (Gonna Be Alright)

Maria Muldaur - Midnight at the Oasis

The Sweet - Wig Wam Bam

The Monks - Nice Legs, Shame About The Face

Randy Newman - Rednecks 

Randy Newman - Short People

The Police - Every Breath You Take

Queen - Fat-Bottomed Girls

The Stranglers - Peaches

Nirvana - Rape Me

Elvis Presley - Kissin' Cousins 

The Who - My Generation 

If you're wondering why people take objection to that, it's for a similar reason to this...

Morris Minor & The Majors - Stutter Rap

Dire Straits - Money for Nothing

Cher - Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves

The Cure - Killing An Arab

The Bangles - Walk Like An Egyptian

Jimmy Soul - If You Wanna Be Happy 

Red Skelton & Esther Williams - Baby, It's Cold Outside

(That's the original, but you'll know one or two of the covers. I'm particularly fond of Robert Palmer's version.)

Gloria Gaynor - First Be A Woman

Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit

Prince Buster - Ten Commandments Of Man

ABBA — When I Kissed the Teacher

Lulu - To Sir, With Love

Van Halen - Hot For Teacher

Foster The People - Pumped Up Kicks

Sex Pistols - God Save The Queen

Ian Dury & The Blockheads - Spasticus Autisticus

Peter, Paul & Mary - Puff, the Magic Dragon

Tammy Wynette - Stand By Your Man

Aren't you glad I didn't ask for your opinions on every one of those songs?

That said, if there are any that you feel strongly about... send me your thoughts!

Namesakes #197: The Dream Police

That's Cheap Trick at the top of the page, because we're starting today with their 1979 US Top 30 hit Dream Police. Watch out for some pretty ropey acting at the start of the video from the members of the band who don't like doing that sort of thing...

"But this is Namesakes," you cry! "Surely there can't be more than one band named after that old Cheap Trick song?" You must be dreaming!

DREAM POLICE #1

Well, clearly these guys didn't steal their name from Cheap Trick, since they were plying their trade back when Rick Nielsen and co. were still in high school.

These are the Glaswegian Dream Police, formed in 1967, featuring Hamish Stewart who would later join the Average White Band, and Matt Irving who ended up playing bass in Manfred Mann's Earth Band. I'm going to resit a gag about how this song might have been a Scottish World Cup tune...

Dream Police - I'll Be Home (In A Day Or So)

DREAM POLICE #2

Danish punks from 1978 next, and I'm sure they wouldn't have been seen dead listening to Cheap Trick records.

Dream Police - Demise

DREAM POLICE #3

Some Norwegian hair metal next, from 1990. These guys openly admit to being named after the Cheap Trick tune. Guitarist Trond Holter previously played on Ole I Dole's 1985 album 'Blond Og Billig' 

and would later change his name to 'Teeny' when he joined glam rock group Wig Wam in 2001. 

Dream Police - When The Sun Goes Down 

DREAM POLICE #4

A Swedish Dream Police from the same year... they had to change their name when the Norwegians came knocking, so they became Snakepit Rebels instead.

Dream Police - Sex, Booze & Tattoos

DREAM POLICE #5

Side project of Brooklyn punk band The Men, starting in 2010 when Mark Perro and Nick Chiericozzi clearly wanted to show their funkier side.

Dream Police - Revenge

DREAM POLICE #6

Finally, some electro-bobbins from Barbâtre, France in 2020. The best I can say for this is that it's not even two and a half minutes long. But you're entitled to disagree.

Dream Police - Pro Patria Vigilant

Which ones will be policing your dreams tonight - and which ones will be giving you nightmares?

Snapshots Sea Spillover

A few more songs of the seas I had leftover after this weekend's Snapshots...

The Coral - Arabian Sand

The Felice Brothers - Gulf Of Mexico

Honeybus - Cross Channel Ferry

Marty Wilde - Sea Of Love

James McMurtry - Long Island Sound

Half Man Half Biscuit - 13 Eurogoths Floating in the Dead Sea

And a classic for the Celtic Sea... with an excellent old video too.

Snapshots #456 - Songs About Seas & Oceans

This is Frank Ocean. His Uncle Billy appears below.

Here are some songs about Oceans and Seas...

15. Takes the lead in the Bossa Nova.

The Boss, obviously.

Bruce Springsteen - Atlantic City

14. Some are trumpeters, others are mute... all are crazy.

The Wild Swans - Sea of Tranquility

Yeah, I know that one's on the moon. It's still a sea. Of a sort.

13. Ain't no stopping Eno now.

McFadden & Whitehead sang Ain't No Stopping Us Now. Brian was an Eno.

Brian McFadden - Irish Son

12. Seabird that is utterly wet.

Shearwater - Red Sea, Black Sea

11. Pretty bottom.

The Beautiful South - The Mediterranean (Morcheeba Mix)

10. Home for Top Dogs.

Where the Alpha Males hang out.

Alphaville - Big In Japan

9. Unique korma ingredient. 

Just in curry.

Justin Currie - The Dead Sea

8. I Wonder if Lowe and Heyward know her?

Stevie Wonder and two Nicks.

Stevie Nicks - Wide Sargasso Sea

7. Any game involving #5 would be this.

Coldplay - Yellow

6. There's a great distance between Henley and McLean.

Don Fardon - Indian Reservation 

Or even...

Don Fardon - Hudson Bay

5. All Right Now, it's Easy.

Free and EZ.

Freeez - Southern Freeez

4. Can you pick these guys up on your way home from work?

Dry Cleaning - Anna Calls From The Arctic

3. Where the drum machines make their home.

808 State - Pacific State

2. Show off your Aussie cookware.

Brag about your billycan.

Billy Bragg - North Sea Bubble

1. Cybil alone has the answer.

"Cybil alone" was an anagram.

Billy Ocean - Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run)

That had to be Number One today, didn't it?

Swim back for more next Saturday.

Saturday Snapshots #456

It's Saturday morning, and I'm wasting away again in Margaritaville. If you've seen my salt shaker, please let me know.

Meanwhile, here are some people to identify. How are their songs connected?

15. Takes the lead in the Bossa Nova.

14. Some are trumpeters, others are mute... all are crazy.

13. Ain't no stopping Eno now.

12. Seabird that is utterly wet.

11. Pretty bottom.

10. Home for Top Dogs.

9. Unique korma ingredient. 

8. I Wonder if Lowe and Heyward know her?

7. Any game involving #5 would be this.

6. There's a great distance between Henley and McLean.

5. All Right Now, it's Easy.

4. Can you pick these guys up on your way home from work?

3. Where the drum machines make their home.

2. Show off your Aussie cookware.

1. Cybil alone has the answer.

Some people claim that there's a woman to blame, but I know it's my own damn fault.

Answers tomorrow morning.