Bono Wednesdays #1

Made you look.

Yes, it's that bloody day again.

Let's just get through it, shall we, and back to more normal pursuits?

Whenever I think of Sonny Bono, after I've thought about his time with Cher, and how he might not have been the nicest guy for her to hang out with... my second thought is always "Lake Tahoe". Purely because I have the location of his death engraved in my memory because of the song below...

Who says pop music never teaches you anything?

Another Day #1: Nothing Day

Teachers love their Awareness Days' Calendar. Black History Month. World Environment Day. International Literacy Day. There’s always something to build a lesson on if you go searching.

Along the way, I’ve come across some truly ridiculous awareness days… and so… you can guess the rest.

What better day to start than January 16^th? 

It's National Nothing Day!

National Nothing Day is an "un-event" created in 1972 by newspaper columnist Harold Pullman Coffin and observed in the United States annually on January 16 since 1973.

Its aim is “to provide Americans with one National Day when they can just sit without celebrating, observing or honouring anything”.

We need this day in the UK too!

Here are some sweets nothings to help us celebrate….

Sinéad O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U

Diana Ross & The Supremes - Nothing But Heartaches

A - Nothing

Lee Hazlewood & Lula - Nothing

Dire Straits - Money For Nothing

I Want My MTV… but not anymore, I guess. 

The Specials - Do Nothing

John Cooper Clarke - Nothing

Manic Street Preachers featuring Traci Lords – Little Baby Nothing

Gilbert O'Sullivan - Nothing Rhymed

Roddy Hart - Nothing Is Broken

Metallica - Nothing Else Matters

John Grant - All That School For Nothing

Gwen Guthrie - Ain't Nothing Goin' On But The Rent

The Donnas - Nothing to Do

Echo & The Bunnymen - Nothing Lasts Forever

The Decemberists - Everything I Try To Do, Nothing Seems To Turn Out Right

Bachman-Turner Overdrive - You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet

Let’s rock!

Saturday Snapshots #139 - The Answers

And God Created Woman.

After that, he sat down and had a go at Saturday Snapshots.

Here's the answers he came up with...



10. Hot, fashionable vinyl clicks a clapperboard.

When you click a clapperboard, you shout, "Action!"

The Flaming Groovies - Shake Some Action

9. The most beautiful hairdresser I ever heard... but build like a stone.

In West Side Story, Maria is the most beautiful sound they ever heard.

The hairdresser (out of work at the moment, presumably) would be Vidal Sassoon.

Maria Vidal - Body Rock

Ah, the 80s never go out of fashion in this house.

8. First letter to where Sonny died... off we trot once more.

The first letter is A.

Sonny Bono died at Lake Tahoe (it says so in the song).

A - Here We Go Again (I Love Lake Tahoe)

7. Back when we used to bop like #2... and shag like an operatic solo.

Those Dancing Days are named after a song by our #2 artist this week.

Those Dancing Days - Fuckarias 

I'm very disappointed that I only discovered this band after they'd split up.

6. Mr. T shoots racist marmalade.

That really does look like Rob Brydon.

But, no!

Mr. T was B.A. Baracus.

The racist marmalade is Robertson's.

B.A. Robertson - Bang Bang

I'm not sure what to make of that after all this time. The video makes it look like a Kenny Everett spoof.

5. Third Scarborough herb for George... in shaky property.

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme were the herbs in Scarborough Fair.

George Clooney.

Shakin' Stevens memorably covered this song.

Rosemary Clooney - This Ole House

4. Staple found in the middle of Elvis - I'm just saying.

Elvis's middle name was Aaron.

Pair that with Neville Staple.

Aaron Neville - Tell It Like It Is

What a voice.

3. Smoking hedge partner sets fire to jungle - call George! (Not that George.)

Benson & Hedges?

George of the Jungle was played by Brendan Fraser.

Brendan Benson - Tiny Spark

Forgotten how good that was.

2. Ellen zipped by like a Foreigner tune.

Ellen zipped is an anagram.

A Foreigner tune wasn't anything to do with I Want To Know What Love Is.

Led Zeppelin - Immigrant Song

Ever since the last Thor movie, that has been my favourite Led Zep song.

1. Top crying from conquering crow.

Levi Stubbs was the lead singer of the Four Tops.

William The Conqueror.

Crowing is like bragging.



They don't get much better than that on a Sunday morning.

See you next week.

My Top Ten Songs About Songwriters

Songwriting is an art form, but some of its most famous artists are more well known for the songs they wrote for other people. Which is why there are no songs in this list about John Lennon, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, et al. Just in case you were wondering...

Someone will still suggest a song about Lennon, you can guarantee it.


10. Nosferatu D2 - I Killed Burt Bacharach

I don't approve of the sentiment, but I love Ben Parker's songwriting, both here and in The Superman Revenge Squad.

9. A - I Love Lake Tahoe

Yeah, the trees are pretty wide
That's where Sonny Bono died.

A - not a great name for band, though I suppose it got them first place in the Bands section of the Yellow Pages.

8. Mercury Rev - Tonite It Shows

This gets in because it's the only song I can think of to mention Cole Porter in its lyrics. (There must be more.) Plus it's much better than Dinner With Gershwin by Donna Summer.

Don't get me wrong: I like Donna Summer, but having watched the video for that, my eyeballs have been scorched by some awful 80s dancing.

See also The Coal Porters, obviously. 

7. Super Furry Animals - The Very Best Of Neil Diamond

Long before the rhinestone-collared shirts and treacly voice made him a household name, Neil Diamond was just a jobbing songwriter in the Brill Building. There he wrote I'm A Believer for The Monkees, among many other gems.

6. The Boo Radleys - Jimmy Webb Is God

You won't get any argument from me on that one, Boos... which is why this isn't the last song about God in this Top Ten.

Wipe away this tear from my eye
Wash away this sadness from my heart
I'm not even fit to tune your guitar
Oh, Jimmy, make me happy...

5. Pulp - Bob Lind (The Only Way Is Down)

Jarvis pays homage to the Elusive Butterfly of 60s folk.

When you think you're treading water, but you're just learning how to drown.
And a song comes on the radio telling you that "The Only Way is Down".
You're out of luck, you're out of time, get out of here.
Your lover just traded you in for the very same model but a much more recent year.
It will not stop, it will get worse from day to day 'til you admit that you're a fuck-up; like the rest of us.

4. Prefab Sprout - The Songs of Danny Galway

From one of the best albums of 2013; and their career. Being a bit dim, I didn't realise that this was written about Jimmy until Miller pointed it out to me.

His melodies inspire whims, his chord changes like Baptist hymns
They lift your spirit til it soars, til you forget that spirit's yours
Sound and word in sweet communion, echoes of a better world
Where chivalry's not dead, we'll look for it instead in the songs of Danny Galway

3. Billy Bragg - Levi Stubbs' Tears

No, Levi Stubbs wasn't a songwriter: he was the lead singer of The Four Tops. Which is probably the only reason this track doesn't get to Number One with a bullet... in most other Top Tens, Billy's heartbreaking Motown tribute would be unstoppable.

Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong
Are here to make right everything that's wrong
Holland & Holland, Lamont Dozier too
Are here to make it all OK with you

2. Ben Folds & Nick Hornby - Doc Pomus

Ben & Nick pay tribute to one half of the classic Pomus/Shuman songwriting team. This song made me want to read more about Doc Pomus's life. Stricken by polio as a young boy, Pomus refused to be "one of those happy cripples", pouring his heartache directly into the hits...

And out they pour
The hits and the misses
'Turn Me Loose', 'Lonely Avenue'
And down in Nashville, Elvis sings 'Suspicion':
Pomus / Shuman 1962

1. Rumer - P.F. Sloan

And so we return again, inevitably, to Jimmy Webb, with a classic example of his own songwriting, in tribute to a songwriting hero from his early days. Webb's recording of this record is beautiful... but Rumer took it to another level.

Yes, Jimmy Webb is god.



They wrote the songs that made the whole world sing. Which song gets you singing about songwriters?