My Top Ten: Arctic Monkeys

Showing posts with label Arctic Monkeys. Show all posts

Monday, 8 September 2025

Snapshots Spillover - Cop A Load More!

Detective Andy Sipowicz of the NYPD is here to welcome you to more tunes about his colleagues in the service... and the things we call them.

Bobby Fuller Four - I Fought The Law

That one would have been too obvious.

Goat Girl - The Man

That one less so.

Oscar Wills - Flatfoot Sam

I have two copies of that in my hard drive. One of them is credited to Oscar Wilde. I don't think it was him.

The Hold Steady - Chips Ahoy!

In honour of the California Highway Patrol...

The most bizarre tune I came across during this week's search was this UK Top Ten hit from 1975... hard to believe, unless you remember it.

Billy Howard - King Of The Cops

Here are some far more glamorous cops...

Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine - Glam Rock Cops

Sadly, I couldn't find any songs with a titular mention of the Rozzer, but they did once arrest Sir Thumbs Aloft for wearing a pink balloon about his foot...

Wings - London Town

As for the Bizzies, they've been known to round up Sam Fender and his mates for fighting on the beach in Newcastle...

Sam Fender - Seventeen Going Under

In Sheffield though, cheeky Monkeys get sent home in this...

Arctic Monkeys - Riot Van

We close today with the obvious ones I had to leave out over the weekend...

Sunday, 18 May 2025

Snapshots #396: Songs With Rhyming Titles

Jack Black stacks a slack sack pack on his back, and has a pet yak in his shack, with a nick knack, paddy-whack for smack, crack and quack.

Here are some songs that rhyme... but not quite as much as that.

15. Rock on... Are you ready for him?

Rock on, Tommy... Cannon. Are you ready for Freddy?

Freddy Cannon - Tallahassee Lassie

14. I'm the same boy I used to be, just like a peanut farmer.

Jimmy Carter was the Peanut Farmer.

"I'm the same boy I used to be," is a lyric from Valerie by Steve Winwood, which was allegedly written about...

Valerie Carter - Wild Child

13. Just like the guy whose feet are too big for his bed...

Lyrics from "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head"...

The Raindrops - Hanky Panky

12. Died in 1966?

Or is that just an urban legend?

Paul McCartney - Temporary Secretary

11. Rita Tushingham's kitchen sink.

Rita Tushingham was in the kitchen sink drama, A Taste Of Honey...

A Taste Of Honey - Boogie Oogie Oogie

10. Motivational presentation, not for Old Men.

A motivational presentation could be a TED Talk.

Ted Nugent--Wango Tango

9. Those McCartney Oiks will spoil everything.

"McCartney Oiks" was an anagram...

Arctic Monkeys - Fluorescent Adolescent

8. Hats off to Bell and Orbit.

Hats off to Larry. Bell and Orbit are both Williams.

Larry Williams - Bony Moronie

7. Useful for painting in Michigan.

Bay City is in Michigan. You use a roller for painting.

I'm sure at least one of you recognised those legs...

Bay City Rollers - Money Honey

6. Bluebell is lost in the middle, and don't call me...

Bluebell is lost in the middle. And don't call me Shirley!

Shirley Ellis - The Name Game

Rol!
Rol, Rol bo-bo-bol
Bo-na-na, fanna fo-fol!
Fee-fi-mo-mol!
Rol!

5. The stone at the heart of the flesh.

Peach Pit - Alrighty Aphrodite

4. 'Cause, I gotta have... Benny.

"'Cause, I gotta have... Faith." And Benny Hill.

Faith Hill - This Kiss

3. Keeping up with The Joneses.

The Smiths - Still Ill

Or you could have had...

The Smiths - Frankly, Mr Shankly

I didn't realise you wrote such bloody awful poetry.

2. A Snapshots essential!

Your snapshots won't be any good without Focus.

Focus - Hocus Pocus

1. Inverted woes.

That was an anagram!

Stevie Wonder - Master Blaster

Castaway Potshots returns next week...

Sunday, 7 July 2024

Snapshots #351: A Top Ten Hat Songs

Hats off to you if you identified all this week's artists... and worked out which hats they were wearing...

10. Corporal Hum is an enigma.

Corporal Hum is an anagram.

Procol Harum - Homburg

9. Discovered inside Electric Ladyland.

Electric Ladyland.

Bob Dylan - Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat

8. Take the skinheads for a nice mulligatawny.

Take the skinheads bowling... for soup!

Bowling For Soup - Trucker Hat

7. Merciless villain becomes an American citizen.

Ming was Merciless, until he went to the US.

Charles Mingus - Goodbye, Pork Pie Hat

6. Pick up, before you get to Pace.

A pick up is a van. Hale 'n' Pace.

Van Halen - Panama

5. Sounds like you split up with a South African runner.

If Zola (Budd) became your ex, you would be...

Zolar X - I Pulled My Helmet Off

4. Don't get tangled up in a sticky romance.

"Sticky romance" was an anagram...

Arctic Monkeys - Balaclava

3. Kamadeva and Rati.

Kamadeva and Rati were the Hindu deities in charge of romance.

Hindu Love Gods - Raspberry Beret

(That's Warren Zevon & REM... minus Michael... if you're wondering.)

2. Rexton Rawlston Fernando Gordon found the answer within.

Rexton Rawlston Fernando Gordon is the artist also known as ShABBA Ranks.

Abba - Put On Your White Sombrero

1. Even my vision is impaired... I'm losing my hair.

And those are lyrics from Just Like Fred Astaire by James.

The top hat had to be a Top Hat...

Fred Astaire - Top Hat, White Tie & Tails

A few more hats to try on before we go...

Billy Bragg & Wilco - Stetson Kennedy

James Moody - Trilby

Oysterband - The Sailor's Bonnet

And, of course,...

Steely Dan - The Fez

Throw your hats in the ring again next Saturday morning...

Friday, 15 December 2023

Celebrity Jukebox #117

The Grim Reaper's been busy again.

John Hyatt

When Ben messaged me to say that John Hyatt had passed away last week, I mistakenly thought he meant John Hiatt. But it wasn't the American singer-songwriter who had left the stage, it was the singer from 80s post-punk politicos The Three Johns. This John balanced his "pop" career with a day job teaching fine arts at Leeds Poly.

Benjamin Zephaniah

Ben was also the first to inform me of the death of writer, musician and poet Benjamin Zephaniah. Ben remarked...

I think anyone who knew the alternative 80s and 90s scenes, or was involved in English teaching, had a positive view of him.

Very true. Ben and I have both taught English, and Khayem commented in his own tribute that...

...it was an inspirational English teacher at secondary school who burst our predominantly white working- & middle-class suburban bubble by incorporating the poetry of Benjamin Zephaniah and Linton Kwesi Johnson into our studies, a life changing moment for me.

Coincidentally, I'd just featured a track by the poet in my Self-Help For Cynics post on Responsibility when I heard about his death. And here he is again...

Dean Sullivan

Khayem was also responsible for alerting me to the death of actor Dean Sullivan a couple of weeks back. I was a huge Brookside fan in the 90s, and despite his many flaws (drug addiction & dealing, manslaughter, digging up Trevor Jordache), Jimmy Corkhill was my hero. For a jukebox tribute, I did consider that his brother Billy gets name-checked here...

The Beloved - Hello

...but in the end, this seemed like a far better song to play.

Tony Allen

The moment I heard about the death of the "godfather of alternative comedy", one song... hell, a whole album... came immediately to mind.

In 2011, Luke Haines, Cathal Coughlan and Andrew Mueller released an album called The North Sea Scrolls. It was purported to be an alternative history of the United Kingdom, as told to them by the "actor" Tony Allen. I'm a huge Luke Haines fan, and I think this may well be the best thing he's ever done. I've no idea what Tony Allen thought of it.

Finally, three more familiar faces to say goodbye to...

Brigit Forsyth

Still most famous for her role in Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, though she went on to appear in many other films and TV shows, including Boon and Still Open All Hours. Brigit was also a musician and singer. Here she is with her band The Fircones...

The Fircones - Girl In The Band

Ryan O'Neal

We used to have a teacher who, if he noticed a couple of students in his class making googly eyes at each other, would loudly whistle the theme tune to Love Story. It became a shorthand for youthful romance in my head. I'm not sure I've ever seen the film myself since someone gave away the ending. But my favourite Ryan O'Neal movie is What's Up Doc? with Babs...

Well, I looked in the mirror can you guess what I saw?

It wasn't Ryan O'Neal kissin' Ali MacGraw

It was me

Shirley Anne Field

Another actress not just famous for treading the boards...

Shirley Anne Field - It's Legal

However, Shirley Anne's biggest influence on the world of music must surely come through her role in Karel Reisz's adaptation of Alan Sillitoe's novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, a film which may have inspired a live album by The Stranglers...

The Stranglers - No More Heroes

A studio album by Jake Bugg...

Jake Bugg - All I Need

The title of the Arctic Monkeys debut record, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not (taken from a line in the film)...

The Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor

And, most important of all, the best thing Stephen and Johnny ever did together. Another line from the film, "Why don't you take me where it's lively and there's plenty of people?", spoken by Shirley Anne herself, led Morrissey to pen those famous opening lyrics...

Take me out tonight

Where there's music and there's people

And they're young and alive

Wednesday, 3 May 2023

TV On The Radio #7: Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em

"Hmm, Betty, the doggy’s done a whoopsie on the floor.”

Frank Spencer never actually uttered this line in the popular 70s sitcom, but thanks to Mike Yardwood, the rest of the country started doing Michael Crawford impressions and the line became a legend. And if that wasn't bad enough...

The Barron Knights - The Ballad of Frank Spencer

Humour is a very subjective thing. Me, I prefer The Shirehorses...

The Shirehorses - Frank Spencer Blues Explosion

You'll only get that if you're familiar with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.

I remember watching Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em when I was a kid and generally finding it annoying in the same way that I would find Adam Sandler's man-child act intensely irritating 20 years later. It never fails to amaze me that Crawford would go on to become a West End legend as The Phantom of the Opera. Quite a leap up from Frank.

Let's kick off our Frank tribute, appropriately enough, in Mu Mu Land...

Trapped in a rerun

Of a seventies sitcom soap

"Some Mothers Do Have 'Em"

Or "The Archie Bunker Show"

I was snogging with Felicity

“The Good Life” begins in bed

Richard was in the garden

Or I think that's what she said

The KLF - Kylie Said To Jason

I think it's also fair to say that Frank was a pretty Kooky kind of guy...

Watches black and white movies to get thin

Curls her hair just like Marilyn

Oh, what an enigmatic woman

My gosh do some mothers have 'em

The Kooks - Pamela

Next a band who also wrote a song about Freddy Kreuger. I'd have loved to see a Frank Spencer vs. Freddy Kreuger movie...

Reuben - Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em

I can't imagine Justin Currie was much of a Frank Spencer fan... but I have been wrong before.

Del Amitri - Some Mothers Do Have Them

Today's winner though is a song about thinking that the singer onstage is looking straight at you (and maybe you've got a chance with them!) when actually they can't see the crowd's faces at all because of the stage lights. Which is just the kind of idiotic thing that Frank Spencer would probably do...

One look sends it coursin' through the veins, oh, how the feelin' races

Back up to their brains to form expressions on their stupid faces

They don't want to say hello like I want to say hello

Well, the heartbeat's at its peak when you're coming up to speak

And oh, I'm so tense, never tenser, could all go a bit Frank Spencer

And I'm talkin' gibberish, tip of the tongue but I can't deliver it

Properly, oh, it's all gettin' on top of me

And if it weren't this dark, you'd see how red my face has gone, yeah

Sunday, 13 February 2022

Snapshots #227: A Top Ten Duke & Duchess Songs

The Duke introduces ten songs about Dukes and Duchesses...

10. Flowers! (Flowers! Flowers!)

Echo Bloom - The Duke

(Tough one, that. But worth a listen.)

9. Yes, a hefty Naazi!

Anagram!

Haysi Fantayzee - John Wayne Is Big Leggy

8. Move to New York.

Manhattan Transfer - The Duke Of Dubuque

7. Joelynn's awning gets broken up.

Joelynn's awning was an anagram.

Waylon Jennings - The Dukes of Hazzard

6. Often found in the French towns of Genech and Le Robert.

GENE CH AND LERobert.

Gene Chandler - Duke of Earl

5. A Cure man in socks with REM ladies.

Robert becomes Bobbie in his bobby sox... with REM dream girls.

Bobbie Smith & The Dream Girls - Duchess of Earl

(Yep.)

4. Charlene's beau misses the bus.

Neighbours fans from the 80s will know that Charlene's beau was Scott. If he missed the bus, he would be a walker.

Scott Walker - Duchess

3. Simians in a circle.

In an Arctic Circle.

Arctic Monkeys - Put Your Dukes Up, John

2. Pull the choke, then full throttle.

The Stranglers - Duchess

And the Rodneys are queuing up

God forbid

1. Weirdo's event.

Anagram!

And the Rodneys will be queuing up again next Saturday, for more Snapshots.

Friday, 3 December 2021

My Top Twenty-One of 2021: #19

Today is the 15th anniversary of my life as a blogger. My first ever blog post (not here, but on this blog's predecessor, Sunset Over Slawit) was dated December 3rd 2006.

My how things have changed. One thing that hasn't is my need to record my favourite albums of the year in December. Here's the Top Ten from 2006, complete with my commentary...

10. Teddy Thompson – Separate Ways. Released at the back end of last year, but the singles came out in ’06. Mature, emotional song-writing… not entirely in his dad’s class (and obviously he can’t play guitar like Pops – who can?), but he deserves to stand on his own.

9. The Crimea – Tragedy Rocks. Also released back-end of 2005, this is a new band led by former Crocketts lead-singer Dave McManus. From what I remember of The Crocketts, they had one really good song. Here, there’s a whole album of them.

8. Belle & Sebastian – The Life Pursuit. Not as strong as (and less commercially successful than) Dear Catastrophe Waitress (maybe I’m just a sucker for Trevor Horn), but a definite grower. Stuart’s decision to let the rest of the band chip in with some of the songwriting might have something to do with this. Saw them live this year and it was all a bit of a shambles, but enjoyably so.

7. Jarvis Cocker – Jarvis. Very excited to finally have Jarvis back, and half this album is really strong. The other half, while good, strives a little too hard to be… well, not commercial, because I think he’s given up on that… but perhaps the word I’m looking for is ‘tuneful’. Jarv made a big deal before the record came out that it wasn’t going to be just him whinging on about life, that there would be some proper songs in there too. I’d have preferred more of the whinging!

6. Monkey Swallows The Universe – The Bright Carvings. Saw this lot supporting Richard Hawley earlier this year, and although they looked like a bunch of sixth-formers, they made a lovely noise.

5. Thea Gilmore – Harpo’s Ghost. The critics call her “the best British singer-songwriter of the last ten years” and I find it hard to disagree. Unfortunately, we seem to be the only ones listening. She’s hard working too – when I saw her live this autumn, she was 35 weeks pregnant, and she’s back on the road in the New Year.

4. Morrissey – Ringleader Of The Tormentors. Only Number 4? Moz, you’re slipping! No, ROTT was a good album, but just didn’t have the staying power of YATQ.

3. The Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. Far too much has been written about them already… if only this album didn’t live up to the hype!

2. The Handsome Family – The Last Days Of Wonder. Grower of the year. I’ve been a HF fan for ages, and couldn’t get into their new one at first… but now, I just can’t stop. Rennie Sparks is one of the best short story writers stuck in a songwriter’s body you’ll ever encounter, and her husband Brett looks and sings like Walter from The Big Lebowski. An album about the life of Nikola Tesla, the frustrations of being a ghost, and falling in love with the girl at the drive-thru window.

1. The Divine Comedy – Victory For The Comic Muse. Sometimes it seems the better a songwriter gets, the fewer people listen. That certainly seems to be the case with Neil Hannon, who delivered possibly his strongest record to date this year, then shot himself in the foot by releasing its weakest track (‘Diva Lady’) as the lead single. A collection that is in turn touching (‘Lady Of A Certain Age’), hilarious (‘To Die A Virgin’), quirky (‘Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World’, which I still think could have been a crossover hit in the vein of ‘National Express’ if he’d bothered to release it), inspiring (‘Light Of Day’) and literate (‘The Plough’). He also gave us the year’s best b-sides, which could easily have placed a second album in this Top Ten had he compiled them. Great live too, possibly my gig of the year.. I do hope he makes enough money to keep at it!

And now back to the present...

19. Smith & Burrows - Only Smith & Burrows Is Good Enough

Here's one that probably won't appear on many year end lists, more's the pity. Tom Smith is the lead singer of The Editors. Andy Burrows was the drummer in Razorlight, but don't hold that against him. He was also the drummer in We Are Scientists. And he played drums in David Brent's band, so give the guy some credit. He'll work with anyone!

Lately though, he's been doing more of the singer-songwriter thing, with a particular penchant for the 70s. It's therefore not completely absurd to call this record a modern day version of Godley & Creme... or maybe even Wax... which is about as uncool as you can get.

But I like uncool.

Ten catchy, quirky pop songs that feel like they've fallen out of a time warp. You might need to give them a few listens, but they soon work their way under your skin...