Somedays won't end ever And somedays pass on be I'll be working here forever, At least until I die, dammed if you do, dammed if you don't I'm supposed to get a raise week, you know damn well I won't.
Up every morning just to keep a job I gotta fight my way through the hustling mob Sounds of the city pounding in my brain While another day goes down the drain
Have to catch an early train, got to be to work by nine And if I had an aeroplane, I still couldn't make it on time 'Cause it takes me so long just to figure out what I'm gonna wear Blame it on the train, but the boss is already there
You got me forced to crack my lids in two I'm still stuck inside this rubber room I gotta punch the clock that leads the blind I'm just another gear in the assembly line
3. A beautiful French hive.
In French, their name means beautiful hive. (According to Google Translate, anyway. Ernie may tell us different.)
Welcome back to my weekly celebration of great song titles. Do the songs in question live up to their names? You decide...
1. Elvis Costello - Hurry Down Doomsday (The Bugs Are Taking Over)
We'll start with some Elvis, as he's pictured at the top of the page. There are those who will tell you that his 1991 album Mighty Like A Rose is where it all started to go south for Mr. McManus. I'm not one of them, maybe because I was in my prime-Costello phase when this was released and had just devoured all his earlier albums through the extensive re-issue series that was going on around then. He could do no wrong for me in 1991.
I did a big search of Elvis song titles before choosing this one (my computer tells me there are 1892 Costello-sung or Costello-written files in my hard drive, though a good number of those are duplicates). I could have gone with Tear Off Your Own Head (It's A Doll Revolution) (although I prefer the version by The Bangles), I Hope You're Happy Now (for its sheer, unadulterated spite) or even (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea)... among many others... but I chose this one because I like songs that cheerfully welcome the end of civilization.
2. Treat Her Right - I'm Here To Get My Baby Out Of Jail
Mark Sandman is a somewhat legendary figure in American alt-rock circles, and not just because that's his real name. He was the lead singer of Morphine, who formed in 1989, but prior to that he was in a number of groups, including Treat Her Right, named after a song by Roy Head & The Traits.
One critic called Treat Her Right, "not quite a blues band, not exactly swamp trash and too stylized for basic rock'n'roll". I'm Here To Get My Baby Out Of Jail is a two minute blast of wonder that makes sense of that whole description.
3. The Peppermint Rainbow - Will You Be Staying After Sunday?
The Peppermint Rainbow came from Baltimore in 1967 and looked like this...
I miss the days when pop groups could look like that and still sell records.
Will You Be Staying After Sunday? sold over a million copies, presumably to families who wanted to drop a subtle hint to annoying house guests that it might be time for them to bugger off home now, thanks. They followed with another equally grumpy single, presumably aimed at that same visitor, Don't Wake Me Up In The Morning, Michael.
Of course, this is sunshine pop, so it's not at all grumpy when you listen to it, but still, it appeals to the curmudgeon in me.
4. Clinic - IPC Sub-Editors Dictate Our Youth
The 1997 debut single from Liverpudlian post-punkers Clinic was a dig at the NME and the way they "try to set up scenes all the time, and people actually believe that, 'Oh, I should listen to this, just because it's in the NME.'". Which was very true in 1997, although the title obviously got Clinic some serious attention from that same music paper, because there's nothing music journos like more than having their egos massaged, even in a sarcastic way.
Clinic wore surgical masks on stage. I saw them live once at a festival, and I'll be honest, that's the only thing I remember. I hope they stopped wearing them after COVID when fashion finally caught up with them. Lead singer Ade Blackburn was also a bingo caller at the Regent Bingo Hall in Crosby. I wonder if he wore a mask there too?
5. The Lemon Twigs - Every Day Is The Worst Day Of My Life
We close today with Brian and Michael. No, not the Mancunian Lowry fans, but two brothers from Long Island called Brian and Michael D'Addario. Although they're only in their mid-20s, the brothers' favourite album is apparently Todd Rundgren's 1972 opus Something/Anything?, a very inconsistent recording if you ask me. I love large parts of it, but it really is all over the place... kinda like the Lemon Twigs themselves. When they're good though, they're great. And they had me as soon as I heard the title to the lead single from their latest release, Everything Harmony. Typically, the rest of the album can't hold a candle to it... Todd would be proud.
Only one band could illustrate the moment that Life Begins in our Hot 100 Countdown (even though, like Benjamin Button and the hero of Martin Amis's Time's Arrow, we're aging backwards). I was never s huge UB40 fan, and I prefer the Neil Diamond original of the above song to their hit version, but I always quite liked their famous "I'm a prima donna" mondegreen. (Apparently they sing "Ivory Madonna"... but I don't believe it for a second.)
...which is always welcome here because it features Leonard Nimoy in the video. And if you're wondering how The Bangles know what a UB40 is/was, they probably didn't. The original was by Katrina & The Waves.)
Anyway, as you can imagine, there were a hell of a lot of songs with the number 40 in the title. I'm not even getting onto lyrical nods this week, unless you guys specifically brought them up. Let's see how quickly we can rattle through the list...
Starting, as if often the case, with The Swede, who kicked us off with a serious contender...
Longtime readers will know that I've always got time for Jimmy B - I may even be a parrothead. As with many of Jimmy's songs, this one has a nautical theme... yet it also tackles the mid-life crisis in a beautiful way.
Yes I am a pirate, two hundred years too late
The cannons don't thunder, there's nothing to plunder
I'm an over-forty victim of fate
Arriving too late, arriving too late
Ian McNabb does a pretty cool version of that too, but sadly I can't find it on the interweb and don't have time to upload it right now.
Onto The Swede's other fine suggestions, the last of which opens up a whole avenue of possibilities...
And now I shall hand you over to our Canadian correspondent, Douglas McLaren, making a welcome return this week with a whole bunch of fine suggestions...
I felt like I had to keep up the Canadian side once again when we hit 40. A fun one, for starters, is by Canada's (former) house band...
Then there is, of course, the granddaddy of Canadian folk rock, Gordon Lightfoot, who can teach you how to be an Auctioneer. And no, we don't actually have a forty-five dollar bill here in Canada.
Perhaps that's because the original came from the USA, Douglas (it's featured here before as my dad used to be an auctioneer when I was a boy).
From Canada we then journeyed halfway round the world to Australia, with another welcome
return from my old pal Deano who's just about to celebrate a rather relevant birthday. Remember, Deano - "life begins!" Cough cough.
He describes his first offering as "a silly, but oh so much fun, one hit wonder from New Zealand." Sounds perfect!
Next, "a Tasmanian-via California-via Nashville country singer
that I have really started to enjoy recently. She’s lived those forty
years (“I got battle scars around my eyes. I got old boyfriends with
bitchy wives. I look back and I wonder why.I’m forty.”) Sadly, she died
young after a cancer
Deano's final offering comes from a classic country songwriter: "In the process of discovering Tom
T Hall at the moment, and enjoying every moment of it. What a
songwriter. In this one, he talks about a funeral, and reflects on the
fact that the dead guy owed him $40."
All of which leaves me with just a handful of my own selections that nobody else mentioned, so I thought I'd make this post even longer by counting down my Top Five 40 Songs. I actually did a Top Ten 40 Songs seven years ago when I did turn 40 and three of these (as well as a bunch of your suggestions) featured there. That was on the old blog though which exists now only in my archives, so no link, I'm afraid.
I went to Liverpool yesterday for the first time in my life.
As it's unlikely I'll be going back anytime soon, I thought I'd feature it here today. There are, of course, far too many popular musicians who hail from the city to mention them all here. Suffice it to say that I was slightly disappointed that I didn't see any of them during my brief visit. I'd at least have expected to bump into Sir Thumbs Aloft, gurning at me from the top of the Liver building. Next time, I guess I'll have to go to the Mull of Kintyre.
There are also far too many songs that reference Liverpool in their lyrics to ever name them all here. At least I managed to get in and out of the city without once hearing Ferry Across The Mersey. I decided to restrict myself today to just songs in my collection that feature Liverpool in the title.
Curiously, two of the best ones are by American recording artists who probably only know the city because it's where dem Beatles come from. Dey doo dough, don't dey dough?
All of which leaves me with just two Liverpool songs by actual Liverpool artists... and fortunately, neither of them is by a Beatle. So let's have them both today...
Sad to say that I don't have that Little Jimmy Osmond song in my collection. I know, shame.
If you're Crazy In Love with Saturday Snapshots, time to see if we can Work It Out together. Check On It below...
(As part of my Aretha Tribute Weekend... which continues tomorrow... it seemed the right time to include Beyoncé, who surely owes her entire career to Aretha paving the way for her.)
Anyway, a full scale scrum took place yesterday morning just after 8.30 with Charity Chic, Lynchie, C - and even George (welcome back, George) fighting to see who could type their answers fastest. No, sorry, FBCB, there are no marks for neatness in the game... although I'm pretty sure you clinched the victory this week anyway. Alyson deserves credit for working out this week's stinkers - number 9 - a song I doubt anyone remembered (even I'd forgotten it) and number 3 (Martin or The Swede might have got that, but I seriously doubt it's in Alyson's record collection). Well done to you all, and thanks for playing as always...
10. Clashing with the cops... even though one of them was a cop - completely!
Clashing with the cops would be fighting with the law. Clashing because the Clash covered this song.
I'm going to have to stop using the police clue for Bobby after today... but it made more sense here than most times I've used it.
A Jamaican cooking pot / pan is called a Dutchie. This song was originally about drugs, but when this bunch covered it, they changed the lyrics so that it was about food instead. (Ironically, Dutchie then came to be drugs slang as a result.)
Babies would represent youth. Singed is a bad pun for musical AND burned.
This generation... rules de nation... with version!
2. Why stand on the Big Bad when you could be going on David Copperfield's rug?
Why step on a big bad wolf when you could be riding on a magic carpet? (Originally I wanted to make that Paul Daniels' rug, because that would have been funnier, but I didn't know how well he'd be known internationally.)
Martin did a post recently about music videos that stop the music unexpectedly half way through. There's a great example here, courtesy of Mr. Leonard Nimoy...
If I Were A Boy... or even a Naughty Girl... I'd come back here next Saturday for some Déjà Vu. See you then.
Listen, George has been stood outside your house since 5 a.m. and by the time 6 rolls around, he's royally pissed off that you're still not home. Great stalker anthem.
I remember the radio station I worked at (along with many others) insisted on playing the dancey remix of this when it was out. The slow, sultry original is far superior.
6.30 is just way too early To get up this cold December morning Though as long as she insists on being the theme to my every single dream That coffee it is a calling
That's a pretty great opening verse, and this song only gets better...
In which Stuart Murdoch gets woken up at 6 by roadworks outside his window. Oh well, he's up now, might as well start mooning over an old girlfriend...
See also Olympic Village, 6am, an instrumental B&S recorded to accompany the Rio games. Not entirely sure why.
Six a.m. you left me for the last time On my doorstep blinking in the sunshine Blamed and framed I'm frozen in the picture Hanging in the space you left inside me Climbed upstairs into the final scene
Waiting for the credits to appear For all the years that I've been starring Starring in a film with you and leading Leading with a star I knew but I'm waking up In a lone beam of light where the dust is dancing As the music fades
Tom Waits for no man, not even at 6 a.m. (No, I will never grow tired of that pun.)
And it's six in the morning, gave me no warning; I had to be on my way.
Well there's trucks all a-passing me, and the lights are all flashing,
I'm on my way home from your place.
I know I won't make many friends by saying this, but I love the Eagles version almost as much as I do Tom's.
Prince. Susannah Hoffs. If you don't love this, check your pulse.
Six o'clock already I was just in the middle of a dream I was kissin' Valentino By a crystal blue Italian stream But I can't be late 'Cause then I guess I just won't get paid These are the days When you wish your bed was already made
Waking up at six a.m. on a cool warm morning Opening the windows and breathing in petrol An amateur band rehearsing in a nearby yard Watching the telly and thinking about your holidays
The Jam were really rather good, weren't they?
1. The Monkees - Daydream Believer
"7A" "What number is this, Chip?" "7-A!!!" "OK!, know what I mean, like, don’t get excited man. It’s cause I’m short, I know."
Davy Jones dreams of the 6 o'clock alarm never ringing... but it does, and when he finally rises, his shaving razor's cold... and it stings.
A single from possibly the last truly great Costello album - When I Was Cruel - though I do keep trying to find the time to give his later offerings a reappraisal. It's tough, because he was one of my favourite songwriters throughout the 90s, but his insistence on paring down the lyrical barbs in favour of a purer, more universal kind of songwriting following this album left me largely cold. Doll Revolution still carries plenty of the infamous Costello spite though... and was covered later by The Bangles in an attempt to get back to their own rock 'n' roll basics.
From the magnificent 69 Love Songs, the only truly essential triple album in my record collection, this is Stephin Merritt at his camp and catty best... this guy knows how to extend a metaphor till it crackles!
Well my heart's runnin' round like a chicken with it's head cut off All around the barn yard falling in and out of love Poor thing's blind as a bat Gettin' up, fallin' down, gettin' up Who'd fall in love with a chicken with its head cut off?
I'll dedicate this one to my old pal JC, The Vinyl Villain, who came back from a terrible tragedy last year when his original blog (years of work) was merciless destroyed by the Blog Police. Many bloggers would have called it a day after that, but JC came back fighting with a new TVV - still one of the best blogs on the internet.(And he was kind enough to give me a plug the other day, so I thought I'd return the favour.)
Over the years, JC has introduced me to many fine records and bands - Frightened Rabbit are one of his very best recommendations. And this song's kind of apt as a tribute, as it's all about not giving up.
When my blood stops, Someone else's will not. When my head rolls off, Someone else's will turn. And while I'm alive, I'll make tiny changes to earth.
Here's to you, JC... I'm sure you'll be horrified by my #1.
I've had this one as an earworm a lot lately, a stand-out track from Zevon's outstanding Excitable Boy album. It's the grimly hilarious story of a Norwegian mercenary targeted by the CIA who becomes a vengeful ghost with a submachine gun that just keeps shooting.
Tragically, this was the last song Zevon ever performed live, on the David Letterman show in America, shortly before his death in 2003.
1. Queen - Don't Lose Your Head
The album A Kind of Magic wasn't particular well-received with the critics, being largely a soundtrack to the (not-very-good - sorry, 80s fans, but it isn't) movie Highlander. And this isn't even one of the best songs on that album. So why do I love it, why do I give it Number One above all the excellent records that preceded it on this list?
Because it's very special to me. Although Queen's Greatest Hits was the first LP I bought (or I might have asked for it as a Christmas present), A Kind of Magic was the first of their studio albums I got into. I'd have been about 15 or 16 (so a couple of years after it's release, but I was a late developer in all things musical... I've been making up for that ever since) and I often spent my evenings baby-sitting for my sister or brother, both of whom are a good sight older than me, married young, and had kids (my nephews) who ended up being just a few years younger than their Uncle Rol. Much of that time I'd spend listening to their record collections, and I think both of them had copies of A Kind of Magic on vinyl... it was probably one of the few albums their collections had in common. I wore the grooves off this record, and eventually bought my own copy on which to do the same.
Don't Lose Your Head, then, isn't one of the great Queen songs. It's an average Roger Taylor album track (hence the drums are more prominent than any other instrument), distinguished slightly by Joan Aramatrading on guest vocals. But it's one of my formative musical experiences and, thus, irreplaceable.
Those were my headless chickens. Which is your Marie Antoinette?
