Snapshots #433: Songs About Girl's 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.

Snapshots #373: A Top Ten Musical Shapes

John Noakes has a camera on his head purely so that I can use the line "get down, Shape!"

Here are ten shapes you can get down to... 

10. Always looking for the latest thing...

The New Seekers - Circles

9. Ellen hefts twerp all over the place.

"Ellen hefts twerp" was an anagram!

Stephen Fretwell - Oval

8. Committees from the Great White North.

Boards of Canada - Turquoise Hexagon Sun

7. Squad found in gooseberries and lingonberries, but not in raspberries.

The Go! Team - Semicircle Song

6. Goes well with Pepsi.

Pepsi & Shirley?

Shirley Bassey - Diamonds Are Forever

5. Max Jaffa.

The day I run out of Half Man Half Biscuit-related puns will be a sad day indeed.

Half Man Half Biscuit - Oblong Of Dreams

That's the best song you'll hear today. Brings a tear to my eye.

4. Loud noise heard during Xanadu pre-election campaign. 

Xanadu pre-election campaign, and his Big Sound...

Simon Dupree & The Big Sound - Kites

3. Tranny, over heels.

A tranny was an old name for a radio + head over heels...

Radiohead - Pyramid Song

2. Apply brawny arm oil and rub in vigorously. 

"Brawny arm oil" was an anagram...

Barry Manilow - Bermuda Triangle

1. Secondary Greeks.

The Beta Band - Squares

Shape up for more Snapshots next Saturday...

Mid-Life Crisis Songs #88: Bad Back

Did my back in at the weekend. I went to the tip with a car-load of post Christmas junk, including a single mattress, and managed to unload them all with no trouble. Once back, trying to refit Sam's car seat in the pouring rain, I twisted in slightly the wrong way in the confined space and bingo. 

I'm hoping it'll be better by the time this post runs, but in the meantime, here are some of the songs I listened to while stretching out on a cold hard floor...

Nina Simone - 'Tain't Nobody's Biz-ness If I Do

I go to church all day Sunday

I go out and get drunk all day Monday

And ain't nobody's business what I do

There are loads of different versions of this old blues standard, and the lyrics change depending on who's singing it. I've been listening to Nina's 1961 album Forbidden Fruit lately, and this is one of my favourite tracks.

Tom T. Hall - It Sure Can Get Cold In Des Moines

Tom T. Hall was known as "The Storyteller". For very good reason...

I looked 'round the room, as a tourist would do

That's when I saw the girl in the booth

She sat there and cried in the smoky half-dark

The silent type crying that tears out your heart

Her clothes were not cut in the new modern way

And her suitcase had seen better days

Nobody asked her what caused her such pain

Nobody spoke up, yet no one complained

Without even asking, I knew why she cried

Life is just like that sometimes

Barry Manilow - It's A Miracle

From his second album way back in 1974. What joy I felt when I heard this and recognised it from my childhood. I'm guessing Terry must have played it back in the day.

Shut up.

Finally, inspired by Charity Chic's recent Saturday Series, I've been listening to Townes Van Zandt's Roadsongs LP. Unlike CC's series, where we have to judge Townes' originals against covers, this is a live album on which Townes covers other people's songs... often improving on them. He does that here on my favourite version of The Stones' Dead Flowers, as immortalised in my favourite movie. The Dude abides.

Snapshots #216: A Top Ten Songs About Brazil

Look, this was the first thing I found when I put "Brazilian celebrities with cameras" into Google, OK. If I could have found a picture of Pele holding a camera, he would have been here instead of Gisele.

Honest.

10. Vadim's villain.

The villain in Roger Vadim's movie Barbarella was... Durand Durand.

Duran Duran - Rio

Condemning the 80s with one single video.

9. Half a drum, half a Scottish sunbeam.

Half a Tom Tom... plus a Mc-Ray.

Tom McRae - São Paulo Rain

8. Will Pakistan get zebras, Trudy wonders? The answers lie within.

The image above is, as revealed by Walter, Alain Delon and Romy Schneider, who have nothing to do with Brazil... though they did feature prominently in an image search for these guys...

Will PakiSTAN GET ZebrAS, TRUDy wonders?

Stan Getz & Astrud Gilberto - The Girl From Ipanema

Amazingly, despite having done this quiz for over 4 years, that's only the third time I've posted a wrong picture.

7. They sound like silly Scots.

Guillemots rhymes with Silly Scots... doesn't it?

Guillemots - Trains To Brazil

6. Good bee lost in window doors.

The Good Bee would be Johnny, as in Johnny B. Goode.

"winDOW Doors"

Johnny Dowd - Maybe Brazil

5. There's no end to this Beach Boy after he joins a big band.

Mike Love was the Beach Boy.

The Love Unlimited Orchestra - Brazilian Love Song

(With Barry conducting, obviously.)

4. Airblown Mary.

Anagram!

Barry Manilow - Copacabana

Although it's named after the Brazilian beach, the Copacabana nightclub can't be in Brazil, since it's the hottest spot north of Havana. I'm not brilliant at Geography, but even I can work that one out.

3. Mad king steps down the peer.

Mad King George goes down the peerage to become a Duke.

George Duke - Brazilian Love Affair

2. Barbed conductor.

Wire is a conductor. That's how we get electricity into our homes. It can also be barbed.

Wire - Brazil

1. Lithe mechanism.

Anagram!

Michael Nesmith - Rio

Join me next Saturday for a Bündchen more Snapshots...

Snapshots #184: A Top Ten Magic Songs

What connected all the songs on yesterday's Snapshots quiz, Paul?

"That's... magic!"

10. Library woman in disarray.

"Library woman" is a wonderful anagram for old Manly Barrimore...

Barry Manilow - Could It Be Magic?

9. Like 10CC and Pearl Jam. (Ick.)

I won't spoil your Saturday morning by explaining the connection too graphically, suffice it to say their names all come back to the same point of origin...

The Lovin' Spoonful - Do You Believe In Magic?

8. Not involved with The Female of the Species.

The 90s band Space sand about The Female Of The Species.

20 odd years before that though, there was a French band with the same moniker...

Space - Magic Fly

And that's where Daft Punk got their act.

7. Wild German dog.

Steppenwolf - Magic Carpet Ride

6. Boob drug? Oh!

It was an anagram!

Bob Dorough - Three Is A Magic Number

5. Discovered gravity on the loo.

Isaac Newton, on the John.

Olivia Newton John - Magic

Some great minor chords in that.

4. Steal a duck.

Nick a drake!

Nick Drake - Magic

3. Army (under another name) eats home-made Sunday dinner.

Another name for army might be limb-y.

Homemade Sunday dinner is family cooking.

Limmie & The Family Cooking - You Can Do Magic

2. Dangermouse. Krypto. Champion.

They're all Super Furry Animals, of course.

Super Furry Animals - God! Show Me Magic

1. Victoria.

Queen Victoria, obviously.

More magic next Saturday.