OK, clearly I was here, because I ran a Namesakes which aggravated George even more than usual because the best band weren't an exact, precise, 100% namesake. Bloody Maths teachers and their pedantry.
But as well as being here, I was also guesting over at the esteemed No Badger Required blog, talking about a band I like that nobody else really likes.
I definitely won the prize for most out-of-place blogpost this month.
Still, if you want to read why I love the guys at the top of the page as much as I do... go read the post.
Instead, I am playing with some lovely Mountain Goats over at The Vinyl Villain. Thank you to the Blogfather, JC, for hosting today's rambly witterings.
Just in case you haven't noticed, Jez quietly brough The Chain back last week... so if you haven't dropped him a suggestion yet, get over to A History of Dubious Taste now and help restore the greatest interactive blog feature on the internet to its prime position.
I don't know where my blogging mojo has gone lately. I'm still enjoying the compilation of Snapshots and Namesakes, but anything beyond that just seems to take too much brain/soul-power. This is especially odd when you consider that just a few months ago, it felt like blogging was the only thing keeping me sane. Not that I feel any more sane now without it...
Who do I blame for this lack on inspiration? Well, I'm not pointing any fingers, but Bob Dylan's Got A Lot To Answer For...
This started a few months back, but I usually found that at least if I left a reply to someone else's comment and ticked the box, then I would receive subsequent comments in my inbox. Now even that has stopped working.
This isn't so bad for that day's post as I can check in and see if there are any comments to read and reply to, but as it also effects previous day's posts, I find myself having to check back through the past week and discovering new comments I've missed.
Is anyone else having the same issue? I've also found it to be true when I leave a comment on another blogger-based blog - like Charity Chic's. I no longer receive a notification to tell me if there's been a reply. One of the things I enjoy most about the blogosphere is the fun little conversations that crop up in comments boxes, but I'm finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with them now the notifications have stopped. I've checked my spam folder in case they'd started going in there, but no joy. Wordpress comments still appear to be working fine.
Those of you who are on blogger - is this happening to you also? And for anyone else who leaves a comment on this blog, do you still get notifications if someone replies? Is it just me?
I was very pleased to discover that SWC, one of my old blogging heroes, has come out of retirement with a new blog. Kicking myself that it took me so long to discover this fact, but I'm over 50 now; I'm surprised I can find my teeth most days. Anyway, at the beginning of the week, SWC was waxing lyrical about a track by Swedish "death pop sextet" Agent Blå. Well, he had me at "death pop", but like SWC, I was also impressed by the song's fine use of four letter words. Because at heart, I am a 14 year old and I still think swearing is cool and grown up.
Anyway, this made me want to post the track below: Carol, by Aussie punk band The Peep Tempel. It's a bitter tale of jealousy and swearing. The "plot" is summarised below, minus the four letter words, in case you're easily offended. Nevertheless, it makes me smile whenever I hear it.
I don't want to be so sanctimonious
I don't want to be such a negative jerk
But I'm the one who's been helpin' you through the divorce
A few days earlier, another name from the same era of country music, Jerry Jeff Walker, died of throat cancer.
The eulogies came thick and fast for Jerry Jeff, mostly concentrating on his most famous tune... one that's been covered by everyone from Harry Belafonte to Edwyn Collins, Neil Diamond to Whitney Houston, Bob Dylan to Robbie Williams... and, of course, Sammy Davis Jr.
Everyone likes to have their heart broken by a dying dog, eh?
Unlike Billy Joe, who I only knew a couple of tunes by, I was more familiar with Jerry Jeff's back catalogue, having dipped my toe into it on more than one occasion over the years. Here are a couple the music player tells me I listened to a lot.
Now we're waiting on the check to come sneaking down the hall
Like that old time feeling
That we never should have ever put the record out at all
If you're interested in keeping up on who passes each month from the world of music, there's no finer blog to read than Any Major Dude With Half A Heart. I've been following The Dude since my earliest days of blogging - indeed, only his blog and JC's are still around from my earliest forays into the blogosphere. Every month, the Dude posts a list of all the musical names - big and small - who have passed, with links to choice songs by each of them. But that's not the only reason I've kept reading his blog for so long - he also posts amazing themed mixtapes that in many ways were the original inspiration for the Top Tens I began compiling on Sunset Over Slawit, eventually leading to the creation of this blog.
A week or so ago, 2020 did a number on The Dude. He's already lost his job this year, and then his blog was attacked by malware hackers. (He suspects it may have been in response to an anti-Trump mixtape he posted... but I guess we'll never know. That may just be fake news.) Anyway, The Dude was thinking of packing it all in at this point, unable to afford the anti-malware software needed to rescue his blog from the brink... but in a last ditch effort, he threw an appeal out to his readers. They quickly rallied round with Paypal donations (I threw him a couple of quid myself, for all the great reading & listening over the years) and in less than 24 hours he'd raised the money he needed to keep his blog afloat.
A little bit of good news goes a long way this year.
Here's one of the many, many great tunes I first heard over at The Dude's place...
...instead, I'm over at The Vinyl Villain, introducing my Warren Zevon ICA. Thanks to JC for putting up with me. Check it out if you don't know Warren beyond the werewolves.
Here's one I had to leave out, for reasons I'll explain in the post...
Apologies for the non-appearance of the Hot 100 this week, and for the absence of any other posts over the next few days (although I should still be able to keep Saturday Snapshots going for a while as I have a backlog of those stored up). Moving house is the priority right now, but work pressures are playing on my mind more than ever and though writing this blog usually provides a sanity-restoring lifeline in times of stress, lately it's felt more of a chore than a release. As we all know, when blogging gets like that... you have to step back.
The image above is what I'd like to be doing right now. Fat chance of that.
Here's the best song I've listened to today. Speak again soon.
(*"Local" as in "from our neck of the blogosphere".)
After reading the aforementioned Morrissey Autobiography, for a little light relief over the Christmas period, I splashed out on a copy of Drawn To The Deep End by Martin - yes, that Martin - Pond. I've got to say it cheered me up no end...
Martin will no doubt think I mean that sarcastically, but it really did, despite (or maybe because of) the rather downbeat subject matter. DTTDE is a novel Martin serialised while he was writing it on one of his old blogs a few years back , getting feedback as he went along. I remember reading parts of it there and always looked forward to seeing the finished novel. Well, it turned out Martin had stealth-published it a few months ago via Amazon, both digitally and in paper. And because I'm old-fashioned and always prefer to read books on paper (if god had wanted us to read books on kindles, he'd have made tree trunks out of microchips), I jumped at the chance to hold an actual copy in my hands for the ten minutes of reading I manage each night before nodding into unconsciousness.
Except... it actually turned out that Martin's book was so good I didn't nod off at all, and raced through it faster than I've read a book in ages. (Ah, how I remember those days when I used to read a book a week. Before I got a life.)
Drawn To The Deep End is an intense character study of Peter, a man driven to the verge of depression by the death of his girlfriend, trying desperately to claw his way out, grasping at any straw (often straw women) that bends his way. It's a book that has a lot to say about being a lonely 30-something man in this day and age... and as someone who was just that ten or so years ago (and maybe only my age has changed, in some ways), I related to it very much. It's also very funny - shot through with dark observational humour that makes you wince and nod and wish you'd written it yourself. You may end up screaming at Peter. He does make some very unwise decisions. But you'll understand why, every step of the way. What is "happiness", anyway?
Anyway, go read it. Find out more at Martin's other website, here.
Oh, yes, and obviously it goes without saying this book is named after one of the best albums of the 90s. Here's a truly great track from that...
As many of you will know, the blogging firmament shines a little less brightly this weekend after the combined talents behind the excellent When You Can't Remember Anything made the decision to hang up their hats last week. JC, the Blogfather, has the full story here.
While I fully respect the reasons Badger, SWC and KC decided to call it a day, I'll still miss their blog a lot... and I was a pretty recent convert, so I imagine those of you who have been following their adventures for longer will be even more devastated.
Anyway, I threw out an idle suggestion in the comments of my own last post and C encouraged me to run with it (so blame her for this, not me). My favourite WYCRA feature, and one of the few blog posts that ever caused me to get out of bed earlier on a weekend, was The Saturday Song Challenge. Here, the guys would select a word (usually one word, occasionally a phrase) and encourage people to suggest songs with that exact title. Then they'd give out points to the best guesses, both from the five they'd pre-selected and for any new ones they liked the sound of. To be fair, the scoring system all got a bit crazy, and the comments section became a competitive free-for-all, but it was one of the most fun series in the blogosphere... at least until Jez resurrects The Chain.
So, in tribute, I thought I'd do something similar. Just as a one off. And as it would be way too disrespectful to steal the WYCRA idea outright, I've adapted it slightly.
And so, I present to you... My Top Ten Goodbye Songs...
10.
9.
8.
7.
6.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
No, I haven't forgotten to fill in the titles and artists. I want you to do that. I have a list, and I will give out points. In a crazy, ramshackle way I'm sure the WYCRA people would appreciate.
1 point for every one of my songs you identify.
2 points if you can guess a song's position in my Top Ten.
1 bonus point if you suggest a song that's better than one in my Top Ten.
The only rule is, it's got to be called Goodbye... and nothing else. So no Goodbye To Love, Hello Goodbye or Goodbye Girl. Just Goodbye.
