To end the week, a handful of songs that follow on nicely from yesterday's post...
Showing posts with label Blue Nile. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blue Nile. Show all posts
Friday, 21 August 2026
Sunday, 4 April 2021
Snapshots #183: A Top Ten Easter Songs
Perhaps the link was too obvious yesterday... call it an early Easter presents, as I can't give you all chocolate.
Here are the answers...
10. Blimey, Cher - it's roomy!
"Cher - it's roomy" is an anagram.
9. A friend of the office manager.
The office manager, David Brent, was played by Ricky Gervais.
Ross Geller was a Friend.
8. Chic fella, all alone.
The Chic fella would be Nile Rogers. If he was all alone, he might well be blue.
7. Not so fishy anymore.
That's Marillion, after Fish had swum off to fresh waters.
6. Police found with drugs on calendar.
The Julian Calendar.
Cop + E.
Julian Cope - Easter Everywhere
5. Founding father of flight.
Thomas Jefferson was a founding father.
I suppose White Rabbit would have been Easter-ish (it's certainly a better song), but the one I had in mind was...
4. Psycho king.
Anthony Perkins was Norman Bates in Psycho.
Elvis was the king.
3. Connections.
The Associates - Tell Me Easter's On Friday
2. One step wreath.
One step is a stair.
A wreath is a garland.
Fred Astaire & Judy Garland - Easter Parade
1. Baker's man becomes metalworker.
Patty cake, patti cake, baker's man.
A metalworker is a smith.
When all the Easter Eggs are eaten, Saturday Snapshots will still be here... next week.
Sunday, 14 June 2020
Saturday Snapshots #140 - The Answers
10. Between 11.59 and 12.01, approximately, the flying poison hits.
The Airborne Toxic Event - Sometime Around Midnight
9. Add a diamond to mercury to create the smartest creatures in the sea.
Neil Diamond & Freddie Mercury...
Fred Neil - Dolphins
Classic.
8. Ex-otter steals cars.
"Ex-otter" is a very simple anagram.
Roxette - Joyride
7. Tiny News-man hits rocky patch.
Huey Lewis & The News?
Baby Huey - Hard Times
This featured on this blog a couple of weeks back, but this edition of Saturday Snapshots was compiled before that.
6. Munster & Allen meet Mary Poppins in New York.
Lily Allen. Lily Munster.
The Lilys - A Nanny In Manhattan
5. Hotrod boychild warns ships about adoring blooming herbs.
Eddie & The Hotrods.
Eddie's son?
Lighthouses warn ships.
Etc.
Etc.
I'm writing the answers on Thursday night and predicting that Alyson got that one from the photo alone. She wasn't the first, but she did end up supplying an important correction...
Just an observation but as I wrote about the song Love Grows by Edison Lighthouse quite recently I noticed that Tony Burrows isn't part of the line-up in that picture. They were a band made up of session musicians and their only big hit was when Tony was brought in on lead vocals. He had also been part of 2 other bands at the same time so had 3 singles in the Top 10 at the same time. He ended up being a 5 times 'one-hit wonder'.
Edison Lighthouse - Love Grows Where My Rosemary Grows
4. Black and white TV shows only repeats of Blind Date.
Cilla Black was the presenter of Blind Date. Apologies if that clue didn't cross the Atlantic.
The Monochrome Set - Cilla Black
3. Conceited carnival, 5am.
Vanity Fair - Early In The Morning
2. Sad river falls on Hollywood.
The Blue Nile - Tinseltown In The Rain
1. Beachy Headphones.
Beachy Head is a cliff.
Baby wants to play Saturday Snapshots again?
Come back next week.
Friday, 18 August 2017
My Top Ten Bowling Songs
Fuck it, dude... let's go bowling.
(Special mention to Bowling For Soup, the only band to ever read one of my blog posts and tweet a reply about it. Pity they never wrote a bowling song.)
10. The Blue Nile - High
Bowling alleys as a metaphor for the modern malaise? Yes please, Paul.
In the bowling alleys
In the easy living
Something good got lost along the way
9. The White Stripes - Red Bowling Ball Ruth
What a racket. In a good way, of course.
8. Donald Fagen - Miss Marlene
Now we know where Donald Fagen spends his Saturday nights...
Whether straight or hammered
She was the best in town
When she released a red ball
All the pins fall down
Can't you hear the balls rumble?
Can't you hear the balls rumble?
Miss Marlene
Were still bowling
Every Saturday night
Saturday night
7. The Auteurs - Showgirl
Luke Haines knows how to show a girl a good time...
I took a show girl for my bride
Thought my life would be right
Took her bowling, got her high
Got myself a showgirl bride
6. The Handsome Family - Bowling Alley Bar
When Brett and Renee are on fire, they can't be beaten...
Dented cars make me think of you
Sitting on a red leather stool
Drinking with your sunglasses on
In the bowling alley bar
And the sound of crashing pins
Behind us when we kissed
The night I wrecked my father's car
Behind the bowling alley bar
5. John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John - Summer Nights
Can't listen to this without remembering that time Adam Buxton interviewed Paul Weller...
Took her bowling
In the arcade
We went strolling
Drank lemonade
Do you think
This rhymes with laid?
4. Camera Obscura - Let's Go Bowling
More Glaswegian heartbreak from Tracyanne and the gang...
Anyway, I got myself some bowling shoes
An' they are all that I can see
With all my might I scored a strike
My friend you wouldn't believe
My teenage years were wasted all on me
Yeah, I can relate to that last line.
3. Lambchop - Let's Go Bowling
Musically, this wouldn't be out of place on The Big Lebowski soundtrack.
Lyrically: it is devastating.
Put that camera away
Take no pictures of the ruins of our life
That died without a fight and oh
We're doing everything just right
Except for touching and for holding and consoling
Let's go bowling
2. Elvis Presley - Down In The Alley
Originally recorded by The Clovers in 1957, Elvis brought a desperate energy to it that lifts it above much of the soundtrack fodder he was recording at the time. I love the anoraky detail you can find on iffypedia about old Elvis songs: "Presley recorded it between 4 and 7 AM in the early morning of May 26, 1966 at the May 25—28 studio sessions for RCA at the RCA Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee". Did this guy ever sleep?
Janie, Janie, Janie, Janie, Jane Jane
Down in the alley, just you and me
We're going bowlin' till half past three
Just rockin' and reelin', we'll get that feelin'
Down in the alley, oh baby gee
1. Camper Van Beethoven - Take The Skinheads Bowling
Of course, there could only be one Number One on this chart. The Manics do a pretty faithful cover too. From the album Telephone Free Landslide Victory. Mark E. Smith would be proud.
Maybe it's a metaphor for racism, maybe it's just nonsense. Either way, it scores 300.
Which one is right up your alley?
Monday, 12 August 2013
My Top Ten Parade Songs
Because everybody loves a parade... don't they?
Special mentions to The Electric Soft Parade (who have a new album out called Idiots... which sells it to me) and The Hit Parade.
10. Jill Sobule - Rainy Day Parade
Jill beats Macy's Day Parade by Green Day (in which Billy Joe Armstrong plays Gripper Stebson) into the Top Ten through the power of positive thinking.
I used to live with someone who loved me9. Randy Newman - Jolly Coppers On Parade
But somehow they ran out of patience
I regret those things I said
They were so uncalled for
Pure sarcasm. Bliss.
8. Del Amitri - Some Other Sucker's Parade
When the going gets tough, the tough get boozin'...
I must've had a million damn unlucky days7. Fountains of Wayne - A Fine Day For A Parade
But there ain't no cloud that a bottle can't chase away
I've done my deal of living, ran from place to place
But when the roof comes in I don't wanna take it straight
And here's someone else with no lock on her liquor cabinet...
Mrs. Carver says she's sorry6. The Magnetic Fields - Parades Go By
She knows enough not to worry
But what does she know about crime?
Believes the town is sinking
The price of forward thinking
You stay up all night half the time
Racking your mind
Alone in the night
While all your neighbors sleep tight
It's notoriously difficult to make a decent double album without resorting to filler... Stephin Merrit's Magnetic Fields may be the only band I can think of to create a truly indispensable TRIPLE album.
5. Prince - Christopher Tracy's Parade
Not on youtube, natch. Still, I could hardly leave it out.
4. The Blue Nile - Headlights On The Parade
From the album Hats, the best musical insomnia cure you can buy. (And I mean that as a compliment.)
See also Easter Parade, also by the Blue Nile. Also good for nodding off to.
3. Elvis Costello - Invasion Hit Parade
I have much love for Elvis's infamous beardy album, Mighty Like A Rose. Here's one reason why...
Her transistor offers no salvation or regretsSee also London's Brilliant Parade and Jack Of All Parades, completing Declan's Parade Hat Trick.
No pool, no pets, no cigarettes
Just non-stop Disco Tex and the Sex-o-lettes
2. My Chemical Romance - Welcome To The Black Parade
MCR had many fine moments before calling it a day earlier this year, but this sumptuous rock opera could well be their finest... one of the best Number One singles of the 21st Century. I'd pretty much convinced myself it would be Number One here too... until I remembered...
1. The Doors - The Soft Parade
One of the greatest spoken word intros ever put down on tape...
You cannot petition the lord with prayer!The other 8 minutes aren't too shabby either.
When I listen to Jim Morrison here, I start to realise where that other crazy Jim (Steinman) got so much of his insanity from...and I swear the opening verse reminds me of Neil Hannon too.
When all else fails
We can whip the horse's eyes
And make them sleep
And cry...
But... which parade would you stand out in the rain to watch?
Thursday, 18 October 2012
My Top Ten Hollywood Songs
Back to my American tour... with ten songs about Tinseltown.
Special mention, of course, to Frankie. Relax!
10. Suede - This Hollywood Life
Brett Anderson's songwriting has always combined glitter and grubbiness, so an ode to the capital city of both seemed inevitable.
9. Kasey Chambers - Hollywood
Kasey laments the fact that real life ain't like the movies. A cliche, perhaps... but that voice!
8. Ryan Adams - Goodnight, Hollywood Boulevard
Yeah, right.
7. The Blue Nile - Tinseltown In The Rain
Glaswegian genius, from their debut album... 28 years ago. (Ouch.)
6. Father John Misty - Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings
One of the more interesting new records I've discovered this year comes from ex-Fleet Fox J. Tillman aka Father John Misty. This is a standout track from his debut album (as FJM), Fear Fun.
5. The Wedding Present - Spider-Man On Hollywood
Comic book fan David Gedge obviously didn't think Hollywood's version of Spider-Man measured up to the one he read as a kid. And of course, he turns that into a metaphor for disappointing relationships.
4. Eminem - Say Goodbye To Hollywood
Another woe-is-my-awful-life ode from Slim Shady, but when he writes lines like this...
Bury my face in comic books, cause I don't want to look...well, obviously, I can relate.
At nothin', this world's too much
Not to be confused with...
3. Billy Joel - Say Goodbye To Hollywood
Look, if you don't like Billy Joel... you don't like music. The Phil Spector-esque production on this BJ classic proved irresistible to Phil's ex, lead Ronette Ronnie Spector who went on to record her own version... with a little help from the legendary E Street Band.
2. Codeine Velvet Club - Hollywood
Sometimes side projects prove more exciting than an artist's day job. Codeine Velvet Club was the brainchild of lead Fratelli Jon Lawler and Glasgow club singer Lou Hickey. The male/female harmonies and big 60s production numbers they created on the band's 2009 debut album promised great things... though sadly, it doesn't seem they're destined to work together again.
1. Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band - Hollywood Nights
One of beardy-Bob's bristling best.
In those Hollywood nights
In those Hollywood hills
She was looking so right
In her diamonds and frills
All those big city nights
In those high rolling hills
Above all the lights
She had all of the skills
Which Hollywood hit is your heartthrob?
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