I must apologise for being largely absent from the blogosphere over the summer, beyond Snapshots and Namesakes. I've been busy, and even now that I'm back in the normal routine, I'm not sure I have the energy. Bit of an existential blogging crisis. We have them from time to time, don't we?
Last week, we were in Wales, where I received my first speeding ticket in 34 years of driving. This was for going 26 mph in a 20 zone that appeared out of nowhere (the road went from 60mph to 20mph on a country lane with no buildings or pedestrians, just fields on either side of the road). It seems that the Welsh police are out to raise as much money as possible from unsuspecting incomers... but I'm not sure what this will do to the tourism economy. I doubt I'll be speeding to get back there any time soon.
Did have a nice visit to Portmeirion though...
Normal service may or may not be resumed, but in the meantime, here's a few songs about speed...
Imagine all the people who can't work out the answers to Saturday Snapshots! How Do You Sleep when there's one you just can't get?
A pretty even spread of marks this week, with lots of you working together to piece together the clues. Charity Chic won with 3 whole points, but well done to Walter, Chris, Alyson, Rigid Digit and C for sterling efforts - and a welcome return from George, who christened the Christians.
Of course, I did goof pretty badly on the photo for clue 2. More on that below. Hang my head in shame. Oh, Nobody Told Me there'd be days like these... we better get some answers!
10. Neneh's spirit adds to division.
Neneh Cherry.
Spirit = ghost.
Adding & division are basic things you do in Mathematics.
To explain how I ended up posting the wrong image for this clue... and bizarrely ended up posting a second picture of Wolf Alice, here's the google image search I used...
My lesson here is to never trust the NME. That bottom left pic - as C rightly identified - is another picture of Wolf Alice... even though the New Musical Morons have labelled it as a band from 20 earlier.
Despite all that, nobody got my clue (or at least, not as I type this). Hopefully it'll be self-explanatory now...
This year is the 40th anniversary of Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J., the debut album by the one artist whose music has meant more to me throughout my life than any other (sorry, Moz). While I still don't feel able to compile a Top Ten Springsteen Songs... maybe I never will... here's the closest I can get to a tribute. Ten songs that mention The Boss...
Only just discovered Ezio in the course of compiling this Top Ten. They're from Cambridge. You wouldn't know it...
I'll never be the boss just lower management I guess I've never had a Thunderbird A beat up Volvo is less absurd I'd do anything to impress you I'd do anything to caress you I grew up in a town called Whittlesey I've never been to New Jersey I don't know too much about you But your friend said you like Bruce Springsteen
Jessie's Girl coveter Rick Springfield finds himself confused for his more famous (half-)namesake. A witty song about not being as famous as that other guy.
Another New Jersey act, unkindly dubbed by some critics a "Springsteen tribute band", and tracks like this, baby, they were born to back up that argument. "No surrender, my Bobby Jean" the GA sing, amid lyrics that sound like Bruce's songbook chopped up and reassembled Bowie-style. But, as I've said before, if you're gonna wear your influences on your sleeve... these cufflinks are 24 carat gold.
Ben Parker released one album as Nosferatu D2 (with his brother Jamie) prior to taking on the solo mantle of Superman Revenge Squad. This song, a tirade against Ben's hometown of Croydon, was written around a loop of the guitar from Springsteen's 'My Hometown' before Ben ditched that in favour of a somewhat more aggressive backing track.
Throw away your autographs Of people you don't care about Andy Peters, Andy Crane They're all the same, they're all the same
It was obvious the second I first heard Video Games that Lana was a Springsteen groupie. And like Titus Andronicus before her, she too is Born To Die.
Play house, put my favorite record on
Get down, get your crystal method on
You were, like, dark tan driving round the city
Flirting with the girls like you're so pretty
"Springsteen is the king, don't you think?" I was, like, "hell, yeah, that guy can sing."
There are few bigger Bruce fans than Frank Turner. Frank just gets it...
I was walking home to my house through the snow from the station When Springsteen came clear in my headphones with a pertinent question Oh, is love really real and can any of us hope for redemption? Or are we all merely biding our time down to lonely conclusions?
In which the Bran Vanners pay tribute with a Born To Run rap. God, that really shouldn't work. And yet...
Sliup - Ummm - Crack
Goes the backscreen door
She wanted to go for coffee
But I sleep an hour more
See Mary dancing across the porch
She put her rolled up Ziggys in her rock and roll jersey
Jersey, she was born to run
She was the spirit of midnight
She was blinded by the light
She was holed up in jungleland
Straight up
The rock and roll big boss
Turnpike down by the river of desire
Just off Thunder Road
Where you catch her in the Tenth Avenue
Freeze out
She was lost in a flood
Mary, Queen of Arkansas
Dreaming of a Cadillac ranch with a hungry heart
But most of all she was born in the USA
Asbury Park, New Jersey
Inner state babe
To be exact she was her own rock and roll video
Rolls Royce, low riding
Speed climbing, driving by the sea
Making mad love on other people's private property
While being on the run from the local law for unpaid parking tickets!
There's tremendous irony at work here: Paddy McAloon (of all people!) having a sly, if affectionate, dig at Bruce for being a lyrical romantic.
Brucie dreams life's a highway, too many roads bypass my way
Or they never begin. Innocence coming to grief
At the hands of life's stinking car thief, That's my concept of sin.
Does heaven wait all heavenly over the next horizon?
But look at us now, quit driving, Some things hurt more much more than cars and girls.
That said, Paddy can't help but conclude:
Brucie's thoughts - Pretty streamers
Guess this world needs its dreamers May they never wake up.
And the same goes for you, Paddy. 1. Eric Church - Springsteen
One of my favourite songs of last year. It's not so much a tribute to Bruce as a tribute to the kind of golden sunset nostalgia he used to reflect on songs like Glory Days and Bobby Jean.Good times...
When I think about you, I think about 17.
I think about my old Jeep.
I think about the stars in the sky.
Funny how a melody, sounds like a memory.
Like a soundtrack to a July, Saturday night....
I don't expect anybody else will have much of an opinion about this Top Ten... but it's my blog and I've got to keep my number one fan happy!
Eddie Argos: a less L.A. rock star it would be hard to find. And yet...
When I get off that plane
The first thing I'm gonna do is
Strip naked to the waist
And ride my Harley Davidson
Up and down Sunset Strip
Hmm, I might even get a tattoo
My problems are never gonna find me
I'm not sending one letter or even a postcard back
I'm drinking Hennessy with Morrissey
On a beach out of reach somewhere very far away
Post Jim Steinman, Meat Loaf has released some pretty duff records, even I can't argue with that. However, every now and then he brings out something like this that, while not in the Jim leagues, still brings a huge smile to my face. I love rockstars who don't take themselves too seriously. I like to think that if Elvis was still alive, he'd be releasing stuff like this... even at 77.
