Saturday Snapshots #18 - The Answers

Short for time this week, so here's a quick run through, with the usual thanks...


(Apologies if anyone got the title of #6 after 7pm last night... I was in bed by then!)



10. No need to change gear for Dr. Frankenstein.

If you're in a car and you don't need to change gear, it'll be an automatic.

Dr. Frankenstein created a Monster.

The Automatic - Monster

First point of the week to Martin.

9. Speaking of whom, Tarzan's father got snowed in.

Not a lot of imagination went into the title part of this clue, but the artist...

Tarzan was created by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

The Edgar Winter Group - Frankenstein

(You ask me, Edgar Winter is way scarier than Frankenstein's Monster.)

Point to CC.

8. Relocation by hymn, tapestry and pudding (almost).

Hymn = carol.

Bayeux tapestry.

Sago is a pudding.

Carole Bayer Sager - You're Moving Out Today

Martin pieced that one together.

7. Telstar on my mind - get off!

Telstar was a satellite.

Georgia on my mind.

Get off!

The Georgia Satellites - Keep Your Hands To Yourself

Another point for Martin.

Great song. Good to see Rigid Digit agrees.

6. French hoist suffers a great loss. (TWO points if anybody gets this one without cheating.)

French hoist is indeed Les Crane!

Kudos to Martin for working that out.

The Latin for loss is Desiderata.

More on this tomorrow!

5. Pale coloured vehicles (x3).

A point shared by Martin and Brian. No further explanation needed.

The Pastels - Truck, Train, Tractor

4. Very soft ladies, hard to find in a barn.

Soft ladies would be made of velvet.

A needle in a haystack would be hard to find in a barn.

Well done, Alyson.

The Velvelettes - Needle In A Haystack

3. An alternative to a big star.

Alternative = replacement

Big Star was the band of Alex Chilton (well, after the Box Tops)

The Replacements - Alex Chilton

The rest of you should just be glad that Martin stays in bed till the afternoon most Saturdays.

2. Good afternoon, Batgirls.

This was one of those clues where I didn't want to over-egg the pudding. Originally it was something like "Good afternoon from Japan, Batgirls and Dog Ladies", but really... you didn't need all that. Well, Martin didn't, anyway.

Robyn - Konichiwa, Bitches

1. Davis & Coltrane made lots of this.

John Coltrane

Miles Davis

John Miles - Music

My favourite clue this week, gave early riser CC no problems. George would have got there too if he'd set his alarm earlier.




Congrats to Martin. I like the way we seem to have a different winner every week.

More snapshots next Saturday. More on Les Crane tomorrow.

My Top Ten Songs About Moving House

In case you were wondering why there's been a serious Top Ten drought round these parts lately, this post should explain. And yes, I was tempted to give the Number One slot to Nineteenth Nervous Breakdown.

I tried my best to stick to songs that were literally about moving house, so the likes of Curtis Mayfield, Primal Scream, Kate Bush and Supergrass (with songs about moving... or moving up... in a more general sense) will have to wait till another list. Likewise songs about leaving home...

And because I have no time to waffle on, I'll let the music do the talking this time. (Stop cheering, everybody.)


10. The Weakerthans - Sun In An Empty Room

Take eight minutes and divide
By ninety million lonely miles

         And watch the shadow cross the floor
         We don't live here anymore

9. Electric Blanket - We Will Help You Move

We will assist you with your sofa
And chairs!

8. Bob Mould - Moving Trucks

Today I am starting the rest of my life
Today I can touch the sky
And I can leave the beeping sound
Of that truck behind

          No moving trucks to hold me down

7. Drew Blackard - Right About Now I'd Like to Move to Austin and Buy a Purple House

I'd like to move on down to Austin town
Buy a purple house let the weeds grow out
Livin' on my own with my garden gnomes
They'd protect my home with their devil bones

6. Art Brut - Moving To LA

When I get off the plane
The first thing I'm gonna do is
Strip naked to the waist
And ride my Harley Davidson
Up and down Sunset street
I may 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 Henessey
With Morrissey
On a beach
Out of reach
Somewhere very far away

5. Carol Bayer Sager - You're Moving Out Today

Pack up your dirty looks
Your songs that have no hooks
Your stacks of Modern Screen
Your portrait of the Queen
Your mangy cat away
Your baby fat away
You're headed that-a-way
You're moving out today

4. Lambchop - So I Hear You're Moving

Neighborhood's getting better - I'm moving out!

3. Eels - Packing Blankets

Packing blankets and dirty sheets
A roomful of dust and a broom to sweep up
All the troubles you and I have seen

And all our troubles will be gone
Blowing out over that bridge
Floating up into the sky
Making the storm clouds cry

2. Billy Joel - Movin' Out (Antony's Song)

Working too hard can give you a heart attack-ack-ack-ack-ack...

1. The Animals - We Gotta Get Out Of This Place

Girl, there's a better life for me and you...

Which one makes you want to pick up sticks?

My Top Ten James Bond Themes

Apparently there's a new James Bond film out this week. I know, I wish they'd spend a little more money promoting it too, it can be very easy for low-budget films like this to slip through the cracks and not find their audience at the multiplex. Still, if you can't find a cinema in your local area that's taking a punt on it, here's a reminder of some of 007's greatest hits. I actually quite like Adele's new theme song... but not as much as these...


10. Jack White & Alicia Keys - Another Way To Die (from Quantum of Solace)

A little too derivative to be considered classic, but Jack White has a License To Kill.

9. a-ha - The Living Daylights

I never rated Timothy Dalton, he's probably my least favourite Bond (Lazenby might clinch it... were On Her Majesty's Secret Service not such a great film despite him). That whole "new man" thing was such an 80s blunder for a character like Bond. This was by far the best thing about The Living Daylights.

8. Rita Coolidge - All Time High (from Octopussy)

Written by John Barry (and Tim Rice), hence: ace. Even better: the Pulp cover version. 

Speaking of Pulp, how much better would Tomorrow Never Dies have been if their theme tune had been chosen over Sheryl Crow's?

7. Shirley Bassey - Diamonds Are Forever

John Barry again, with Don Black on lyrics, and - of course - the immortal Dame Shirley on diamonds.

6. Nancy Sinatra - You Only Live Twice

So good, Robbie Williams stole its timeless intro for his second biggest hit. Barry again.

5. Paul McCartney & Wings - Live & Let Die

Possibly the first Bond film I ever saw, so Roger Moore and his eyebrows were officially MY Bond... as a kid, at least. I like Macca's original, but I do prefer Axl's sneering cover. It's just so nasty.

4. Shirley Bassey - Goldfinger

Barry, Bassey... and a young Jimmy Page on guitar. Or so legend has it. 

3. Louis Armstrong - We Have All The Time In The World (from On Her Majesty's Secret Service)

Whenever I'm stuck behind a car driving at 20 miles an hour, I call the driver a 'Louis'. Well, it's better than some of the words I might choose.

As mentioned previously, though I don't particularly rate Lazenby, OHMSS has possibly the best Bond plot ever. That final scene is just a killer. And this - John Barry and Hal David... well, nobody does it better.

Or do they...?

2. Carly Simon - Nobody Does It Better (from The Spy Who Loved Me)

Written by Marvin Hamlisch and Carol Bayer Sager (of You're Moving Out Today fame), this is the song that most says Bond to me... well, apart from our far too obvious Number One. (Aimee Mann does a lovely cover too.)

1. John Barry - The James Bond Theme

Not the Moby version, the David Arnold version or the one where some idiot decided it might be a good idea to let random tone-deaf Irish egomaniacs with a God Complex have a go. The original... and still the best.




Those were my best Bonds... but which is your Nobody Does It Better?