Snapshots #458: Songs From Hell

And I heard, as it were, the noise of thunder

One of the four beasts saying,

'Come and see.' and I saw, and behold a white horse...

Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around

And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts

And I looked, and behold a pale horse

And his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him...

Hopefully none of you are going to Hell any time soon, but if you are... at least they'll have a decent playlist...

15. S/laughter.

The Killing Joke - Pandemonium

14. Cher airs her grievances.

"Cher airs" was an anagram.

Chris Rea - The Road To Hell (Part 2)

13. Hyper, cuff and chain... make him wary (almost).

Hyperlink, cufflink, chainlink. Wary becomes Wray.

Link Wray - Fire & Brimstone

12. Ginger was not a Northerner.

Geri Halliwell was Ginger Spice

Jeri Southern - Fire Down Below

11. They just keep coming around.

Orbital - Satan

10. Have you misplaced the camera, Mike?

"Camera, Mike" was an anagram.

Maria McKee - This Property Is Condemned

9. Be good in St. Julian's country.

Johnny B. Goode meets goes to Cope-Land.

Johnny Copeland - Sufferin' City

8. Strange faces.

Steve Strange's faces...

Visage - Damned Don't Cry

7. Not Fats Domino.

I think I might have used this clue in reverse at some point...

Chubby Checker - Limbo Rock

6. Royalty................................................................................ and me with a capital, in the Middle East.

Prince is Far from I (the pronoun with a capital letter).

Prince Far I and the Arabs - Out Of The Abyss

5. No longer on the sidewalk.

He used to be in Pavement, now he's just...

Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks - Houston Hades

4. Did they have Reds under their Beds?

McCarthy - In Purgatory

3. Politicians on the funicular. 

A funicular is a type of tram, with added MPs.

The Trammps - Disco Inferno

2. What a bunch of cows!

The Herd - From The Underworld

1. Ben's gal is confused, obviously.

"Ben's gal" was an anagram.

The Bangles - Eternal Flame

Bonus track today from HMHB...

Because "Hell is other people". Not the people playing this quiz though, so hopefully I'll see you all back here next Saturday...

Celebrity Jukebox #66: Chris Rea

The Grim Reaper is always busier than normal over the festive season, but it seems particularly cruel to take Chris Rea three days before Christmas... giving crass DJs across the country a dilemma about whether they make that joke or not.

Here's an idea - don't. A great man just died. That shouldn't be an excuse to reach for the lowest hanging fruit.

Yes, I said Great Man. Because although Chris Rea often gets lumped into the Dad Rock category with Dire Straits and Robert Palmer... er... sorry, I'm not sure where I'm going with that, because I like all three of those artists - and not just now that I'm a Dad... I loved them when I was a teenager too. And this is why I'll never be accepted into the Illuminati of Cool Bloggers.

Still, Road To Hell was a cracking album, and I bought my copy long before Alan Partridge did, so stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

 

By the time he made it really big with that record, Chris had already been kicking around the charts for over a decade, and he'd recorded some cracking tunes along the way. Dad-Rock staples? Who cares? A good tune's a good tune.

Chris Rea - Fool (If You Think It's Over)

Chris Rea - Let's Dance

Chris Rea - On the Beach

Chris Rea - Stainsby Girls

Chris Rea - I Can Hear Your Heartbeat

So DJs - forget making the obvious remarks about Christopher Anton Rea's Christmas song today. A far better tune to play for Chris right now would be this one...

Tell me there's a heaven

Tell me that it's true

Tell me there's a reason

Why I'm seeing what I do

Tell me there's a heaven

Where all those people go

Tell me they're all happy now

Papa tell me that it's so...

Snapshots #281: A Top Ten Banana Songs

Ten songs to send you completely bananas on a Sunday morning... I left out The Banana Boat Song only because it seemed too obvious, and Harry featured here just a couple of weeks back.

10. The right bloke finds a special place in Samantha and Amanda's heart.

There's a man inside both their names.

Man - Bananas

9. In betweeners.

Ween is hidden inside Betweeners.

Ween - Bananas & Blow

8. Jobson investigates Tom's accent and George's band.

Richard Jobson was in The Skids. Tom Petty had a Southern Accent. Boy George's band was Culture Club.

Southern Culture On The Skids - Banana Puddin'

7. Points for Sweet Talking.

A Sweet Talking Guy gets loads of marks.

Guy Marks - Loving You Has Made Me Bananas

It gave me a great deal of joy to hear that again after so many years.

6. Robert got the blues in a box.

Robert Johnson had the blues. Jack in a box.

Jack Johnson - Banana Pancakes

5. Connects Mary to a Carpenter.

Mary Chapin Carpenter. You could also have Harry Carpenter to complete...

Harry Chapin - Thirty Thousand Pounds of Bananas

4. Regular jolts.

Prunes keep you regular. Electricity gives you jolts.

The Electric Prunes - The Great Banana Hoax

3. Attenborough, Davies, Bird.

They're all Dickies.

The Dickies - Banana Splits

2. Anton.

Christopher Anton Rea...

Chris Rea - God's Great Banana Skin

1. Nomad on narcissistic crusade hides answer within.

NoMAD ON NArcissistic crusade.

Madonna - I'm Going Bananas

Keep your eyes peeled for more Snapshots next Saturday.

Snapshots #251: A Top Ten Beach Songs

Ten songs to take with you to the beach. If we get the weather...

10. Top scholars.

The First Class - Beach Baby

9. Rich arse.

Unfortunate anagram alert!

Chris Rea - On The Beach

8. Stirrer.

Pushing the boundaries of what's accepted on this blog, even by my own low standards...

T-Spoon - Sex On The Beach

7. Warm, stuffy, smoky atmospheres.

Lovely musical interpretation of the Matthew Arnold poem.

The Fugs - Dover Beach

6. First Man on the Golf Course.

Adam on the green.

Adam Green - Broadcast Beach

5. Leafy Romford suburb.

Check your maps for Gidea Park.

Gidea Park - Beach Boy Gold

Apologies, but featuring the actual Beach Boys in this week's quiz would have been too obvious.

4. Carlos's Samba Goes To Washington. 

Carlos Santana performed Samba Pa Ti.

Mr. Smith Goes To Washington.

Patti Smith - Redondo Beach

3. Jamie Unchained, twice.

Jamie Foxx starred in Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained.

Django Django - Life's A Beach

2. Bruce & Clark's mum makes mules.

The mothers of Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent both shared the same first name, a fact that was used as a cringe-worthy "let's stop fighting and make friends" plot twist in the awful Batman Vs. Superman movie.

Muffin was a mule.

Martha & The Muffins - Echo Beach

1. Ms. Tricky Local.

Anagram! (Fixed after Charity Chic spotted a missing y.)

Kirsty MacColl - He's On The Beach

More next week.

Saturday Snapshots #141: The Answers

Was there one overall winner of yesterday's Saturday Snapshots, or is it the case that a few of you Drew?

It's getting harder and harder to pun myself into these answers...

10. Have I Got Newsman gets his coat... but could do with a car.

Paul Merton in a Parka. (Apologies to non-British viewers who won't have got that reference.)

The Merton Parkas - You Need Wheels

9. Corderoy for smaller sibling.

Corderoy (sic) is an anagram.

Ry Cooder - Little Sister

8. You've gotta see her use a Scottish door opener to get a good look at the afterlife.

Maria, you've got to see her, sang Blondie.

A Scottish door opener would be a Mc-Key.

Maria McKee - Show Me Heaven

For years I thought she sang "And make me breakfast" rather than "And leave me breathless".

Like Ron Swanson, I'd always rather have a good breakfast.

7. Multiple RIPs for Croce & King.

Jim Croce & Carole King...

The Jim Carroll Band - People Who Died

6. Lancashire goat audibly exhales over Ora prior to resurrection.

A Lancashire goat would be Billy from Preston.

Sigh, Rita.

Billy Preston & Syreeta - With You I'm Born Again

Forgotten how good that was.

5. Hairdresser of the century stays for the duration of Saturday Snapshots.

Former member of Haircut 100, Nick Heyward. Have I mentioned how I've met him? Have I? And what a nice man he was? Really?

Nick Heyward - Over The Weekend

Should've been a Number One. How could it fail with that video?

Oh, I would also have accepted...

Nick Heyward - On Sunday

4. Citizen Bronte splashes raw graffiti all over.

Citizen Kane meets Emily Bronte with the French "raw art" movement that finds beauty in graffiti.

Art Brut - Emily Kane 

3. This isn't the end, doofus... it's the bottom squeeze man!

The Squeeze man would be Chris Difford.

The bottom would be your rear.

Chris Rea - Fool (If You Think It's Over)

2. Frog joy, then... where it all kicks off.

"Frog joy, then" was an anagram.

It all kicks off in the centre of a playing field.

John Fogerty - Centrefield

1. Informal invitation to paradise.

Paradise is nirvana.

The informal invitation?



(Barry)more Saturday Snapshots next week...