French actress Catherine Deneuve welcomes you to ten songs with French titles. She will provide the translations, since I gave up French in the Third Year...
No, I've never heard of Gazebo either, but apparently this was a 1983 Number One in 7 European countries. In the UK, we were too busy listening to Karma Chameleon.
Sam goes back to school today, and I'm really not sure how I feel about that. Only three year groups are returning to junior school before the summer - reception, Year 1 and Year 6. Sam's in Year 1, which his school has divided into smaller pods (maximum 15 children in each). The teachers will then try to keep the children socially distanced within each pod, while preventing them from mixing with any of the other pods.
Some parents haven chosen to keep their kids at home, so there will be less than 15 kids in Sam's pod, but he will get to interact with his friends again for the first time in almost three months.
We could have kept him off too, but frankly, Louise and I are exhausted with trying to juggle our own jobs and home-schooling , and we do feel he needs to be around people his own age again, play (as much as he's allowed) with his friends, and spend time with other 6 year olds... rather than two cranky 40-somethings.
But none of that stops me feeling anxious, and guilty, and scared. Then again, those emotions have been constant companions for the duration of the lockdown, so I guess I'm used to them by now.
I've got your picture for next week sorted, said Charity Chic. I have an album by a band called 16 Horsepower.
And you know what? I thought I did too. But it appears to have disappeared from my music library. Anyway, thank you for the reminder.
The biggest problem about the Number 16 on our countdown was summed up by Lynchie that many suggestions might be "a bit dodgy - older men singing about mid-teen girls."
In more cynical / enlightened / post-Glitter & Saville times, we may now find these songs creepy... but part of me thinks they were never actually meant that way. Oh for a return to innocence...
For your information though, Charmain Carr was 23 when that was filmed. Which takes us back to a point I raised last week. (Go look it up yourself, it takes me long enough to write all this stuff down once without going back and reading it again.)
Looking back on being 16 is something that gets harder as the years go by. There are a few songs written from that perspective, and C was the first to offer this very popular suggestion, saying, So good, in so many ways, and no dodgy lyrics about young girls! First heard when I was still 14 and sixteen sounded old...
The Swede also nominated this one. Brian added: It was No. 15 on my Festive 50 for 2019, and indie couple Amelia and Rob deserve a moment on top of the heap.
A new band to me, but one that immediately went on the Check Out pile...
That has to be the strangest video I've seen in a long time, featuring some reasonably big name actors, in some kind of bizarre SNL sketch that doesn't fit the song at all.
Anyway... the winner. Which will probably be obvious by now. It was first suggested by Lynchie, then seconded by Swiss Adam, though I'm sure a few others would have given it consideration.
Yes, I could have chosen the logo of Twenty One Pilots to illustrate this post, but I don't think they ever recorded a song as good as this. Feel free to disabuse me of that notion should you wish. Jim In Dubai also suggested another 12 group...
Personally though, The Swede concludes, I'd like to suggest Twenty One by The Apartments. What a truly wonderful band they are.
That is very nice, I have to admit it. Doesn't exist in my own record collection (yet), which is the one stipulation to be a winner on this series. But I definitely have to investigate it further.
Where's Lynchie? Putting all his eggs in one basket this week, it seems...
And... of course... this, which was our opening suggestion this week, from Charity Chic, who almost begged... The Adverts - No Time to Be 21, please, Rol.
C seconded that too, and, well... why not?
Life's short, don't make a mess of it To the ends of the earth, you'll look for a sense in it No chances, no plans I'll smash the windows of my box I'll be a madman It's no time to be 21 To be anyone
To be honest, even though I'm not particularly enjoying 47... I don't think I'd fancy being 21 again. Would you?
And so we finally reach the Top 20. On your marks... get set...
Younger Younger 28's were a fine choice to illustrate this week's post. Imagine The Human League Meets Pulp Meets Shampoo. Thanks to Jim in Dubai for recalling them and suggesting their excellent b-side Karaoke Queen (linking to another blog for that one as I couldn't find it on youtube). I was always fond of We're Going Out as well. They should have been massive.
I've a feeling you may have suggested that 30 posts ago too.
Meanwhile, last week we had Lloyd Cole fretting over getting ready to turn 30. Martin also reminded us of this, which could well pop up again in 5 posts' time...
"And my personal favourite (even if it is atypical), from the pen of Ray Davies, Low Budget by The Kinks, which has this:
Even my trousers are giving me pain,
They were reduced in a sale so I shouldn't complain.
They squeeze me so tight so I can't take no more,
They're size 28 but I take 34."
Do you know what? I'm not sure I've ever heard that before. And if you hadn't told me it was the Kinks, I might have thought it was AC/DC. It's great though!
The Swede found slim pickings in his own record collection this week. His only offering was a bit of a surprise too...
"'Never Be the Same Again' by Puressence features the lines '...you're feeling lots of pain again, December 28 again, your famous boxing day again...' December 28th? Boxing Day? What's that all about? Great song though."
"Other than that," he adds, "I need to invoke the "50 Words For Snow" card again...
28: Robbers Veil
Yes, you can always rely on Kate Bush for redemption.
Meanwhile, Alyson was in an existential mood this week...
"Alicia Keys has a song called 28 Thousand Days which is apparently the average lifespan so we should pack as much in as we can. Scarily I've had nearly 22,000 days already so I'd better get a wiggle on."
Don't worry, Alyson, you don't look a day over 21,999.
"'22 Grand Job' by the Rakes, love that song and it's pure energy, and before it comes up again in 6 weeks' time for obvious reasons it could get a little preview here for the line
But he's only 28, no more 22
Shorter post than usual this week because Douglas was on holiday. Let's scrape the bottom of my barrel before we get onto the serious contenders...
I ended last week's post by suggesting there was an obvious choice for this week, which seemed to cause a fair bit of head-scratching across the community. Some of you identified it, but only Swiss Adam seemed confident that it was the undisputed champion.
What else was there?
Lynchie drop-kicked off the suggestions with these...
The Dropkick Murphys - 1953 "Which," he points out, "doesn't mention 1953 at all in the lyrics - only the title." Not that that would stop me.
The National Parks – 1953 "Very wimpy love song," says Lynchie, "I doubt if it's that one." Not that that would stop me.
What you need is a dog, some goldfish or a cat A boa constrictor and a laboratory rat The end is at hand now and you have the means A roll of toilet paper and the right magazines Your parents are dead now and your kids are full grown You're 53 now, you're 53 now, you're 53 now You're living alone.
C was up next, offering a fine runner-up for this week which was seconded by Rigid Digit and Alyson...
However, this week's 53 isn't a year... or an age... it's a street number. 53rd Street in New York City, exactly where it crosses 3rd Avenue to be precise.
The sight of blood dispersed the gang A crowd gathered, the police came An ambulance screamed to a halt on fifty-third and third
But the biggest crime to be committed at this specific intersection came from Rigid Digit, breaking My Top Ten's strict NO U2 rule... but getting away with it (just) by suggesting one of the few U2 songs that doesn't make me want to take a pair of rusty pliers to Bono's nostrils...
Birdland on fifty three The street sounds like a symphony We got John Coltrane and a love supreme Miles, and she's got to be an angel
(You know what that one sounds like. You really don't need to click on the link and give Bono an extra 0.00000007 pence or whatever he gets per youtube view. He has enough money to last him a lifetime.)
This week's winner though... well, by now it should be obvious, even if it wasn't at first. The Ramones will always stand a good chance on this blog because they understood that punk music - and pop music - is essentially rather silly and therefore should be fun.
I have a vivid memory of my first day at school. I know it rained all day and that I cried for most of it too. Perhaps that's my memory creating pathetic fallacy, making the weather suit my mood. Memories do that sometimes.
By contrast, Sam's first day at school was a crisp Autumn morning with a chilly nip in the air, yet he still discarded his coat and charged around the playground with his old nursery buddies while we waited for the bell that signalled the start of the next major phase of his life.
Things were very different when I was a kid. My mum was a housewife and I'd never been to nursery. She took me to "playschool" once and I sat on top of the climbing frame the whole time refusing to associate with anyone else until she took me home. I didn't learn to read or write or do sums until I went to school... hardly anyone did back then, beyond the basics.
Sam can already do so much more than I ever could at his age. And he's a hell of a lot more confident than I ever was. As the bell rang, he ran into the classroom ahead of his parents, not even looking back. He's already moving on and needs us less each day.
That's a tough thing for a parent to come to terms with. I never imagined I'd have a problem with it, but there's a part of me wants him to stay a little boy forever. A much bigger part wants him to grow and make his way in the world and become a man... but I still don't ever want to let him go.
Surprisingly, the mums who were dropping their kids off on Monday seemed far more pragmatic about all this than the dads. One father I know walked away as soon as his son was in the school, unable to make eye contact, shouting a curt "goodbye" without looking back. Me, I had a good cry on the way to work. When you imagine being a parent, you imagine the majority of the tears will come from your offspring. But in the end, I reckon you shed far more yourself as they grow up...
9.1 - Chuck Berry - School Days
In the early days of rock n roll, artists regularly recycled their own tunes (and each others') to create new ones. One of the greatest examples of that is Chuck Berry's School Days, which was later rewritten with new lyrics as No Particular Place To Go. Then again, with a tune this good, why not use it twice?
After Tuesday's Top Ten Chuck Berry Songs, The Swede asked if there was any danger of a Volume 2. I'm sure this isn't quite what he meant, but hopefully it'll do...
It was inevitable Chuck would find his way into the lyrics of some of the musicians he influenced. Here are ten of the best Chuck references I could find...
Jeffreys had been making music for over 20 years when a racist insult led him to record this track asking for a little acceptance, reminding the bigots that the black fathers of rock 'n' roll such as Chuck, Little Richard, Bo Diddley and Fats Domino paved the way for Elvis, Gene, Buddy and Jerry...
Hey - remember the Rainmakers? Let My People Go-Go? Those guys. They didn't just have one record, you know.
Well, we're rounding St. Louis and heading for the coast When we pick up Chuck Berry in a little rowboat With one oar in the water and one in the air A lightning rod for a white guitar And lightning struck once, and lightning struck twice And I said "If there's a God, He sure ain't nice" And Chuck said "God is an Indian giver I don't trust nothing but the Mississippi River"
Obviously more a song about John Lennon than Chuck Berry ("I could sell your songs to Nike"), but Chuck does play a very important part...
When John called the wind an opera Making love with every chakra When he said her voice would carry And when he whispered old Chuck Berry Only then would Yoko set him free
They came this mornin' with a dog on a chain They came and took my little brother away His generation never even got a name My momma was a rocker way back in ´53 Buys them old records that they sell on T.V. I know Chuck Berry wasn't singin' that to me
Dar Williams and Amy Rigby in the same post... that's the power of Chuck Berry. Wreckless Eric fans, you'll find Mr. Rigby accompanying here too.
I saw my baby sitting there at the breakfast table His hair a mess and he forgot to shave And I wished that he would get up, make it all better Stop drinking so much, learn how to behave Then the radio was playing a Chuck Berry song And he was looking at me asking what was wrong I made a list of the things I could say But he gave me a wink and it all went away, I told him Hey I love you, you're perfect, don't ever change Don't ever change
First person to point out that Don't Ever Change was a Crickets song loses a point.
The greatest guitarist I've ever seen play live is Richard Thompson. It was a solo show, but I swear it sounded like there were three of him. I've seen some amazing guitar players before and after, but nothing that quite matched RT.
Here he is showing his chops, playing tribute to some of his own guitar heroes... including Les Paul, Django Reinhardt, The Shadows and Chuck Berry.
Jim Steinman is, officially, as mad as ten lorries, so when I say to you that this spoken word story, first featured on his ill-fated solo album and then rechristened and reused many years later on Bat Out Of Hell II... when I say to you that this is Jim's greatest moment of pure insanity... that's saying something. Obviously inspired, in part, by Jim Morrison's lyrics to The End, this features Young Jim S. bashing the shit out of his guitar till it bleeds the colour of wild berries... yes, it's "Chuck Berry red"... before taking the poor guitar upstairs to his father's bedroom to bash the shit out of his old man.
The story doesn't end the way you expect.
1. ELO - Rockaria
Jeff falls for an opera singer....
She's sweet on WagnerI think she'd die for BeethovenShe loves the way Puccini lays down a tuneAnd Verdi's always creeping from her room
And she ain't gonna rock 'n' roll. How will he convert her?
Well we were reelin' and a rockin' all through the nightYeah, we were rockin' at the opera house until the break of lightAnd the orchestra were playin' all Chuck Berry's greatest tunes...
"Chuck? Chuck, it's Marvin. Your cousin, Marvin Berry. You know that new sound you're looking for? Well, listen to this!"
As well as the accusation that he stole his greatest riff from Michael J. Fox, certain commentators have been dwelling on other less salubrious areas of Chuck Berry's history over the last couple of days, and I don't just mean his ding-a-ling. But I'd rather pay tribute to one of the men who, without whom, there would be no Elvis, no Beatles, no Beach Boys, no Stones, no Who, no Springsteen... etc. etc.
Like most serious music fans (not musos: I am still irking those guys, even though I changed my masthead), I went through a defining rock 'n' roll phase in my youth and Chuck was central to that. Looking through his back catalogue, it was easy to pick out what, for me, are his most memorable tunes. There will be few surprises here. But in the end, if Chuck Berry had only recorded the ten songs below and nothing else... he would still have had a greater impact on popular culture than just about anyone else who lived throughout the 20th Century.
Much can be made of a 30 year old man singing this song, but it's hardly as though Chuck was on his own for writing creepy odes to 16 year olds in the 50s, and the fact is: that was the target audience. Still a great song.
Written while Chuck was in prison; revived (and, to all intents and purposes, rechristened) by Quentin Tarantino in Pulp Fiction. Hard to hear without picturing John Travolta and Uma Thurman clearing the dancefloor.
Lyrically my favourite Chuck song: I know you could accuse it of schmaltz, but there's a desperation to Chuck's vocal that lifts it twenty floors above Save Your Kisses For Me by The Brotherhood of Man, which told a similar tale 20 years later. (Musos: irked. ✓)
1. Johnny B. Goode
Of course, I knew Johnny B. Goode before Marty McFly played that "oldie" in 1955 / 1985, inventing rock 'n' roll in the process. But Back To The Future still helped cement its place as my favourite Chuck Berry song. I am prepared to entertain the argument that this is the greatest guitar riff ever recorded...
Many, many years ago, when they had such things, my mum used to be a switchboard operator. The stories she could tell about the things she heard! Do we even still have operators? I can't imagine too many people dedicating a song to a pre-recorded "virtual switchboard". Press one for "the romance is dead".
Special mention to Operator Please, the band who recorded the amazing Just A Song About Ping Pong and The Operator by The Coral, which is actually about getting kidnapped and operated on by a bunch of psycho surgeons. Or something.
Ever fallen in love with a video you shouldn't have?
Wikipedia informs me that if you play the arcade game Dance Dance Revolution, you get to dance to this song... in an arcade. Glad I don't believe anything I read on wikipedia.
Dennis keeps trying to get through to Sylvia. Her mother just wants him to leave her alone. The operator keeps demanding "forty cents more" to continue the conversation "for the next three minutes".
1. Tom Waits - Martha
I almost gave this one to Dr. Hook, which would have been suitably anti-cool of me. But then I remembered this...
Operator, number please It´s been so many years And she´ll remember my old voice While I fight the tears Hello, hello there, is this Martha ? This is old Tom Frost And I am calling long distance Don´t worry ´bout the cost...
Tom Waits sounds like a weary old man on this recording. The scary / crazy thing is, he was 24 years old when it was released...
Those are the songs that get me calling the operator - but which one would be your hold music of choice?
