Snapshots #190: A Top Ten Sick Songs

Perhaps not the nicest subject matter I've ever used to connect songs, but not a bad set of tunes.

When I think of sick, I think of our cats puking up furballs... any excuse for a cat camera pic!

Answers... sorry if they get a bit heavy this week!

10. Count Ferdinand was a heavy metal pioneer.

Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, that would be.

Led Zeppelin - Sick Again

9. Welsh bays.

Cardigan Bay.

The Cardigans - Sick And Tired

8. The last ding dong. 

Ding Dong, Avon calling. The last time they call would presumably be Z-von.

Warren Zevon - Don't Let Us Get Sick

7. Found in a dirty, wet hive.

Mudhoney - Touch Me, I'm Sick

6. Montgomery, Huntsville, Mobile.

Three towns in Alabama.

The Alabama 3 - Too Sick To Pray

5. Thank Robbie for teeing off.

Take the T off thank and you get Hank, with Robbie Williams...

Hank Williams - Lovesick Blues

4. Bothered?

Disturbed - Down With The Sickness

If that's too loud for you, may I suggest this version instead...?

Richard Cheese - Down With The Sickness

3. Bee, birds, gopher.

It's an anagram!

Phoebe Bridgers - Motion Sickness

2. Disc knitters.

And another one!

Tindersticks - City Sickness

1. Guitar playing rabbit floats up and down.

Cue the first ever lyric video...

You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows, but it'll blow more Snapshots your way next Saturday...

Conversations With Ben #7: Cover Me

 

Link to above news story.

Ben: Well that's a win win for everyone.

Rol: I'd rather watch James any day of the week.

Exactly. It's like he's retaliating but it's turned out better.

Taking his mask off to spite his face.

On my Spotify random bit, a Darkness cover of Street Spirit (Fade Out) came up. Possibly a contender for the worst cover song ever.

Worse than Mark Ronson's cover of Stop Me?

Similar lines. Like how in Stop Me you can hear how it might be a dance song but one of the good things about it is it's restraint. Similarly, Street Spirit sounds like it could be a bombastic metal song but shouldn't.

Is that Darkness cover as bad as this...?

I opened that, saw the thumbnail and now refuse to watch it.

You know you want to. 3am. Save it for 3am.

To be fair, I only listened to 3 seconds of it before sending it to you.

Or what about Duran Duran doing 911 Is  A Joke?

Willie Nelson just did an album of Sinatra covers. That is sublime.

It's not Danzig doing Elvis, though.

And no covers album can ever come close to Strange Little Girls by Tori Amos so no one should try.

Actually  that is my favourite Tori Amos record.

And so it should be.

Mark Kozelek Sings Favourites?

Anything post Red House Painters should be ignored.

He's like Coldplay for pitchfork.

No.

You are wrong.

And to prove it, he has released 3 new records since your last comment.

Each one, a more generic beige than the last.

He is the king of grumpy old bastards.

It's performance art.

Like putting his diary out on record.

Not for everyone, but I get a lot out of listening to him ramble on about dead skunks in his yard.

It comforts me.

Look, a visual representation of Mark Kozelek's music...

You're just upsetting me now.

Try Death Grips, they're comforting.

Try the song Guillotine. It genuinely induces a sense of seasickness.

I don't want to feel seasick. I feel sick all the time anyway.

They're performance art. Like genuine performance art.

I only hope that when you're my age, Sufjan is putting out records like Kozelek is now. You'll get it then.

Sufjan will always put out records. And they'll always be amazing. And he'll one day finish the other 48 state albums.

Go away now. You're interrupting my crying myself to sleep. With Kozelek.

Try the new Julien Baker album for real cry to sleep music.

You keep missing the point. I don't want music that makes me cry. I want music that takes my mind off the crying.

Black Lace?

I just found a worse cover version than any we've named so far...

I dunno, The Sound Of Silence cover by Disturbed is very bad.

And then there's RHCP with Brandy and Higher Ground.

The whole of The Spaghetti Incident by Guns 'n' Roses.

Since I Don't Have You was OK. Although the video is dreadful, even by Axl standards.

I just spent 5 minutes investigating Sting and Shaggy duets on youtube. Sadly no covers.

When I was a teen, this compilation album started that is still going. Punk goes pop. It's not bad but incredibly mediocre. Very cut and paste pop punk covers.

I miss AV undercover club.

Alien Ant Farm's version of Smooth Criminal now sounds better than the original.

Did they do AV undercover?

No idea. But it seemed in the right area.

It was very varied. Wang Chung did Modest Mouse, it was great. Punch Brothers covered Reptilia. Lots of stuff.

Pinball Wizard... The Who or Elton?

Elton.

Despite being raised on Mod music, I do not understand the love for The Who.Great riffs, awful songs.

I spent a full two weeks listening exclusively to Isle of Wight and still didn't get it

Love me some Elton, though. And the Elton John biopic is the best biopic out there.

I like The Who. But you chose right. Elton brings a manic nature to the song that takes it to another level.

My dad, who is now 91 and so grew up with Sinatra, pre-pop music, and has never had any interest in any pop music... had a brief flickering of interest in The Who a few years ago because he liked all the CSI theme songs. Then he caught a bit of them playing Glastonbury and changed his mind.

You really need to watch Joe Pera. There's an episode where he discovers Baba O'Reilly...

Yes. You showed me that. I just couldn't find the show anywhere.

Just checked, Joe Pera on All4. 10 minute episodes. Gentle and honest. Literally the perfect Covid comedy.

My Top Ten Sick Songs

There's a new issue of Department of the Peculiar out - and you can buy it here.

To celebrate, here's ten songs about being sick... I know, how lovely!


10. Disturbed - Down With The Sickness

This is about as heavy as I get... and it's pretty light for Disturbed.

I have to confess though, I first encountered this song via the Richard Cheese cover version as featured in the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead.

9. Fountains of Wayne - Sick Day

All about office romances that might happen one day...

Contains the pun: Lead us not into Penn Station. Which I like.

8. Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip - Sick Tonight

In which Scroobius gets a sick-bag for a head...

I remember when I was a kid and that
Way before I found beards and caps
Pencils came with erasers that
Could erase your mistakes erase, retract
But in the real world things just ain’t that easy
You can’t take back your mistakes so freely
You gotta take them in think about them deeply
Not ignore them and just move on discreetly

7. Matchbox 20 - Unwell

Not a band I rave about, but I do love this song. I'm not crazy... just a little unwell.

6. The Indelicates - Ill

Their sex is a sickness...

Because you'll never take enough of those pills
You know you're too clever to be mentally ill
You'll never fashion your damaged soul
Because you're too clever to lose control

5. Saint Etienne - You're In A Bad Way

Burnt toast, cold coffee, nothing but Bruce Forsythe on the telly... luckily, we have Sarah Cracknell to make us feel better. 

4. The Smiths - Still Ill

Does the body rule the mind or does the mind rule the body?

I don't know... but I do know this song inspired one of my favourite Doom Patrol comics.

And, no, sorry, I can't make them Number One every time.

3. Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues

In which Bob invents the lyrics video thirty years before youtube.

See also Radiohead - Subterranean Homesick Alien.


2. Alabama 3 - Too Sick To Pray

Any song that begins thus...

I'm in a lonely room
Hank Williams sings a lovesick blues
Winter's walking up the avenue
But I ain't seen the sunshine since the 6th o' June

...well, it doesn't matter how sick you feel: this'll make you feel better.

1. Tindersticks - City Sickness

One of their finest songs, with a video directed by Jarvis and Steve from Pulp.






So, they were my sick notes... which one makes you feel better?