9. "Right! Well, don't say I haven't warned you! I've laid it on the line for you time and time again! Right! So, this is it! I'm gonna give you a damn good thrashing!"
Banned by the BBC because of the repeated line "Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me". Bruno Brookes then "accidentally" played the whole thing on the chart show. And in November 2008, it was "accidentally" played to shoppers in an Asda supermarket in Preston. Asda apologised.
8. Hooligan deflowers Tokyo... that's very disturbed!
A few weeks back, I wrote a post about tribalism in music fandom, and how I've always felt it was a bad thing. I quoted Dave Newton of The Mighty Lemon Drops, from an interview in Nige Tassell's C86 book. Dave, who now lives in the States, claimed that tribalism wasn't as much of a thing over there as it is in Britain.
Over here, it's amazing how many people who like us or the Bunnymen also like Van Halen. I don't get that. Some Americans think I'm not telling the truth about bands like that - or that I'm some kind of snob. No, it's just not conceivable that in the UK you'd like Wah! Heat and Bon Jovi. But you see it here on kids' schoolbags where they've written both Rush and the Sex Pistols. Really?! How can you love both?
Well, it turns out Jeff Tweedy from Wilco disagrees. Quite strongly, in fact. Jeff's just written an article for the New York Times in which he admits that when he was a kid, he hated Dancing Queen by Abba... because that was the opinion that was expected of him. I'm not able to read the full article due to the NYT firewall wanting my money, The article's called “I Thought I Hated Pop Music. ‘Dancing Queen’ Changed My Mind.” if you feel like paying their subscription fees. If not, Stereogum have pulled out some choice quotes, including this...
Let’s talk about that first wave of disgust a bit. Initially, hating this song and Abba in general didn’t really feel like a choice. Gagging at the mere mention of this sweet little quartet was just being, you know, normal. And at the time that “Dancing Queen” came out, it wasn’t hard to hate a disco song, anyway; disco was despised by practically everyone I knew (with the exception of the kids who liked to roller skate).
Tweedy goes even further though, suggesting than the tribalism that's ingrained into us as teenagers affects our choices in later life, creating either/or, black/white thinking that prevents us us seeing the middle ground or allowing ourselves to be open to other perspectives, ideas or beliefs.
The divisions we created were embarrassing. I have sometimes even wondered if these youthful skirmishes over musical taste weren’t a childhood version of the current situation our country now finds itself in. Were people of my generation so good at dividing ourselves into factions based on stupid, insignificant differences that we simply never stopped doing it? Someone smarter than me has probably mapped the parallels between Journey fans and X fans and the current binary of political right and left. Or if no one has, someone should.
I'm not claiming the moral high ground here. As much as I rattle on about loving Billy Joel as much as REM, Queen as much as The Smiths, and Meat Loaf as much as John Prine, I'm aware that there are whole genres of music that leave me cold, and as much as I might be changing my mind about New Order, I don't think I'll ever appreciate rave or dubstep or 80% of the stuff Radio One plays these days. I like to think that I don't let genre bias blind me to a good pop song though, which is why I keep listening to Taylor Swift. Still, I think it's more important to celebrate the things I do like rather than railing against the things I don't (unless it's Bono). And I do appreciate good writing about all genres of music, which is why I enjoy reading blogs that cover artists who would never find their way into my hard drive. It's OK to say, "Ed Sheeran's not for me". That's not tribalism, it's just personal taste. Tribalism comes when you say, "Ed Sheeran's shit and I'm not going to listen to or respect the opinion of anyone who tells me they like him". We're all guilty of that a little bit, I guess, but really... what's the point?
Jeff Tweedy is doing the rounds because he has a book out, called World Within a Song: Music That Changed My Life and Life That Changed My Music. Definitely one for the Christmas list. He's also promoting the new Wilco album, Cousin, presumably inspired by the TV show The Bear, which uses a lot of his band's music. Here's the title track...
My antipathy towards U2 is well documented so you may be surprised to find them at the top of the page this week. But really, there weren't a whole lot of strong contenders... and I did want to give U2 some credit to make up for years of taking the mick. There was a point sometime in 1988/9 where I thought they may be OK. Not earlier - I still think The Joshua Tree is one of the most overrated albums ever recorded... but Rattle & Hum... that, I didn't mind. So here, for the record, is my favourite U2 song. It's not a long list...
Truly the late 80s / early 90s were a dire time for chart music. I was in my late teens at the time and the tracks above largely forced me to venture outside the charts for the first time in my musical history.
No other song will touch that, if only for the sheer majesty of Pearl's vocal (and Carl's ability to use only one side of his mouth whilst singing).
Initially, I couldn't find that anywhere on the internet, but George was kind enough to send me a link so you can enjoy it in all its glory.
That was the first thing to spring to my mind too, C. Though I still have nightmares about the awful Rod Stewart / Tina Turner version. The Sonny & Cher version (as suggested by Martin) is quite fun though.
I don't suppose anyone will mention that song about little boys by a certain person...although it was covered by Splodgenessabounds.
I loved that song when I was young. It breaks my heart that we can't listen to it anymore without awful connotations.
Martin was the first to observe that I have my work cut out for me this week.
As for "two", there are going to be loads, aren't there? Don't envy you collating them.
I'll let you into a secret... last week was training / CPD week at work. I attended all the training sessions online. But I also... multi-tasked. Which is why there was no pause in transmission this week.
So here are some. No doubt I'll forget something again this week, my mind is getting soft.
I think that goes for all of us after the past few months.
Yes, I know that's a 97... and we did feature it way back in 1984 when we were doing that week of the Hot 100 on Ceefax, before the interweb. But it's based on the two songs above, so I'll break loads of rules and throw it in.
Time for Douglas, who made the journey from Canada in record time this week...
Oh my, I somehow got here before The Swede published a list a clothyard long! I just have to get a few early suggestions in, then perhaps come back later after some real thought. For starters, since I (indirectly) promoted The Lucksmiths last week, here are two solid suggestions from the Australian artists of winsome wordplay:
Then of course there is the master of meticulous songcraft himself, the creative genius behind The Blue Nile (who births an album roughly every fifteen years):
Makes one want to smile and cry at the same time. And perhaps me especially after I discovered that the vinyl copy of the album from which it comes (2012's "Mid Air") which I purchased on release date for under $30 is now going on Discogs for something in the mid $300's. A better investment than real estate. And speaking of which, there is:
And for my usual Canadian offering, you could do worse than save some room for Montreal's beloved and finest indie rock band (no, don't worry, not Arcade Fire):
I'm allowing those last two, but I didn't want to open the can of worms that was "second songs" or we really would have been here all week.
On to Alyson, who was missing in action last week but returns full force this week...
So, so many 2 suggestions. I am struggling to come up with anything better than Party Fears Two so agree with that one and here's a little extract from when I wrote about that song after my trip to Dundee.
'It’s certainly a strange title for a song and tricky to understand the lyrics other than that a party is involved. Billy did explain the origin however, 'My wee brother was at a party watching two girls who wanted to come in. They were smashing windows and attempting to kick the door in with their stiletto heels, which he admired, so he christened them the Party Fears Two and I pinched the title from him.''
That's a great explanation. I love that song, especially the opening line.
Sadly, Alyson's other suggestions all fall foul of the the Tom Robinson Rule.
I figured there would be a load more 2am song, but it seems only Iron Maiden are hard enough to stay up that late. Anyone else who stays up that late appears to not be happy about it...
It's at this point that I have to give Rigid Digit a special award this week, for nabbing most of my top contenders in a very short space of time. Any of these could have been this week's winner. In fact, I had them listed together in almost the same order you presented them, RD...
I added the second Joe Jackson tune myself and seriously considered giving them joint winner status in the same way I had three winners last week. Sadly, a more obvious choice presented itself. But any other week...
Over to Jim in Dubai...
I fully endorse Swiss Adams choice of Party Fears 2, still sounds great and would be a worthy winner.
Now at this point in proceedings, I was feeling pretty smug about being way ahead of the game and well on track for a timely post with no overtime required.
Hi folks. Sorry I'm late. I culled this list of appropriate tunes from my hard-drives a couple of weeks back and have attempted to take out anything already suggested - apologies for any I've duplicated...
OK, time to pull an all-nighter!
At least The Swede started with two he knew would be on my list...
Let it be known, that in line with me keeping my sanity, I am going to heretofore limit The Swede to only 600 suggestions per week.
And after all that, I doubt very much that anyone will want to read my shortlist... although I think there's a couple at the top of my list that will a few of you kicking yourselves...
This week's winner was first suggested by John Medd, then seconded by Martin. It wasn't my first thought, but once it was out there, I couldn't think of anything any more appropriate.
Sam has taken to singing this song thus...
Woohoo! Abbamebaddawawa!
Woohoo! Dabbaweewawameme!
I've told him what the actual words are and he sings them once or twice, then goes back to the nonsense. Actually, I think the nonsense words are even more appropriate, since pure pop should be nonsense... and this is a contender for the purest indie pop song ever written.
Pleased ta meetcha!
Only one more to go. And there can be only one winner... but what will it be?
I've always thought that was the best thing Sting did as a solo artist. It's a cover version, originally featured in the soundtrack to the movie Brimstone & Treacle, and for many years was very difficult to track down as it never appeared on any Greatest Hits collections (despite being a #16 hit in 1982, long before The Police split). The version I had came from an 8 track cartridge at the radio station where I used to work, recorded onto a CD-R. The lengths we used to have to go to to find music!
5. Nazi brothels like Russ Abbott.
Joy Division were named after a nazi brothel in the novel House of Dolls.
Dreadful 80s comedian Russ Abbott had a hit with a song called Atmosphere. It wasn't this song... but (thanks to Jez, who I think initially made me aware of it) the two were scarily amalgamated in the video below...
Once seen, never forgotten. Here's the original, without the frightening visuals...
When you first took my hand on a cold Christmas Eve, you promised me the answers to Saturday Snapshots... well, here they are.
Congratulations to Reading's Rigid Digit who took the star on the top of the tree this year. Sterling effort from Chris, the runner up, from Denmark. Thanks also to Brian from the U.S. and Deano from Australia for coming along and solving the ones nobody else could - truly an international effort! Cheers and happy Christmas to all the other regulars. Thanks for playing.
