Saturday Snapshots #111 & 112: The Answers

Adrienne! Adrienne! It's the answers! Or, as some people call them, the expendables... two lots this week, 'cos my brain is all rocky.

#111 ANSWERS

10. Drat! Raving uzi mixed up with masterpiece.

Drat! Raving uzi is an anagram.

This song opens with possibly the worst rhyming couplet in the history of pop.

Adrian Gurvitz - Classic

I've not listened to that in years. It's worse than I remember.

9. Hell to get out of your shirt... coffee jazz.

The Ink Spots - Java Jive

Waiter, waiter, percolator!

Now that's how you write a rhyming couplet, Adrian!

8. Clean-up needed at Moe's... where there's nothing else around.

Moe's Tavern is in Springfield. Apparently it's pretty dusty.

Dusty Springfield - Middle of Nowhere

7. Funky procession to the ranch.

The Farm - Groovy Train

6. Contemporary Yankee spoken by desperate arsonist.

Desperate Dan burns things?

Dan Bern - New American Language

I can't believe this is (according to Labels) the first time Dan Bern has featured on this blog. That means the last time I wrote about him was on the old blog, nearly 8 years ago. I probably need to rectify that soon.

5. Beauty & fame... it's all anybody wants nowadays.

Beauty = belle. Fame = stars.

The Belle Stars - Sign of the Times

4. Ulysses & Stan with a woolly bison.

Ulysses S. Grant + Stan Lee + a buffalo.

Woolly is fuzzy.

Grant Lee Buffalo - Fuzzy 

3. Fashion news: we're all the same.

Depeche Mode are named after a French magazine, the name of which roughly translates as “Fast Fashion” or “Fashion Dispatch” or “Fashion News”. Martin Gore thought it translated as “hurried fashion".

Depeche Mode - People Are People

I can't understand what makes a man hate another man.

2. Small wonder - a copper's phone number.

A wonder is a marvel. A small one would be a marvelette.

Copper beech is a type of wood.

The Marvelettes - Beechwood 4-5789

Yes, kids, phone numbers really used to be this short. My mum still answers the phone "2381".

1. Fuzzy leather robot.

#112 ANSWERS

10. Exile Janet.

Outkast - Ms. Jackson

9. A Midsummer Night's fairy shrinks into the space between us, rejecting a little lass.

The imp in A Midsummer Night's Dream was Puck. Smaller would be a Puck-ette.

A union joins us together, but there's a gap in this one.

Gary Puckett & The Union Gap - Young Girl

8. Stop mucking about with the horn, ale lens ladies.

"Ale lens ladies" is an anagram.

Denise LaSalle - Don't Mess With My Toot Toot

(Youtube is attempting to convince me this song was called Don't Mess My Tu-Tu. Hogwash!)

7. Locomotive STD, switches to lorry.

You can get a cream for that.

Boxcar Willie - Truck Drivin' Man

6. French political activists refuse to leave.

Don't Leave Me This Way doesn't quite fit the clue.

The Communards - Never Can Say Goodbye

5. Time for an American beer? Magic!

Steve Miller Band - Abracadabra

Great song. Awful, awful video.

4. Trainer procurers dig down to grave depth.

Trainers are sneakers.

Pimps procure.

Graves are dug six feet under.

Sneaker Pimps - 6 Underground

3. Art's rabbits are born.

Art Garfunkel sang Bright Eyes, about rabbits.

Bright Eyes - First Day Of My Life

2. Lightweight vicars turn out the lights between midnight and one.

Parsons that only weigh a gram?

Gram Parsons - In My Hour Of Darkness

1. Cheeky fantasies accepted.

Cheeky monkeys, obviously.



Phew. Good job I work well in advance planning these things. Seriously though, if you want more Snapshots next Saturday... don't push me!

The United Kingdom of Song #33: Coventry

After sending my former boss (and nemesis) to Coventry in yesterday's post, I figured I'd go there myself today.

Coventry is the 12the largest city in the UK, according to iffypedia, and it was the birthplace of yodeller Frank Ifield ("I remember hi-im!"), Hazel O'Connor, Clint Mansell from PWEI, Julieanne Regan from All About Eve, The Primitives, Paul King, Pete Waterman and Lee Dorrian from Napalm Death. Probably the most famous musical sons of Coventry though are Terry Hall, Jerry Dammers and Neville Staple - The Specials. The Selector also hail from Coventry so there must be ska in the water (a ska spa?).

Oh, and Lady Godiva famously rode through the streets of Coventry NAKED, which proved very exciting to this particular Californian...

Grant Lee Buffalo - Lady Godiva & Me

She rides unclothed through the streets of Coventry

Upon a great cockhorse hair to her knees

I wore a Minotaur's Mask and I played the Moon Cow

I was the last to see her anyhow

...not to mention these Jamaicans...

Boney M - Lady Godiva

She's a lady, Lady Godiva

The hero of Coventry

L-L-Lady Lady Godiva

She rode into history

Beyond that, there's obviously the Coventry Carol. And then, these...

The Men They Couldn't Hang - Going Back To Coventry

Old Gray - Coventry

Van Morrison - Got To Go Where The Love Is

Sent to Coventry feels like hell

This ain't no place to get well

Sent to Coventry once again

Break out of this empty shell

If I were doing this job properly (like Alyson does), I'd now be explaining to you the origins of the phrase "sent to Coventry" rather than just directing you here. Instead, here's someone who can give even Van Morrison a run for his money in the grumpy stakes...

Elvis Costello - Luxembourg

They're smiling sweetly while they're looking daggers

Kick you where it really matters

Send all your friends to Coventry

And look for your name in last night's obituaries

But the winners today are the hometown crew. Although they don't mention their native city by name in their biggest hit, drummer John Bradbury (another Coventry lad) says it's where the inspiration came from...

"When I think about Ghost Town, I think about Coventry. I saw it develop from a boom town, my family doing very well, through to the collapse of the industry and the bottom falling out of family life. Your economy is destroyed and, to me, that's what Ghost Town is about."

Still manages to sends shivers down my spine, this, every time I hear it...