Because Sam's far too young to drink coffee, and yet he still has to accompany me into lots of coffee shops, his beverage of choice is the hot chocolate.
Here are some bands I could play next time he's indulging... but which would be your chocolate choice?
HOT CHOCOLATE #1
Errol Brown, Franklyn De Allie, Jim King, Patrick Olive, and Tony Wilson blended our first Hot Chocolate in 1968. With an ever-evolving line-up, the band were mainstays of the UK singles chart throughout the 70s and 80s - in fact, they were one of only three acts to score a Top 40 hit in every year of the 70s... the other two were Elvis and Diana Ross. Errol left in 1986, and the band trundled on without him, but were never quite the same. Only drummer / bassist Patrick Olive is still present from the original line-up.
Here's my favourite song of theirs, the one in which Errol sings about his Close Encounter of the Third Kind...
HOT CHOCOLATE #2
Meanwhile, over in Cleveland, Ohio (which, I'm reliably informed by Ian Hunter, Rocks), 1971 ushered in another Hot Chocolate, formed by George Pickett and Lou Ragland. I'm betting this will be George's favourite this week, as they wrote a song about geese...
HOT CHOCOLATE #3
Also in 1971, this funky instrumental emerged from Brazil... or maybe Detroit. Opinions vary. They were also known as The Hot Chocolates.
HOT CHOCOLATE #4
Please be upstanding for Hot Chocolate, a Ukrainian girl band from just 10 years ago... but happier times for that particular country.
LOS HOT CHOCOLATES #5
And finally, try a taste of some Dixieland swing... from Spain, circa 2015.
If you've Rushdie'd here this morning for the answers to yesterdays quiz, I hope it wasn't because you felt like a Salman swimming upstream, trying to work out the connection.
Here are ten songs named after famous novels, straight from your favourite English teacher. You might even call them "iconic", except you'd probably upset C.
Prepare yourself for some Satantic Verses... and Heavenly choruses, of course.
10. Shot in Sarajevo.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand was shot in Sarajevo, sparking World War I.
Remember that time Errol Brown had a Number 2 hit with a song about a Close Encounter of the Third Kind?
No Doubt About It was that song... yet, perhaps, just like me, you never actually listened that closely to the lyrics and thought it was just another hot, chocolaty love song?
What kind of magnetism kept me in this place?
Was it out of my control?
What was this ship from outer space?
What was this creature that appeared before my eyes?
Was it good?
Was it evil?
On this ship from other skies?
Of course, this being the 80s, if you'd ever seen the video, you wouldn't have been left with much doubt about it...
A hard act to beat, surely?
Unless you're ABBA.
Yes, I'm still very much enjoying that ABBA reunion album, Voyage. And the more I get into it, the more I'm surprised by how many songs on there are about long term relationships struggling to stay together. There's a really maturity to the songwriting that you don't often hear in pure pop songs, which are normally obsessed only with young love.
(There's another song on the album, I Can Be That Woman, which looks at the breakdown of the marriage through the eyes of a pet dog. Which really shouldn't work. Which Sting has already proved really shouldn't work. Except... ABBA show us how it should be done. Bloody incredible that it works, but it does.)
Anyway, here's another mature relationships lyric. This being ABBA, of course, the tune is so upbeat and so poppy, it would be very easy to miss the genius of the lyrics. Just as, for many years, I missed the aliens in the Hot Chocolate.
He says with forbearance in his eyes
Most couples we know are able to compromise
He's too good for me, that's one thing I know for sure
Emma Pollock or Emma's Imagination for the picture please, said Charity Chic, who's doing pretty well at picking our pictured artist lately, even if he can't supply any relevant tunes.
Ms. Pollock was always the Emma at the forefront of my mind for this post. I've been a fan since the early days of The Delgados.
The only other singing Emma in my collection is the actress Emma Caulfield, here duetting with Nicholas Brendon from the Buffy musical episode. I'm sure Alyson will appreciate this if nobody else.
Onto the songs then... although this week had less entries than usual. When I began this feature, I figured the girl's names would trounce the boy's names in song suggestions, but that hasn't been the case for the past few weeks. Anyway, here's what you had for me, beyond those that made the Top Ten...
...which was a bit too modern-Saxon. An older Saxon tune might have stood a chance.
Finally, you'll be pleased to know that my millennial hipster politico friend, Ben, was far too busy doing important things this week to devote much effort to the search, although he did offer the following, which he says reminds him of being 12...
I was 31 when that record came out. It reminds him of being 12. Grrr...
(Actually, I think he's a year or two older than your Maths will reveal... but I ignore him whenever he tells me his exact age because it makes me ill.)
Meanwhile, scraped from my own hard-drive, but still worthy of consideration...
And, from 1971, this curious tale of an Emma who...
...comes to see me
About 8 o'clock each night
And she throws her arms around me
And off we go in flight
Like an airplane
Moving up and down
Which, however sweetly sung, is a pretty terrible euphemism.
However, one night Emma is late... and Jonathan has his tea at 8.30, so frankly, don't mess me about love. I'm not sure this song is meant to make me laugh so much.
Within every city and town there's a madison Frozen lives for whom nothing's happening Hungry children is a mother's dilemma Dumpster diving to feed her baby Emma
That's a classic, though probably not enough of a lyrical nod compared to some of the ones that did make the final ten.
Big cheese down at the Tourist Information Come forth with your queries And I’ll wade out for miles Never trust a crown green bowler under thirty The future’s so dull I’ve gotta sing torch songs Dropkick the improv workshop mimeshow gobshite Facepaint Left Bank Kenneth Emma R-A-D-A Rainer Werner Cokeheads cokeheads cokeheads
From Rigid Digit and Walter. Lovelier than you'd expect from Chumbawamba, plus it's from an album called A Singsong And A Scrap. What else do you need?
Can I add one more, said Martin,because it's excellent. For Emma, forever ago.
Also, For Emma by Bon Iver,Alyson seconded, I only discovered them and the album of the same name when I started writing about the pesky virus in March. They had a song called Blindsided on that album which fitted the bill perfectly at the time.
Jury's still out here at Top Ten Towers on the whole Bon "I recorded this album in a cabin in the woods to get back to the roots" Iver experience, I'm afraid. Still, this was popular enough (on a quiet week) to make the chart.
Thanks to Emma, says C, I can recycle my comment from last week with the disallowed Teddy!
"...There's a sweet song: 'The Ballad of Marmalade Emma and Teddy Grimes' by Hard Meat, and I can give you a little background to the story too..."
The rather ambiguous-sounding name Hard Meat suggests all sorts – perhaps the title of an Andy Warhol film or a Scandinavian porn mag, maybe even the name of a militant anti-vegetarian group…so you may be relieved to know that the Hard Meat I’m referring to here is a 60s/70s band from Birmingham. Even then one might expect them to be Black Sabbath soundalikes, complete with controversial lyrics and dubious imagery - however, they had a far softer and more psychedelic/folk/acid rock sound and one does wonder why they chose such a name.
Their first single was a cover of the Beatles’ Rain’ (b/w ‘Burning Up Years’ which was covered by NZ band Human Instinct - many thanks to the reader who corrected the info stated on here earlier) released in 1969 on Island, and they went on to make two albums for Warner Brothers, ‘Hard Meat’ and ‘Through A Window’.
It is the last track on ‘Through A Window’ entitled ‘The Ballad of Marmalade Emma and Teddy Grimes’ (also released as a single in 1970), which has been on continuous play in my mind this week. I just love its uplifting feel, and an overall sound reminiscent of Traffic and early Faces. I was also intrigued by its subject matter because Marmalade Emma and Teddy Grimes were real characters who, through the late 1800s/early 1900s, resided in the historic town of Colchester, which is just a few miles from where I live.
It’s assumed that Hard Meat were spending some time in the Essex countryside when they heard talk of these legendary local characters in a pub and were so struck by the stories that they decided to write a song about them.
Marmalade Emma and Teddy Grimes, pictured below in 1910, lived as eccentric tramps and roamed the streets of Colchester begging and blagging all that they needed to live on, drinking beer slops from the local pubs, sleeping in ditches and hedges, and probably managing to get by very adequately on very little. The local community tolerated them in spite of some controversy and brushes with the law – on the 1891 Census Emma registered her occupation as ‘prostitute’, the only one on the list, and was also sent to prison briefly for swearing at a policeman. Story has it that on her return from the clink some local lads asked her where she’d been, to which she replied, “to college”.
Read the rest, and see Marmalade Emma and Teddy Grimes for yourself, here.
Blimey, it's a long time since I heard the name Beulah, Brian. Didn't know this one, but it wins the prize for Best New Song You Guys Have Introduced Me To This Week. Especially when the trumpet kicks in at the 2 1/2 minute mark.
You flirt, you drink, you can't stop your winking at the boys at the bar
All you need is a gun and a car
A country song if you don't have a heart
1. Hot Chocolate - Emma
Back when pop/soul (what they'd call r 'n' b these days) had proper guitar solos in it!
Suggested by Martin, Lynchie and Alyson, who adds...
They were so consistent over a period of about 15 years yet I never hear of them much nowadays - anyway, a beautiful yet really sad song.
Thank you also to Martin for reminding me of the Sisters of Mercy cover...
