Snapshots #392: A Colourful Bouquet of Songs About Flowers

Twenty floral songs to brighten up your Easter Sunday... though I'm sure we could have easily found another twenty...

20. His head's in a constant spin.

He wasn't only Dizzy...

Tommy Roe - Sweet Pea

19. Murder in the home of a long-dead Stone.

The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Anemone

18. Polar knitwear comes undone.

"Polar knitwear" was an anagram...

Karine Polwart - Azalea Flower

17. Heaven's Green Patio.

(Knock knock knockin' on....) Heaven's door. Green door. Patio doors.

The Doors - Hyacinth House

16. Chandler's finest.

Raymond Chandler's finest book (although he wrote a great many fine books) was...

The Big Sleep - Bluebell Wood

15. They will check your spelling.

English Teacher - Nearly Daffodils

14. By Willard Manus!

Willard Manus was the author of the book Mott The Hoople, from which these guys stole their name...

Mott The Hoople - Jerkin' Crocus

13. Essex man without forgotten secret agent. 

David Essex, sans (Jason) Bourne...

David Sanborn - Lotus Blossom

12. In a hurricane, pets get blown about.

"Hurricane, pets" was an anagram...

Patrice Rushen - Forget Me Nots

11. Stop the Tories from messaging you on social media. 

Block that party!

Bloc Party - Tulips

10. Shorter than an operetta, longer than Jim.

Etta is shorter than an operetta. James is longer than Jim.

Etta James - Wallflower

9. Bogart takes to sea with once-yearly books about boy detectives.

Humphrey Bogart, in the ocean, with a Hardy Boys annual. Obviously!

Tough one this. Give yourself extra marks if you remembered these guys. (They're very Stiff.)

Humphrey Ocean & The Hardy Annuals - Whoops A Daisy

8. Catch the Longdancing Tourist and add some sweet sax.

The Longdancers and The Tourists were two bands that Dave Stewart was in before he formed the Eurythmics. Candy Dulfer played some sweet sax.

Dave A Stewart featuring Candy Dulfer - Lily Was Here

7. Play it again, Sam... and again... and again...

Humphrey Bogart (again) didn't actually say "play it again, Sam". He said, "You Played it for her, you can play it for me". Anyway, when he said that, he was talking to Dooley Wilson...

The Dooleys - A Rose Has To Die

I got the Dooleys in here. I can probably retire now.

6. New York punks ooze everywhere.

The New York Dolls, full of Goo and more Goo.

Goo Goo Dolls - Iris

5. Happened later, for Nick Drake.

For Nick, it was Brighter Later...

Brighter - Poppy Day

4. Found in a closed window on a Eurostar railway carriage. 

Found in a closED WINdow on a EuroSTAR Railway carriage

Edwin Starr - Ruby Begonia

3. Oy, Bezos! Arrange for Hazlewood to play at my party, will you?

Jeff! Book Lee, will you?

Jeff Buckley - Lilac Wine

Lilac Wine has been recorded by everyone from Nina Simone to Elkie Brooks... but that's my favourite version.

2. Upper class ankle socks.

Bobby sox for the gentry.

Bobbie Gentry - Sweet Peony 

...or you could have had...

Bobbie Gentry - Marigolds & Tangerines

1. We pull Earl all over the place.

"We pull Earl" was an anagram.

Paul Weller - Sunflower

And for completeness-sake, I would also have allowed...

The Jam - Carnation

Enjoy the rest of your Easter. Snapshots will be back next Saturday.

Your Suggestions Needed...

You'll be pleased to know that we hit our Kickstarter target for the latest issue of Department of the Peculiar, so Rob has come up with an excellent "extra" to give away with the comic if we hit our stretch goal. (Believe me, I don't understand any of this stuff.)

Because the writer is a sadist, the script for the latest issue required Rob to draw a wall full of portraits of dead rock stars. To be honest, when I wrote that, I thought he'd just do thumbnail sketches... but, Rob being Rob, he ended up doing full portraits... of loads and loads of them.

(Believe me, that's not all of them.)

These went down pretty well when he posted them on Facebook, so Rob came up with the idea of publishing them in a CD booklet. And because it wasn't really fair that the lazy writer got away with doing bugger all for this venture, Rob asked me to write the liner notes.

I came up with a couple of ideas, thinking about what else you'd find in a CD booklet, and decided to write up a track-listing for this imaginary record. Just like the kind of nonsense list / mix I've been writing here for years.

So I've started compiling a list of songs by dead rock stars about death / dying / living forever / etc. etc. etc. This kind of thing...

Hank Williams - I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive 

John Prine - When I Get To Heaven

Faron Young - Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young 

Jeff Buckley - Last Goodbye

John Denver - Leaving On A Jet Plane

Warren Zevon - Keep Me In Your Heart

I have a few more, but because I'm scared of missing out some obvious ones, I thought I'd throw it open to you guys and see if you had any further suggestions.

Here are the rules...

1. The singer (preferably songwriter) has to be dead.

I rejected Who Wants To Live Forever? by Queen because it was written by Brian, not Freddie.

2. The song title has to be about life or death, heaven or hell... it can't just be in the lyrics.

I rejected Come As You Are by Nirvana... but I'd probably have included it if Kurt had called the song "I Don't Have A Gun".

Similarly, I couldn't include My Generation by The Who even though it contains the perfect line ("Hope I die before I get old") because the title doesn't allude to life or death, and the songwriters are still with us.

3. I'll also accept songs where the songwriter appears to have eerily predicted their own demise - like the John Denver one above.

Above is the cover to the "Heroes" booklet, featuring Mal (our character) posing as Bowie.

As always, your wisdom will be gratefully received.

And now, because I didn't have time last week to pay proper tribute to Little Richard...


More information on the Department of the Peculiar Kickstarter here.

My Top Ten Rave Songs

Regular readers will know that I'm no great fan of music that's made purely for shaking your bits to, especially if it's made purely for shaking your bits to whilst off your heads on E. Still, while I can't claim to be a raver, I can still spot a top rave tune... (sort of).


10. Plain White T's - Rave

Remember these guys? The Hey There, Delilah bunch? Not just one hit wonders.

9. The Wonder Stuff - A Rave From The Grave

Pretty obscure Stuffies b-side from the excellent Love Bites & Bruises collection.

8. John Moore - Ave The Rave 

Stealing the guitar riff from Elvis Costello's Pump It Up, the third member of Black Box Recorder sends mum and daddy to and early grave on this lost track from his only solo album. Lost, because I can't find a decent link to it online.

7. Cults - Rave On

You've got to be secure in your own abilities when you give your band a name that's a typing mistake waiting to happen.

6. The Courteeners - Welcome To The Rave

From their latest album, Anna, which didn't stay with me as long as I'd expected it to.

5. Jeff Buckley - Witches' Rave

A taste of what might have been from Jeff's never-completed second album, eventually released in demo form as Sketches For My Sweetheart, The Drunk.

4. The Arctic Monkeys - Ravey Ravey Ravey Club

Now, if the rave clubs of my youth had sounded like this, I'd have been there every weekend.

3. The Raveonettes - Let's Rave On

The sonic explosion caused by a collision between Buddy Holly and The Jesus & Mary Chain.

2. Jim Steinman - Stark Raving Love

Mad Jim McMad's first stab at writing Holding Out For A Hero, released on his long forgotten (but epically unforgettable) solo album, Bad For Good. I do probably overuse the word "genius" on this blog, but in Jim Steinman's case, I can never use it enough.

"Too much is never enough..." is pretty much Jim's mantra.

1. Buddy Holly - Rave On

Had to be. One minute 51 seconds of pure pop bliss. 

John Cougar Mellencamp's version is damned fine too. As is the cover by M. Ward & Zooey Deschanel.



Which one gets you raving?

My Top Ten Carol Songs

Because it's almost Christmas... here's ten Carols.

No Carolines though, there's a whole other Top Ten in them.

10. Tom Lehrer - A Christmas Carol

Getting us all in the Christmas spirit... kind of.

On Christmas Day you can't get sore,
Your fellow man you must adore,
There's time to rob him all the more
The other three hundred and sixty-four.

9. The Polyphonic Spree - Carol of the Bells

 Or, if you prefer a slightly less cynical Christmas Carol... (well, it's also mercifully short).

8. Nadeah - Scary Carol

In which Nadeah gets kidnapped by a green polar bear. Things get weirder from there.

7. Chuck Berry - Carol

Can't beat a bit of Chuck. Great guitar on this song.

6. Modesty Blaise - Carol Mountain

80s indie band who the internet appears to know very little about. Shame: this is a jaunty little number.

5. Morrissey - When I Last Spoke To Carol

Morrissey goes Mariachi. Again. And growls like a tiger. Don't ask me.

4. Manfred Mann's Earth Band -  Don't Kill It, Carol

This Carol doesn't have exactly green fingers. Oy! Carol! Leave that rose alone!

3. Jeff Buckley - Corpus Christi Carol

It's easy to forget just what a cracking album Grace was. Then you listen to something like this again and... woah, momma.

2. Neil Sedaka - Oh Carol

It's a classic, but it might not have made it so high on this countdown if it wasn't for the talky bit.

I'm always a sucker for talky bits: the more earnest, the better.

Written for Carole King, back when she and Neil worked together in the Brill Building.

1. Flight of the Conchords - Carol Brown

One of their very best. Lyrics so good... proves they're more than just a comedy band.

Shut up, girlfriends from the past!

Those were my favourite Carols... which one is your Vorderman?

My Top Ten Memphis Songs

Thus begins an occasional series of Top Tens dedicated to songs about specific geographic locations...

According to those in the know, Memphis could well be the most-mentioned city in the whole of popular music. More songs have been written about - or refer directly to - Memphis than just about any other city in the world. The Memphis Rock 'n' Soul Museum keeps an ever expanding list of over 1000 Memphis-based tunes on its website.

For the purposes of this Top Ten, I stuck purely to songs that mention Memphis in the title... with one far-too-obvious exception.


10. Rufus Wainwright - Memphis Skyline

Rufus pays tribute to Jeff Buckley...

Turn back the wheels of time
Under the Memphis skyline
Always hated him for the way he looked
In the gaslight of the morning

9. The Pixies - Letter to Memphis

8. Old Crow Medicine Show - Motel in Memphis

Where you there when the man from Atlanta was murdered in Memphis?

A powerful tribute to Martin Luther King.

If you were there, you'd swear it was more than a man who died.

7. Mott The Hoople - All the Way from Memphis

Yeah it's a mighty long way down rock 'n' roll
From the Liverpool docks to the Hollywood Bowl
And you climb up the mountains And you fall down the holes
All the way from Memphis

Great piano.

6. Marc Cohn - Walking In Memphis

Not sure why I feel like I have to apologise for this one. I loved it so very much when it came out. Hey, I could have given you the Cher version!

5. Bob Dylan - Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again

Oh, Mama, can this really be the end?

4. The Hold Steady - Sequestered in Memphis

One of my favourite Hold Steady songs - testament to how many great Memphis songs there are that it only makes #4 in this list.

Craig Finn gets subpoenaed in Texas and sequestered in Memphis... and he's getting pretty sick of having to tell his story over and over again in the police interview room...

We didn't go back to her place
We went to some place where she cat-sits

Listen, coppers - he went there on business!

3. Paul Simon - Graceland

The obvious exception.

There is a girl in New York City
Who calls herself the human trampoline
And sometimes when I'm falling flying
Or tumbling in turmoil I say
Whoa so this is what she means
She means we're bouncing into Graceland,
And I see losing love
Is like a window in your heart
Everybody sees you're blown apart
Everybody feels the wind blow

2. Chuck Berry - Memphis, Tennessee

Listening to this track makes me wish I'd been alive in 1959 when rock 'n' roll was really kicking off.

1. The Colorblind* James Experience - I'm Considering A Move To Memphis

OK, it's definitely not the best song about Memphis - but I can't help that it's my favourite.

(*Spelled the way the band themselves would spell it, or the way the residents of Memphis would. Not the way a pedant like me would spell it, obviously.)

I'll get myself a motel room that's not too small to see
I'll get one with a private bath and a black and white TV
Memphis isn't all that big, at least that's how I found it
Why, it took only an hour and a half to walk completely around it
Memphis isn't all that big, it isn't all that wide
Still, it is the kind of place where a country boy can hide

Over 1000 Memphis songs to choose from - which is your favourite?