Another Day #1: Nothing Day

Teachers love their Awareness Days' Calendar. Black History Month. World Environment Day. International Literacy Day. There’s always something to build a lesson on if you go searching.

Along the way, I’ve come across some truly ridiculous awareness days… and so… you can guess the rest.

What better day to start than January 16^th? 

It's National Nothing Day!

National Nothing Day is an "un-event" created in 1972 by newspaper columnist Harold Pullman Coffin and observed in the United States annually on January 16 since 1973.

Its aim is “to provide Americans with one National Day when they can just sit without celebrating, observing or honouring anything”.

We need this day in the UK too!

Here are some sweets nothings to help us celebrate….

Sinéad O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U

Diana Ross & The Supremes - Nothing But Heartaches

A - Nothing

Lee Hazlewood & Lula - Nothing

Dire Straits - Money For Nothing

I Want My MTV… but not anymore, I guess. 

The Specials - Do Nothing

John Cooper Clarke - Nothing

Manic Street Preachers featuring Traci Lords – Little Baby Nothing

Gilbert O'Sullivan - Nothing Rhymed

Roddy Hart - Nothing Is Broken

Metallica - Nothing Else Matters

John Grant - All That School For Nothing

Gwen Guthrie - Ain't Nothing Goin' On But The Rent

The Donnas - Nothing to Do

Echo & The Bunnymen - Nothing Lasts Forever

The Decemberists - Everything I Try To Do, Nothing Seems To Turn Out Right

Bachman-Turner Overdrive - You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet

Let’s rock!

Snapshots #400: Eponymous Songs (Volume 2)

Back in July 2021, we did an edition of Snapshots about song titles which featured the name of the singer or band performing them. It was high time for a sequel...

20. Like a Sonic Youth offshoot. 

Ciccone Youth was a side-project of Sonic Youth. This is Louise Ciccone, first name...

Madonna - Bitch, I'm Madonna

19. At His Majesty's pleasure...

Fun Lovin' Criminals - The Fun Lovin' Criminal

18. Mulligan's paddy wagon.

Carey Mulligan in a black mariah...

Mariah Carey - Me. I Am Mariah…The Elusive Chanteuse 

Not actually a song, but that might make it a better listen.

17. Scritti & Doris.

Scritti Politti was led by Green Gartside. Doris Day.

Green Day - Green Day

16. Chronic Youth.

His most famous album was The Chronic.

Dr Dre - Still DRE

15. Neither atheists not agnostics.

They were definitely Believers. And Daydream Believers.

(I know, they'd lost their heads on that day.)

The Monkees - Hey, Hey, We're The Monkees

14. If it's too late for goodbye, how will you bear up?

How will Julian (Lennon) cope?

Julian Cope - Julian H. Cope

13. Bristow, abbreviated... and a junior griffin.

Eric B(ristow) and William Michael Griffin Jr...

Eric B. & Rakim - Eric B. Is President 

Well, he couldn't do a worse job that the current guy.

12. Betty's last word.

Boop-boo-be-doop.

Doop - Doop

Don't listen to that. Just don't.

11. Hilarious, in her later years.

She would grow up to be a Funny Girl.

Barbra Streisand - My Name Is Barbra

10. A resident and a nadir.

A tennant and a low...

Pet Shop Boys - We're the Pet Shop Boys

9. The Cure singing Sugar Sugar.

Gothic Archies - We Are The Gothic Archies

8. Parliamentary subdivision. 

Funkadelic were another of George Clinton's backing bands gone rogue...

Funkadelic - Mommy, What's a Funkadelic

7. Financial aid for US loos.

(Linda Thompson featuring) John Grant - John Grant

Linda wrote a song about John for her latest album. As she can't singer herself anymore, she got John to sing it. 

6. Sobule + Nugent + 7.

Jill (Sobule) + Ted (Nugent) + John (Grant).

Jilted John - Jilted John

5. 6 & 7, as helpless as a kitten up a tree, Dad.

Two Johns, "as helpless as a kitten up a tree" is from Misty, Dad is Father.

Father John Misty - The Night Josh Tillman Came to Our Apt.

FJM's real name is Josh Tillman.

4. Top Gear.

Motorhead - Motorhead

3. Smelly squat.

B.O. + Diddley Squat.

Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley

2. Me: Chico Jr. But I may be wrong.

"Me: Chico Jr." was an anagram.

Jim Croce - You Don’t Mess Around With Jim

1. Albert Buster Caspian.

Prince Albert, Prince Buster, Prince Caspian...

1. Prince - My Name Is Prince

Ironically, when this record was released, he stopped calling himself Prince. But he was still funky...

Do we really a Snapshots #401? Maybe it's time to let you have your Saturday mornings back...

Mid-Life Crisis Songs #120: Pretty Women

My favourite song by Australian country singer Kasey Chambers is her Number 1 (Aussie chart) hit from 2002, Not Pretty Enough. Although Chambers was in her mid-20s when she wrote the song, it's the perfect insecure teenage lament...

This song came back to me when I heard its unofficial Mid-Life Crisis sequel from Linda Thompson.

As you may or may not be aware, due to a condition called spasmodic dysphonia, Linda is unable to sing anymore. That seems particularly cruel when you remember just how beautiful her voice used to be...

Richard & Linda Thompson - I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight

Anyway, Linda hasn't let this stop her putting out a new record, late last year. She just got friends and family to do the singing. Fortunately, she has some very talented friends and family, including son Teddy, daughter Kami, ex-husband Richard... plus the Wainwrights (Rufus and Martha), the Proclaimers and the Unthanks. In a stroke of genius, she even got John Grant to sing a song all about... John Grant. That really shouldn't work, but it does.

Linda Thompson & John Grant - John Grant

The stand out track though is the one sung by Manchester's Ren Harvieu. It could be heard as a woman lamenting the loss of her youthful beauty... but I'm guessing it's more a metaphor for the loss of that beautiful voice we heard earlier...

The album's called Proxy Music, which explains the reason Linda's chosen to dress and pose the way she has on the cover.

My Top 24 of 2024 (#9 - 7)

My year in music involved lots of these guys...

9. Richard Hawley - In This City They Call You Love

South Yorkshire's answer to Roy Orbison returns with his tenth album, his first in half a decade - it's taken that long to get him out of the pub. Worth the wait, as always, with more timeless songs of love and loss from the dark, windswept streets of Sheffield...

Well, I was born and raised by the river
Slowly it flows through this city of knives
Not too far from the mountain that shivers
Folks work so hard and they stay all their lives
And people in this city call us love

8. The Felice Brothers - Valley Of Abandoned Songs

The guys responsible for my second favourite album of 2021 return with a new record... and a disturbing discovery that they released another one late last year, which I hadn't even heard. (To be fair, it's only available on the Camp of Bands, but it's still a cracker.) 

Beautifully languorous tunes, atmospheric storytelling, movie-like imagery, really quite beautiful.

On the Riverside Promenade
The whippoorwills alighting
A prostitute in pastel tights
Through the shadows striding
In her hand is a single flower
More precious than the Eiffel Tower
It’s a terrifyingly eloquent world
New York by moonlight

7. John Grant - The Art Of The Lie

Another repeat offender; it's impossible to imagine John Grant making a bad record. I've even grown to love his curious obsession with 80s synths. As long as he keeps writing such personal, moving and at times snarkily funny songs, he can back them with accordion, stylophone and hurdy gurdy for all I care.

I see that cubbyhole and where we used to eat together

I see the walls you built

The room where I slept as a child

I went downstairs into the basеment

Even though the lights arеn't on

I can hear the Beach Boys singin'

And my brothers playin' pool

And sometimes I just want to run into your arms

And let you hold me once again

I feel ashamed because I couldn't be the man

You always hoped that I would become

And if you prefer, there's a political edge too...

“This album is in part about the lies people espouse and the brokenness it breeds and how we are warped and deformed by these lies”, he says. “For example, the Christian Nationalist movement has formed an alliance with White Supremacist groups and together they have taken over the Republican party and see LGBTQ+ people and non-whites as genetically and even mentally inferior and believe all undesirables must be forced either to convert to Christianity and adhere to the teachings of the Bible as interpreted by them or they must be removed in order that purity be restored to ‘their’ nation. They now believe Democracy is not the way to achieve these goals. Any sort of pretence of tolerance that may have seemed to develop over the past several decades has all but vanished. It feels like the U.S. in is free-fall mode.”

Listening Post #4: Father

The new John Grant album is everything you could want from a John Grant album, if you're a John Grant fan. I don't think it'll win him any new converts, but I reckon he's at the point in his career where he's happy with the fanbase he's got.

One track in particular stops me in my tracks whenever it comes on... and it had me crying on the motorway this morning. As with much of John's writing, it's extremely personal and suggests that the relationship with his late father was a complex one. But I couldn't help but be affected by this verse...

And that's the staircase where I sat back in the 70s

Listening to the radio, the first big hit from C&T

I'd still be sitting there if anything were up to me

I can hear you telling me that nothing on this Earth is free

And now I see the work bench that you made with your two hands

And I'd give anything to see you standing where you used to stand

To feel your hand upon my shoulder, that meant comfort then

To see you turn around and smile and say, "Hey, Quatro, how you been?"

Extra marks for anyone who can identify C&T. Knowing John Grant like I do, I have a pretty good idea...

Celebrity Jukebox #94: Glenda, Treat & Cormac

The Grim Reaper has been so busy lately, I'm having to do triple time.

GLENDA JACKSON

Women In Love. A Touch of Class. The Morecambe & Wise Christmas Show. Was there anything Glenda Jackson couldn't do? And that was before she became a Labour MP in the Blair government... though she went on to be openly critical of her boss, the war-mongering liar, so that's OK too. 

Let's forgive Glenda for the film that gave its title to a song by The Irish Band and listen instead to Scouse band Noctorum...

I'm gonna ring you up

And have you come on down

And lie here next to me

We're not gonna need the satellite

'Cause we've got ITV

If you press eject

Then we can both reflect

On what the best scenes did for you

We'll be Glenda Jackson and Olivеr Reed

In this epic bedsit room

Noctorum - Tora Tora Tora

And here's one of my heroes, the great Warren Zevon, with an early draft of his biggest hit...

I saw Oliver Reed walking with Glenda Jackson

They were doing nothing, ha!

I did find a couple of tracks that mentioned Glenda in the title, by bands called Hooker and Fish From Tahiti. Sadly, I couldn't find them online. So I'm left with this...

The Gashounds - Song For Glenda Jackson

Treat Williams

Treat Williams came to fame playing Danny Zuko in the 1972 Broadway production of Grease, but I guess he was too old for the role by the time they got around to casting the movie. Having said that, Travolta was only three years younger, so who knows. Williams enjoyed a pretty respectable career in the movies, across all genres, though I pretty much think of him as a B-movie guy from shlocky fluff like The Phantom and Deep Rising. That is, the kind of movies my brain prefers.

Here’s Swedish rapper Niello…

Och dansa, dansa psycho
Som Treat Williams på ditt middagsbord

Which translates thus…

And dance, dance psycho
Like Treat Williams on your dinner table

Niello - Legenden feat Phantomen

The ultimate tribute to Treat comes from John Grant…

He could call me up
If he wants to chat
You know I waited so long
Now I'm up to bat
He's no Treat Williams, but neither am I
It might be wishful thinkin', but you got to try

CORMAC McCARTHY

There is an American folk singer called Cormac McCarthy, but he's not the one who left us this month. Still, because he's worth a listen...

Cormac McCarthy - Madness In The Family (But, I'm Just Nervous, That's All)

I've only read one book by the other Cormac McCarthy, but it was a doozy. That said, I'm not sure I would rush to read The Road again, because as engaging as it was, it was also pretty grim. Here's a song inspired by that Pulitzer Prize-winning novel...

Dustin Kensrue - Carry The Fire

And here's a song that wasn't, but, y'know, any excuse...

Frank Turner - The Road

Now for some Math(s) rock. Which sounds to me like when you're listening to one track on your computer but another track is still playing in the background and you don't realise.

I'm thinking about Cormac McCarthy

And why I can never remember his name

Or how he was supposed to change my life 

90 Day Men - Dialed In

And that's why English is better than Math(s), kids. 

Here's Randy Chabot, aka Deastro...

Cormac McCarthy waves a flag of flapping skin

To hide his darkest fears and find a way back home

Deastro - Vermillion Plaza

And finally... I feel like I've come across The Burning Hell before, yet a quick trawl through the search box reveals no past blog references. Regardless, this is my favourite song of the day, and possibly the week.

The band was as blue as the melted Joni Mitchell cassette

On the dash of the van they had nicknamed regret

Touring round the United Kingdom

Selling compact discs to the people of England

And Wales and Scotland, 

Oh it’s hard to be a rock band these days

People like to spend their evenings in different ways

The road is a lot like the Cormac McCarthy book

Less cannibalism but a similar look

There’s nothing more post-apocalyptic

Than a landscape of truck stops and rock critics

To paraphrase Joni on the first track of that melted cassette

It’s a lonely road and it’s not over yet

Product Placement #16: Old Spice

When I was a small boy, I drank a whole bottle of Old Spice aftershave and had to go to hospital. Or so the story goes. I'm not entirely sure how this was possible, since in my memory, Old Spice bottles only allowed a few drops out at a time, so I must have been sucking on that white plastic teat for ages. You might well ask "Was Old Spice so delicious to a 3 year old that he wanted to keep on suckling that bottle till he'd drained it dry?" To which I have no real response. An easier question to deal with is, "Where were your parents?" We all know the answer to that one: it was the 70s. 

I do wonder if this early escapade put me off alcohol and stopped me joining the teenage drinkers in High School... I was vehemently tee total until I turned 21. Made up for it in the 90s, then quit at the turn of the Millennium for health reasons. Haven't touch a drop since: booze or Old Spice.

Back in the 70s, men only really had the choice of two aftershaves, as far as I can tell. It was Old Spice or Brut... which cost more, because you had to "splash it all over". Old Spice was my dad's choice back then, and it definitely had the classier advert...

The music was O Fortuna, the opening section of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, which (like many people, it seems) I always thought was used in The Omen. It wasn't, but it was later used in The X-Factor, so there's definitely a satanic connection.

My dad stopped wearing aftershave when I was a teenager. But the scent of Old Spice still takes me back to my childhood... thankfully not my trip to Casualty.

Here are some songs that mention Old Spice... none of them are about Victoria Beckham or Geri Halliwell. (That gag wouldn't have worked for Emma.) This first one is particularly apt... 

Sometimes I think about my daddy
And his Old Spice grin
Cleaned pressed shirts, and a farmers tan

Slaid Cleaves - Flowered Dresses

Time for a slightly less fragrant memory... 

I can smell his cousin's Polo mixing with his grandpa's Old Spice and the
Swedish meatballs look so tempting that his two fat aunts might even fight

Less Than Jake - Pete Jackson Is Getting Married

Wait - the smell gets worse!

And I can taste the bleach on your breath 
Covering the Old Spice and cigarettes 

Cheap Meat - Marigold Moon

The businessman beside me smelt like Old Spice and gin

The lady to the left was talking about her grandchildren

Two kids behind me were screaming for their mom

She was screaming back, I wonder how come

Arrogant Worms - Worst Seat On The Plane

I've known some arrogant worms in my time. I'm sure you have too.

Splashing on the aftershave was part of the ritual many young men performed in order to prepare for pulling... or trying to pull. 

I took a fresh pack of Luckies
And a mint called Sen-Sen
My old man's Trojans
And his Old Spice aftershave

Billy Joel - Keeping The Faith

Often it was the scent of desperation. 

There they go again,

Covered in Old Spice,

They think they will get the girls,

'Cause they smell nice!

The Toy Dolls - Dig That Groove, Baby

Still, whatever you think of Old Spice, it's got to smell better than Lynx. One more reason to treasure the good old days.

Drapes and quaff are all in place

Old Spice splashed on a fresh cut facе

Putting on a tie of the old boot lace

Creepеrs and a 30 inch waist

Fairport Convention - Shuffle & Go

Even if the Old Spice did help you find romance, there was no guarantee it'd last...

Here's a little Old Spice you can put it on your pillow
In the spot where I used to lay my head

Ricky Van Shelton - Baby, Take a Picture

And even if it did, you'd probably stop wearing it after awhile. How long then before the infidelity sets in...?

You come home all hours of the night 
The fragrance on you ain't Old Spice 

Dolly Parton - If You Need Me

You got that guilty look in your eye

And you smell like Old Spice on your skin

So there ain't no way that you can lie

Glenn Frey - Who's Been Sleeping In My Bed?

I guess in the days of Paco Rabanne, Ralph Lauren and Johnny Depp's Sausage, Old Spice is old hat. What do the young people have to say about it?

You old Old Spice wearing

Short chain wearing

Dress shoes and jogging pants wearing

Church sock wearing...

Kanye West - Mama's Boyfriend

I don't know if I have more respect for Kanye, knowing that he's sampled Billy Joel, or not. Also, "young people" - dude is 46 now. Almost as old as another artist I'll always think of as a "youngster", even though she'll be 50 next year...  

Old Spice is nice

But sweat is better

Jewel - U & Me = Love

Here's a random sprinkling of tunes that named themselves after my beverage of choice as a toddler...

Lucky Millinder And His Orchestra - Old Spice

Creed - Old Spice

I don't think that's actually the famous Creed, though to these uncultured ears, they sound pretty much the same.

Space Needle - Old Spice

And second to last, but not second to least, some rare XTC...

They sailed in the shallows now they've paid the price

The captain drank the champagne but it tasted like Old Spice

How can we free, how can we free

The ship trapped in the ice

XTC - The Ship Trapped In The Ice

But it's John Grant who wins the prize today. A year's supply of Old Spice is winging its way to Iceland... don't drink it all at once, John.

You'd better watch out sugar, 'cause I'm about to get my Old Spice on

John Grant (featuring Midlake) - Chicken Bones

There is a video for that tune, but it breaks the song up to create a (very entertaining) narrative, so I linked to the album version instead. He still gets his Old Spice on in the video though. 

 

Celebrity Jukebox #53: Madeline Khan

I was a big fan of Madeline Kahn when I was a teenager. I probably liked her more than the movies she appeared in. I was never quite on the right comedy wavelength to appreciate Mel Brooks movies (I hated the farting sequence in Blazing Saddles, but loved the meta ending), however Madeline Kahn was great in it. I also remember loving What’s Up, Doc?, in which she appeared alongside Ryan O’Neal and Barbra Streisand. I haven’t seen that movie in over 30 years. I should watch it again. 

Madeline had a great singing voice too. Although you might not know it, because she often sang in character and purposely out of tune. Her most famous song from Blazing Saddles was even released as a 7” single…

Madeline Kahn – I’m Tired

Could be my theme tune. Without the sexy stuff, obviously. Just the tired.

Let’s delve into the record library, starting with an instrumental tribute…

Old Mexico – Madeline Kahn

Although they’re mentioned in the lyrics, this tune from a popular Canadian band was dedicated to Alan Arkin and Madeline Kahn. No idea why.

The Tragically Hip – We Want To Be It

I can’t find out much about our next act…

Serengeti & Sicker Man – Impress A Girl

And you walked in
Michelob Mum, Madeline Kahn
That’s a doozie
Clipped my nails, took a bath again

…but I can tell you that it refers to a beer commercial Madeline made in the 80s.

If that doesn’t tickle your fancy, then you might be more taken with this “indie / country” outfit who quote surf rock, Ennio Morricone and Elvis Costello among their influences.

Vox And The Hound – Madeline Kahn

The song’s about adultery, but the title they chose is a reference to Madeline Kahn’s character in the movie Clue. (Yes, they made a movie about Cluedo. It goes without saying that Madeline Kahn was the best thing in it.)

My pick of the day comes from John Grant, who can always be relied upon to throw the name of cool actors and actresses into his songs. Here he laments the untimely passing of today’s star, who sadly died of ovarian cancer in 1999.

Upper class, middle class, lower class, Sassafras,
Everybody these days thinks they’re a bad ass
How am I supposed to live in a world with no Madeline Kahn?
My favourite girl is gone

Celebrity Jukebox #9: Ernest Borgnine

What a career Ernest Borgnine had. After fighting in the Navy in WWII (and winning a bunch of medals in the process), he ended up fighting alongside Burt Lancaster in From Here To Eternity, William Holden in The Wild Bunch and Lee Marvin in The Dirty Dozen. He was on board The Flight the Phoenix, survived the Poseidon Adventure and chased Kris Kristofferson's Convoy... all long before he took the co-pilot seat in Stringellow Hawk's Airwolf. 

He was married five times. His shortest period of wedlock was 42 days, to Ethel Merman. Iffypedia says "their time together was mostly spent hurling profane insults at each other", which sounds familiar. His final marriage lasted 4 decades though, so I guess he got that one right.

He died in 2012 at the age of 95, having being on screen for 6 decades, including the years spent voicing a Spongebob Squarepants character. What a guy.

In song, we find him spending time in Jill Sobule's Loveless Hotel...

And the stars upon the walls look down at me like gods

There's Ernest Borgnine and Billy Ray Cyrus and my favorite Minnie Pearl

Turning his hand to writing (or not)...

Furiousball - The Short Stories of Ernest Borgnine

Talking with a friend of mine

Bout Ernest Borgnine

And the short stories he never wrote

Joining a parade...

The Badlees - Leaning On The Day's Parade

He'd eat at KFC

Wore salad clothes and smelled like turpentine

He talked alot about his art

With a spitting image of Ernest Borgnine

They found him dead the other day

Out where the punks and school kids play

And a mere in the shade

Leaning on the day's parade

He even gets a mention in Weird Al's horoscopes!

Weird Al Yankovic - Your Horoscope For Today

Sagittarius

All your friends are laughing behind your back (KILL THEM)

Take down all those naked pictures of

Ernest Borgnine, you've got hanging in your den

But the greatest tribute to Ernest Borgnine in song comes from John Grant, who uses the great man as an inspirational figure when times are really tough...

I got to meet him once, and he was really, really cool.

And when I think about everything's that he's been through,

I wish he'd call me on the phone and take my ass to school.

I wonder what Ernie Borgnine would do.

Next time I'm having a bad day, I'm going to ask myself that very question.

What would Ernest Borgnine do?

My Top Twenty-One of 2021: #3

3. John Grant - Boy From Michigan

For most of the year, I had John Grant's latest album down for Number One on this countdown. He took that slot in 2015 and 2013, and would have done so in 2010 had I not discovered Queen of Denmark too late in the day. Only his last record, 2018's Love Is Magic, failed to secure the championship, and even then it placed at a very respectable #4. This is a much better album than LIM though, and in any other year it would have walked away with the title. The fact that I found two records even better than John Grant this year says something about the high standard of music I've discovered in 2021. But more on them tomorrow.

Boy From Michigan shows the two sides of Grant's character very well. It's very much a record of two halves, and for some that might prove divisive. One half is bittersweet balladeering, and here Grant excels with material that recalls the heights of his revered solo debut. Best of the bunch remains County Fair, a nostalgic recreation of childhood highs and lows, like pages torn from his adolescent diary... it's definitely one of the best songs I've heard all year.

The other half is the one some might struggle with. Quirky and camp 80s electronica, with lyrics that recall Sparks at top of their arched eyebrow game. Of those tracks, Rhetorical Figure is the one that appeals most to the English teacher in me. Although even I had to look up "epizeuxis".

  

Snapshots #204: A Top Ten Songs Named After Famous Actors

Lights, camera, action!

This week's Snapshots brought together ten male Hollywood stars... I'm saving the female actors (or actresses, as we used to call them in the old days) for another time. But not next week. It'll be when you least expect it.

Meanwhile, here are the leading men...

10. The beginning and ending of Stig of the Dump.

St...ump.

Lights! Camel! Action!

Bushes that refuse to burn

See these sandals hardly worn

Raining blood, raining bread

The night we painted Egypt red

Then Charlton Heston put his vest on...

Stump - Charlton Heston

9. Get a loan to build your new privvy.

You need a John Grant, mate.

I got to meet him once, and he was really, really cool.

And when I think about everything's that he's been through,

I wish he'd call me on the phone and take my ass to school.

John Grant - Ernest Borgnine

8. Experts on fairy chimneys.

These are fairy chimneys, also known as hoodoos...

Gene must have made thousand films

He's kissed a thousand girls

And made a thousand kills

And let's not forget he took on Superman!

Hoodoo Gurus - Gene Hackman

7. Often found in crowds.

The madness of crowds...

He picks up useless paper

And puts it in my pocket

I'm trying very hard to keep my fingers clean

I can't remember tell me what's his name

Madness - Michael Caine

6. Known to wage warefare.

Guerrilla warfare.

I ain't happy, I'm feeling glad

I got sunshine in a bag

I'm useless, but not for long

The future is coming on

Gorillaz - Clint Eastwood

5. An intense tie.

Anagram!

I keep falling in love

And you're breaking my heart

I know that it's wrong

But where do I start?

It's the end of the day

I'm here alone

And you're so far away

Saint Etienne - Jack Lemmon

4. Adam Sandlers.

Adam Sandler was in The Waterboy.

Cowboy hat, man that ain't no topper

His suit's as slick as a lick by Cropper

He's dressing like a Carnaby Street pill-popper

Dennis Hopper!

The Waterboys - Dennis Hopper 

3. Every bird struck.

Anagram!

Bullet was my favorite movie that I'd ever seen

I totaled my go-cart trying to imitate that chase scene

That Duster had six hubcaps, know what I mean

And I love the way they all flew off when it landed in that ravine

Drive-By Truckers - Steve McQueen 

2. Associated with tramps and babies.

Lady & The Tramp.

Babies go gaga.

Every John is just the same

I'm sick of their city games

I crave a real wild man

I'm strung out on John Wayne

Lady Gaga - John Wayne

1. Where... dare?

Where Eagles Dare, of course!

Well, talk about a low-down bad refrigerator

You were just too cool for school

Sock hop, soda pop, basketball and auto shop

The only thing that got you off was breakin' all the rules

The Eagles - James Dean

Put your vest on again next Saturday morning for more snapshots...