Towards the end of Half Term, we had a few days away in Pickering. It's becoming a preferred holiday destination: not too crowded, close enough to the coast if we want to see the sea, but with lots of nice countrysidey things to do, particularly the wonderful Dalby Forest, just around the corner.
Sam and I also enjoy the Pickering Museum, one of those places that offers a time capsule trip into the past, to a world that looked like this...
A far more civilised, genteel and altogether less horrible time like this...
And for those of you who occasionally like to frequent a local hostelry or two, a world where you didn't need a second mortgage before setting foot over the threshold...
Personally, I haven't been in a public house for quite some time, though we did stop off at one for a family meal recently, and after buying a glass of wine and two soft drinks, I was horrified at how little change I got from twenty quid. I don't know how you regulars cope - I'd just be thinking how many CDs I could buy instead...
Possibly the most exciting thing about Pickering Museum though was the sign which read "Free Coffee". Wow - two of my favourite words combined... it doesn't get any better than this, surely?
(I remember back in 1994, when Nelson Mandela spoke to the US Congress, quoting the end of Martin Luther King's most famous speech: "Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty we are free at last!" The radio was on in the background, but when I heard those words, I turned it up to see if I could catch which shop he was talking about.)
The Free Coffee sign was next to the exit, but that was OK. The promise kept me buzzing all the way around the museum. It would be the perfect climax to our visit!
"But you just had a coffee before we came in here," Sam said.
Ah, the young. "Imagine if the sign said 'Free Football Cards'," I told him, "and I said to you, 'but you just bought some football card before we came in here..."
"That's different," he said. And he was right. Football cards offer a transitory pleasure, at best. While coffee is the gift that keeps on giving.
As is so often the case though, the reality rarely lives up to the dream. (Just ask Martin Luther King.) The free coffee was dispensed by a 40 year old Klix machine (a true museum-piece), a mixture of hot water and undissolved granules that tasted like... well, I'm not sure the words have been invented. I poured it away after the first mouthful. There's no such thing as a free coffee.
To celebrate Saturday Snapshots turning 300, we had a big party at Top Ten Towers last night. I cracked open the Ocean Spray, necked a couple of Paracetamol, and stayed up till at least 10.31. Feeling a bit worse for wear today, but it was worth it.
Find me another blog that has the Manic Street Preachers followed by Wayne Newton.
What do you mean you don't want to?
A song based on a note Elvis wrote then threw away in 1976, during his last stay at the Las Vegas Hilton. Newton, who was friends with Elvis in his later years, bought the note in 1991 for $13,200 at a Sotheby's auction.
On Clarence Leroy Van Cleef Jr.’s tombstone, the inscription
reads “The Best of the Bad”. Van Cleef played a hell of a lot of bad guys in
his 38 year acting career after refusing to have his nose fixed for his debut
role in High Noon. The producers offered him a more heroic part if he had the
operation, Lee declined and was cast largely as bad guys from then on.
Throughout the 50s he made his living getting shot in TV Western shows before
hitting the big time when Sergio Leone cast him in For A Few Dollars More and
The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, leading to a long and lucrative career in
Spaghetti Westerns.
When searching for songs about Lee Van Cleef, I had to watch
out that I wasn’t confusing him with Reggae star Devon Perkins, aka Lee Van
Cleef, Le Van Cliff, Lee Vancliff, Lee V And Cliff and Cleevan Cliff, among
other variations on that theme. Last week, I said that country music was second
only to rap for name-dropping other artists, but Reggae must come second when it
comes to bigging your own name up in song. Here he is, rub-a-dub style, with
the Reggae Sunsplash…
Don’t need to teeth to eat my beef
I’m tender-hearted, ain’t no Lee Van Cleef
It strikes me that most times Lee gets mentioned in songs,
it’s for his bad guy status, so it’s nice that weirdo funk-rock band Primus
have a more positive take…
There ain’t never been one quite like Clint
There’s really only one Clint
But I really did like Lee Van Cleef
I sure did like Lee Van Cleef
Whatever happened to Lee Van Cleef?
Whatever happened to Lee?
Lee Van Cleef died in 1989, aged just 64, from a heart
attack and throat cancer. His gravestone reads: The Best of the Bad.
Everyone has a friend called Dave, right? I actually have two. Though I don't see them that much anymore. (Let's face it: I don't see anybody that much anymore.)
Very few suggestions this week for a famous David to illustrate our Top Ten. I wonder why?
I hope not after that dreadful suggestion,George replied.
Now I don't always agree with George (who does?), but I find myself having to here. Beyond ruining early Springsteen songs, if this if the Earth Band's great claim to fame, they should have stuck with counting backwards from 5. It's not a bad song, I just can't get past the opening couplet...
Davy's on the road again Wearing different clothes again
I mean, I should hope so.
But wait, before I get too mean about Manfred Mann's Earth Band... here's Lynchie...
I knew Dave Flett of "Davy's On The Road Again" fame.
I keep telling you, mate, even though Guest Post Thursday appears to have run out of gas, the door is always open for more of your stories. You could at least tell us if he wore different clothes every time he went out on the road.
I remember you liked the Scars' track I put on over at my place recently, so wonder if you'll like another song from the same album - perfectly titled... as you might imagine... 'David'!
Good work, C, though a little too angular and spikey for my ageing lugs. I preferred All About You. That may well feature on this blog one day soon.
Here's Rigid Digit, with what seems like it should be an obvious choice. Except...
Both from Morrissey's best-forgotten "let's take the piss out of chavs" phase. Still, we look back on that with fond nostalgia given his most recent phases.
It's worth pointing out too that Moz wasn't the first person to use that particular Dave in a song title...
Also recorded by Bob Dylan. Which only goes to show that we're missing The Swede this week. I hope he's OK.
Now to Canada, where Douglas is basking in the glory of getting one of his countrymen into last week's Top Ten...
...and may I just mention that Colter Wall has a fantastic track called "Me And Big Dave", wherein he absolutely sounds nothing whatsoever like a person in his 20's but everything like the embodiment of what is deep, soulful and great about country music in the Cash-like vein? Can the young Canadian rank two weeks in a row, perhaps clawing his way deeper in the Top Ten?
And if that is not your thing, the Trash Can Sinatras once again have a contender, with the raucous and ebullient b-side (gawsh, they save some of the best for the flip sides, don't they?) entitled "Ask Davy". According to legend, when the as-yet-untitled track was being readied for release, the record exec types came to hassle the band abound the small matter of a title for the song before going to press. The band, sorely pressed, tried to brush off the corporate pedants by steering them for suggestions to the usually forthcoming bassist, Davy Hughes....and that is how the track came to qualify for this week's Top Ten...
We'll start with this from Lynchie, because I'm a sucker for this kind of Bonnie & Clyde story song. (I should do a Top Ten of them.) And I doubt we'll ever get around to a Top Ten Trudy Songs.
Well, Trudy and Dave, those crazy kids
Had a baby of their own, and you heard what they did
In the middle of a strip mall shots rang out
Shots heard all over the world, no doubt
'Cause it was there in the paper the very next day
'Bout a couple and a baby and a Chevrolet
Who shot up an automatic teller machine
Took the money for the laundry and drove away clean
If you ever do "Ethel" songs, can I suggested John Hiatt's Ethylene?
Good call, Lynchie. Though I'm probably more likely to do the Trudy Top Ten. I mean, I bet Sting has a bunch of those I could take the piss out of use.
Covered by everyone and his dog, this is the original, and it reminds me of my childhood... despite the fact I never saw the TV show. Pop culture stuck around a lot longer back then.
Martin wins great accolades for digging this one up...
It has an all-star cast video that can't fail to put a smile on the face of anyone who watched The X Files back in the day - really, watch right through to the end, beyond the song.
That was brilliant.
And the best bit was, the video featured many of my TV heroes... not just Mulder & Scully and Buffy and Gary Shandling and Erik Estrada... but also Dennis Franz, star of the greatest TV series ever made.
Highlight of my week. Thanks, Martin.
Side note: Gillian Anderson playing Maggie Thatcher is wrong in so many ways that it makes me hurt.
In my head, I could hear a song where someone goes "Huh - Dave!" in a disparaging voice. I think, however, I was thinking of Bob George by Prince, and projecting a Dave onto it.
But then I kept thinking: no, no, this is a Flight of the Conchords song - I'm sure of it.
Got there in the end.
And when I saw you at my mate's place
I thought, "What is she doing
At my mate's place?"
How did Dave get a hottie like that to a party like this?
