We closed Monday's collection of Superman songs with a track by Cinerama. Comic book fan David Gedge also used the name of the most bizarre Superman foe as the title of his other band's second album: Bizarro by The Wedding Present. Sadly, he never wrote a song about Bizarro... but these guys did...
Klark Kent was an alias for Stewart Copeland of The Police, recording a song that Sting didn't want for the day job. John says, "Stewart Copeland’s debut album Klark Kent was a belter."
Clark Kent works for a newspaper called The Daily Planet. On Saturday we featured a song by the title by Arthur Lee & Love. Here's another one...
Weird coincidence department: all the bands I could find who wrote a song about Lois Lane (along with Sunday's Franz Ferdinand) began with the letter F.
But Lois wasn't Clark's first love though. That title would go to...
And he even had a fling with a mermaid once. Her name? Lori Lemaris. Can you spot a pattern here?
Not everybody with the initials LL loves Superman though. Let's not forget his arch enemy, Lex Luthor, a man who's jealousy of Superman might yet be explained that nobody has ever written a decent pop song in his honour...
That was the best I could come up with, with the wrong spelling... and he's not even a doctor! No wonder he's such a bitter, twisted sociopath...
Luthor isn't Superman's only foe. We mentioned Bizarro earlier, and Braniac earlier in the week. Then there's the Kryptonian supervillain memorably played by Terence Stamp in Superman 2, General Zod...
Another three names from my record collection heading for that great concert in the sky, starting with the wonderfully monikered Pluto Shervington, real name Leighton. Best known for his unappetising recipe for Ram Goat Liver and its follow-up, a Top Ten hit in 1976 called Ram in which a Rastafarian doing his weekly shop tries to buy cheap pork (forbidden by his religion) in order to have enough money left over to spend on weed. They don't write 'em like that anymore...
From the same era, we also say goodbye to soul / blues / jazz singer Marlena Shaw, a lady who expertly balanced a feminist stance (see her album Who Is This Bitch, Anyway?) with provocative covers like the one above. That aside, it's the music she'll be remembered for, including the theme tune to the controversial movie Looking For Mr. Goodbar, the wonderful Yu-Ma / Go Away Little Boy and a classy version of Ashford & Simpson's California Soul...
And finally, it's with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to the lead singer of the Shangri-Las, Mary Weiss. Although she mostly gave up music in the late 60s to become an interior designer, she made a triumphant return 40 years later with an acclaimed solo record...
However, her greatest contribution to popular culture came with the Shangri-Las, a band who took teenage melodrama to another level, providing a key influence to the next generation of stars and songwriters, including the Ramones, Blondie, the Jesus & Mary Chain and Jim Steinman.
When I say I'm in love, you best believe I'm in love, L-U-V
That's Mary with the opening line to a classic Shangri-Las song from 1965...
Back to the Shangri-Las though, and while Leader Of The Pack is their most famous song, for me they never bettered the overblown adolescent angst of this Shadow Morton masterpiece based on Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. A pop song so utterly unique that it will... never... happen... again.
As we grow older, our record collection grows older with us. The rock n roll survivors we grew up with (not to mention the ones who were well established before we were even born) continue making music, and we keep enjoying it. For the most part, anyway. There are, of course, those artists who carry on well past their sell-by date, don't find anything new to say, and become shadows of their former selves... and when I think about them, I have even more respect for Billy Joel, who packed in making new music thirty years ago to protect his legacy.
All that said, sometimes even the faded stars of yesteryear pull a blinder. And credit where it's due, I never though the Rolling Stones would release a single as good as this so far into their bus pass years...
(Damon Albarn hates that video. So they must be doing something right.)
The album Hackney Diamonds is as good as anything The Stones have released since the beginning of the 80s. That may sound like faint praise, but I was surprised by how solid the whole thing sounded. The Lady Gaga collaboration is a couple of steps down the same ladder as Gimme Shelter, and the video is a hoot, as Ms. Germanotta tries her best to out-Mick Mick.
Then there's a Keef sung tune which proves he should do that sort of thing more often ("he's too shy," says Mick) and a proper bluesy throwback at the end... which sounds like the kind of song you'd expect the Rolling Stones to be making in their 80s... were it not for the fact that it closes a record of full-tilt rock n roll riffs from Keef and sneeringly playful invective from Mick. And to top it all off, they only go and invite another old geezer to play bass on one track... and it's a lot more listenable than that "new" Beatles track that was inflicted on us earlier in the year.
Kevin Rowland turned 70 this year, so he's still a spring chicken by Mick n Keef's standards. The lead single from the latest Dexys album promised great things, a classic Dexys soul stomper that showcased a man dripping self confidence from every pour. There are a couple more tracks on the first half of The Feminine Divine which also stand out, though the latter part of the record turns into a huge celebration / confessional of submissive relationships which borders on unintentionally hilarious at times. Still, it's better than anything Van Morrison's done lately.
Born a year or so earlier than Kevin, but still going strong, is John Mellencamp, who just released another new record, hot on the heels of last year's Strictly a One-Eyed Jack. Orpheus Descending treads similar ground, occasionally going a little too earnest and worthy for my liking, though Mellencamp's late stage Tom Waits growl is pleasing to the ear, and his practiced Grumpy Old Man demeanour is enough to keep me coming back for more.
Ron and Russell Mael are both in their late 70s. You wouldn't know it from listening to the latest Sparks album though. They sound as youthfully irreverent as ever. They're also responsible for the year's ultimate Grumpy Old Man song, a track which delights in telling us that life goes downhill fast from the moment we're born...
Nothing is as good as they say it is
That's the way it is
I wish I'd known beforehand
I was born just 22 hours ago
But I want to go
Back to my former quarters
Take a look around and you'd understand
This is not a place I could ever stand
Ugliness, anxiety, phony tans
It ain't for me
That's all
Another old timer who's definitely refusing to grow old gracefully is Mr. Vincent Furnier. Road is his 29th album (22nd as a solo artist, having taken the name of his former band) and it's much better than it deserves to be.
This is Karen Fairchild, from Alabama country group Little Big Town. I don't just throw this thing together, you know. I spend at least five minutes thinking about it.
Anyway, here are a bunch of small town songs... with very big tunes.
12. Chatty boss gets too close to the fire.
The chatty boss is a Talking Head. He's also a Byrne victim.
The second album by indie darlings Swell Maps was called Jane From Occupied Europe. In 1990, a short-lived band from Salisbury took that as their own...
3. Charles Weedon Westover did a lot of running back in the day.
He was a Runaway. He chased after Runaround Sue (though Dion beat him to her). Then he came Runnin; On Back. And his real name was Charles Weedon Westover.
If you ask me, it's still too early for Christmas songs. But maybe next week...
Of course, this week's real Number One song should have been the one below. My brain wasn't working though, and all the searches I did for "Small Town" songs failed to remind me of the "Smalltown" songs. Rookie mistake.
Mellencamp's best record in some years, here he finds a nice balance between the folkier turn his music has taken in the 21st Century and a grizzled retread of his earlier days. I was a huge JCM fan growing up, and while I'm glad he's not trying to make the same sort of music he made back then, it was good to hear him lighten up and have a little fun again. Well, as much fun as us miserable old bastards can allow ourselves. There's also a couple of cool Springsteen collaborations and even a toe dipped into Tom Waits territory.
Back in 2018, Ezra Furman's Transangelic Exodus hit the heights of #7 in my Year End countdown. I couldn't get into the 2019 follow-up, Twelve Nudes, but this one is a definite return to form. The Springsteen influences are still there, and while there's a slight discordance to both music and vocals, as always with Ezra, these heartbreaking tales of lost souls doing their best to survive in our pre-apocalyptic times regularly turns caterpillars into butterflies.
A while back, Kevin Morby took up residence at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis. The hotel is famous for its ducks: they live on the roof, but are brought downstairs every day, accompanied by a John Phillip Sousa March, where they proceed via red carpet to swim in the lobby fountain.
Kevin Morby's 7th album isn't about the Peabody Ducks, though it is about Memphis, the town where Elvis, Jeff Buckley and Martin Luther King all died, but much amazing music was born. This record follows in those footsteps, an intensely personal disc about family, memories and mortality. It's the first Kevin Morby record to really leave its mark on me, but it's definitely encouraged me to dig back into his catalogue.
Not just a Grumpy Old Man Song today, but the first legitimate 2022 contender: the new album from John Mellencamp ticks a number of boxes. Over the past few records, Mellencamp has slowly been morphing into Tom Waits, as his voice grows older and croakier, and on Strictly A One-Eyed Jack, that transformation appears complete. I'm not entirely sure why he's taken to dressing like a pirate, eye patch and all, but it's a welcome turn in a career I've followed almost from its outset.
There's no shortage of contenders when it comes to selecting a Grumpy Old Man Song either, from the opener I Always Lie To Strangers...
I always lie to strangers
I am a man of low degree
This world is run by men
Much more crooked than me
And as far as I can see
I don't trust you
And you shouldn't trust me
...to the stompy Waits-meets-Eels grouch-fest I Am A Man That Worries...
JM even ropes in a Grumpy Old Contemporary who's no stranger to these parts to help him out on a couple of tunes. They have worked together briefly in the past, but this feels like a fully-fledged collaboration, and the two aging heartland rockers fit together better now than they would have done at any earlier point in either of their illustrious careers. Hard to believe either of them could ever be accused of having Wasted Days though...
Rol: I went into a local newsagents to get some Formula 1 cards that Sam is collecting. Didn't get any. Instead, I got a 5 minute lecture on how he's been a newsagent all his life and he doesn't stock trading cards because he's seen too many kids throw away money on them and blah blah blah blah blah. It was like something out of League of Gentlemen.
Ben: He sounds more like he hates kids. Probably doesn't like them in his shop at all.
I remember the days of collecting stickers for my Beano Panini sticker books and my Simpsons one.
Running around the house desperate to do chores, no matter how small, so I could get another 30p and run to the shop to get another pack.
I'm so old it was Empire Strikes Back.
That dotard in your newsagent's doesn't know what he's on about. I still have my two stickerbooks. Can't bring myself to throw them away because of the memories of putting it together. I only ever see it when I'm moving but it sparks pleasant memories and I spend a good ten minutes looking through. I still remember which ones were so rare and the excitement of finding them.
Yeah, I still have a couple of mine too.
It was a hilarious scene though. He was still lecturing me as I left the shop. I wish I'd said to him, "how many newspapers are you selling these days, mate?"
You should have gone full bell-end and started mimicking him in the most obnoxious voice with exaggerated hand gestures...
I love miserable shopkeepers though. I still remember the local coffee shop I dared to go in at 3.30 (he closed at 4). He audibly groaned as I walked in and said, "I hope you don't want coffee 'cos I'm cleaning the machine now."
Still, we need to support our local businesses!
Definitely. But it's definitely helpful if they aren't dicks.
You work in customer service in an age where you can get almost anything delivered. All I need is a smile and I'm sold.
Did he at least have a mini freezer full of 10p Mr Freezes?
I wasn't about to start inspecting the things he chose worthy of selling: too busy listening to what he wouldn't sell. I bet he had some dodgy magazines behind the counter. He's probably not heard of the internet.
I really want an ice pop now.
One thing that I really miss as a vegan is a choc ice
I can get Magnums and shop own brand ones and luxury style non dairy ice-creams that mimic a Magnum but I want a choc ice.
Something that has no pretensions.
In a paper bag, usually broken. Cheapest shit on earth. I want that.
We had dairy free ice cream this afternoon.
It was horrible
What brand? There's some shockers.
Poncy ice cream shop that's opened up in the centre of the village. Only sells DF.
Homemade?
I guess so. Sam liked the bubblegum flavour, but the mango I had was minging.
Gritty and ice shards?
No, it was smooth enough. Just tasted artificial. I like a nice sorbet, but this wasn't it.
Can't comment as haven't tried it. But I'd say that's less to do with non dairy and more to do with the flavour that the shop uses. Poorly made vegan ice cream usually is gritty or has ice shards in because non dairy milks have xantham gum in to thicken and stop separation which if you don't freeze it properly separates the water and turns it into some weird ice.
Left a nasty taste in my mouth, can still taste it now. Like those drinks full of aspartame.
That'll just be the flavouring. Probably used a low sugar one. Ugh.
I really want a choc ice now.
There's a Top 10 songs for you. Ones that mention choc ices. Or ice creams. No repeating dishes. i.e. no two sundae songs.
I know Kano had a lyric somewhere with Choc Ice in...
All ice cream songs. Failed miserably on choc ices.
Needs to be more specific.
E.g. Cone.
Sundae.
Knickerbocker Glory.
Choc ice.
Solero.
Strawberry split.
I'll need more time for that.
I'm sure Kelis must have a song about licking ice creams...
Just trying to challenge you...
I will accept cone and waffle cone as two separate ones.
Also a tub of ice cream.
Not something like "two scoops" as that doesn't define the sort of ice-cream.
Magic Whip is the worst Blur album. So I'm not going there.
I'd completely forgot that one exists.
If you struggle, I will also accept half of them to be ice lollies, but they must refer to the product itself and not just use the word. I.e. "fab" and "zoom" must refer to the ice lolly Fab and not an adjective and zoom must refer to that bitching ice lolly and not the verb.
Louise hated when I introduced Sam to the Banana Splits.
Love the Banana Splits. When I was about 7 they reran their Saturday morning show on cartoon network. With all the skits and the shows within them.
I can't say I ever got the appeal, beyond the theme song.
I think it's the chaotic nature of them.
Especially when every other presenter was trying to be more cool.
Even at an early age you were rebelling against the system.
I think I've said but I loved the slapstick nature of The Three Stooges, Mr Bean, Tom and Jerry. And this was a set of shows that were presented by these silly creatures. The go kart bit always cracked me up.
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