Another Day #9: Good Friday

What's so good about it?

Don't answer that.

There is always some contention raised at Top Ten Towers about whether or not one should receive / start eating Easter Eggs on Good Friday... or wait until Sunday. Personally, I'm well past Easter Eggs - I'd rather have some nice nuts. But some people hate waiting till Sunday for their eggs. What does the hivemind think?

Cowboy Junkies - Good Friday

Elvis Perkins - Good Friday

Mental As Anything - Good Friday

Modern Romance - Good Friday

For Against - Dark Good Friday

WHY? - Good Friday

Then Comes Silence - Good Friday

The Black Crowes - Good Friday

If it's just an average Friday today, or you're having to wait till Sunday for your Easter Eggs, you may be interested to learn that Friday April 3rd 2026 is also...

Don't Go To Work Unless It's Fun Day

"This light-hearted occasion encourages individuals to pause and assess how they actually feel about their work, not just how they think they’re supposed to feel. If the day’s agenda looks like nothing but stress, monotony, or one meeting too many, the message is simple: rethink the plan."

OK, are you going to pay my mortgage while I take time to rethink the plan?

There's a line in there which goes "You can burn it down as far as I’m concerned", which always reminds me of whenever we had a fire drill in my previous job... all those teachers (and students) stood out in the car park, praying it wasn't just a practice.

Walk to Work Day

Is it just me, or will a lot of people not be going to work today because it's a Bank Holiday? I don't think either of these days have been planned very well this year, have they?

Virginia Coalition - Walk To Work

Of course, if you are walking to work, you might be using Shanks's pony...

Pony Express Day

So if you're wondering who to blame...

Johnny Johnson & the Bandwagon - Blame It On The Pony Express

But possibly my favourite pointless suggestion for today is this one...

National Find A Rainbow Day

And I quote...

"Quite a few ways to celebrate Find a Rainbow Day can be imagined. It might be fun to grab some friends and try to find a rainbow, although this activity may be dependent on the weather."

D'oh!

Don't despair though, because there's one occasion I can absolutely get behind celebrating today...

World Party Day

"World Party Day is based on the idea that peace is not the opposite of war, merely its absence. The real opposite of war is party, and World Party Day aims to synchronise a massive, world-wide party to celebrate everything that’s good and optimistic!"

I'm not really sure I believe that the real opposite of war is party - for two reasons. Firstly, I've been to quite a few parties that ended up as wars. And secondly, I'd rather stay home and read a book.

However, this day wins because it allows us the opportunity to celebrate the work of the late, great Karl Wallinger...

I hope it's a Good Friday for you...

Emergency Questions #7: Demolition

As always, I'm indebted to Richard Herring for giving us something to talk about on a Friday - from his book Emergency Questions.

Have you ever demolished a wall or a building?

The Style Council - Walls Coming Tumbling Down

Ken Sharp - Break Down The Walls

Kiss - When Your Walls Come Down

Growing up among a family of builders, there was always the opportunity to wreck things. Before side-stepping into building houses, my brother specialised in demolition. I never really accompanied him on any of these wrecking jobs, but I'd see him knocking stuff down for my dad around the farm every now and then. My greatest memory of his destructive tendencies involved my first bike, which he drove over with his JCB when I made the mistake of leaving it in the yard. My sister carried it back into the house and held it up to show me what had happened... but it wasn't until she turned it side on that I realised it was flat.

Electric Soft Parade - Holes In The Wall

Smokie - When The Walls Comes Down

Broken Records - The Crumbling Wall

My dad was a joiner by trade, but he could turn his hand to most jobs. He built sheds, turned our old barn into the house my Mum still lives in today, and single-handedly wood-panelled the house I grew up in to within an inch of its life. Wood panelling was very big back in the 70s, especially if you were a joiner. There was always some DIY project ongoing, despite the fact he had a full time job at the car auctions and also managed the farm. 

Kris Kristofferson - Let The Walls Come Down

Def Leppard - When The Walls Came Tumbling Down

Suzanne Vega - Crack in the Wall

I do have one specific memory of a demolition job that I got involved in, and this was when I was very young... maybe 4 or 5. There was a wall down the side of the staircase that my dad had started knocking down so that he could make the small sitting room a bit more open plan. This was an old farmhouse, so all the walls were built of stone - no plasterboard when that place was built. Removing the wall was taking him some time (in between all his other jobs), but one morning he and my Mum woke up very early to the sound of hammering... only to discover me sitting on the stairs with a lump hammer in my hand, cheerfully knocking out the bricks. I guess I wanted to be like my dad...

The Mendoza Line - Before I Hit the Wall

There was one song I had to play today, but I really couldn't choose between the two best versions. So here they both are...

Plus one more relevant tune that I haven't heard in years...

My Top Ten 'Who's To Blame?' Songs

When you look at the state of the world today, you have to ask yourself... who's to blame? Here are ten possible answers...


10. The Jacksons - Blame It On The Boogie

Let's start with the obvious one. If you can't blame it on the sunshine or the moonlight... maybe you should blame it on Jarvis Cocker for waggling his bottom in Earth Song. If he hadn't done that, perhaps Michael The Messiah might have saved us all...

9. Lambchop - Blame It On The Brunettes

Come on, Kurt... surely the blondes have more to be blamed for?

Research and radios
Divide my world at best
Peanut butter relationships
No kids no food no pets
Adequate understanding
Ample cigarettes
Blame it on the brunette 

8. Johnny Johnson & The Bandwagon - (Blame It) On The Pony Express

Kind of like blaming Postman Pat. Which, come to mention it, is not a bad idea since it does generally appear to be his fault. He's lucky that he lives in a village full of idiots who never fail to say, "don't worry, Pat won't let us down," no matter how many times he does just that.

I feel so sorry for Jess the cat.

7. Bon Jovi - Blame It on the Love of Rock & Roll

I know, I know. It ain't cool, but I still love it.

I mean, come on...

It feels so good that it ought to be illegal
I got my vaccination from a pornograph needle
I'll never grow up and I'll never grow old
Blame it on the love of rock & roll!

No?

Suit yourself.

You don't know what you're missing. 

6. Idlewild - Blame It On Obvious Ways

Sometimes I forget just how good Idlewild were...

I'm forced into a sponsored silence
Where I'm only paid if I don't say
What I want to say

Been there, bought the T-shirt.

5. Lloyd Cole - Blame Mary Jane

 This is how innocent I was back in 1990. I honestly thought this song was about...

Rather than...

4. Cosmo Jarvis - Blame It On Me

Love Cosmo Jarvis. Very disappointed that he appears to have packed in the music biz in favour of acting. I'm sure he's very good in Lady Macbeth, but I'd rather hear a new record from him. I do blame him for that.

See also Blame It On Me by George Ezra which is pretty good too, but not Cosmo-level good.

3. Kris Kristofferson - Blame It On The Stones

Written just after Altamont, when the whole of America seemed intent on blaming it on The Stones...

Mister Marvin Middle Class is really in a stew
Wond'rin' what the younger generation's coming to
And the taste of his martini doesn't please his bitter tongue
Blame it on the Rolling Stones.

Mother tells the ladies at the bridge club every day
Of the rising price of tranquilizers she must pay
And she wonders why the children never seem to stay at home
Blame it on the Rolling Stones.

2. Elvis Costello - Blame It On Cain

Love the rawness of Elvis's debut album.

Once upon a time, I had a little money
Government burglars took it long
Before I could mail it to you,
Still, you are the only one
Now I can't let it slip away
So if the man with the ticker tape, he tries to take it
Well, this is what I'm gonna say...

1. Carter USM - I Blame The Government

I blame the government
For making me this way
Bitter and twisted and crap
Bored psychopathic
At the end of the day
I blame the government for that
Poor education, death on the roads
The writing thats not on the wall
The war in The Balkans
The war in The Falklands
Its not like The Waltons at all

 Well, quite.

If I had the wings of a sparrow
If I had the arse of a crow
I'd fly over Whitehall tomorrow
And... ...on the bastards below

Who do you blame it on?

My Top Ten Carpentry Songs

My dad is a joiner by trade, and though he didn't pass any of those woodworking skills on to me, I think he's proud that at least one of his grandsons did follow him into the trade. A joiner is a carpenter, in case you were wondering, though arguably more skilled... I'll let you google the arguments on that one. 

Special mentions to The Carpenters (of course), Mary Chapin Carpenter, Cold Chisel, Woodkid, Harrison Ford, Jesus and Ron Swanson...

(Ron Swanson ROCKS.)


10. Paul Weller - Woodcutter's Son

I guess this could be about me...

You better give me the chance
I'll cut you down with a glance
Yeh, with my small axe - so help me,
And tho' I'm only one
And tho' weak, I'm strong
And if it comes to the crunch
Then I'm the woodcutter's son
And I'm cutting down the wood for the good of everyone!

Erm... perhaps not.

9. Bob Dylan - The House Carpenter

A traditional folk song ghost story, recorded by Bob and a bunch of other people. Nice guitar work on this one, Robert.

8. Robert Plant - Big Log

OK, I admit it, this one's a stretch even for me. But it's a great song just looking for a bandsaw to cut it into planks...

7. John Prine - Grandpa Was A Carpenter

He built houses, stores and banks
Chain-smoked Camel cigarettes
And hammered nails in planks

Nice work if you can get it.

6. Idlewild - These Wooden Ideas

All good carpentry projects have to start somewhere...

Don't be real - be post-modern!

5. The Avett Brothers - The Once & Future Carpenter

Once I was a carpenter, man my hands were calloused
I could swing a metal mallet sure and straight
But I took to the highway, a poet young and hungry
And I left the timbers rotting where they lay

Lovely stuff from the new Avett Brothers record.

4. Eddie Floyd - Knock On Wood

What else do carpenters do? (If you believe this song is a euphemism for something else entirely... shame on you.)

See also the excellent versions by David Bowie, Amii Stewart and Emma 'Gwen Stacy' Stone... among others. The original's still the best though.

3. Aberfeldy - If I Were A Joiner

Joiners are better than plain old carpenters. According to my dad, anyway.

If I were a joiner
You know what I'd do?
Put up a shelf
All about you.

2. The Four Tops - If I Were A Carpenter

Written by Tim Hardin, recorded by everyone from Johnny Cash and Bob Seger to Robert Plant and Leonard Nimoy... but it was the Four Tops version that originally chiselled its way into my heart.

I know... you thought this was going to be Number One, didn't you? So did I, until I remembered...

1. Johnny Johnson & The Bandwagon - Breaking Down The Walls Of Heartbreak

He's a carpenter of love and affection!

I could have chosen the equally smashing (if slightly less legible) cover by Dexys Midnight Runners... but that didn't have Pan's People dancing like this...





Which one gives you wood?

(Sorry.)