On my shelves of contemporary country artists, which are growing faster than they used to, Kenny Chesney doesn't take up as much space as the rebellious bad boy, Eric Church; the polished pop pretty boy, Blake Shelton; or The True King of Contemporary Country: Brad Paisley. In fact, I only have a couple of Kenny Chesney records and I don't like either of them enough to go out and buy his whole back catalogue (as I did with the three named above). Sometimes he can be a bit too country even for me, other times the big ballads veer too close to a redneck Michael Bolton. But I wouldn't turn him off if he came on the radio... not that he ever does in the UK.
American Kids is one of his best, and not just because it references both Springsteen and Mellencamp. It's good driving music because it makes you want to roll the windows down and bask in the deep south sunshine... even when you're in rainy Huddersfield.
Happy New Year from Top Ten Towers. After all the excitement of my 2015 countdown, we now return you to your regular programming: random Top Tens plucked from my record collection. Although the first tune this week kinda breaks that rule.
2016 is a leap year, which means there's one extra day. But although February will now have 29 days, there will be no 8 day weeks... no matter what the Beatles would have you believe. All of which is an extremely tenuous way of introducing this lot...
I was genuinely surprised to discover that there is NO Sting in my record collection. And, as this blog will often demonstrate, I have some UTTER TAT in my record collection. But no Sting. Yeah, I've got The Police, and a few random collaborations, but not one solo Sting tune. I'm not quite sure why. I mean, yes, I do consider him a bit of a tosser, but it's not as though I actively dislike him in the way I actively dislike Bono or the Gallaghers. (And I own music by all three of those idiots.) My favourite Sting song is his version of Spread A Little Happiness from the soundtrack to Brimstone & Treacle, but sadly (some kind of rights issue?), this has never featured on any Sting compilations... otherwise I might have been tempted to buy it.
Anyway, Sting's Seven Days is perfectly adequate Radio 2 filler, and it would have been churlish not to have given it at least a mention once I remembered it.
Frank Black might help re-establish my indie credentials a little. This doesn't sound anything like the Pixies, but it's unmistakably Black Francis. Strange, that.
When Camper Van Beethoven called it a day, David Lowery decided to play it a little more straight with his next band, Cracker. But the old lyrical oddities still crept in...
Bug's got a job in the Catskills
Met some Fraulein along the way
Took her home, but then she had an episode
Though it did disturb him, he was strangely compelled
Hours isn't a classic Bowie album, but this track wouldn't have been out of place on Ziggy Stardust. The guitar certainly has a Mick Ronson flavour. And even though the title doesn't mention days, the chorus does...
I've got seven days to live my life Or seven ways to die...
Feeder were always a band I kind of half-liked (always loved the singles) but I never bought any of their albums. My newfound love of charity-shopping (inspired, in part, by Charity Chic's excellent blog) has increased my Feeder collection greatly. All for a quid a pop! And they say CDs are dead...
Anyway, this one was obviously made for the US market. It's not a spiky as many of their earlier tracks, but the chunky, Blink 182-esque guitars are fun.
Freddie had a typically flamboyant way of playing the piano, perfectly demonstrated on the intro to this John Deacon-written album track from the 1978 album Jazz. I've got a lot of time for John Deacon, he seems the only surviving Queen member to have kept his self-respect intact, refusing to get involved in any of the band's ridiculous post-Freddie shenanigans.
Taken from the soundtrack of the justly forgotten 1986 "comedy" Club Paradise starring Robin Williams, Peter O'Toole (who was nominated for a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor) and Jimmy Cliff himself. Not sure how they roped Elvis in, but the song still works well. I reckon Elvis's voice was at its absolute best around the mid-late 80s and it blends well with Jimmy's here. I first heard this as a bonus track on the special edition one of my favourite Costello albums, Blood & Chocolate.
A cover of the old Northern Soul song by Chuck Wood from 1967... and Chuck's is a pretty damned good version... but I just love me the Dexys. This is from their first ever album, which will soon be 36 years old.
Such facts make me feel ancient and very, very tired. A good way to start the new year.
1. Animals That Swim - Seven Days
Animals That Swim were a curiously beguiling little band formed in the late 80s, though this is from their third (and final... to date) album from 2001. They remind me a lot of the quirky, literate, real life indie written by Stuart Murdoch (Belle & Sebastian) or Shirley Lee (Spearmint). This song tells of a life counted off in ten year birthdays, beginning with my favourite kind of lyrical detail...
On my tenth birthday I danced naked on the lawn Making rain fall from a red watering can. On my twentieth birthday Slumped in the corner Wearing Rhiannon's make up and pearls Clamouring 'Give me attention, please!'
And thus it continues till the narrator abruptly expires on his seventieth, followed by a pithy observation about certain special birthdays...
It seems every time It gets easier and easier to die.
What a cheerful start to 2016! I'll see you all in 7 days. Or 6. Or 8. Depending.
This post was originally called "My Top Ten Songs About American Authors"... but then I discovered a band called American Authors and thought that would be too confusing for their fans.
And naturally, this one's about American Writers because I'm saving Oscar Wilde and Willy Shakespeare for another day. Actually, Bill will probably get a Top Ten all his own. I'm relying on Deano to do a Top Ten Songs About Australian Writers in reply...
Let's start with the most successful American writer ever. No, I'm not joking. With an estimated 800 million books sold, no one else comes close. Not even Dan Brown(!)
Paul Heaton doesn't appear to be a fan though...
And even photo love
With its pages filled with sin
Couldn't lick the boots of the enemy within
It can only be a chapter
'till her heart will give in
The enemy within
Nothing is as phallic
As a moaning violin
To Danielle Steele
The enemy within
Although The Old Man & The Sea and For Whom The Bell Tolls are bloody good reads, neither are as insanely exciting as Hemingway's life story... you have to wonder how far Kenny Chesney will got to find inspiration?
Ah, it's tough out there, a good muse is hard to find Living one word to the next, one line at a time There's more to life than whiskey, there's more to words than rhyme Sometimes nothing works, sometimes nothing shines Like Hemingway's whiskey Sail away, sail away, three sheets to the wind Live hard, die hard, this one's for him...
Couldn't decide between these two so I called it a draw. Natalie Merchant's is the more direct, biographical take (love the opening where she feels sorry for Jack's mum) but the Go-Betweens capture some of the Beat spirit - with beats.
More critique than tribute, yet somehow perfectly fitting for the work and reputation of the writer in question...
Woke up this morning and it seemed to me, that every night turns out to be A little more like Bukowski. And yeah, I know he's a pretty good read. But, God, who'd wanna be? God, who'd wanna be such an asshole?
Lou recorded a double album of songs based on the writings of the master of the macbre, including a dark reworking of Perfect Day.
These are the stories of Edgar Allan Poe Not exactly the boy next door The diabolic image of the city and the sea The chaos and the carnage that reside deep within me Decapitations, poisonings, hellish not a bore You won't need 3D glasses to pass beyond this door
The top male author on my list (yes, equality fans, my top three songs are all about women writers!) is also one of my own personal favourites. Chandler struggled with his reputation as a "pulp" writer, desiring instead the recognition of a "serious" novelist. History has judged him far more fairly, with many critics now treating him with almost the same respect as Fitzgerald or Hemingway. Personally, I'd rather re-read Chandler than either of those, much as I enjoyed Gatsby and The Old Man & The Sea. There's something about the classic 40s L.A. noir of Philip Marlowe that provides perfect escapism... and Chandler's much funnier than any of his more revered contemporaries.
Robyn Hitchcock's tribute was quoted word for word in a famous sequence from Jim O'Barr's comic The Crow.
See also Raymond Chandler Said by Michael Anderson... if you can find it anywhere online.
As literary girlfriends go, Sylvia Plath strikes me as the sort of woman you'd fall for as a miserable teenager. Being much older than that, I'd steer well clear, no matter how much Ryan Adams might romanticise her...
A night on the town with Dorothy Parker, on the other hand, would surely be a blast (though she'd probably cut you down to size in the process). She even makes Prince take a bubble bath with his pants on. (That may be a euphemism... one, I'm sure, Ms. Parker would approve of.)
1. Little Green Cars - Harper Lee
I only recently discovered this band but I've fallen in love with this particular song and quite a few others from their debut album. If I had to describe them, I'd say they sounded like an Irish Fleet Foxes, though others might churlishly compare them with the Mumfords. Lyrically they're far more interesting than either, as demonstrated by their excellent "tribute" to the author of To Kill A Mockingbird.
I put mice in the kitchen to see if you’d kill them
Oh no, you let them live now there’s twelve thousand kids
Oh yeah, you let them breed now I’ve got mouths to feed
Oh yeah, you let them stay now they have taken my place
Oooh yeah, you left them alone now they’re eating our home...
Maybe that was the unpublished plot of Lee's second novel? She was probably right to quit while she was ahead... To Kill A Mockingbird has been an influence on more than one rock band, however... just ask the aforementioned Boo Radleys, for a start!
