The opening track to Western Stars, the new Bruce Springsteen album which I'm reserving full judgement on until it's had a little more time to play (because at the moment I'm in danger of calling it his best record in 32 years) is called Hitch Hikin'.
This got me pondering songs about sticking your thumb out and begging a lift. Turns out there are hundreds of them. Here's a selection of waifs and strays I found at the side of the road...
Now strictly speaking, Neil and Rosie aren't thumbing a lift, they're "hitchin' on a twilight train", but they are "gonna ride till there ain't no more to go", and when I checked the dictionary definition of hitch-hike, it defined it thus: "travel by getting free lifts in passing vehicles". So I'm going to call Cracklin' Rosie the best hitch hiking song... and yeah, I know, you may not really care for Neil Diamond, but if you don't like this tune (as Mark Radcliffe used to say), you don't like music.
I never did work out what a "store-bought lady" was though. I'm just hoping she's not the blow-up variety.
I've got at least another twenty of those if anybody cares to hear them. You've probably got a bunch of your own though.
I've got so many series on the go at the moment, I can't keep up with them all. So here's a Top Ten of Grumpy Old Men songs (aided and abetted by a few grumpy old women) based around the idea that things were much better when I was a lad. Y'know: strikes, power-cuts, the three day week, Margaret Thatcher, the Yorkshire Ripper, Kajagoogoo... I'm talking the good old days now!
(Nothing personal against Kajagoogoo. They just have a funny name.)
When I did a google image search on "things ain't what they used to be", the above image popped up and I felt it somehow appropriate.
One of those songs you pick up on an old Uncut or Mojo CD, burn to your record library, then never actually listen to until 20 years later when you come up with a random post idea and... not bad, actually.
Amazing that this is the first time Neil Young has featured in my Grumpy Old Men series...
Talk to me, my long lost friend, tell me how you are Are you happy with your circumstance, are you driving a new car? Does it get you where you want to go, with a seven year warranty? Or just another hundred thousand miles away From the days that used to be
Can we ever live up to what our parents' generation went through. Probably not...
Whoah-oh, story after story Of all your faded glory Is all I ever hope to live up to Whoah-oh, know as I get older I'm standing on your shoulders Trying to be just like you But they don't make 'em like they used to
Most things change, but some things stay the same...
There's a freeway where we played football in the fields Apartments on the pitch at Highbury There's a shed called Deer Creek Of which my one critique Is there's no creek now and it's all deer-free
There's a Walgreens where there was no wall, just greenery There's a theme park in a palace in Tennessee That tree there is a pylon But some things you can rely on There's a Starbucks where the Starbucks used to be
Considering Marvin wrote this heartfelt plea for the ecology back in 1971, you can imagine him turning in his grave every time Donald The Trump opens his mouth.
Wait, you say. Those aren't the lyrics to a Max Bygraves song! They're the lyrics to The Kinks' 1983 comeback single, Come Dancing. True enough, but I bet Ray was thinking of Max's big hit from 23 years earlier when he penned those lines... if you don't believe me, just listen to the opening lines of Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be.
Here's a proper grumpy old man song for you! Go on, Max!
Well, I think I actually won a couple this week. There were some stinkers though, so congrats for getting the ones you did...
As usual, I highly recommend giving the songs a listen if you don't know them. They're chosen because they're good ones!
10. Hatless, eyeless Mitchell, could be a Beach Boy... insists on keeping the central heating off.
Yes, as Lynchie points out, it does look a bit like "the late, great John Martyn after he's had a long weekend on the booze" (most weekends, then?) but it's not...
Hatless = Hats off... to Larry
Eyeless Mitchell = Joni without the i (well done, C)
Beach Boys = Wilson
Keeping the central heating on...?
Charity Chic got there in the end (with a little help from C), as I knew he would.
The one nobody got, which is a shame... but hardly surprising. The clues were pretty easy if you knew the band / track. But not many people do. More on that tomorrow...
