Hot 100 #31

31 Scars are the band I found to illustrate #31 in the Hot 100. What can I tell you about them? They like The Cranberries.

"Welcome back the songs with numbers thing!" said Lynchie.

To celebrate, I'd like to offer up Sin City written by Gram Parsons and performed by The Flying Burrito Brothers on the fab album "The Gilded Palace Of Sin". The chorus is:

This old earthquake's gonna leave me in the poor house

It seems like this whole town's insane

On the 31st floor a gold plated door

Won't keep out the Lord's burning rain

A fine tune, and one that featured on Saturday Snapshots a few weeks back, if I remember correctly. But not this week's winner.

"Good to see the return of the Hot 100, yes!" said C.

I can offer one song lyric with 31 in, from The Universal Soldier by Buffy Sainte Marie, also covered by Donovan and (I just found) more recently by First Aid Kit. A song with a theme that sadly never goes out of date.

He's five-foot-two and he's six-feet-four

He fights with missiles and with spears

He's all of thirty-one and he's only seventeen

He's been a soldier for a thousand years

Thank you, C. I'm rather partial to the Glen Campbell version myself.

"Welcome back to the 100 - time for some more spurious suggestions. Thanks for giving back the opportunity for a dose of musical tourettes," said Rigid Digit.

Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band - Death Cab For Cutie

Bad girl Cutie, what have you done

-Baby don't do it

Slipping sliding down Highway 31

-Baby don't do it

That is always worth another spin. Gave its name to one of my favourite Emo bands too.

"I too offer my welcome back and give my heartfelt thanks for bringing this series back to life," said Douglas. "I have, after all, been waiting months with baited breath to see if my Leroy Brown suggestion might finally have meant a first place finish! Missed by that much, once again."

Yeah, sorry about that, Douglas. Keep dreaming the dream.

A few great suggestions above that I would have made, and I am guessing Universal Soldier makes a strong finish. I would also have suggested Sin City, but in the spirit of offering something new and in keeping with the spirit of the musicians that seem to bring a winning touch round these parts, I will suggest the version by Billy Bragg, on the Talking With The Taxman About Poetry album.

I'd forgotten all about that.

As for unique and new suggestions, how about The Cure - So What?, from Three Imaginary Boys. It is a strange song, wherein Robert Smith, in the midst of a heartache breakup song, seems to be trying to sell us a cake decorating set. Not sure if that is a metaphor for something that eludes me, but in any case, the offer seems to be time-sensitive:

Order now

Allow twenty one days

For delivery

This offer closes

31st December 1979

I can't remember why, but that has featured on this blog before. It is gloriously mad.

Seems I missed my chance to get me one of them sets by close to 40 years.

You and me both.

And if that is too festive for you, perhaps a dead dog offered up by Mr Bruce Springsteen is more your fancy, in Reason To Believe off the delightful Nebraska album:

Seen a man standin' over a dead dog lyin' by the highway in a ditch

He's lookin' down kinda puzzled pokin' that dog with a stick

Got his car door flung open he's standin' out on Highway 31

Like if he stood there long enough that dog'd get up and run

Struck me kinda funny seem kinda funny sir to me

Yes, very funny indeed.

Another very good call, Douglas. Any other week... sadly I had another song in mind from the start this week. What was it? Well, it wasn't any of these...

Magnolia Electric Company - 31 Seasons In The Minor Leagues

The Shirelles - 31 Flavours

(One flavour less than last week's offering by Ani DiFranco.)

The Divine Comedy - 31st of May

Rory Gallagher - Too Much Alcohol (it all happens on 31st Street)

Stephen Malkmus - The Hook

By 31 I was the captain of a galleon

I was poseidon's new son

The coast of montenegro was my favorite target

It was ever so fun

We had no wooden legs

Or steel hooks

We had no black eye patches

Or a starving cook

We were just killers with the cold eyes of a sailor

Yeah we were killers with the cold eyes of a sailor

Dixie Chicks  - Tortured, Tangled Hearts

After 31 days of sleepless nights, she woke up to end it all

With "I love you" on a fresh tattoo engraved upon his chest

She tore her name right off his heart

So here's to the unblessed

The Go-Betweens - The Life At Hand

A ruby waistcoat won't hide my fear

At 12:31 watch my teeth disappear

However, first out of the gate this week was Charity Chic with a very fine suggestion from an artist I've long dallied with, every since I found her first album lounging in the chuck-out box at my former workplace. (What fools!)


30 next week. This may take a while...

Hot 100 #71

The band SR-71 (named after a Lockheed fighter plane) have actually featured on this blog before as they recorded the original version of my favourite Bowling For Soup Song, 1985. They also had a couple other minor hits, most notably Right Now. Worth a listen if you like the early noughties American guitar band sound of Blink-182 et al.

Songwise, the number 71 proved much trickier for you guys. In fact, this is the closest this feature has yet got to...

Alyson tried her best with '71 I Think I'll Make A New World by the Magnetic Fields, from one of my favourite albums of last year, but as I may have mentioned when I began this feature many, many weeks ago, I'd ruled that album out; otherwise I could have featured one of its songs every week so far. Each track on the album is about one year in Stephin Merritt's life, so I could have chosen this glorious gem for '78 or this belter for '77 or this euphoric classic for '76... well, you get the picture. Time will sadly run out for this as an option come '66 Wonder Where I'm From, the opening track on 50 Song Memoir. Until then, you're welcome to suggest them even though technically they're disqualified.

The only other suggestion this week came from Rigid Digit - and yes, it was another one that could have satisfied multiple entries on this countdown: Saturday Gigs by Mott The Hoople...

In Seventy-one all the people come

Bust a few seats but it's just in fun

Take the Mick out of Top of the Pops

We play better than they do

That one's only got a couple more weeks to run too.

What else did I find lurking in my record collection for Number Seventy-One then?

The final track on the album Black Cadillac by Roseanne Cash is called 0:71. The record was written while Cash was dealing with the recent loss of her mother (Johnny's first wife, Vivian Liberto Cash Distin), stepmother (June) and father, but 0:71 isn't actually a song... it's 71 seconds of silence. One second for every year of Johnny's life. A cool tribute, but hardly a "song" I can choose to represent 71 in the Hot 100.

Fortunately, I didn't have to rely on it because I also found this, from the late Jason Molina's second band (his first was Songs: Ohia). Some nice, laidback Americana for a Tuesday morning...



Which brings us to 70. Hopefully there'll be less tumbleweed next week, though I still expect some Mott The Hoople...