Snapshots #428: Ghost Train Songs

Welcome onboard the Snapshots Ghost Train. 

Beware, it's going to be a spooky ride!

15. Common to bumblebees and Greylag Geese. 

BumbleBEEs and Greylag GEESe. 

The Bee Gees - Ghost Train

14. Gervais feminized by Man In Black.

Ricky Gervais becomes Rickie when he counters Tommy Lee Jones.

Rickie Lee Jones - Ghost Train

13. Hold it - you're banned from professional wrestling!

Strangleholds are illegal in professional wrestling.

The Stranglers - Ghost Train

12. Causeless male offspring.

Sons without a cause...

Rebel Son - Ghost Train

11. Slice lost love into bits.

"Slice lost love" was an anagram.

Elvis Costello - Ghost Train

10. Norm's rabbity, isn't he? 

"Norm's rabbity" is an anagram.

Marty Robbins - Ghost Train

9. Visited Graceland. Met Cher.

He did both, while Walking In Memphis. Maybe he even went on the Ghost Train there...

Marc Cohn - Ghost Train

8. Toilet used by both Bob Dylan and The Charlatans.

Bob sang about a North Country Girl. The Charlatans sang about a North Country Boy. These guys provided the w.c...

North Country Gentlemen - Ghost Train

7. When he called out for another drink, the waiter brought a tray.

That's a lyric from Procul Harum's Whiter Shade of Pale, (co-)written and sung by this man...

Gary Brooker - Ghost Train

6. Fancy a zig roll?

"A zig roll" was an anagram...

Gorillaz - Ghost Train

5. No Seine, Sherlock.

The River Detectives - King of the Ghost Train Ride

4. Cutting edge Manga for teenage lads...

Shonen is teenage Manga.

Shonen Knife - Ghost Train

3. The Boss's jumpers...

Bruce Woolley - Ghost Train

2. Rooks 1, Ravens 2...

Counting Crows - Ghost Train

1. Iron Maiden challenge them to a game.

Iron Maiden sang Can I Play With Madness?

Madness - (Waiting For The Ghost Train)

More of this nonsense next Saturday.

A Top Twenty Don't Worry Songs

It's been a particularly busy week and I've been worrying about the fact that I didn't have a post ready for today. I know that's ridiculous. It's really not worth worrying about...

20. David Knopfler - Papa, Don't You Worry

19. The Beloved - Don't You Worry

18. Kim Appleby - Don't Worry

17. Barbara Stephens - I Don't Worry

16. Love As Laughter - Don't Worry

15. The Meteors - I Don't Worry About It

14. Buffalo Springfield - Neighbour, Don't You Worry

13. Grand Funk Railroad - Please Don't Worry

12. Close Lobsters - Don't Worry

11. Marty Robbins - Don't Worry

10. Morrissey - Do Your Best And Don't Worry

9. The Quotations - I Don't Have To Worry

8. Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - Don't You Worry

7. Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell - Baby Don't Cha Worry

6. Thrush Hermit - Darling, Don't Worry

5. Frank Turner - Don't Worry

4. Stevie Wonder - Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing

3. Bobby McFerrin - Don't Worry, Be Happy

2. The Beach Boys - Don't Worry, Baby

1. Bob Marley - Three Little Birds

Don't worry: normal service will resume tomorrow.

Saturday Snapshots #79 - The Answers

This quiz is automatic...

It's systematic...
It's hydromatic...
Why, it's Saturday Snapshots!

I had to use a spreadsheet to work out the winner yesterday, and I'm still not entirely sure I got it right. I think Lynchie just took it, ahead of a sterling performance from Chris, with Charity Chic coming in third, but only after being awarded bonus points for, as George put it, "showing off. Alyson, Rigid Digit*, George and Ramone666 hoovered up the rest.

(*By the way, if any of you haven't yet read Rigid Digit's latest post, I recommend you do so immediately... it struck a lot of chords with me.)

Thanks for once again proving his quiz has got plenty of Razzmatazz! Here are this week's answers...


10. What do football players say to the ref at the start of a match? Clan named ? loses an atom.

Question loses its last ion.

A Tribe Called Quest - Can I Kick It?

9. Oz tum, eh? Too much gambling. Don't put your last coin in the jukebox...

Anagram + high rolling.

Zoe Muth & The Lost Higher Rollers - If I Can't Trust You With A Quarter, How Can I Trust You With My Heart?

8. Sons of Galveston express surprise at your departure.

Jimmy Webb (aka God) wrote Galveston. These are his boys.

The Webb Brothers - I Can't Believe You're Gone

7. Burt's sick wine ends up enclosed with small shoes, eggs and matches.

Burt Reynolds drinks sick wine or Mal Vina, see?

Malvina Reynolds - Little Boxes

6. Found at the zoo, between the friendly antelopes and other pachyderms.

A friendly antelope would be similar to a tame impala.

The biggest pachyderm is an elephant.

Tame Impala - Elephant

Why couldn't all their other songs be as good as this one?

5. Never-ending efficiency minus 100.

If you're efficient, you're pretty slick. Minus a C(entury) = Slik.

Slik - Forever & Ever

4. McFly eats half an ice cream near the Mexican border.

Marty McFly.

Baskin & Robbins.

Marty Robbins - El Paso

Finally finished watching Breaking Bad last week. Yeah, only ten years behind everybody else. This tune features heavily in one of the closing episodes.

3. Thankful when it gets dark and you can hear the Greenwich Time Signal even though you're on your way to see the satellites?

Tortuous clue that. When you're glad it's night, you can hear the pips from GMT, and you're taking the late train to see the Georgia Satellites?

Gladys Knight & The Pips - Midnight Train To Georgia

2. Think things... Average: 5.6 feet, 650 kg.

When I think things, I wonder stuff.

Cows are, according to the internet, on average 5.6 feet, 650 kg.

This was my favourite clue of the week.

The Wonder Stuff - The Size Of A Cow

1. Is sculpture art or a cheesy job?

Kraft make cheese. Not very nice cheese, but cheese all the same.

Sculpture is about making models.

Jobs are work. (Horrible, in most cases.)



I've got chills - they're multiplying... because Saturday Snapshots will be back next week.

Hot 100 #62

An unsigned band from Edinburgh give us our opening image this week. Check them out on Soundcloud.

But what about songs with 62 in them? Let's jump straight into your suggestions...

C started us off with a song we already had 4 weeks back...

Route 66 - whose ever version you like best!

"get your kicks on Route 66 and I'll meet you on Route 62"

...but sadly no double-week-winners on this series.

Next up was The Swede...

The Tragically Hip's 'Fifty Mission Cap' contains the line 

"The last goal he ever scored won the Leafs, the cup, 

They didn't win another till 1962, 

The year he was discovered..."

It's a marvellous song telling a fascinating story.

Can't really argue with that.

Next up was Martin, who offered this gem...

You Keep It All In by The Beautiful South

"Just like that murder in '73 

Just like that robbery in '62 

With all there things that have happened to me 

I kept it all in"

Certainly wins video of the week... and any other week would probably clinch the title.

But Martin wasn't done there...

Or Loudon Wainwright III with the brilliant Talking New Bob Dylan, which includes:

"Well, it musta been about '62

I heard you on record, you were brand new"

(Really, I love this song.)

And how could he not? As Loudon admits, Bob was "hipper than Mitch Miller... and Johnny Mathis put together!"

Then Lynchie popped up with a heartbreaking slice of classic country...

Sixty-Two’s Most Promising Fool by Marty Robbins

And Alyson kept it country, knowing my love for Brad Paisley...

Brad Paisley - JFK 1962

Except that's not really a song, just a snip of JFK's famous moon speech set to music... a lengthy intro to this song, which is rather timely since the new Neil Armstrong movie starring Ryan Gosling appears to have left the American flag back home, much to the chagrin of a certain Mr. Trump. Still, I never really took Brad's song as jingoistic, far more hopeful... plus I'm a sucker for songs featuring 5 year olds talking to their dads. 

(Actually, what I find most interesting about listening to that JFK speech is how much he sounds like the great Pete Postlethwaite in Brassed Off. Without the swearing. Just me?)

Rigid Digit, meanwhile, came to kick out the jams...

The MC5 - Rocket Reducer No 62 (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa)

What a racket. (In a good way.)

But this week's winner was...

...well, I know what you're all thinking.

You're all thinking this week's winner will be this, as originally suggested by The Swede and then seconded by Martin and Brian...

Sir leads the troops
Jealous of youth
Same old suit since nineteen sixty two

And certainly, it is one of my favourites from the early days of The Smiths. However, I'm going to throw a curveball this week and go with Jim from Dubai's suggestion... some classic 90s powerpop all the way from Sweden. A big favourite of mine back in the day...
 

Next week... 61. Any ideas?

My Top Ten Ruby Songs

Ten rubies on wax cylinder...


10. The Osborne Brothers - Ruby (Are You Mad?)

Featuring some mighty fine banjo picking.

9. Marty Robbins - Ruby Ann

Ain't true love a funny thing?

8. Foster The People - Ruby

 An early FTP track, from before their pumped-up success, released as part of Record Store Day 2012.

7. Bic Runga - Ruby Nights

A haunting story of lost love from the New Zealand chanteuse.

6. Foxboro Hot Tubs - Ruby Room

A Green Day side-project that sounds suspiciously like... Green Day. Nothing wrong with that.

5. Tom Waits - Ruby's Arms

Tom does a Bill Bixby...

The only thing I'm taking is the scarf off of your clothesline
I'll hurry past your chest of drawers
And your broken wind chimes as I say goodbye
I'll say goodbye, say goodbye to Ruby's arms...

4. Donald Fagen - Ruby Baby

From the amazing album 'The Nightfly', the best thing to come out of Steely Dan breaking up in the 80s. 

3. Kaiser Chiefs - Ruby

The Leeds' lads biggest hit: it seems so long ago. I saw Ricky Wilson in the remake of Jeff Wayne's War of the World stage show just before Christmas. He was the best thing in it... except for Liam Neeson (via hologram) and Jason Donovan. Marty Pellow was awful though.

2. The Rolling Stones - Ruby Tuesday

I know, I know. You really thought this would be Number One, didn't you? It's a lovely song. There's no denying that. But it doesn't quite do it for me like...

1. Kenny Rogers & The First Edition - Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town

Back from Vietnam, a paralyzed vet finds it hard to readjust to home life... especially when his wife is finding solace in the arms of other men.

Those of you who don't find this heartbreaking: check you've still got one to break.

Originally recorded by Johnny Darrell. Also memorably covered by (among others) The Killers, Carl Perkins, Cake and Leonard Nimoy. Yes, I said Leonard Nimoy. 




Those were my Top Ten Rubies... which sparkles brightest for you?