Snapshots #466: Songs About Magazines

Hello again.

Here are some songs about magazines...

15. The Munch Bunch.

The Scream was painted by Edvard Munch.

Primal Scream - Loaded

Their strapline was "For Men Who Should Know Better". It should have been "For Men Too Embarrassed To Buy Razzle.)

14. Isaak was almost caught going too fast.

Chris (Isaak) caught Speeding (almost).

Chris Spedding - Radio Times

13. Not quite a decade of snowless mountains.

Nine Black Alps  - Cosmopolitan

12. Like a fox with its rock hard relatives.

Sly & The Family Stone - Life

11. A bunch of idiots... and Yuri.

"And Yuri" was an anagram.

Ian Dury - Razzle In My Pocket

Was Razzle a better magazine than Loaded? At least it didn't pretend to be something it wasn't.

10. Proud... Fargo.

Proud Mary meets Wells Fargo.

Mary Wells - You Beat Me To The Punch

9. Top Jackets required.

Thee Headcoats - (We Hate The Fuckin') NME

Wild Billy at his best.

8. Lost without bab.

The missing A in ABBA.

Agnetha Faltskog - The Heat Is On

Louise makes me buy Heat every Tuesday. (She only reads it for the TV section, apparently.) It's hard to tell which is the new issue since every week without fail the cover features either Kate, Meghan, Posh Spice or that woman who used to present This Morning. 

7. My Father's Cars... abbreviated.

My father's car was a Jaguar. (It wasn't. He always drove Fords.)

The Jags - Woman's World

6. Tuesday afternoon is neverending.

That's a line from Lady Madonna.

Madonna - Vogue

5. A severed alliance.

They hate each other nowadays.

Hall & Oates - Private Eyes

4. Instructions for the gospel crowd.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Heavy Metal

3. Where to find the ingredients of a hamburger.

On the patty label.

Patti LaBelle - Oh People

2. Man behaving badly.

Like Neil Morrissey.

Morrissey - Last Of The Famous International Playboys

1. It's ma Top Ten... and I'll cry if I want to.

Temptations - Papa Was A Rolling Stone

Expect more magazines as the week goes on.

And more Snapshots next Saturday.

Radio Songs #34: What Are You Going To Do With Your Life? Part II

By the end of my first year as a full time (rather than weekends only) employee at the radio station - latterly a paid one! - I reached something of a turning point in my "career". For one thing, I think I was starting to realise that a full-time jocking role might well be out of my reach... or might not be as desirable as it had first seemed... much as I still enjoyed co-presenting the Saturday morning show.

That show was going pretty well, actually - there was talk of paying me for that too! I was also picking up a fair bit of weekend work as a T.O. / tech-op / technical operator. Sometimes even working on the Saturday afternoon Sport show... even though I had no interest in football. There was even talk of me claiming a few hours wages for my work in the record library... although I'd happily have carried on doing that for the free CDs. All in all, I was earning a fairly decent income for a 19 year old. But like all 19 year olds, I wanted more. Not necessarily more money though... just more future.

Added to this, there was still the dream. Working in radio was a dream job... but not THE dream job. That had always been to become a writer. To tell stories for a living. And I probably wasn't going to get to do that if I stayed in radio all my life. No, it was becoming increasingly clear that if I wanted to make a serious go of it as a writer, I had to take my education a bit further. Writers were smart and erudite types. For a start, they knew what erudite meant... and I didn't have a clue. I'd gradually come round to the idea that maybe I had to go to uni after all.

But... how could I do that and keep working in radio at the same time?

Did I have to go back to working only weekends?

And what would that mean for my glorious new expendable income?

This was a good few years before the nonsense that is tuition fees, when it was still perfectly possible to join a full-time university course for FREE, as long as you had the necessary grades... and if you did so in your home town, you could keep living at home and not rack up any student debt at all.

But still... could I live (and buy more records, comics, books, videos, cinema tickets: all those youthful necessities) just from a few hours of radio work at the weekend? Could I really go back to being skint most of the time and sponging off my parents?

And then...

And then an opportunity came up which saved me... and doomed me... all at the same time.

34. Marvin Gaye & Mary Wells - The Late Show

The internet says the album Marvin recorded with Mary in 1964 wasn't promoted well at the time. Mary was the bigger star (following her Number One with My Guy), but she left Motown soon afterwards (bad advice from her husband!), leaving Marvin to hook up with Kim Weston for his next, more successful collaboration. Marvin's star continued to rise, Mary slipped into obscurity.

They sound pretty good damned together though...

Saturday Snapshots #26 - The Answers (Really, this time.)

Sorry. I couldn't resist it, given the date.

Here are this week's real answers.

I've been watching the detectives, and they've done pretty well this weekend. To whit...


10. Strolling round the Sun puts a scratch on your cornet.

If you scratch your cornet you might put at mark on your cone.

Which Martin got, but then couldn't work out the song.

As Charity Chic pointed out though, the famous Sun Studios is based in Memphis, so...

Marc Cohn - Walking In Memphis

9. Frank had a few, on the beach.

Regrets, I've had a few, sang Frank.

Alyson and Martin played Maddie and David to solve this once.

Girl-power for the #metoo generation...

The Regrettes - Seashore

8. Massachusetts is better than Flashdance!

Boston is in Massachussetts, as all Cheers fans will know.

Irene Cara's big hit from Flashdance was What A Feeling.

Alyson just beat CC and RD to this one...

Boston - More Than A Feeling

Epic guitar solo ahoy!

7. I don't doubt you could tape over this - so calm down!

We all taped over plenty of Dolby cassettes - even Doubting Thomas.

Thomas Dolby - Hyperactive

Another point for Martin.

6. The brown-eyed kings of Connacht take more than a week.

The kings of Connacht were the O'Connor clan. Brown eyes are Hazel.

Hazel O'Connor - Eighth Day

Rigid Digit beat Alyson to this one by seconds!

5. 46, I think. If I'm still here in another 136 years, I'll scarcely be able to open my eyes.

I am 46.

46 + 136 = 182.

If I can barely open my eyes, I might not even be able to blink.

Alyson got the band with a few clues...  Chris pitched in with the song.

Blink 182 - What's My Age Again?

The video involves the band running naked through LA. Don't say I didn't warn you. It's not a pretty sight.

4. Where you'll find the virgin oil... and one's main elbow.

You'd get virgin oil from a Mary well, surely?

The lead singer of Elbow is Guy Garvey.

Mary Wells - My Guy

Alyson, Lynchie, George and C teamed up for this one. Jeez, it wasn't that difficult, was it?

3. Reserve Michael, Clive and Wilfred to go all around the world.

CC quickly worked out that if you reserved Michael, Clive and Wilfred, you would be going to book Owens. (Or maybe he just recognised the photo.) I thought the rest of the clue was easy... but maybe the song was too obscure?

I should have settled for The Streets of Bakersfield... or Big In Vegas... or The Kansas City Song... or even Truck Drivin' Man?

Buck Owens - Love Makes The World Go Round

2. A priest plays for Clint at the Mesopotamian party.

Clint Eastwood was a DJ stalked by a crazy fan who wanted him to "Play Misty For Me". Lynchie cracked that, the song proved tougher... but Chris helped out again.

Father John Misty - Funtimes In Babylon

1.The King monk's partner (and his dad) need help with a bicycle puncture.

Yes, that's a young Declan McManus and his dad, Ross... The Secret Lemonade Drinker.

The King = Elvis + the king monk = Abbott. Abbott & Costello. Etc. Etc.

Martin got this one, which I think (just) makes him this week's winner. Or maybe he was tied with Alyson. It's late and my maths head isn't working. Too many half marks this week.




Thanks for playing, as always.

Next week I promise to make them much easier. No April Fool's!