Country must be the second most self-referential genre in
all of popular music. Only rap likes to talk about itself and name-drop other
noteworthy practitioners of the artform more than country… the difference being
that such references are largely positive in country, whereas rappers do like
to slag each other off any chance they get.
With that in mind, I’m not going to pretend to have listened
to every song that mentions Loretta Lynn in passing. She was a legend, and an
inspiration, so it’s only right she be immortalised in many, many tunes.
Here are just a handful… and they're not all straight down the line country songs either.
I ain’t a coal miner’s daughter But I’ve sung it all my life I ain’t been a widow But I’ve been an ex-wife And I hear your truth And I feel your pain Now I know why you sang that way
Like any other would be country singing sensation I had no visible means of transportation One Saturday morning I was searching the ads When I found one that I wanted and I wanted it bad I called up the salesmen, he said, c'mon in I've got the Lincoln right here belonged to Loretta Lynn The Coal Miner's Daughter used to drive it to town It's yours for a song and five hundred down
Don't you think it's time we put a woman in the White House With a whole new attitude? Just look at the mess we're in Heck, I'd vote for Loretta Lynn I guarantee that we'd all be Singing a different song
I am leaving Mississippi in the evening rain These Delta towns wear satin gowns In a high beamed frame Loretta Lynn guides my hands through the radio Where would I be in times like these Without the songs Loretta wrote?
Sittin' in the kitchen, a house in Macon Loretta's singing on the radio Smell of coffee, eggs, and bacon Car wheels on a gravel road
As I said at the top, I could be here all day. Perhaps only
Hank Williams and Johnny Cash get name-checked in more country songs than
Loretta. And here she is with Johnny, in one of my favourites.
When Loretta Lynn goes dancing With the ghost of Johnny Cash Father Time takes forever And to make it look like less than lightning flash Violins bow into fiddles Two iconic symbols crash When Loretta Lynn goes dancing With the ghost of Johnny Cash
We seem to be going through one of those phases where heaven's waiting room is filling up with the great and good from my record collection again... to the point that I'm having trouble keeping up. I hadn't even heard about Charlie Watts passing until Alyson brought it to my attention. Charlie was, of course, the cement that held the Stones together...
We also lost Nanci Griffith, a much loved and respected singer songwriter who was also very supportive of new talent throughout her career. She died at just 68, which is no age at all, and I must have heard the track below (live version, it just has to be) played about five times on the radio in the past couple of weeks. Rightly so, because it's powerfully evocative of times long gone...
Before that, we said goodbye to Dusty Hill, bassist and beardsmith of ZZ Top. Here he is taking lead vocals on a track they probably wouldn't play on the radio any more, more's the pity...
Another one I almost missed was Don Everly, who outlived his brother Phil by ten years, but finally said Bye Bye, Love last week. (No disrespect meant, but I can't have been the only one to pen that line.)
Finally... perhaps the least well known of the bunch... but still quite a blow for me, was the death of country songwriter Tom T. Hall. Most famous for writing the divine Harper Valley, PTA, Tom T. Hall was a true lyrical storyteller... to the point that he had a nice sideline going as a short story writer. Here he is doing what he did best...
Rest in peace, all you guys. Thanks for the songs.
Welcome, Planet Earth, I know you're Hungry Like The Wold for this week's answers... ahem, I honestly didn't set out to make this Duran Duran weekend on Saturday Snapshots, but when I found photos of both Simon Le Bon Bon and Nick Toady Rhodes with cameras, I thought I may as well get them both out of the way in the same weekend rather than inflicting them on you two weeks running.
Suppress your gag Reflex... here come the answers. It was neck and neck yesterday morning between Walter and Rigid Digit - I think RD just scooped the prize.
10. Wake up feeling tearful, with two spoonfuls of sugar.
This is just one of those things you put down to experience...
That's one I remember having to play quite a lot on The Love Zone!
7. Conductor of P.E.
Tough one if you didn't know it... which I guess a lot of people don't. Pretty straightforward clue if you do know the artist though... well done to Lynchie for the late save!
I can't claim to be the world's biggest expert on Greta Garbo. In fact, compared to the actors and actresses featured so far in this series, I know virtually nothing about her, and would struggle to name more than a couple of her movies. I do, however, understand how she might vant to be alone...
Songwriters, though, they just won't leave her alone at all...
(Special mention to The Pogues - Garbo (aka In & Out), which is a pretty cool tune but isn't about Greta at all, it's slang for garbage.)
I'm the twisted name on Garbo's eyes Living proof of Churchill's lies, I'm destiny I'm torn between the light and dark Where others see their targets, divine symmetry Should I kiss the viper's fang?
And maybe you were thinkin' That you thought you knew me well But, no one ever knows the heart of anyone else I feel like Garbo in this late night grande hotel Cause living alone is all I've ever done well
One of my favourite Mansun songs. The title is my mantra.
I traveled from Dublin, you said you'd change the world You sing like Sinatra, always You pulled 'em for miles now, like Garbo in Berlin You played 'em for zeroes, just like always Tonight, some bitch is hassling me And tonight, it feels so good feeling cheap
I can only disappoint you cause I always let you down
Normally
I'd go for Frank over Bryan any day, but I have a special fondness for
the Ferryman's version of this Cole Porter clssic.
The smile of Garbo and the scent of roses The waiters whistling as the last bar closes The song that Crosby sings These foolish things remind me of you
Speaking of Cole Porter, let's not forget You're The Top...
You're the purple light Of a summer night in Spain, You're the National Gallery You're Garbo's salary, You're cellophane.
Imagine living in a time where cellophane is a technological marvel.
...and I live in the back of the Greta Garbo Home for Wayward Boys and Girls.
There actually was such a place, apparently, a hostel in San Francisco in the 60s.
1. Lloyd Cole - Perfect Skin
Some of the best lyrics of the 80s...
At the age of ten she looked like Greta Garbo And I loved her then, but how was she to know that When she smiles my way My eyes go out in vain She's got perfect skin
And I could easily have gone another ten. But which one do you want to be alone with?
I was never a John Wayne fan. I found him a pretty unpleasant character on screen... and I believe he was actually quite a bit worse off-screen.
My dad though... my dad loves John Wayne. If there's a John Wayne film on TV, he'll stop everything to watch it, even though he's seen it a hundred times before. Therefore, this Top Ten's for my dad...
Scottish rock band gets upset that all their culture is imported from the States. Consider...
Every time there's a story, I turn around, you're turning into John Wayne, You're turning into John Wayne, Now here's a grey Scottish theory, Have you lost latitude and longitude? Your latitude and longitude.
Now I know that I'm contradicting Everything I own was made in the US of A, Made in the USA
Directed and produced by Wayne, many still believe this movie to be an accurate historical document, despite an iffypedia-quoted expert saying, "there is not a single scene in The Alamo which corresponds to a historically verifiable incident". Songwriters have been fascinated with this famous battle for years too: see The Ballad of Davy Crockett, The Ballad of the Alamo and even Remember The Alamo... which doesn't have quite the same message as the Indelicates song of the same name.
John Martyn believed John Wayne to be a very scary man.
Don’t you dare look behind you
For you know I will be there
You’ll feel my breath on your neck
Turn, face me if you dare
I’ve come to measure you
I’ve come to fix you up
I’ve come to measure you
Fix you up. I am John Wayne
I believe I’m John Wayne
You know, my name is John Wayne
Get on your horse!
John Wayne becomes the perfect metaphor for callous, hard-hearted rejection from this little-known Irish indie band...
You know your neglect
Is the reason that I'm so obsessed with you
And when I asked you your name, you said John Wayne
And I guess it's true
'Coz then you shot me down
Doubled over and I hit the ground right in front of you
I guess in the Wild West
It's OK to shoot the pest that's annoying you
1. Buddy Holly & The Crickets - That'll Be The Day
Perhaps not the most obvious Number One... until you realise that one of the biggest hits of the rock 'n' roll era is actually named after a line from The Searchers. 60 years later, this is still one of the greatest pop songs ever recorded.
Which one makes you want to get off your horse and drink your milk? (John never said that, apparently. It was Little & Large.)
Following on from My Top Tens Songs About 1972, we slip back three years before I was born to the days when man first walked on the moon and The Beatles were still a thing (but not for much longer). The year PJ Harvey, Cate Blanchett, Edward Norton, Dave Grohl, Javier Bardem, Graham Coxon, Matthew McConaughey, Nicky Wire & James Dean Bradfield, Ice Cube, Christian Slater, Elliott Smith, Justine Frischmann, Jack Black, Cerys Matthews, Michael Sheen, Keith Flint, J-Lo, Jay-Z and Badly Drawn Boy were born.
The year of Woodstock, Nixon and (according to the book cover above), nudity. Yep, no one had ever taken their clothes off until 1969. Reason enough to celebrate with nine songs that mention that year... and one complete shoe-horn.
From the album that brought us Je t'aime... moi non plus. More kitschy sleaze from the master.
Bad Seed Mick Harvey translated this (along with many more Gainsbourg compositions) into English on his 90s albums Intoxicated Man and Pink Elephant. They're nice enough versions, but the lyrics only work in French.
Seriously scary (don't even watch the video) which closed the second Sonic Youth album: sounds like Jim Morrison's worst nightmare set to wax. Amid all that horror, Kim Gordon's bass stands proud.
Johnny Cash recalls the good old days - y'know, when pop songs were actually about stuff. Willie, Waylon and Kris help jog his memory.
Hey babe, do you remember, Back in nineteen sixty-nine? We gathered round the room. You sang yours and I sang mine. We took turns with the guitar, In the front and center seat. Shel and Kris and Dylan, And a couple off the street. Joni Mitchell cried on, "Both Sides Now." We sang songs that made a difference. And we can again somehow.
OK, so I know this one isn't about 1969 at all, just the 'last number called' feature on American phones, but I couldn't resist shoehorning it in because it features some of Stipey's most bonkers lyrical ramblings about a mate who burns down a warehouse then calls Michael for an alibi.
I know all about the warehouse fire I know squirrels didn't chew the wires 3 people have my number The other 2 were with me I don't like to tell-tell but I'm not your patsy This time you have gone too far with me
The shortest - and oddest - song from Viva Hate. With nods to both Judy Garland and German novelist Hans Fallada, Moz affectionately recalls a TV star of the late 60s who has slipped into obscurity. Various theories abound on who the Little Man in question was... Alan Bennett seems to think it was Jimmy Clitheroe.
I picked up a copy of Nanci's 1988 album Storms in a charity shop a few weeks back and it's a beautiful record. She looks really young on the cover, so I was surprised to read that it was her 8th album and she already had over ten years in the business when it was released. Apparently it was seen at the time as her "pop" album... "pop" meant something very different back then.
Drive-In Movies & Dashboard Lights is my favourite track - the tale of a small-town girl who gets by on looks alone... and learns a hard lesson a few years later...
Where is she now? The backseat queen of fraternity Where is she now? She's heavy on thigh And light on integrity Someone should have told her When beauty's all you offer How soon the world discovers That your beauty's gone It's gone
Unlike our Number One artist this week (who only pretended to be), Nanci actually was 16 in 1969. Which might explain why she sets a number of her songs in that year, including So Long Ago and her Viet Nam elegy Traveling Through This Part Of You.
The opening track on Iggy's debut racket doesn't sound like anything else released in 1969... maybe that's why he was so bored?
1. Bryan Adams - Summer of '69
I sometimes think I should have called this blog 'Irk The Purists' ('Irk The Musos' might be more on-point, but that wouldn't reference Half Man Half Biscuit). Bryan Adams at Number One? Bryan Adams ahead of Iggy Pop? Are you saying Bryan Adams is more rock 'n' roll than Iggy, Rol? Are you? Are you? 'Cos them's fighting words.
Clearly, I'm not saying anything of the sort, but this song - his finest hour, by far - will always take some beating. (Plus, his mum's from Huddersfield like me.)
Just listen to those opening chords and tell me your heart doesn't beat a little faster. And when he buys that first guitar at the five 'n' dime, tell me you're not instantly transported back to the (nostalgia-tinged) summers of your youth. Iffypedia Mathematicians will quickly be able to establish that Bryan was only 10 years old in '69 though: perhaps a little too young for a job at the drive in and some of the other stuff he gets up to in this song. Turns out - shock horror! - the title isn't actually a reference to the year at all... it's something to do with sex-type-stuff. (You see, that's what Iggy was missing*!)
Somehow, I have managed to live the last 32 years without ever seeing the video to this song. It's cheesy as a Quattro Formaggi, but it still brought a grin to my face.
Apparently One Direction covered this. No, I'm not going to listen to that. I have SOME standards!
Which one makes you remember the best days of your life?
