Here are some more shops about songs.
I mean songs about shops.
And, of course...
There's a man with a mullet
Going mad with a mallet
In Millet's
Showing posts with label Pavement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pavement. Show all posts
Monday, 19 October 2026
Friday, 7 August 2026
Neverending Top Ten #7.5: Eurovision
Here are a few appropriate tunes, only one of them a Eurovision contender...
I know you won't have time to listen to all those, but there's some cracking tunes in there. More reasons to go back into Europe!
Sunday, 15 March 2026
Snapshots #439: Religious People In Songs
Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to listen to some songs about men and women of the cloth...
15. The only trains James Brown would ever take.
14. Hello - this is...
13. Black, Hammer, Simon.
Blacksmith, Hammersmith, Simon Smith...
12. High in Antioxidants.
Black Grape - Reverend Black Grape
11. They get around, rather aimlessly.
The Drifters - Like Sister And Brother
Sisters being nuns, brothers being monks. Of course.
10. All-important band for Mr. Spock.
Essential Logic - Shabby Abbott
9. Don't confuse him with a thick Jew.
"A thick Jew" was an anagram for one of Donald Trump's least favourite pop stars...
Jack White - Archbishop Harold Holmes
8. Paper, Black, Shoe.
Paper Lace, Black Lace, Shoelace.
7. Able footballers and keen fans of Thelonious Monk.
Named after a Thelonious Monk album... and an amazing football shot.
The Brilliant Corners - The Pope, the Monkey and the Queen
What a great tune. Not the best Pope song I know, but this guy gets far too much exposure round thes parts...
6. Witch hunter who found wonder in the invisible world.
Check your history books.
Cotton Mather - The Words Of Shaman Roger
5. U.N. medics.
The World Health Organisation...
There are days when I'm certain that is The Who's finest hour.
4. Yoof speak.
Modern Talking - Brother Louie
I was a little upset to discover I didn't own that track... I thought I had pretty much everything that ever made the Top 20 in the early 80s. Then I listened to it again and figured it was no great loss.
3. Todd gets in between Tim Booth and Morrissey.
James - Todd - Smith.
Also known as...
2. Walk this way!
1. Deputy finds girls in muddle.
"Deputy finds girls" was an anagram for a very young Mary O'Brien...
Dusty Springfield - Son Of A Preacher Man
Please leave something in the collection plate on your way out of the church.
Sunday, 16 March 2025
Snapshots #387: Fifteen + - x ÷ Sum Songs
Put your clothes on, Carol - we need your help with the complex musical equations below... specially compiled for any Maths teachers in the audience.
15. See #3 for a red hot clue.
#3 is Jason, and also includes the word "scorcher". Could I be more helpful?
Jason & The Scorchers - 2+1 = Nothing
14. Watson, Carter or Dolittle?
Dr. John Watson, Dr, John Carter (E.R.) or Dr. John Dolittle?
Dr. John - Me - You = Loneliness
13. Before he took to hunting werewolves, he was part of a different network.
Before Bob got his Silver Bullet, he had a System.
12. Very super: electric alternative, actually. Please!
Every word is the title of a different album by the...
Pet Shop Boys - Two Divided By Zero
11. Number 3 was one... and even LA gets confusing sometimes.
#3 played Scott in Neighbours. "Even LA" was an anagram.
Scott Lavene - U + Me = Everything
10. Useful in a list, when going in and out.
The comma... doors.
Commodores - Three Times A Lady
9. A Rock, in the reading room.
Mr. Rock Hudson, in his library.
8. Just a campanologist.
Just William, the bell ringer.
7. Found in the zoo tiger enclosure... Springfield's early days.
Rick Springfield's early band, found in the ZOO Tiger enclosure.
6. Look out, guys! Adele's running after you!
Adele, of course, is famous for Chasing Pavements...
5. Are you going to Fleetwood, Skeeter?
Fleetwood Mac + Skeeter Davis...
4. Don't make her... You wouldn't like her when she's...
Fans of the old Incredible Hulk TV show will recall that Bill Bixby frequently told investigative reporter Jack McGee: "Mr. McGee, don't make me Ann Lee... you wouldn't like me when I'm Ann Lee."
I will confess that I had never heard of Ann Lee before compiling this list. However, I was short on ladies this week and Ann did get to #2 in the charts in 1999 with the two times tune above.
3. That sunshine's a scorcher, Superman.
Donovan sang about a Sunshine Superman. Jason, as seen above (at #15, if not in the photo) was a Scorcher.
Jason Donovan - Nothing Can Divide Us
Another one of those Jason Donovan songs that me and my mate Richard used to sing along to on the school bus when we were 16. Richard was a big fan of the Pet Shop Boys and The Smiths. I liked Springsteen and Huey Lewis. We would have told you we were just being ironic. But were we really?
2. Living in Portugal, DuBois.
Our resident Maths teacher lives in Portugal. Benson Dubois.
1. Bad crash: Cher and Odie unhurt!
"Cher and Odie unhurt" was a car crash of an anagram...
Haircut 100 - Love Plus One
Where do we go from here? Is it down to the lake, I fear?
Well, wherever you go, make sure you're back in time for more Snapshots next Saturday.
Monday, 17 June 2024
Cnut Songs #30: Generational Divide
King Cnut could not hold back the tide, and I cannot hold back society's full-throttle descent into dystopia. All I can do is watch helplessly from the sidelines, and nod my head sagely when others hold a mirror up to the madness.
Apologies for returning to a theme I've written about repeatedly in recent months, but I couldn't let this pass without a comment groan.
I was reading an interview with the directors Anthony and Joseph Russo, the men responsible for some of the most successful Marvel movies in recent years, including the last two Avengers movies. They were asked why they thought Marvel had taken a bit of a kicking at the box office recently, was it so-called "super-hero fatigue"? Apparently not. Instead, the Russo Brothers put it down to what they call a "generational divide".
Says Joe Russo...
There’s a big generational divide about how you consume
media. There’s a generation that’s used to appointment viewing and going to a
theatre on a certain date to see something, but it’s ageing out. Meanwhile the
new generation are ‘I want it now, I want to process it now’, then moving onto
the next thing, which they process whilst doing two other things at the same
time.
Richard
Hell & The Voidoids – The Blank Generation
We have never collectively, globally, processed our
conversation so intimately and quickly as we do now. I think that creates
problems, where we over-process and don't care about context anymore. We
communicate through memes and headlines, with nobody reading past two
sentences, so everything's 100 characters or less – or 10-second videos on
social media you swipe through. I think that the two-hour format, the structure
that goes into making a movie, it’s over a century old now and everything
always transitions. So, there is something happening again and that form is
repetitive. But it's hard to reinvent that form and I think this next
generation is looking for ways to tell their own stories that service their own
sort of collective ADHD.
The
Indelicates - The Generation That Nobody Remembered
Thankfully, not everyone appears so ready to be put out to pasture. About the only sensible idea I've heard in the run up to Election Day is the proposal that the next government are considering banning smartphones for all under 16s. Of course, it won't happen... and it'd be impossible to police even if it did. And maybe it's too late to shut the barn door, that horse has already bolted. But still... old man shakes his fist at the sky.
Sunday, 14 August 2022
Snapshots #253: A Top Ten Stranger Songs
If you've spent the weekend looking for Stranger Things... let me take away some of the mystery.
Here are ten Stranger songs...
10. Add cola to the temple.
Pepsi Cola and a Shirley Temple.
Specifically, a Dolly Mixture's Sister.
8. German invader.
The Saxons were a North Germanic people who invaded Britain a long time ago.
7. If uneven, sue the council.
Don't trip on the uneven pavement.
6. We Need To Talk About... Rock.
We Need To Talk About Kevin... and Ayers Rock.
5. Brick lake.
Anagram!
4. Pitchfork brandishers.
Villagers brandish pitchforks.
3. John Thomas Horatio.
John Thomas is a euphemism for Willie + Admiral Horatio Nelson.
2. Myth Cruise.
Anagram!
1. Mr. Benn meets Gordon.
Tony Benn + Gordon Bennett.
Tony Bennett - Stranger In Paradise
Don't be a stranger - come back next Saturday for more.
Tuesday, 29 September 2020
Name That Tune: Our Top Ten Barbara Songs
No surprises who introduces us to this week's post. Here she is with Neil, showing us how showbiz should be done...
Barbra Streisand & Neil Diamond - You Don't Bring Me Flowers
As you might expect, this Babs gets name-checked all over the place (in a surprising number of rap tunes, for one thing).
Alyson says...
A DJ duo called Duck Sauce recorded something called Barbra Streisand in 2010 sampling a Boney M song. Truly terrible but it was big hit.
Duck Sauce - Barbara Streisand
Ms. Streisand also pops up here...
Livin' in the car, make it to the bar
We'll meet up with the guys who
Make love to Barbara Streisand
Then we'll all split the scene
Make it like a dream
West Side Brighton, or we're just ridin'
Turn on the chicks and then we'll blow our kicks
And we'll fly high
And, best of all, here...
American Music Club - All Your Jeans Were Too Tight
You and I brawl
To give me all your clothes
But all your jeans were too tight
And why did you paint your bathroom black
I can understand liking Barbara Streisand
But I'm not sure about the soundtrack from Diva
To give me all your clothes
But all your jeans were too tight
And why did you paint your bathroom black
I can understand liking Barbara Streisand
But I'm not sure about the soundtrack from Diva
But back to Alyson...
Other than the obvious Barbra (whom I adore, especially when she sang Guilty with Barry Gibb - there is an excellent clip when she introduces him and he appears from the darkness, a vision in his tight white trousers - 'It oughta be illegal'), there is Barbara Dickson.
This Barbara worked for my friend's dad as a junior civil servant in Rosyth before becoming famous. Quite liked her early stuff and Answer Me is one of the few songs I can sing quite well, as no high notes.
Is there any end to your famous connections, Alyson?
I hope you won't mind that I picked this one as it stuck in my mind from a very young age... I suspect I have Mr. Wogan to thank for that.
Barbara Dickson - January, February
Still, as Charity Chic points out, there are many other famous singing Barbaras...
I've a plethora of Barbara soul singers...
Barbara Acklin - Am I The Same Girl?
Barbara Pennington - 24 Hours A Day
Barbara Lynn - You'll Lose A Good Thing
Barbara McNair - It Happens Every Time
Barbara Randolph - I Got A Feeling
Barbara Jean English - I'm Living A Lie
And let's not forget...
Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin - It's My Party
Barbara Mandrell & George Jones - I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool
Barbara Jones - Just When I Needed You Most
Barbara Keith - Detroit Or Buffalo
And they were just the ones I found on my hard-drive.
But what of the Barbara songs?
Let's start with this week's elephant in the room, shall we?
Heaven help us, says Martin...
I listened to one second of that and it was enough to bring back nightmares. And Rigid Digit agrees...
I'll happily never hear that song again having spent a weeks holiday with 4 daughters under 10 singing it constantly.
I still get shivers.
I should probably have not suggested Barbie... I'm not even sure it is derived from Barbara. Still, while we're here, can we find a decent Barbie song?
Jim in Dubai thinks not...
Big In Japan - Cindy & The Barbi Dolls
(Almost as bad as Aqua.)
Still, Jim does also offer this, which is a hell of a lot better...
And I also found these, each one better than the last...
Dolly Parton - Backwoods Barbie
However, Rigid Digit wins the prize for best song to mention a Barbie... although it's a bit of a stretch.
Moving up on second base
Behind Nicholas van what's-his-face
At six foot six and a hundred tons
The undisputed king of the slums
With more aliases than Klaus Barbie
The master butcher of Leigh-on-Sea
Just about to take the stage
The one and only - hold the front page
Stay with Rigid Digit, but moving on to actual Barbaras...
Peggy
Carrie Ann
And Betty Jean
Jill
Jan
Joan
And Sue
Alice
Cindy
Barbara Ann
It's all because of you
It's all because of you girl
Although I do have to disqualify that under the Song For Whoever Rule. Sorry, RD.
What else did you have for me this week?
Let's ask C...
Herman's Hermits - Lady Barbara
A sweet song, and Peter Noone was so sweet-faced too (my big sister had such a crush on him she used to cry whenever he came on the telly).
Reminds me of listening to Brian Matthews, Radio 2, Saturday mornings. As for Peter and his Hermits... well, they don't make album covers like this anymore, do they?
For a different kind of loveliness, says The Swede (from whom, more in a moment) try...
John Fahey - Barbara Namkin Blues
Meanwhile Martin also offers...
Lyrically, there's...
In Santa Barbara Hannah cried, amidst those frozen beaches
And didn't We Are Scientists have an album called Barbara?
Apparently so. I have no idea why.
We Are Scientists - I Don't Bite
Jim in Dubai adds...
If you could stretch it a little, I could have also added
Duran Duran - Electric Barbarella
(That last one was on my longlist, Jim.)
Finally, you'll be be glad to know that my millennial hipster politico friend, Ben, found himself dragged back into making suggestions again this week... even though it wasn't all about him. I don't expect him to stay around since I'm sure he'll be distracted by some other bright shiny things very soon. Young people today. Etc. Still, while he's here, I'm happy to share his ideas...
Oh my god, Barbara
She looks so much just like my mom
Because that was on my longlist too. Along with...
Johnny Cash - The Ballad of Barbara
Dolly Parton - Barbara On Your Mind
Bobby Vee - Please Don't Ask About Barbara
Peter Frampton - Barbara's Vacation
That's pretty awful. I only include it to show there are worse Barbara records than Duck Sauce or even Barbie Girl. I mean, it's almost as bad as this...
Barbara and me in our English garden.
Barbara, buster and me in our English garden
(and you too Monty) in our English garden.
Barbara, buster and me in our English garden
(and you too Monty) in our English garden.
Better lyrical offerings came from...
Boz Scaggs - You Got Some Imagination
Lean and mean, Barbara Jean
You got a mind like a tattle tale magazine
So stop your scheming you must be dreaming
To think I'd fall for you
You got some imagination
Now the captain ran for cover when the steamboats crashed
Driving off the bridges cause they got no class
Barbara's got my number, now I've got to run
Pizzas to deliver in the crackhouse slum, you know
Bobby Bare - A Million Miles To The City
Well, how far away is the city?
You know that's a great big town
And Barbara said why it's a million miles
And then the story got around
I'll get to cry to Barbara Walters when things don't go my way
And I'll get community service no matter which law I break
I'll make the supermarket tabloids, they'll write some awful stuff
But the more they run my name down the more my price goes up
Melissa Etheridge - You Can Sleep While I Drive
We'll go thorough Tucson up to Santa Fe
And Barbara in Nashville says we're welcome to stay
I'll buy you glasses in Texas a hat from New Orleans
And in the morning you can tell me your dreams
And finally this, which came very close just because it's The Hold Steady...
The Hold Steady - Don't Let Me Explode
Saint Barbara I'm calling your name.
Don't let me blow up.
We'll hook it all up.
I guess there's fields of speed where there's fields of grain.
Saint Barbara don't let me explode.
I can feel the whole scene starting to corrode when we're fooling around on the frontage roads.
But there could only be ten.
And here they are...
10. Father John Misty - Leaving LA
I'm starting the countdown with this one just to bait my millennial hipster politico friend, Ben, who texted earlier in the week to tell me:
New Fleet Foxes album is awful. There, I saved you some time.
I'll make up my own mind about that, thank you very much.
The worst thing that could ever come from Foxes? I Love You, Honeybear.
Undaunted in the face of his youthful denunciation, I do like me some Father John Misty. As has been previously established here. I'm sorry, but lyrically, this is right up my cross-section...
My first memory of music's from
The time at JC Penney's with my mom
The watermelon candy I was choking on
Barbara screaming, "Someone help my son!"
I relive it most times the radio's on
That "tell me lies, sweet little white lies" song
That's when I first saw the comedy won't stop for
Even little boys dying in department stores
The time at JC Penney's with my mom
The watermelon candy I was choking on
Barbara screaming, "Someone help my son!"
I relive it most times the radio's on
That "tell me lies, sweet little white lies" song
That's when I first saw the comedy won't stop for
Even little boys dying in department stores
9. The Everly Brothers - Barbara Allen
The Swede says...
Shirley Collins has recorded the ballad 'Barbara Allen' at least three times over the years, most recently for her latest LP 'Heart’s Ease', but I'd personally go for the 1968 version from 'The Power Of The True Love Knot', featuring her sister Dolly's ghostly flute-organ accompaniment.
Shirley Collins - Barbara Allen
But, with a song as old as this, there were many different versions to choose from, and I found the Everly's harmonies a little easier on the ear. Sorry about that, Swede.
I was even tempted to go with this version...
Charity Chic adds:
Emmylou Harris' Going Down to Harlan also references Barbara Allen...
Emmylou Harris - Going Down to Harlan
And if you were Willie Moore
And I was Barbara Allen
Or Fair Ellen all sad at the cabin door
A weepin' and a-pinin' for love
A weepin' and a-pinin' for love
8. Pavement - Rattled By The Rush
Winning the Rhyme of The Week award, hands down...
Getting off, on the candelabra
We call her Barbara
Breeding like larva
7. The Boomtown Rats - Diamond Smiles
Before saving the world and losing his cool in one go, Bob Geldof was a great pop star. This is one of my favourite Rats songs that wasn't a Number One. Plus it mentions Barbara Cartland, so any excuse...
Everybody tries,
It's Dale Carnegie gone wild,
But Barbara Cartland's child
Long ago perfected the motionless glide.
Grant Hart had a song called Barbara on his Hot Wax album, says Swiss Adam, who's still kicking himself for missing the first post in this series. Never mind, this is a cracking track that more than makes up for your absence there, SA.
Barbara, always avoids unpleasant situations
She rides right next to me, between the streetcar stations
Her knees are big and bony, she takes up all the cushions
Barbara, always avoids unpleasant situations
And I just added Grant Hart to my Requires Further Investigation list. Even before I realised he used to be in Hüsker Dü.
5. Shirley Brown - Woman To Woman
Shirley finds Barbara's name & number in her husband's pocket and makes a call that basically says: Back off, Bitch.
As a sweet soul ballad, of course.
4. John Prine - Come Back to Us Barbara Lewis, Hare Krishna Beauregard
It's John Prine. I'd happily give John Prine a honorary position in this chart every week.
I gotta shake myself and wonder
Why she even bothers me
For if heartaches were commercials
We'd all be on TV
3. Fountains of Wayne - Barbara H
Martin suggested Seatbacks and Traytables for another Santa Barbara reference...
Is that Santa Barbara?
I think I've been there
I think I've been there
It's a fine song, but I felt there was a more obvious song from the FoW guys.
So did Jim in Dubai.
I think the obvious FoW song is Barbara H.
2. Flight of the Conchords - We're Both In Love With A Sexy Lady
Came very close to topping the chart this time, especially as it's about both a Barbara and a... erm... Brabra.
This was also the first suggestion to come through from my millennial hipster politico friend Ben... so there's obviously a reason I keep him around.
1. The Beach Boys - Barbara Ann
As Martin said, this was the "obligatory, obvious" Number One.
Not a Brian Wilson original, it was originally recorded in 1961 by The Regents. There are similarities to the more famous version, but it also sounds very much of its time. The Beach Boys version (with Dean Torrance from Jan & Dean sharing an uncredited lead vocal with Brian) is timeless.
There's a purity to early Beach Boys recordings that is unmatched in the entire sphere of popular music.
A pretty hyperbolic statement, no?
Listen to this and tell me I'm wrong...
NEXT WEEK: OUR TOP TEN CHARLES OR CHARLIE SONGS
(We may need a bigger boat.)
Thursday, 4 June 2020
Guest Post Thursday #1: Top Ten Haircut Songs
I've never run guest posts on this blog before - in fact, I've actively resisted them in the past, preferring to keep this place as my own personal record.
So why change that now?
Well, sometimes the opportunities present themselves and they're too good to resist. Which is why I already have three weeks' worth of Guest Posts, all because of a couple of half-joking comments I left here and elsewhere.
Our first guest poster is JC, The Vinyl Villain. Now I've guested over a JC's place on a number of occasions, being a semi-regular contributor to his Imaginary Compilation Album series. But I never for the life of me expected him to return the favour. So you can imagine how shocked and awed I was when the post below landed in my in-box as the result of a flippant bon mot I left him last week.
I've been blogging for coming up on 14 years now. My Top Ten started in 2012, but prior to that my original blog, Sunset Over Slawit, had been running for almost six years until I packed it in. When I started blogging, I had no idea what I was doing. Sunset Over Slawit wasn't a music blog - it was all over the place, so I was rather surprised when I ended up with readers from elsewhere in the blogosphere (rather than people I'd known beforehand and invited to drop in). One of the first "professional" bloggers who began to leave comments was JC, and it was probably his original Vinyl Villain blog which steered my own blogging increasingly towards talking about music... and, I guess, led me to carry on with My Top Ten once I'd packed in all the other aspects of blogging that were beginning to bore me.
So it's a great honour that he would find the time to write me a Top Ten (the irony being that I rarely get time to write those things myself these days, and that was the very raison d'etre of this blog in the first place!) Take it away, JC...
THE VINYL VILLAIN'S TOP TEN HAIRCUT SONGS
I've been long amazed at Rol's ability to come up with these lists, especially now that I've got the task currently of compiling a list of 5 songs for a column called 'Music for Our Times' which appears in a digital version of a weekly publication by my favourite football team, Raith Rovers. The publication is designed to keep our small but dedicated fanbase informed of developments at the club during the extended lockdown - my column tries to bring a bit of fun and is related to the fact that I'm the matchday announcer at the club, responsible for selecting and playing the pre-match and half-time tunes.
A couple of weeks back I mentioned that a quick glance across any form of social media will demonstrate that the burning issue of the day for many a person is hair. Barbers and hairdressers have been closed since the lockdown began. Blokes have two options - letting their hair get to a length not seen since the 70s glam rock era or taking the risk of asking a household member to run riot with a set of clippers. I've taken the first option, to the extent that I now look as if I'm an extra in Starsky & Hutch - and with the fashion sense to match.
If anything, it's even worse for women given that a regular trip to the salon tends to form an essential part of social engagement with a friend or confidante, as well as the opportunity to change the natural colour of their hair. Mathematicians are still trying to come up with an accurate formula for doing the calculation, but the number of blondes in the UK over the past two and bit months has dropped by at least 66%.
I offered up five suitable songs, which I'm now doubling in size in the hope it's of use to Rol.
1. Goldblade - Hairstyle
"I like your hairstyle, it is fantastic"
The first line of the chorus of a single by Goldblade, a punk band from Manchester. Lead singer John Robb's hairstyle of choice over the past three decades has been the mohican. He still wears it well, even at the age of 59. Worth also mentioning that the two remixes on the CD single come courtesy of Black Box Recorder, with Sarah Nixey's sultry delivery of 'Why Don't You Rub It In My Face' being every bit as filthy as it sounds.
(Searching for that as I type. - Rol.)
2. Super Furry Animals - Ice Hockey Hair
"She's got ice hockey hair,
It's instamatic and it has such flair
And when the puck hits the back of the cage
She feels the tingle of a quiet rage"
Nope, I have no idea what the meaning is of the opening lines of this typically bonkers number by the Cardiff-based indie-rockers. But that won't stop me dedicating it to female fans of the Fife Flyers (the ice-hockey team who are based in the town of Kirkcaldy, which is also where Raith Rovers FC are based - a lot of folk in the town follow the fortunes of both sides).
3. The Goon Sax - Home Haircuts
"I go to the barber to get shorn
And I leave feeling empty and forlorn"
The Goon Sax are one of the most wonderful indie-pop acts to emerge in recent years. The trio's debut album, Up to Anything, was full of great, quirky and memorable tunes that were accompanied by lyrics which focussed on the most important songs facing the modern-era teenager such as the shame of being on the wrong end of a bad haircut. It must be the only song in existence which manages to namecheck Shane Warne, Roger McGuinn and Edwyn Collins, all of whose haircuts are much desired.
(That is excellent - Rol.)
4. Willow Smith - Whip My Hair
"I whip my hair back and forth" (repeat about a thousand times)
Bit of a cheat this one as it's nothing to do with haircuts as such. This #2 smash hit single by Willow Smith back in 2010 is an anthem celebrating being young and carefree, which is kind of impossible to be just now under the lockdown restrictions. All my articles for the club publication really have to include at least one song that folk will have heard of!
5. Beck - Devil's Haircut
The on-line urban dictionary states that a devil's haircut can be anything that makes someone feel bad, depressed, stressed out, or indeed any sort of mental or physical anguish. As such, COVID-19 = a devil's haircut.
6. Pavement - Cut Your Hair
One of the joys of going to an old fashioned barbershop is the likelihood of some old music/sport/lifestyle magazines lying around that you can read while waiting your turn to be shorn. If you happened to come across the NME from 3 May 2007, you would find that this song was listed as Number 28 in a list of the 50 Greatest Indie Anthems Ever.
7. Happy Mondays - Kinky Afro
OK, it's not technically about a haircut, but I'm guessing that Shawn Ryder's dad, who was the subject matter of the lyric, had got himself a very dodgy perm in the mid-late 70s. Have a look at a photograph of the Scotland World Cup squad of 1978 for an illustration - it was very briefly the fashion and it looked ridiculous.
8. Beastie Boys - Mullethead
"Number one on the side and don't touch the back
Number six on the top and don't cut it wack, Jack"
The b-side to the vinyl release of the single Sure Shot back in 1994 but later included on the bonus disc of Ill Communication when it was reissued in 2009. It's not a hip-hop or rap number, instead harking back to the hardcore, superfast and noisy stuff that the Beastie Boys were doing when they first formed.
9. Billy Bragg - Greetings To The New Brunette
The re-opening of salons still seems to be a few weeks away. This one goes out to everyone, male or female, who is suffering and possibly even going into hiding for fear of anyone seeing that the colour on top of their head is not natural.
10. The Rakes - The World Was A Mess But His Hair Was Perfect
This closed off the original article in the football publication and I dedicated it Ian Davidson, who it could be said is a cut-price version of the famous basketball player, Dennis Rodman, in that throughout his career he has taken to the field with all sorts of strange haircuts and colourings, never caring one ounce what stick he would take from his teammates, opponents or fans on the terraces and in the stands. Indeed, he seemed to encourage it...
So, there you have it. Ten songs associated with haircuts. And, just in case you were wondering, a handful of tunes by Scissors Sisters narrowly missed the cut for inclusion.
Without gushing any further, I'll just say thank you to JC for providing this blog with its first ever guest post. And if you enjoyed that, you'll be glad to know he'll be back in two weeks' time with ANOTHER top ten. Truly I am blessed.
Here's one that would have fit quite nicely in the list above...
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - Poodle Rockin'
But that's not all, because next week we have ANOTHER guest contributor. I'll keep their identity as a surprise for now, but regular readers will be very familiar with my attempts to get this particular contributor to join the blogging world.
In the meantime, as I seem to have cracked open this particular Pandora's Box... if anyone else fancies trying their hand at a Top Ten... or a Mid-Life Crisis post... or any of the other long-running features this blog squanders so jubilantly... well, you know where I am.
The door is now open...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
