Saturday Snapshots #86 - The Answers

I never meant to cause you any sorrow
I never meant to cause you any pain
I only wanted to one time to see you laughing
And solving Snapshots in the purple rain.

Blimey - working out the scores from yesterday's quiz took a bit of work. I had to take my shoes and socks off. Lots of half marks flying around too, but as I write this it looks like a draw between Alyson and Rigid Digit... although nobody's solved #9 yet, so that could change.

Anyway, here are the answers...


10. My latest car has no gearstick and runs on flower power... but it wins the race and holds the secret to getting me a better job.

I loved the suggestion for this, from Happy Mondays to U2... I'd love to know how the clues led you to those guys. Bit obscure, but somebody gave me this song on a mixtape about 20-odd years ago and it's been a favourite ever since...

New Faster Automatic Daffodils - It's Not What You Know, It's Who You Know

9. The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one... but Superman's still getting ready, just in case.

The one that nobody's got as I type this, but the clues were pretty obvious if you know the band.

Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly - War of the Worlds

8. Campaigners get horny and homeless.

The Crusaders + Randy, living on the streets.

The Crusaders & Randy Crawford - Streetlife

Full 10 minute version with the sax intro: lovely.

7. Carter is insane.

Madness - Michael Caine

6. Adore + C - A = radio flyer.

Take A from Adore and you're left with Dore. Add Charlie (C from the phonetic alphabet).

Charlie Dore - Pilot of the Airwaves

5. Oystercatchers get up very early to play around.

Oystercatchers are the same as Pearlfishers, surely?

Larking around early in the morning?

The Pearlfishers - Up With The Larks

Sublime. I knew Charity Chic would get this one.

4. Frank smokes a joint with Strangers in the Night, headphones on.

In Strangers In The Night, Frank memorably sang "doobie doobie doo", which wasn't anything to do with drugs but might have inspired a ghost-hunting pooch.

The Doobie Brothers - Listen To The Music

3. Not Robert, not Level 42... sounds like a man though...

Not Robert Palmer, but Amanda sounds a bit like "a man though".

Level 42 sang Running In The Family, and it's not them either.

Good deduction from Alyson & C.

Amanda Palmer - Runs In The Family

2. David Koresh vs. Satan.

David Koresh led a cult.

Satan is a little devil.

The Cult - Lil' Devil

1. Duck learns to pick a pocket or two on the red eye.

Donald Duck.

Fagen picked a pocket or two.

The red eye is an overnight flight.

What an album this is!



U Got The Look of someone who'll be back here next Saturday for more.

My Top Ten Songs Everybody Knows

Ten songs everybody knows. You might not know them all.

Everybody knows that Sonia is not in this list...


10. The Dixie Chicks - Everybody Knows

New Dixie Chicks album out soon. I hope they stick it to Trump the same way they stuck it to Bush.

9. Echo & The Bunnymen - Everybody Knows

Late period Bunnymen, but still worth a listen.

8. The Pearlfishers - Everybody Knows It's A Dream

Like Prefab Sprout? You'll like the Pearlfishers too. Everybody should know this.

7. Janis Ian - Everybody Knows

Everybody knows loneliness sucks.

6. Mighty Mighty - Everybody Knows The Monkey

 A Smithsy jangle from C86.

5. Neil Young - Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

Timeless Neil.

4. James - Everybody Knows

From back when James could do no wrong.

3. Leonard Cohen - Everybody Knows

One of those songs that could be applied to many, many situations over the years. Let's apply it to Brexit today, shall we?

Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died
Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long-stem rose
Everybody knows

2. The Divine Comedy - Everybody Knows

Neil Hannon is so smitten that he's boring everybody to death with his lustful obsession. Brilliant.

I told all of my friends
Again and again and again
I drove them round the bend
So now you’re my only friend
I told the passers by
I made a small boy cry
And I’ll get through to you
If it’s the last thing that I do

1. Gary Portnoy - Where Everybody Knows Your Name

Cheers was my favourite sitcom growing up. Its theme song, written by Gary Portnoy & Judy Hart Angelo still brings back warm memories from its first piano notes. Certain sitcoms succeed by fostering a mythical community everyone wants to be a part of: reminiscent yet far superior to our real life friendships. Cheers, for me, is the ultimate example of that and even its theme song contributes to the myth.



Everybody knows I missed some out. Which would you have included?

March #10: The Best Album of 2017...

...so far.

I realise that's a pretty bold claim in March, but, boy, do I like the new Jens Lekman LP, Life Will See You Now. I've had it on almost permanent rotation in the car all week (along with one other new album which I managed to fit on the same CD and I'll be mentioning here soon). Usually when I take a new album to the car, I give it time to grow: one spin, then back to something more familiar, revisiting it later. But this one, I've had to fight to get it out of the CD player.

10. Jens Lekman - How We Met, The Long Version

It's been 10 years since I bought a Jens Lekman album, no fault of the artist because I very much enjoyed 2007's Night Falls Over Kortedala; all the fault of my pathetic inability to keep up with all the artists I enjoy. Good pre-release buzz about this record reminded me about Jens, and I'm glad I plunged back in, because there's so much to enjoy here, starting with lead "singles" What's That Perfume You Wear? and Evening Prayer. I will warn you not to listen to any of the other tracks from the album on youtube though as someone has uploaded a bunch of them slowed-down for some reason... and they sound pretty ropey.

Discussing my love for the album with my pal Steve last week, I made the mistake of comparing it to recent John Grant masterpieces... knowing full well Steve isn't really into John Grant. Lyrically, there's certainly that same attention to quirky detail you'll find on a John Grant record (as Evening Prayer ably demonstrates) as well as an obvious love of upbeat, poppy electronica. But there's much more to love here even if you're not a John Grant devotee (a.k.a. you're clinically insane), from a gorgeous duet with Tracy Thorn, Hotwire The Ferris Wheel, which goes all Pearlfishers / Paddy McAloon towards the end (I should have led with that, shouldn't I, Steve?) to the main track I'm concentrating on today, which is the first song this year I've fallen head over heels for on first listen. I love the attention to detail here, how Jens speeds through the creation of the universe and the beginnings of life on earth... only to slow things right down at the moment he asks the girl he fancies to "borrow your bass guitar...not that I needed one". And just listen to the trumpets!

Jens Lekman - How We Met, The Long Version

Seriously, if Life Will See You Now isn't near the top of my year end countdown for 2017, it will have been a truly amazing year for new music. 

My Top Ten London Songs

This weekend, I have mostly been in a small southern village... amazingly, despite it being the kind of one-cow town that doesn't even appear on most maps, a few songwriters have still made records about it. Here are ten of the best... 

(By the way, don't all start crying out for Waterloo Sunset or Parklife or Baker Street... the rules of this one were It Must Have London In The Title. And I still could have done another twenty...)


10. Frank Turner - The Ladies Of London

Like How Soon Is Now relocated down south...

There’s so many beautiful girls in here tonight,
I can hardly stand it.
Where do they go during the day?
Who the hell do they go home with at the end of the night?
I don’t understand it.
They never go home with me.

9. The Pet Shop Boys - London

One of their best songs. Especially the piano version.

8. Luke Haines - Love Letter To London

Luke Haines has written many songs about the south. And quite a few about the north. He's always a lot nicer when on his home turf...

7. The Smiths - London

Not actually one of my favourite Smiths songs, but still better than most other things in life.

Do you think you've made the right decision this time?

6. Gene - London, Can You Wait?

Gene beat the Smiths for once - who'da think it?

5. The Pearlfishers - London's In Love

The word 'luscious' was coined to describe records by the Pearlfishers.

I walk the busy streets of london 
On a beautiful cold November day 
And I feel the buildings, and I hear the traffic 
And the zum of the telephone wires 
So many people, so many stories 
Too much for a worried boy from the north 
I’m applying for the role of most disenchanted soul on Piccadilly

4. ELO - Last Train To London

Many years ago, when I started work in the Evil Industry, this was the only ELO record on the playlist at the radio station I was sentenced to. It came round as a recurring oldie about three times a day. Because some idiot in charge thought it "tested" well. There's nothing wrong with the record, but there are a dozen other great ELO singles they could have played for variety. But oh no, that's not what the listeners wanted...

3. Thea Gilmore & Sandy Denny - London

Written, though never released, by the late Sandy Denny. Finally given life by the divine Ms. Gilmore. Great to hear this played as part of the Olympics coverage.

2. Warren Zevon - Werewolves Of London

Ah-ooo!

He's the hairy-handed gent who ran amuck in Kent
Lately he's been overheard in Mayfair
Better stay away from him
He'll rip your lungs out, Jim
I'd like to meet his tailor

1. The Clash - London Calling

 Well, it had to be, didn't it?






Those were mine... but which is your capital city song?