Hot 100 #51

Being an old X-Files junkie (I even have Fox Mulder's "I Want To Believe" poster on the wall in my office), I've always had a fascination with the "secret" air force base in the Nevada desert where strange things happen involving crashed alien spaceships, experimental aircraft using salvaged alien technology and autopsies of alien corpses. [Redacted by the U.S. government.)

Let's start this week with a couple of tunes that escaped from Area 51. Curiously, both are instrumentals. Perhaps their lyrics were redacted too?

The Chartlatans - Area 51

The Typhoons - Area 51

Oh, and one more that appears to fit the same pattern...

Tangerine Dream - Landing On 51

Back in the real world, and onto your suggestions, the most obvious of which this week was suggested - not by The Swede - but by Martin...

Highway 51 Blues, by Bob Dylan which, in its guitar motif at least, seems to owe a debt to the Everly Brothers.

Not a Dylan original that, it was written by Curtis Jones. Personally, I always get it mixed up with Highway 61 Revisited... too many numbered highways in the Dylan canon.

Martin also offered the following, helpfully including links to make my life easier...

51-7 by Camper van Beethoven is pretty fair.

The atypical I Move On by Cowboy Junkies contains the line "51 years, a child upon the Earth, trying to find the answers without digging in the dirt..."

12:51 by The Strokes sounds exactly how you'd expect (no bad thing).

...and one more...

Koka Kola by The Clash starts with the line "In the gleaming corridors of the 51st floor..."

Lynchie, meanwhile, claims to have been eagerly awaiting number 51 in this countdown so that he could suggest this...

Vern Gosdin (Vern The Voice) - "Set 'Em Up Joe"

They got a vintage Victrola 1951
Full of my favorite records that I grew up on
They got ole Hank and Lefty and there's B24
Set 'em up Joe and play "Walking The Floor"
Set 'em up Joe and play "Walking The Floor"

I'll definitely save that for when I do my second volume of jukebox songs.

Rigid Digit went trippy this week...

Pink Floyd re-recorded Careful With That Axe, Eugene for the film Zabriskie Point and gave it the new title of:

Come In Number 51, Your Time Is Up

Which is all very well, but Careful With That Axe, Eugene is a far better title.

Forgoing Dylan this week, The Swede offered these two...

Super Furry Animals - Hit & Run

'Will the dinosaurs come back and haunt us? I've a bet down fifty-to-one...'

Steve Gunn & the Black Twig Pickers - Cardinal 51

Black Twig Pickers gets an extra point.

Then Swiss Adam suggested one of the ones from my own shortlist...

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - 51st Anniversary ("Purple Haze B-side no less.")

Now, before we get onto this week's winner, here are a few more from my own archives...

The Descendents - Orgo 51

Pelle Carlberg - 51, 3

And this week's runner-up...

Aimee Mann - High On Sunday 51

But it seemed clear we had to deal with Little Britain this week, or the 51st State of the United States as we've often cruelly been dubbed due to the "special relationship" which isn't really that special anymore. A number of songwriters have commented on this, including...

New Model Army - 51st State (as suggested by Charity Chic & Alyson)

The Enemy - 51st State

And, of course, these guys, this week's unanimous winners thanks to block-voting, hanging chads and Russian facebook interference from Charity Chic, C (obviously!), Lynchie and others...


Next week: we're halfway there! Numero cinquanta! Your suggestions are welcome as always. No need to be coy, Roy...