Snapshots #433: Songs About Girl's Names Beginning With M

 

Ladies beginning with M was this week’s link? May you all have got it right…

 

15. What a honky prima she was!

“Honky prima” was an anagram.

Mary Hopkin - Martha

14. In Spain, I have it.

Their name means “I have it” in Spanish.

Yo La Tengo - Madeline

13. You cannot be serious!

The Notsensibles - I’m in Love With Margaret Thatcher

12. Bloody…! Howard and Tom!

Bloody Norah! Howard & Tom Jones.

Norah Jones - Miriam

11. What Spike stole from Kenny, Candy and Clarence.

Spike Milligan was a goon. Kenny G, Candy Dulfer and Clarence Clemons all played sax.

The Goon Sax – Maggie

10. Sounds like an evil despot and a moody conman.

Donald & Fagin (played by Ron Moody).

Donald Fagen - Maxine

9. Where Cats initially choose to sit.

C(ats) sit on the Mat.

CMAT – Such A Miranda

8. I am yr barn owl, somehow.

“I am yr barn owl” was an anagram.

Barry Manilow – Mandy

7. Posh fast food rulers!

Kings Of Leon - Molly's Chambers

6. Patrick, in the shower.

Dallas fans will get the clue.

Duffy – Mercy

5. Found in earthenware and blunderbusses.

Found in eARThenware and bLUNDerbusses.

Art Lund – And Mimi

4. Where to buy your Wood and your Port, man.

From the Natalie Merchant, of course.

Natalie Merchant - Maggie And Milly And Molly And May

I should have just run that one photo this week, the song pretty much covers the link for us.

3. We are Fantastic, and we’re from America.

The Fantastic 4, from the US.

The 4 of Us – Mary

2. My indignation is completely justified – they’re not related!

Righteous indignation because they’re not actually brothers.

Righteous Brothers - Unchained Melody

1. Idol Ben was an idle nob.

Two anagrams for the price of one.

Blondie - Maria

Mmmmmore Snapshots next Saturday.

Celebrity Jukebox #92: Cynthia Weil

Elvis Presley - I Just Can't Help Believin'

Mama Cass - Make Your Own Kind Of Music

The Drifters - On Broadway

Just three of the iconic tunes we owe to the husband and wife songwriting partnership of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. He wrote the tunes, she wrote the words. Words such as these...

'Nuff said. 

Cynthia Weil passed away on the 1st of June, making a widower of Mann after 62 years of marriage.

They don't write a lot of songs about songwriters, not the ones who don't become stars in their own right, anyway, not the ones who just toil away quietly in the background creating legends.

Then again, Cynthia Weil also wrote the lyrics to this...

...a song that proved particularly influential on one young lad growing up in New Jersey.

"[Hearing The Animals] was a revelation … the first records with full blown class consciousness … the chorus of, ‘We Gotta Get Out Of This Place’ where working stiffs are looking for a better life can be heard in all my albums …

That’s every song I’ve ever written. That’s all of them. I’m not kidding either. That’s, ‘Born to Run’, ‘Born in the U.S.A.’"

So what have we got in tribute to Ms. Weil and all those wonderful lyrics she left us? How about this...?

Cynthia, when you pass it seems like this whole town drops

Cynthia, or maybe it's just me, baby, and these fools stuck here punchin' this clock

Well you give us a reason to stop just for a while

Stop, stand and salute your style

My Top Ten Phil Spector Songs

 

Far more column inches would be devoted to Phil Spector's musical legacy this week... had the rest of his life been so filled with ignominy. 

How often do you get to use a word like ignominy? The chance to do so was the final tipping point in my decision to compile this Top Ten. Little Stevie Van Zandt put it best earlier this week...

RIP Phil Spector. A genius irredeemably conflicted, he was the ultimate example of the Art always being better than the Artist, having made some of the greatest records in history based on the salvation of love while remaining incapable of giving or receiving love his whole life.

Let's put aside Spector the man and remember instead some of his finest creations...

10. Leonard Cohen - Death Of A Ladies Man

A much-derided album, described by Rolling Stone as "the world's most flamboyant extrovert producing and arranging the world's most fatalist introvert" and by Leonard Cohen himself as "grotesque". It's not among my favourite Lenny records and parts of it plain don't work, but the title track (and a couple of others) are mesmerising if you devote enough time to them.

9. The Teddy Bears - To Know Him Is To Love Him

Recorded when Spector was 19, just out of high school. His first record... and a template of everything to come.

8. George Harrison - My Sweet Lord

Some people don't like this song because of the whole "Krishna, Krishna" bit. Others call to attention the court case where Harrison was sued for "subconsciously" ripping off He's So Fine by The Chiffons. But people are generally wrong, I find, and this song never grows old.

7. Dion - Born To Be With You

The forgotten entry in Spector's back catalogue, yet still achingly beautiful. I remember reading a review of this album when it was re-issued in 2001, hunting it down and falling head over heels in love. 

6. The Ramones - Do You Remember Rock n Roll Radio? / Baby, I Love You 

Quite the odd ones out in this list (apart from Lenny), and handguns were pulled... but I'm betting the Ramones gave him as much shit as he gave them. 

5.  The Righteous Brothers - You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling / Unchained Melody

If aliens picked up transmissions from earth and these two songs were what they heard, they'd leave us alone because clearly we are a superior civilization. 

4. Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)

OK, the whole album.

A Christmas record for those of us who hate Christmas.

3. Ike & Tina Turner - River Deep, Mountain High

If the intro to this stone cold classic doesn't send a shudder of joy down your entire body: I'm sorry, you're not alive.

2. The Crystals - Then He Kissed Me / Da Doo Ron Ron / He's A Rebel

Imagine having these three songs in your back catalogue and not being as big a household name as The Beatles, The Stones or David Bowie? There is no justice in the world. 

1. The Ronettes - Be My Baby / Baby, I Love You

Sheer pop perfection.

Saturday Snapshots #132: The Answers

I know it's Sunday morning, Denzel, but I expect people to at least change out of their dressing gowns if they're going to play Saturday Snapshots. Then again, if you got game... you probably don't need an Equalizer... to achieve Glory.

Answers...


10. Vampire funeral held at home of boat fronts.

Bow-house?

Suit yourself.

Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi's Dead

I find it amusing that the official Bauhaus channel on youtube illustrates this tune with the poster of a Jessica Alba romcom. That's goth!

9. Amateur actors warn you about Sammy Davis Junior.

Amateur dramatics.

Sammy Davis Jr. was the Candyman.

The Dramatics - Beware of the Man (With the Candy in his Hand)

You may not know that tune, but you owe it to yourself to give it a spin.

8. Slade finalists circumnavigate.

Slade finalists is an anagram.

Lisa Stansfield - All Around The World

7. Michael, Clive, Mark... and I... buy a Scottish umbrella.

Michael, Clive and Mark are all Owens.

10cc sang about The Dean & I.

Dean Owens - Raining In Glasgow

You may not know that tune, but you owe it to yourself to give it a spin.

6. Greet Jeff Bridges while making cold cocktails.

Jeff Bridges is The Dude. I keep telling you that.

Cold cocktails would be made in a cooler shaker.

Kula Shaker - Hey Dude!

5. Releasing this tune is morally just.

Released = unchained.

Morally just = righteous.

The Righteous Brothers - Unchained Melody

4. Just why does the van have a hole in the middle? I ought to have been the one to get that.

Just Y + Von (a van with a O in the middle).

Just = fair.

Yvonne Fair - It Should've Been Me

3. Alpine artwork causes loose plates.

"Alpine artwork" is an anagram.

Karine Polwart - Faultlines

2. Massachusetts killers refuse to watch another Marvel movie.

The Boston Stranglers.

The Stranglers - No More Heroes

Whatever happened to Leon Trotsky?

1. Miss Jones keeps the belt together on male jeans.

Miss Jones is Grace.

Belt buckle + male gene (Y) = Buckley.




It's a Magnificent Seven days (well, I guess six and a half, depending on when you read this) until Saturday Snapshots returns...