Snapshots #459: Songs About Writing (or Groups of Words)

Time to write down your answers for this week's quiz...

 

15. Real twats will have nothing to do with him.

"Real twats" was an unfortunate anagram.

Al Stewart - Time Passages

14. Subordinate T-Rex. 

Dinosaur Jr - The Post

The thing that most of us spend a lot of time writing.

13. Finger, hob, Jimmy.

The Nails - 88 Lines About 44 Women

12. Love - Latest Flame - Eamonn. 

Courtney Love, Marie's the Name, Eamonn Andrews.

Courtney Marie Andrews - On My Page

11. What if Johnny and Andrew formed a band?

Johnny Marr and Andrew Marr might have called their band The...

MARRS - Pump Up The Volume 

10. There'll be times when my crimes will seem almost unforgivable...

That's the opening line to Strangelove by Depeche Mode.

Strangelove - Extract From A Journal: Nov 17th 1997

9. Oh my god - they killed the doubter!

Oh my god - they killed Kenny! Probably for being a Doubting Thomas.

Kenny Thomas - Piece By Piece

8. Elvis finds rhymes in a blizzard.

King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard - The Book

Kenny Thomas to King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard. That's what this blog is all about.

7. He's neither tool nor dogfight. 

"Tool nor dogfight" was an anagram.

Gordon Lightfoot - Canadian Railroad Trilogy

6. Where Flanders puts Homer's work waste.

Ned's Atomic Dustbin - Sentence

5. Still... Peanuts.

Still D.R.E. And Snoopy.

Dr. Dre featuring Snoop Dogg - The Next Episode

4. Derek (sic) and his Finetime Fools.

"Derek (sic)" was an anagram. Cast sang Finetime.

Rick Dees & His Cast Of Idiots - Disco Duck (Part One)

3. These Charm-ing Men.

Lucky Charms for The Smiths.

The Lucksmiths - The Chapter In Your Life Entitled San Francisco

Rick Dees to The Lucksmiths. That's what this blog is all about.

2. Hey hey, puff, wheeze, we're the... gasp, pant...

Hey hey, we're the out of breath Monkees. Must be all that blowing.

Blow Monkeys - Digging Your Scene

1. Lovely... Calvin (30).

Lovely Rita and Calvin Coolidge, the 30th POTUS.

Rita Coolidge - Words

I'll write more soon.

My Top Ten James Bond Themes

Apparently there's a new James Bond film out this week. I know, I wish they'd spend a little more money promoting it too, it can be very easy for low-budget films like this to slip through the cracks and not find their audience at the multiplex. Still, if you can't find a cinema in your local area that's taking a punt on it, here's a reminder of some of 007's greatest hits. I actually quite like Adele's new theme song... but not as much as these...


10. Jack White & Alicia Keys - Another Way To Die (from Quantum of Solace)

A little too derivative to be considered classic, but Jack White has a License To Kill.

9. a-ha - The Living Daylights

I never rated Timothy Dalton, he's probably my least favourite Bond (Lazenby might clinch it... were On Her Majesty's Secret Service not such a great film despite him). That whole "new man" thing was such an 80s blunder for a character like Bond. This was by far the best thing about The Living Daylights.

8. Rita Coolidge - All Time High (from Octopussy)

Written by John Barry (and Tim Rice), hence: ace. Even better: the Pulp cover version. 

Speaking of Pulp, how much better would Tomorrow Never Dies have been if their theme tune had been chosen over Sheryl Crow's?

7. Shirley Bassey - Diamonds Are Forever

John Barry again, with Don Black on lyrics, and - of course - the immortal Dame Shirley on diamonds.

6. Nancy Sinatra - You Only Live Twice

So good, Robbie Williams stole its timeless intro for his second biggest hit. Barry again.

5. Paul McCartney & Wings - Live & Let Die

Possibly the first Bond film I ever saw, so Roger Moore and his eyebrows were officially MY Bond... as a kid, at least. I like Macca's original, but I do prefer Axl's sneering cover. It's just so nasty.

4. Shirley Bassey - Goldfinger

Barry, Bassey... and a young Jimmy Page on guitar. Or so legend has it. 

3. Louis Armstrong - We Have All The Time In The World (from On Her Majesty's Secret Service)

Whenever I'm stuck behind a car driving at 20 miles an hour, I call the driver a 'Louis'. Well, it's better than some of the words I might choose.

As mentioned previously, though I don't particularly rate Lazenby, OHMSS has possibly the best Bond plot ever. That final scene is just a killer. And this - John Barry and Hal David... well, nobody does it better.

Or do they...?

2. Carly Simon - Nobody Does It Better (from The Spy Who Loved Me)

Written by Marvin Hamlisch and Carol Bayer Sager (of You're Moving Out Today fame), this is the song that most says Bond to me... well, apart from our far too obvious Number One. (Aimee Mann does a lovely cover too.)

1. John Barry - The James Bond Theme

Not the Moby version, the David Arnold version or the one where some idiot decided it might be a good idea to let random tone-deaf Irish egomaniacs with a God Complex have a go. The original... and still the best.




Those were my best Bonds... but which is your Nobody Does It Better?