Another Day #22: Halloween

Tomorrow is Halloween. I won't be able to post appropriate songs then due to Snapshots, so here are a few Halloween favourites...

Snapshots #399: Drunk Songs (Volume 2)

Way back in December 2021, Snapshots #218 featured ten Drunk Songs. Today, I invite you to sample a few more beverages. I can't join you: I haven't had a drink since the 20th Century.

Please drink responsibly.

15. Pablo Escobar's last stand.

The War On Drugs - Wasted

14. Wild Cherry? Aha! 

Anagram!

Richard Hawley - Caned

13. Pricey set meets Suzanne in a diner. 

Alan Price Set meets Suzanne Vega in Tom's Diner.

Alan Vega - Hammered

12. Whatchu talkin' bout, Phil & Don / Luke & Matt?

Whatchu talkin' bout, Willis? And some brothers...

The Willis Brothers - Three Sheets In The Wind

11. 90s dance party at small suffixes.

A rave on ettes (ette being a suffix which means small).

The Raveonettes - Blitzed

10. White smoke, and it really changes a woman. 

"Changes a woman" was an anagram. White smoke announces a new Pope.

Shane MacGowan & The Popes - That Woman's Got Me Drinking

Look at the state he's in!

9. Rubber lips and the invisible rabbit.

Rubber lips is Mick Jagger. Harvey was the invisible rabbit.

Mick Harvey - Intoxicated Man

8. Flick a frightening switch in the Milky Way.

Galaxy featuring Phil Fearon - Dancing Tight

7. Like Mel's mate, but with a deeper voice.

Mel (Smith)'s mate was Griff Rhys (Jones). This guy is a bit more Gruff.

Gruff Rhys - People Are Pissed 

6. Randy & the Rainbows get stuck in a French room.

Randy & the Rainbows sang about Denise. A French room is la salle. 

Denise LaSalle - Under The Influence

5. On target.

The Arrows - A Touch Too Much

4. Hazy oboes: out of order.

"Hazy oboes" was an anagram. You might not know this guy, but this is one of Sam's favourite tunes at the moment. He's very popular with the young people. And actually quite listenable, unlike a lot of the stuff they dig.

Shaboozey - A Bar Song (Tipsy)

3. A mild day comes between Williams and Nick. 

Between Andy Williams and Nick Lowe, there is fair weather.

Andy Fairweather Low - Wide-Eyed & Legless

2. A Cooke, a Clark, a Fox, a Berry. 

Two Sams, two Daves.

Sam & Dave - I Can't Stand Up

1. They've got a Pedigree, like George and Andrew surrounded by sheep. 

Pedigree Chum meets baa Wham baa. Easy when you know how.

Chumbawamba - Tubthumpin'

He drinks a whiskey drink. He drinks a Vodka drink. He drinks a Lager drink. He drinks a cider drink. And he ends up pissin' the night away. Or 'issing the night away, if he's on Top of the Pops.

I'm giving you a week to sober up before the 400th edition of Snapshots.

Celebrity Jukebox #115: Shane MacGowan

When Shane MacGowan stayed at Bono's house, he did what only Shane MacGowan could do...

“Bono put in a glass roof and wall,” MacGowan explained in an interview with The Times. “I used to wave my willy at the train as it passed and hope that they thought it was Bono’s.”

Sad to say I must be on my way
So buy me beer and whiskey 'cause I'm going far away
I'd like to think of me returning when I can
To the greatest little boozer and to Sally MacLennane

I've been giving the Celebrity Jukebox a rest over the past couple of weeks. It's been nice to have a stretch without any big name deaths. But I've been worrying about Shane MacGowan a lot lately, hoping his time wasn't nigh. The pictures from his hospital bed didn't look great, and... I dunno... could we really stand to lose both Sinéad and Shane in the same year?

Another post then, written with a very heavy heart...

Let's start with a Canadian Irish band who owe their entire act to Shane...

Well, the next thing you know I was lying on the ground

I drank some more whiskey, you know I was feeling sound

I dreamt I met MacGowan and he bought me another round

And the two of us went drinkin' 'til the morning

The Mahones - Across The USA

And they're not the only ones in debt...

Last night as I slept

I dreamt I met Macgowan

That poetic old drunk

Who consumes me with his words

The romantic lines of verse

He writes down without effort

I pray the angels catch him

If he should fall from the grace of God

The Insyderz - The Snake

Meanwhile, back in Canada, a song about the new set of teeth Shane had fitted in 2015...

Matt Patershuk - Shane MacGowan 

Next, a tribute from German band Hasenscheisse which mentions Shane in the same breath as Elvis, Kurt Cobain, Jimmy Hendrix and Janis Joplin...

Ohne Feuerwasser kein Rock'n'Roll

Harald Juhnke ist mein Held 

Und Shane MacGowan ist mein Idol

...which translates thus...

There's no rock'n'roll without firewater

Harald Juhnke is my hero 

And Shane MacGowan is my idol

Hasenscheisse - Feuerwasser

And now a word from Sweden...

Hästpojken - Shane MacGowan

From Sweden to Devon, where the Black Anchors are searching in vain...

Another rainy night in Soho

Looking for Shane MacGowan

A barmaid with spider tatoos

Said he's not been around

And I'm coming down

The Black Anchors - Heavenly Lane

And a band featuring the bassist from The Libertines. Pete Doherty had nothing on Shane...

Yeti - Shane MacGowan

Finally, a bunch of grubby urchins who go by the name of The Dipsomaniacs. I'm sure Shane would approve.

The Dipsomaniacs - Shane MacGowan

It was Ben who alerted me to the new of Shane's death, and he was pretty certain the mainstream media coverage would hinge around that Christmas song he did with Kirsty. A fine tune (if over-played), but there's so much more to Shane's legacy. There were more great duets to start with. Such as this...

And this, which I no doubt posted back in July when Sinéad passed because it's a high point in both their careers...

Final word to Shane himself. I hope they follow his wishes to the letter...

Bury me at sea

Where no murdered ghost can haunt me

If I rock upon the waves

And no corpse can lie upon me

Let me go, boys, let me go, boys

Let me go down in the mud, where the rivers all run dry

Celebrity Jukebox #100: Sinéad O'Connor

To mark the hundredth edition of Celebrity Jukebox, I'd prepared a special tribute to Glen Campbell, the man responsible for my all-time favourite song. I figured I'd run that ahead of Tony Bennett and whoever else might leave us in the meantime...

And then we lost Sinéad O'Connor.

The thing about Sinéad is, at just 56 years of age, she was an artist from my generation. She was only 21 when she released her debut album in 1987, as I turned 15. Then, just three years later, the Number One hit that would cement her global fame was still in the charts on the day of my 18th birthday. So through all the tragedy and controversy that would follow, I always felt like she was one of our gang, and I felt closer to her because of that. I didn't follow her career religiously, but there were touchpoints over the years, and her last album, I'm Not Bossy, I'm the Boss... well, I really hoped that would be the beginning of a renaissance. Sadly, it was not to be. Hard to believe it's 9 years since I first heard this...

I didn't know what to expect from the Celebrity Jukebox, but I should have known Sinéad's influence ran far and wide, starting in her home country...

My Ireland needs to go back to the source
The initial trickle, a spring and tickle out its flow
My Ireland needs to let go
My Ireland saw Sinéad ripping up the Pope
And isn't able to cope

Stephen James Smith - My Ireland

...over into Europe...

Afeitada como la Sinéad O'Connor 
La vi dejar el pub envuelta en humo de moto. 

(which translates as...)

Shaved like Sinéad O'Connor
I saw her leave the pub enveloped in motorbike smoke.

Ana Belén - Nadie Sabe

...and across the Atlantic...

Mary was a good ol' gal
She didn't deserve this shit
She wrote her lines out one at a time
And she didn't complain one bit

She saw Sinéad cover Loretta on Saturday Night Live
Like every good virgin does
But she spent most her time just sittin' round wondering
Where in the hell Jesus was

Elizabeth Cook - Mary, The Submissing Years

Lovely John Prine tribute there. And as to Sinéad covering Loretta...

Sinéad sang that song on Saturday Night Live in 1992. Later in the show, she tore up a picture of the Pope in protest at the cover-up of child sex abuse in the Catholic Church. This action alone guaranteed her immortality in all manner of songs, including plenty of rebellious rap tunes...

I plead guilty, your honor
Cause I dissed the Pope more times than Sinéad O'Connor

Ice Cube - My Skin Is My Sin

...and, of course, in this...

I rip shit like Sinéad O'Connor
I wear my vag as a badge of honour

Pussy Riot - Straight Outta Vagina

But even without the controversy, it's clear that Sinéad O'Connor deserved her place in the pantheon of rock goddesses...  

Tori Amos, Liz Phair
Sinéad  O'Connor, Suzanne Vega
Jill Sobule, Melissa Etheridge
Tracy Chapman, Ani Difranco
Michelle Shocked, everyone of them has
Something kind of special that I like

There's an awful lot of women
In whose honor I would like to raise my glass to in a toast
Some of them are still alive
And some I hear their voices like a ghost

Dan Bern - Chick Singers

...and among the legends of Irish music...

I went backstage, I couldn't even think
Christy Moore, Sinéad O'Connor, somebody give me a drink

The Mahones - Queen & Tequila

Still, the best tribute I could find was this one...

Read a book by Sinead O'Connor
Stained the pages and stared out at the water
I took a note when she said that songs are ghosts
I guess if anybody knows she knows

Melanie MacLaren - Summer In Sweden

...a song which leads us nicely to my all time favourite Sinéad O'Connor performance. "She had the voice of an angel," is such a cliché... but when you hear this, it's pretty hard to dispute. Especially when she's duetting with an old devil like Shane...

Rest in peace, Sinéad. I choose to believe you're with the angels now.

Not That One Friday #5: My Way

And now, the end is near, and so I face the final curtain...

My Way is such a famous song, it's hard to believe that the Beatles were on the verge of breaking up when Frank first recorded it. It feels like it must have been around well before 1969. But the French song, "Comme d'habitude", it was based on was only written two years earlier. The lyrics to that are very different from the ones Paul Anka wrote for Frank though... after old blue eyes told Paul he was quitting the music business because he was sick of it. Talk about a comeback...

Frank apparently came to hate My Way though, and Leonard Cohen only liked Sid Vicious's version. Call me a traditionalist, but I still think Frank's take is unbeatable... although I do have a fondness for Shane MacGowan's version. Not to mention Elvis and Willie. Each one can bring a tear to my eye, if the wind's blowing in the right direction. However, they all follow the same Frank's template... unlike Maxine Weldon, who really took it her own way in 1975...

There are a few songs called My Way in my collection that have nothing to do with the infamous karaoke staple. They were all written long after, and all suffer in comparison...

Kiss - My Way

White Light Motorcade - My Way

Limp Bizkit - My Way

Except this.

Eddie Cochran had been dead almost a decade when Frank first faced his own final curtain. So Eddie had nothing to live up to when he recorded this little beauty in the late 50s...

For the record, Dr Feelgood do a pretty good cover of that My Way too.

The United Kingdom of Song #32: Antrim

Looking to pay another visit to Northern Ireland on this feature, I figured Shane MacGowan would be a good person to ask.

Sure enough, he directed me to Antrim Town in County Antrim, a town that doesn't appear to have any famous musical sons and daughters... unless you known differently... although Liam Neeson does hail from just a few miles up the road in Ballymena.

When he last stepped up that street

Shining steel in hand

Behind him marched in gray array

A stalwart earnest band

For Antrim town, for Antrim town

He lept into the fray

Now young Roddy McCorley goes to die

On the bridge of Tuam today...

Sounds a bit like the plot of a Liam Neeson movie, that.

Saturday Snapshots #57 - The Answers

That's Marilyn Manson, someone I considered scary enough to illustrate the answers of our Halloween special. I'm not going to pretend to be a big expert on his discography though, so no scary puns today... just the answers.

Well done to C who won yesterday's Early Bird prize, though it was a hard-fought contest by everyone else. Well done to Lynchie and Martin for getting the hard ones (9 & 5).


10. PC Wilson Spassky prefers this to chips.

PC = Police Constable... or Bobby.

Boris Spassky was a famous chess player.

Wilson Picket was Wilson Pickett.

If you don't like chips, you may prefer your potatoes mashed.

Bobby Boris Pickett & The Crypt Kickers - Monster Mash

It was a graveyard smash!

9. Three monsters and a superhero... are forever.

Tough one, but Diamonds are Forever.

The Diamonds - Batman, Wolfman, Frankenstein or Dracula

8. Where Jan & Dean found dead men with scary faces.

Jan & Dean sang about Dead Man's Curve.

Curve - Horror Head

7. Adolescents need to start shaving... or their muscles will seize up.

The Cramps - I Was A Teenage Werewolf

6. Incomparable lady and arse-kisser get possessed.

Nothing compares to Sinead O'Connor.

Shane MacGowan was in the Pogues, short for Pogue Mahone, which is Irish for Kiss My Arse.

Sinead O'Connor & Shan MacGowan - Haunted

5. Terrified of being hit one more time, baby? Play a show on the day your record comes out.

Britney Spears sang ...Hit Me Baby, One More Time.

If you played a show on the day your record came out, you would be Live On Release.

Live On Release - I'm Afraid of Britney Spears

4. Send out the invitations for a free racket.

You send out invitations to your birthday party.

If you freed your racket, you would be releasing your bat.

The Birthday Party - Release The Bats

3. It's bad manners to sing spooky songs, says the beaming butler from Southfork.

Bad Manners' lead singer was Buster Bloodvessel.

Rays beam.

Parker was the butler in Thunderbirds.

Southfork is where J.R. lived.

Ray Parker Jr. - Ghostbusters

2. A new Rover ZN? Or an American...?

A new Rover ZN is an anagram.

An American... Werewolf In London.

I saw Lon Chaney dancing with the Queen...

Warren Zevon - Werewolves of London

1. Not Richard or Karen, but perfect for this time of year.

Richard & Karen were The Carpenters. Obviously.


Be afraid. Be very afraid. Saturday Snapshots will be back next week.

My Top Ten Pope Songs

Because Ratzinger has resigned.

When I first heard that Joe Ratzinger was to be Pope, I thought they meant Cliff from Cheers. Wouldn't that have been preferable...?


10. Tim Minchin - The Pope Song

Let's get the... erm... somewhat controversial one out of the way to begin with, shall we? Not safe for work, or for the easily offended. Though Tim does have a point.

9. George Harrison - P2 Vatican Blues (Last Saturday Night)

George takes his confessional - one our father, three hail marys - each Saturday night.

8. James Dean Bradfield - Say Hello To The Pope

JDB loses his girl to religion. Prayers get him nowhere.

7. North Sea Scrolls - The Papal Pagan

In the fifth scroll, Cathal Coughlan takes on an Irish junta led by Dana, Johnny Logan and Louis Walsh and tells the Vatican where to go. Not available online, but the album's a must buy. By papal decree.

6. Morrissey - Dear God, Please Help Me

Well, I had to make room for the Pope of Mope, didn't I? And as we featured I Have Forgiven Jesus quite recently, let's have this one instead. Here we find Moz walking through Rome feeling the weight of the explosive kegs between his legs...

Dear God, does this kind of thing happen to you?

5. Billy Joel - Only The Good Die Young

Billy does his best to talk a good Catholic girl into bed... she's having none of it. Banned by many American radio stations back in the 70s... not that that did it any harm.

Come out, come out, come out Virginia, don't let me wait.
You Catholic girls start much too late.
Sooner or later it comes down to fate.
I might as well be the one.
You know that only the good die young.

4. Half Man Half Biscuit - Vatican Broadside

Look it's only 33 seconds long, so you've no excuse not to listen to it.

Need further persuading? It tells the (true, surely?) story of what happened when the singer out of Slipknot went to Rome to see the Pope. The Pope's response is priceless. 

Also covered by Frank Turner, which is always a good sign.

3. Shane MacGowan & The Popes - The Church of the Holy Spook

Shane asks forgiveness from the Holy Spook too. He'll be in that confessional all day...

2. Prince - Pope

You can be the president, but Prince will always be the Pope. Imagine if the Vatican actually announced him as the successor to Ratzinger? Wouldn't that be fantastic? Especially if he came out on the balcony doing this song... the opening exclamation would be worth the price of admission alone.

(This would probably have been Number One had His Holiness not banned it from being heard on the internet. I wish he'd stop that. Maybe he will, when he takes office.)

1. Elbow - An Audience With The Pope

I have an audience with the Pope
And I'm saving the world at eight
But if she says she needs me, she says she needs me
Everybody's going to have to wait, ah, ah

Guy Garvey -patron saint of romance.




Those were my favourite popes... which one do you want to see elected XVII?

My Top Ten Haunted Songs

Have a haunted Halloween on me...


10. Shirley Lee - The Haunted

So much sadness is not good for you...

From last year's excellent double album Winter Autumn Summer Spring, the Spearmint man scares away the spectres.

9. John Fogerty - Haunted House

For the man who gave us Bad Moon Rising, living in a haunted house is no big deal.

8. Seth Lakeman - I'll Haunt You

When Seth Lakeman goes off to sea, his woman promises to be faithful. When the Dear John letter arrives, he threatens a punishment most eerie...

I'll haunt you, haunt your bed
Tap the windows, you'll wake in dread
I pray that you love me instead
I'll haunt you, I'll haunt your bed
And I'll haunt you, sleep in fear!
Whisper secrets in your ear
A world away but I'll be near,
I'll haunt you.

7. Dodgy - Melodies Haunt You

Not the Dodgy song everybody remembers, but certainly less dodgy than many of their Britpop contemporaries.

6. Superman Revenge Squad - Yeah, This House Is Haunted

Can't go wrong with a bit of Superman Revenge Squad every now and then. Great lyrics, as always.

5. Saint Etienne - Haunted Jukebox

From the new Saint Etienne album, Words & Music, which is really quite lovely in places.

4. Pavement - Haunt You Down
 
Just a guess here, but Stephen Malkmus might be seeing ghosts because of something he's been smoking. Hardly a case for Scooby Doo or Peter Venkman. 

3. Haunted Love - Werewolf

A seriously spooky song from a New Zealand band named after an old Charlton horror comic. What's not to love?

2. Gene - Haunted By You

From the pub to the grave
I'll be haunted by you
Yes, you, you're in my way

Seems as good a place as any to mention the long-awaited solo album by Martin Rossiter... if you haven't ordered your copy yet, find out more about it here.

Gene almost won their second Number One here on My Top Ten... and then I remembered this...

1. Sinéad O'Connor & Shane MacGowan - Haunted

As everyone's favourite Christmas record proves, there's something irresistible about pairing the drunken bum vocals of Shane MacGowan with an angel. Kirsty will always be the most famous example of that... but Sinéad comes a close second. Just beautiful.

The first time I saw you 
Standing in the street 
You were so cool you could have 
Put out Vietnam

Those were the most haunting songs in my collection... but which one keeps you awake a night?