Snapshots Superman Songs Spillover (#2)

We closed Monday's collection of Superman songs with a track by Cinerama. Comic book fan David Gedge also used the name of the most bizarre Superman foe as the title of his other band's second album: Bizarro by The Wedding Present. Sadly, he never wrote a song about Bizarro... but these guys did... 

The Monochrome Set - Mr. Bizarro

And this isn't too far off...

Straw - Weird Superman

All of which brings us to another post of songs featuring the Man of Steel...

Meat Loaf - Man of Steel

...and his friends and foes. Starting with one for Brian!

Tullycraft - Superboy & Supergirl

Actually, Supergirl appears to be far more popular with songwriters than her young male counterpart... who'd have thought it?

Donovan - Superlungs, My Supergirl

Johnny Cougar - Supergirl

Reamonn - Supergirl

Kate Miller-Heidke - Supergirl

The Fugs - Supergirl

The Troggs - Supergirl 

(That cover's from the 90s, when mullets were big.)

When he's not being Superman, Kal El goes by another name, that of mild-mannered investigative reporter...

Klark Kent - Don't Care

That's not how he spells it. 

Klark Kent was an alias for Stewart Copeland of The Police, recording a song that Sting didn't want for the day job. John says, "Stewart Copeland’s debut album Klark Kent was a belter."

Clark Kent works for a newspaper called The Daily Planet. On Saturday we featured a song by the title by Arthur Lee & Love. Here's another one...

Mark Hollis - The Daily Planet

And that's where Superman met the love of his life...

The Flys - Lois Lane

Farrah - Lois Lane

Weird coincidence department: all the bands I could find who wrote a song about Lois Lane (along with Sunday's Franz Ferdinand) began with the letter F.

But Lois wasn't Clark's first love though. That title would go to...

Rouge Pompier - Lana Lang

And he even had a fling with a mermaid once. Her name? Lori Lemaris. Can you spot a pattern here?

Not everybody with the initials LL loves Superman though. Let's not forget his arch enemy, Lex Luthor, a man who's jealousy of Superman might yet be explained that nobody has ever written a decent pop song in his honour...

Elvis Costello - Dr. Luther's Assistant

That was the best I could come up with, with the wrong spelling... and he's not even a doctor! No wonder he's such a bitter, twisted sociopath...

Luthor isn't Superman's only foe. We mentioned Bizarro earlier, and Braniac earlier in the week. Then there's the Kryptonian supervillain memorably played by Terence Stamp in Superman 2, General Zod...

Billy Talent - Kingdom Of Zod

And let's not forget the badguy who killed Superman back in 1992...

The Shirelles - Doomsday

Evelyn Thomas - Doomsday

Final question for today... what do you get if you put all of Superman's worst foes together in the same room?

The Superman Revenge Squad?

That'd be a good name for a band, don't you think?

Are we done with this now?

Not quite yet...

Bertie Fridays #4: What The World Needs Now...

Time for Bertie the dog to pick another of his favourite music Berts... or Burts in the case of this week's star.

I'm sure I can't tell you anything about Burt Bacharach that you don't already know, although I can confirm that he's NOT related to one of my favourite actors of recent years, Ebon Moss-Bacharach of The Bear (soon to play The Thing in the new Fantastic Four movie).

I think we'll just let the music speak for itself today...

Jackie DeShannon - What the World Needs Now (Is Love)

Herb Alpert - This Guy's In Love With You

Perry Como - Magic Moments 

Shirelles - Baby It's You

Walker Brothers - Make It Easy On Yourself

Dusty Springfield - I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself

Gene Pitney - Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa

Isaac Hayes - Walk On By

Dionne Warwick - Do You Know the Way to San Jose?

The Carpenters - (They Long To Be) Close To You

Love - My Little Red Book

Tom Jones - What's New, Pussycat?

Aretha Franklin - I Say A Little Prayer

Neil Diamond - Heartlight

BJ Thomas - Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head

Christopher Cross - Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)

Patti LaBelle & Michael McDonald - On My Own

Elvis Costello & Burt Bacharach - Toledo

The majority of those were written with lyricist Hal David, of course. But he's not a Bertie. Or even a Burty.

If I was forced at gunpoint to choose a favourite recording of a Bacharach composition, it would be this one, which I bought as a 7" single in 1990. I was convinced it made Number One, but clearly I needed to buy a couple more copies, because it was held off the top spot by Timmy Mallet. Oh, the inDignity*!

*I'm particularly proud of that pun. Little things please little minds.

Next week... "For the money, for the glory, and for the fun. Mostly for the money."

My Top Ten Hard Times Songs

Without realising he'd done it, Charity Chic threw down the gauntlet yesterday when he chose three fine songs about Hard Times.

Here's another ten... and I still had to leave out the Human League! Sorry, Brian. (I also had to leave out Kiss, but I imagine you'll be less upset by that.)


10. Run DMC - Hard Times

Gotta start with this one as it has the perfect opening lines...

Hard times spreading just like the flu

Watch out homeboy, don't let it catch you

9. Paul Simon - Love & Hard Times

One of those lyrics that only Paul Simon could get away with.

God and His only Son

Paid a courtesy call on Earth

One Sunday morning

Orange blossoms opened their fragrant lips

Songbirds sang from the tips of Cottonwoods

Old folks wept for His love in these hard times

"Well, we got to get going, " said the restless Lord to the Son

There are galaxies yet to be born

Creation is never done

Anyway, these people are slobs here

If we stay it's bound to be a mob scene

But, disappear, and it's love and hard times

8. Public Image Limited - Hard Times

The slogan will take you like lemmings to the cliff

You'll feel better than ever, and into the abyss

Every crack every crevice will be sanitised

There'll be no more war, there'll be no more choice

7. Jimmy Buffet - There's Nothing Soft About Hard Times

We never knew anything groovy.

A dime meant bread, and not a movie.

The muscles that control my smile were rarely ever used.

'Cause there's nothing soft about hard times.

6. The Shirelles - Hard Times

Last time I had a brand new hat

The people thought the world was flat

5. The Imagined Village (featuring Billy Bragg) - Hard Times Of Old England

Time was I could sell all I grew at the shop

When Tesco's turned up all of that had to stop

Now I can't make a living out of my crop

Singing oh the hard times of old England

4. Loudon Wainwright III - Times Is Hard

You're watchin' the news. It all looks bad.

The worst half-hour you ever had.

What in God's name is goin' on?

All I can do is play this song.

3. Eels - Rock Hard Times

Hollywood lies piled up to the sky

Floating your way soon

Hope you like the rotten stench of doom

And everybody knows these are rock hard times

I gotta make it through

These are rock hard times

2. Baby Huey & The Baby Sitters - Hard Times

Written by Curtis Mayfield, but I prefer the Baby Huey version.

Eatin' Spam and Oreos and drinkin' Thunderbird baby

1. John Mellencamp - Hard Times For An Honest Man

From the times when John Mellencamp could do no wrong.

And he hates the cold-bloodedness

That runs inside

Hot 100 #21

Yes, I could have chosen the logo of Twenty One Pilots to illustrate this post, but I don't think they ever recorded a song as good as this. Feel free to disabuse me of that notion should you wish. Jim In Dubai also suggested another 12 group...

Jim's Twenty One - Throwaway Friend

...which I don't think is his own bad, but it's pretty good regardless.

Welcome to the 80th post in this series (look, I did the Maths, you work it out)... which means The Key To The Door: Number 21.

Let's start with Martin, who appears to be struggling somewhat this week...

Erm. 21. Feels like there should be loads.

Well, I found a fair few.

So Solid Crew - 21 Seconds

That... wasn't one of them.

Alanis Morrissette - 21 Things I Want In A Lover

Neither was that. Although it's a step up from So Solid Crew.

Sigue Sigue Sputnik - 21st Century Boy which is probably the first time they've rubbed up against Alanis...

Blimey, you really are scraping the barrel this week.

The Who - 1921

That's more like it.

ELO - 21st Century Man

That's not bad either. Not a winner though.

While we're in the 21st Century, we might as well get these out of the way too...

The Soundtrack of Our Lives - 21st Century Rip Off

Mike Peters - 21st Century

Laptop - 21st Century World

Toto - 21st Century Blues

Frank Hamilton - 21C

Glenn Frey - Love In The 21st Century

Frank Turner - 21st Century Survival Blues

Jamie Cullum (yes, Jamie Cullum, deal with) - 21st Century Kid

Midland - 21st Century Honky Tonk American Band

Jim in Dubai offered Luke Haines - 21st Century Man

C tried King Crimson - 21st Century Schizoid Man

The Swede had T.Rex - 21st Century Stance and The Membranes - 21st Century Man, but curiously not The Mebranes - The 21st Century Is Killing Me.

And Rigid Digit supplied Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown, which hails from the same album as Green Day - 21 Guns. Not their best, no, but no their worst either.

Finally, Douglas offered...

Bad Religion - 21st Century (Digital Boy)

But... well, let's face it: the 21st Century is pretty horrible, so I think we'll skip all those, fine songs though they may be.

Back to The Swede...

Luxuria - Lady 21

Bon Iver - 21 Moonwater

Juana Molina - Wed 21

Sounds like John Shuttleworth on the keyboards there, Swede.

Snailhouse - Twenty One Years

Personally though, The Swede concludes, I'd like to suggest Twenty One by The Apartments. What a truly wonderful band they are.

That is very nice, I have to admit it. Doesn't exist in my own record collection (yet), which is the one stipulation to be a winner on this series. But I definitely have to investigate it further.

Where's Lynchie? Putting all his eggs in one basket this week, it seems...

Well, it's obvious the winner is Twenty-One by The Eagles.

I was very tempted, I'll admit it.

Here comes Brian, who's backing The Swede's final suggestion, but also throws in this...

The Flaming Lips - One More Robot / Sympathy 3000-21 

...which I'm glad he did, because somehow the trawl through my own 21s missed that. Here's a few more of those, if you're at all interested...

Jim Bob - Coach A Seat 21

Dave Gahan - 21 Days

Frank Black - 21 Reasons

The Charlatans - Come In, Number 21

Ash - Death Trip 21

Blink 182 - 21 Days

The Divine Comedy - 21st of May

Jeff Rosenstock - June 21st

And finally, Douglas had a couple more suggestions...

The Cranberries - 21

(Which owes quite a debt to Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time, if you ask me.)

Chuck Berry - 21 Blues

These lead us quite nicely into the subsection "Songs about being age 21", to which I can add...

The Paddingtons - 21

Jack White - Freedom At 21

Wilko Johnson & Roger Daltrey - Turned 21

The Shirelles - Twenty-One

The Lonesome Pine Fiddlers - Twenty One Years

And... of course... this, which was our opening suggestion this week, from Charity Chic, who almost begged...

The Adverts - No Time to Be 21, please, Rol.

C seconded that too, and, well... why not?

Life's short, don't make a mess of it
To the ends of the earth, you'll look for a sense in it
No chances, no plans
I'll smash the windows of my box
I'll be a madman
It's no time to be 21
To be anyone

To be honest, even though I'm not particularly enjoying 47... I don't think I'd fancy being 21 again. Would you?


And so we finally reach the Top 20. On your marks... get set...

Go!

Saturday Snapshots #87 - The Answers

If you got All Shook Up by yesterday's quiz, don't go Crying In The Chapel this Sunday morning. Here's a little Peace In The Valley instead... the answers!

Rain led to a low turn-out yesterday morning, but Lynchie nabbed the early, easy ones. Maybe this quiz is getting too difficult. Maybe it's run its course. Not far from 100... perhaps I'll retire it with the century.

In the meantime... a quick trot through the answers this week with A Little Less Conversation than usual as I'm too tired to write loads.

10. Played by Dexys' error... so good they named him twice.

When Dexys appeared on Top of the Pops singing Jackie Wilson Said, they had a huge picture of Jocky Wilson behind them. Various stories about how this happened - a mistake on the part of the production team or (more likely) Kevin Rowland's wicked sense of humour.

Anyway, Jocky Wilson was a darts player.

New York, New York was so good they named it twice, according to Gerard Kenny.

Darts - The Boy From New York City

9. Steve Rogers & Johnny Storm.

One I discovered via The Vinyl Villain... though you have to know your comics characters to get the clues. (They changed their name to Eugenius after this release to avoid getting sued by Marvel.)

Steve Rogers is Captain America.

Johnny Storm is the Human Torch. His catch phrase is "Flame On!"

Captain America - Flame On!

8. Mother Walrus meets ex-Kennedy for wet fun.

John Lennon was the Walrus. His mum was Julia.

Jaqueline Kennedy became Jackie O after she was widowed.

Julia Jaclyn - Pool Party

7. Tin Tin's useless investigators give away their identity.

C correctly identified that the gent in the centre of this pic wasn't actually Joe Leeway from The Thompson Twins, but Eddie Grant. My bad, with apologies to all concerned.

The Thompson Twins were named after bumbling detectives in the Tin Tin comics.

The Thompson Twins - We Are Detective

(I planned this post weeks ago... a weird coincidence then that this song featured here in a different post just a couple of days ago.)

6. Chimp spreads fertiliser on Russian park while getting down to Whitesnake.

Gorky Park.

A zygote is the cell formed by the fertilisation of two gametes. Obviously.

A mynci sounds like a monkey.

Whitesnake were dismissed in the 80s as poodle rockers because of hair like this...

Gorkys Zygotic Mynci - Poodle Rockin'

5. Scottish saint / mouse enjoys the sunshine.

Mungo was a Scottish saint, apparently.

Jerry was a mouse.

Mungo Jerry - In The Summertime

4. Part of 5, partner of one of 9... coming from the north west.

Jerry was part of #5.

One of Johnny (#9) Storm's partners in the Fantastic Four was Reed Richards.

Jerry Reed - Eastbound & Down

3. Hell rises... it's not me.

"Hell rises" was an anagram.

The Shirelles - Baby, It's You

2. Sound like they're Riders on the Storm... on the best mixtape you ever made.

As I've written about previously, Dawes are a pretty good band... with a very silly name, considering that they sound exactly the far more famous group from the 60s led by Jim Morrison.

Dawes - All Your Favourite Bands

1. No charge... OK at this time?

Easy, right?



Don't Cry, Daddy - Saturday Snapshots will be back next week.