Superman used to represent "Truth, Justice, and the American Way"... but many are questioning whether that's still relevant, and the press have put that point to the new movie's director, James Gunn, a man who has clashed with Donald Trump in the past.
“I mean, Superman is the story of America,” Gunn says. “An immigrant that came from other places and populated the country, but for me it is mostly a story that says basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost.”
Superman has also been called a "strange visitor from another planet", that planet being, of course, Krypton. I couldn't find any songs named after Kal El's home planet, but there were quite a few that mention its most famous (and deadly) mineral...
No: where he's from doesn't matter. At his best, Superman is an example to us all. To be better people. I'm not even a big Superman fan - I much prefer Spidey or Bats. But when he's done right, I still appreciate the moral to his story.
Even with 20 tunes in this week's Snapshots, I couldn't cover all the different sporting events in the Olympic Games... so here are a few silver medals...
The late, great Carrie Fisher introduces our Top Ten Carrie songs. Yesterday's image of Sissy Spacek would have been an extra clue for anyone who remembers her break-out performance.
On the first day of the summer holidays, Sam and one of his school friends were building a den in some bushes next to the local playing field while their two dads chatted in the sunshine. Suddenly the boys ran screaming from the bushes, chased by wasps. Both were stung repeatedly. For the rest of the summer, Sam has gone full Tasmanian Devil at the first sign of a wasp... which has been something of a pain while on holiday, because there are more wasps than ever this year. "Britain" is "under attack from 'drunk' German wasps that 'go nuts' and sting for no reason," says The Daily Star, so it must be true. Always nice for a national newspaper to find a way to stir up racist sentiment even in a story about wasps. Stan Boardman would be proud.
Wherever they came from, there's no doubt that the wasps are in abundance right now, and they're out for blood. I was stung myself last week while visiting a nature reserve. First wasp sting in 45 years: on holiday as a young boy, I picked up a fallen apple from in an orchard and took a bite... only to find a wasp hiding inside...
Wasps often get bad press, though scientists argue they bring important ecological benefits. But frankly, I've grown bloody sick of being surrounded by them whenever I open my sandwiches this summer. Buzz, quite literally, off!
Similar lines. Like how in Stop Me you can hear how it might be a dance song but one of the good things about it is it's restraint. Similarly, Street Spirit sounds like it could be a bombastic metal song but shouldn't.
I just spent 5 minutes investigating Sting and Shaggy duets on youtube. Sadly no covers.
When I was a teen, this compilation album started that is still going. Punk goes pop. It's not bad but incredibly mediocre. Very cut and paste pop punk covers.
It was very varied. Wang Chung did Modest Mouse, it was great. Punch Brothers covered Reptilia. Lots of stuff.
Pinball Wizard... The Who or Elton?
Elton.
Despite being raised on Mod music, I do not understand the love for The Who.Great riffs, awful songs.
I spent a full two weeks listening exclusively to Isle of Wight and still didn't get it
Love me some Elton, though. And the Elton John biopic is the best biopic out there.
I like The Who. But you chose right. Elton brings a manic nature to the song that takes it to another level.
My dad, who is now 91 and so grew up with Sinatra, pre-pop music, and has never had any interest in any pop music... had a brief flickering of interest in The Who a few years ago because he liked all the CSI theme songs. Then he caught a bit of them playing Glastonbury and changed his mind.
You really need to watch Joe Pera. There's an episode where he discovers Baba O'Reilly...
Yes. You showed me that. I just couldn't find the show anywhere.
Just checked, Joe Pera on All4. 10 minute episodes. Gentle and honest. Literally the perfect Covid comedy.
Pretty gruesome subject matter this week... but real life murderers have often inspired some fine pop songs as their legacy. Rap and metal are full of tributes to serial killers and mass murderers, but here's ten more mainstream tunes inspired by macabre murderers...
It should come as no surprise to anyone that Mark Kozelek is obsessed with true crime stories. Later, in the song Stranger Than Paradise, he even checks into a hotel where Richard Ramirez stays and starts creeping around like a shoddy detective.
David Berkowitz shot a number of people in New York City, 1977, taunting the police with letters while he did it. Some believe he was also the inspiration for Psycho Killer by The Talking Heads, though apparently David Byrne has denied this.
Timothy McVeigh killed 168 people in the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing, in direct reprisal to the goverment for the way they handled The Waco Siege two years earlier. All of which is retold in blistering satirical fashion in the Indelicates' 2011 musical David Koresh Superstar, featuring guest contributions from (among others) Carter USM singer Jim Bob.
Brenda Spencer. Killed two people and injured 9 more at the Grover Cleveland Elementary School shooting in January 1979. When a reporter asked her why she did it, she replied, "I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day."
Charles Starkweather and his girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate inspired the movies Kalifornia and Natural Born Killers. They also led to one of Bruce's darkest moments...
I saw her standin' on her front lawn just twirlin' her baton
Me and her went for a ride sir and ten innocent people died
From the town of Lincoln Nebraska with a sawed-off .410 on my lap
Through to the badlands of Wyoming I killed everything in my path
They declared me unfit to live, said into that great void my soul'd be hurled
They wanted to know why I did what I did
Well, sir, I guess there's just a meanness in this world
1. The Smiths - Suffer Little Children
Myra Hindley & Ian Brady. Where I come from, just a stone's throw from Saddleworth Moor, their crimes will never be forgotten. They had a pretty big impact on Morrissey too... but at least he cheers himself up with the idea that the ghosts of their victims will haunt the Moors Murderers forever.
Oh, find me...find me, nothing more
We are on a sullen misty moor
We may be dead and we may be gone
But we will be, we will be, we will be, right by your side
Until the day you die
This is no easy ride
We will haunt you when you laugh
Yes, you could say we're a team
You might sleep
You might sleep
You might sleep
But you will never dream...
The world would definitely have been a better place without the evil, loathsome individuals described above. But would it have been a better place without these ten tunes? When life gives us lemons, the least we can do is try to make some lemonade...
No, this isn't my Top Ten Songs by the band Gene... although I was tempted, because they were amazing. (And isn't it about time Martin Rossiter released another solo album? The first one was a belter.)
Instead, it's the logical (to me, anyway) conclusion of my Jean / Jeans / Gene trilogy. Most of the songs below are about blokes called Gene or Eugene... a couple of them might be a bit more genetic.
Special mentions to Gene (obviously), Genelab, Geneva, Gene Kelly, Gene Pitney, Gene Watson and... er, Genesis. Plus a number of the gentlemen mentioned below...
A starkly beautiful cut from Stevens' latest record, the autobiographical Carrie & Lowell.
Emerald Park, wonders never cease
The man who taught me to swim, he couldn't quite say my first name
Like a Father he led community water on my head
And he called me “Subaru”
And now I want to be near you
Unlike a lot of Monkees songs which were written by other people (including Neil Diamond and Carole King), this is an original Mike Nesmith composition. Nesmith went on to have quite an impressive solo career post-Monkees... I hesitate to say he was the Gary Barlow of his day, because, obviously, he wasn't a wet git.
The Fannies pay their dues to Gene Clark, chief songwriter of The Byrds, one of the band's biggest influences. Some fantastic guitar work on this one... ironically, with nary a Byrdsy jangle in sight.
To answer Johnny Cash Jr.'s question, his dad reveals that Gene Autry was the singing cowboy... an actor who made almost 100 singing cowboy films between 1934 and 1953. Although he retired in the early 60s, he enjoyed a good old retirement, living until 1998 when he died at the grand age of 91.
Fun fact: the guitar Johnny plays in the video of his gutwrenching version of Hurt was signed by Gene Autry.
We discussed Gene Vincent in the Top Ten Jeans Songs - and here's Ian Dury mourning his decline with some Thunderbird wine: possibly the sweetest thing Ian ever recorded... for the first minute twenty... until the rock 'n' roll kicks in. Vincent died in 1971 and has been immortalised in a number of tribute records, including Gene & Eddie by the Stray Cats and Luke Haines' masterful Gene Vincent (Rock 'n' Roll Mums and Rock 'n' Roll Dads).
I have to confess that Hey Eugene is the only song I know by Pink Martini - and although it's a cracker, I kinda thought they were one "hit wonders until I did a little digging for this post. Turns out they've released 7 albums since 1997.
Hey Eugene do you remember me?
I'm that chick you danced with two times through the Rufus album Friday night at that party on avenue A:
Where your skinhead friend passed out for several hours on the bathroom floor and you told me
You weren't that drunk, and that I was your favourite Salsa dancer you had ever come across in New York city..
I obviously need to investigate further...
1. Frank Turner - Wherefore Art Thou, Gene Simmons?
As Frank explains in his intro here, he was inspired to write this tribute to the elastic-tongued Kiss frontman after reading his biography and discovering that The Demon (real name Chaim Witz) claims to have slept with 4600 women... and taken a photo of every one. What a... Romeo.
A mother said, "Beware of boys in bands
And certainly don't let them write you songs
For they will come to you on bended knee and kiss your pretty hands
When the singing's done, and the suns up they'll be gone."
While her mother has a point, I might resent the implication.
That every boy who plays guitar plays women like Gene Simmons.
Though, as Frank confesses later in the song, he's not entirely innocent himself...
My dad had a visit the other day from a BBC location scout wanting to film a zombie TV series in his barn. He told 'em where to go. With his shotgun. He hates TV people worse than he hates zombies. Besides, as I said to him afterwards, like we need another whole series of a TV show devoted to zombies in a barn...
From The Walking Dead to World War Z, you can't go anywhere without bumping into a zombie these days. The living dead have gone mainstream... and the music industry's full of them too!
Special mention to Rob Zombie, Zombie Zombie and, of course, The Zombies.
Discordant and disturbing, like the best low budget zombie shockers.
You seem to have died
of some form of the pox
They left you inside
your tiny black box
I heard when you cried
and I answered your knocks
Let's make you a bride
with another two cocks
He's referring to the voodoo tradition of sacrificing chickens to bring back the dead. Honest.
When you start your musical career in a 13th Floor Elevator before being committed to a psychiatric facility for ECT treatment, it should come as no surprise when you end up walking with a zombie.
OK, so there's not just zombies after your blood in Jacko's defining moment, but they're part of the crowd. And where else will you find the undead dancing?
Zombies and Christmas go together like mistletoe and the whine from a shredded, undead throat. But Tim and Emmy make them gel in this track from their excellent festive collaboration of last year, This Is Christmas.
