Snapshots #415: Songs That Catch A Bus!

Thanks again to the wonderful Mr. John Medd for providing this week's Snapshots link... songs with words that relate to buses. Or, as John put it, "these artists have all recorded songs where one word in the title can suffix the word 'Bus'."

Did you catch them all?

15. The process of transferring certain residents' belongings from Number 15 to Number 9.

Obviously this clue referred to The Move... especially as a couple of prominent members of this band ended up forming the band at #9 today.

The Move - Turkish Tram Conductor Blues

Bus Conductor.

14. Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.

Lyrics taken from Beautiful Boy, a song John Lennon wrote about his second son... although the line was coined by American journalist Allen Saunders in 1957.

Sean Lennon - Queue

Bus queue.

13. Sounds like some folky minstrels.

His name sounds like the New Christy Minstrels.

Lou Christie - Lightnin' Strikes

Bus strikes.

12. Am I seeings things correctly?

"Seeings" was an anagram.

Genesis - Time Table

Bus timetable.

11. Libertine Marquis.

The Marquis de Sade was a bit of a beggar.

Sade - Smooth Operator

Bus operator.

10. Quiet, please.

He was the Quiet Beatle.

George Harrison - All Things Must Pass 

Bus pass.

9. Leo was in turmoil.

Leo is a very short anagram for the band that evolved from The Move...

ELO - Ticket to the Moon

Bus ticket.

8. Troubled souls. 

They were on a Bridge Over Troubled Water...

Simon & Garfunkel - Baby Driver

Bus driver.

7. ...will be...

Boys will be Boys!

The Boys - Terminal Love

Bus terminal.

6. Give him roasted toadstools and a glass of dandelion wine.

Lyrics from The Laughing Gnome...

David Bowie - Station To Station

Bus station.

5. Toffish ogre... or ogreish toff? Neither, exactly.

Two anagrams for the price of one!

Foo Fighters - Times like These

Bus times.

4. Sounds like Cow-Cow, Shoo Shoo Morse.

Ella Mae Morse recorded Cow Cow Boogie and Shoo Shoo Baby.

Ella Mai - Trip

Bus trip.

3. Ann burned cow! That's out of order.

"Ann burned cow" was an anagram.

Duncan Browne - Journey

Bus journey.

2. My boy cracks the Da Vinci Code.

My boy is called Sam. The Da Vinci Code was written by Dan Brown.

Sam Brown - Stop

1. Two under par.

That would be an Eagle, golf fans!

The Eagles - Life In The Fast Lane

Bus lane.

Catch a bus back here again next Saturday for more of this nonsense!

Cnut Songs #25: Trigger Warning!

King Cnut could not hold back the tide, and I cannot hold back society's full-throttle descent into dystopia. All I can do is watch helplessly from the sidelines, and nod my head sagely when others hold a mirror up to the madness. 

Thinkin' all about those censored sequences

Worryin' about the consequences

Waiting until I come to my senses

Better put it all in present tenses

Little triggers that you pull with your tongue

Little triggers, I don't want to be hung up, strung up

When you don't call up

Elvis Costello - Little Triggers

Louise was very excited to hear that they had remastered / re-issued the original Tomb Raider games and that she would be able to play them on Sam's Nintendo. But not before she first had to contend with the Trigger Warning...

You'll find various people online debating / objecting to / agreeing with / traumatised by the insertion of this trigger warning into Lara Croft's original adventures. As someone who's not part of any of the minorities besmirched by their representation in said game, it's probably not my place to comment... so let's look to English Literature instead for our trigger warnings...

This production includes depictions of self-harm, graphic violence and references to suicide.

That's from a theatre production of King Lear, in case you were wondering.

Talking Heads - Warning Sign

Death: 1

Domestic Abuse (Verbal): 1

Incest: 1

Suicide: 1

And that's a calculation of the potential triggers in Hamlet.

The Bandits - The Warning

Meanwhile, The Globe Theatre recently warned its audiences about a new production of Romeo & Juliet...

This production contains depictions of suicide, moments of violence, and references to drug use. It contains gunshot sound effects and the use of stage blood.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this production of Romeo and Juliet please find details below of organisations offering advice and support.

A bunch of Tory politicians were soon up in arms about that, while world famous thespian Christopher Biggins chipped in, "It’s wokeness gone mad!"

Green Day - Warning

Ralph Fiennes, Ian McKellen and Matt Smith have also taken umbrage at the trigger warnings many theatres have begun to inflict upon their audiences, though Ralph's response was a little more considered than Biggins... 

"I think the impact of theatre should be that you’re shocked and you should be disturbed. I don’t think you should be prepared for these things and when I was young, (we) never had trigger warnings for shows.”

Band of Horses - Warning Signs 

I find myself torn on this matter... and not just because if I do voice outrage at trigger warnings, I'll be joining the protest line alongside Tory MPs, Christopher Biggins and The Daily Mail. Just the very fact that those guys are in opposition makes me want to clutch trigger warnings to my bosom and welcome them with an open heart. 

The Move - The Disturbance

I teach English to young people who are suffering severe mental health problems... and yet they have to study the same texts as every other GCSE student in the country, including Macbeth (full of violence, murder, suicide and a gradual descent into madness for more than one character) and An Inspector Calls (a murder mystery which hinges around a character being driven to commit suicide by drinking bleach after she's been raped - arguably by more than one man - and castigated by society). Many of these issues are central to the experiences of some of the young people I teach... and yet, they do appear to be able to draw a line between the fiction they're studying and the reality they may have endured. Perhaps that's not always the case, and we treat every student on an individual basis depending on whether the medical professionals think they're ready to tackle such issues... but from everything I've been reading about mental health, hiding away from unpleasant issues only makes them worse. I'm not a psychiatrist and it's not my job to offer counselling... just to teach the texts. Still, it does make me wonder if trigger warnings might be doing more harm than good, shielding people from things they'd be better off confronting... if they ever want to come to terms with them.    

Robert Palmer - Disturbing Behavior

Of course, there's a difference between trigger warnings for disturbing subject matter and trigger warnings for outdated attitudes. I don't have a problem reading Huckleberry Finn or To Kill A Mockingbird with a class, both of which contain frequent use of racial epithets that were common parlance at the time they were written. It's a good way of opening up a debate about language, racism and historic prejudice. It's even more important to teach these texts nowadays, and have those discussions, than ever before. If the publishers want to add a warning that the texts contain outdated attitudes "rooted in racial and ethnic prejudices", that's fine with me. Far better that than banning or editing said texts and pretending prejudice just didn't exist. Doesn't exist. 

The Specials - Racist Friend

Having thought about it then, I completely agree with that trigger warning on Tomb Raider, as ridiculous and trivial as it might seem at first glance. Because when it comes to any kind of outdated attitude, I do believe it's important to "acknowledge its harmful impact and learn from it". And really, does that one screen affect your enjoyment of the game in any way? If it does, that probably says more about your own deep-rooted prejudices than it does about Tomb Raider. 

Jimmy Buffett - Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes

To close on a lighter note, I did have to laugh when watching Die Hard again this Christmas past, noting that despite the gratuitous violence and liberal use of foul language (though interestingly, for an 80s film, no really outdated attitudes), the biggest warning to pop up on screen before hand was that by watching this film, we'd be subjected to the image of Bruce Willis smoking a cigarette! Different times indeed...

Nick Heyward - Warning Sign

Warning: this blog contains many, many outdated attitudes. Usually involving popular music of the 80s that the cool kids have long since decided is rubbish... but I still love it anyway. That's my trigger warning, in case its needed.

History is made, not repeated
And you hide behind words that make you feel needed
And what you read in those books made you so conceited
So in order for love to be true
My dreams will have to
Become my only rules

I want a warning
I want a warning
I want something more than a warning

Wake me up on into a world outdated
And the older you get the more you seem jaded
As you search for the quotes to make it seem complicated
So in order for love to be true
Even my nightmares
Become my only rules

I want a warning
I want a warning
I want something more than a warning

Celebrity Jukebox #58: Jeff Lynne

Don't worry, Jeff Lynne hasn't died.

Jet Black has, but I wasn't about to go sifting through all the lyrics that feature his name to work out if any of them are actually referring to him. (Although, if you're interested, he does get referenced in Rocket by Def Leppard.) RIP, Jet, anyway.

The Stranglers - No More Heroes

No, I had a non-RIP reason for including Jeff Lynne in the jukebox this week... which will become apparent at the end of the post.

Meanwhile...

The Idle Race. The Move. The Electric Light Orchestra. The Travelling Wilburys. That’s as much introduction as Jeff Lynne needs. Let’s get onto the songs that pay him tribute…

We’ll start with a very funny song about how the Beatles comeback is highjacked by record company bullshit (and isn’t John dead?). With maybe a subtext about how the Legend of the Beatles is bigger than The Beatles actually were. Jeff was heavily involved in that whole ridiculous Beatles “comeback” in the 90s, but let’s not hold that against him.

John Wesley Harding – When The Beatles Hit America

And finally they get into the studio
To be co-produced by George Martin and Jeff Lynne
And Ringo’s disappointed to find that no one needs him anymore
Except for the vibe

Next, how can you resist a band called Moose & The Grizzlies?

Moose & The Grizzlies - Cruelty of the Kindest Face

Sneaking in a little after 4
If you try and ask her where
She snaps like a Jeff Lynne snare

Back in the 70s, Jeff was accused of putting a devil-worshipping backwards message in the ELO song Eldorado. Jeff’s typically self-deprecating response was, “Anyone who can write a song played forwards and have it say something else backwards has got to be some king of genius… and that I ain’t!” An extract from the interview where he says just that is included at the end of the Boards of Canada track Happy Cycling. But guess what? It’s played backwards! See what they did there?

Boards of Canada – Happy Cycling

Rebecca Peake is the wife of cool astronaut Tim Peake. She doesn’t make records as far as I can tell. However, her name is also used by synthpop-shoegaze melders James Webster & Tech Honors.

Rebecca Peake – Jeff Lynne

La Casa Azul is the brainchild of Spanish singer, songwriter and DJ Guille Milkyway, famous for producing songs you can listen to between meals without ruining your appetite. (Admit it: you’d have done exactly the same joke.) And he knows a secret about Jeff. I’m not sure what it is, but it’s got something to do with Chris Montez…

La Casa Azul – El Secreto de Jeff Lynne

Sueño, y en cada sueño intento no perderme y desvelar
El ansiado secreto de Jeff Lynne
Y creo que esta vez elegiré no despertar jamás

(I dream, and in each dream I try not to lose myself and reveal
The long-awaited secret of Jeff Lynne
And I think this time I'll choose never to wake up)

Atlanta’s Paul Melancon caught my eye when I saw his music described thus: “An indie-power-pop-singer-songwriter-angel-voiced-geeky kinda thing.” Sounds right up my street. Although clearly he’d be much happier if he was Jeff Lynne…

Paul Melacon – Jeff Lynne

They say I do myself in
Things will pick up if I just try
Can’t they see that I
That I have tried
To be just like Jeff Lynne

That's a proper tribute!

However, the reason I chose to feature Jeff here today is because of this. A brand new Christmas song from Grandaddy! Available to download here, it’s already gone to the top of my Christmas tree.

My Top Ten Dinosaur Songs (Volume 2)

ROAAAAAR!


And we're back - with songs featuring specific (rather than generic) dinosaurs. Thanks for your suggestions... even with them, this week's Top Ten proved a lot trickier than expected. Probably because dinosaurs don't obviously rhyme with anything else - except other dinosaurs. Unless you're Prince. Anyway, these may not be the best ten tunes I've ever featured, but they do all feature specific dinosaurs. No Triceratops or diplodocuses though, sadly.


Special mention to Terry Dactyl & The Dinosaurs - with thanks to Alyson (and Lynchie for the history lesson).

10. Kasabian - Velociraptor

I'll grudgingly put this at #10, because I never really got Kasabian... or velociraptors. I was convinced when Jurassic Park first came out that they were just a figment of Michael Crichton had made up. Seriously, had you ever heard of a velociraptor before then?

9. Enter Shikari - Hello Tyrannosaurus, Meet Tyrannicide

Shouty-shouty-shouty... but still more interesting than Kasabian.

8. Big Brother & The Holding Company - Caterpillar

Yes, I know a caterpillar isn't a dinosaur. But there are pterodactyls in this song too! With added Janis Joplin.

7. The Soft Boys - The Pigworker

Surprised The Swede didn't suggest this one... I bet he's kicking himself now!

So the Pterodactyl wore a hood of leather
And he opened everybody, even Heather
With her foaming roses and broken hair
She was all used up

No idea. But it doesn't sound very nice, does it?

6. The Gourds - Fossil Contender

Bit of a cheat this one, but I like The Gourds... and all dinosaurs pretty much ended up as fossils, right?

5. T-Rex - Summer Deep

T-Rex singing about pterodactyls! There's more generic dinosaur action from Mr. Bolan in Truck On Tyke.

4. Ash - T Rex

I'm presuming this is their tribute to Marc Bolan... but it could be about an actual T-Rex. Always hard to tell when it comes to Ash songs - they could be about anything. Nice noise though.

3. Super Furry Animals - Hit & Run / Psyclone!


The Swede offered Hit & Run, with lots of dinosauric lyrics to choose from, including a bit about  "Pterodactyls flying round my attic"... but surely I can trump that with Psyclone…?

Pterodactyl, Brontosaurus
Tyrannosaurus Rex gather around
The sound of thunder now awaits us
A meteorite is coming on down

Hit & Run is probably the better song though.

2. Prince - Dinner With Delores

Only Prince could rhyme Delores with Brontosaurus and make it work...

1. The Move - Brontosaurus

Most popular suggestion from you guys... well, Lynchie and Rigid Digit both voted for it. Seems like the obvious winner this week...

Frank N. Furter Tim Curry does an interesting version of this too.

My Top Ten Hearing Aid Songs

Well, that was an obvious choice.

The hearing aid's been in a week, and the difference has been subtle, but noticeable.

Ten quick songs then , dedicated to hearing aid wearers everywhere...


10. The Move - I Can Hear The Grass Grow

My hearing aid isn't that powerful. Then again, I reckon The Move might have been augmenting more than just their ears...

My head's attracted to
A magnetic wave of sound
With the streams of coloured circles
Makin' their way around.

You may prefer the version by The Fall, of course. If you can make head or tail of it. I certainly can't. Everyone needs a hearing aid to understand Mark E. Smith's vocals.

9. The Accidental - I Can Hear Your Voice

What do you get if you mix Tunng, The Bicycle Thieves and The Memory Band?

A misspelt crime I can't remember. Or The Accidental, a folky supergroup made up of members of all the above.

8. Captain Sensible - Can You Hear Me?

Sorry, Captain, I'll be Damned if I can.

7. Spacemen 3 - Lord, Can You Hear Me?

J. Spaceman's original version. He also re-recorded it as Spiritualized. And even Low had a go at it.

They're all quite lovely.

6. They Might Be Giants - I Can Hear You

You won't hear a buzz
But I'm buzzing you in
I'm buzzing you in

Well, that's helpful, isn't it?

5. Jerry Lee Lewis - I Can Still Hear The Music In The Rest Room

Classic bit of Jerry Lee. Do your ears a favour...

4. Chris Rea - I Can Hear Your Heartbeat

The one that's guaranteed to get the musos going, "You what!?"

3. Richard Hawley - Can You Hear The Rain, Love?

Yes, I can now, love.

2. David Bowie - Can You Hear Me?

From probably my favourite Bowie album: Young Americans.

Here he is singing it as a duet with Cher. Yes, really.

1. The Beach Boys - I Can Hear Music 


It couldn't have been anything else at Number One, could it? 

A Jeff Barry song, originally recorded by Phil Spector with The Ronettes, this was Carl Wilson's first taste of being the Beach Boys' boss while Brian was off being bored... or "listening to the grass grow". If anyone ever tells you Brian was the only genius in the Beach Boys, play them this...



What's your favourite hearing aid song?

I SAID "WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE HEARING AID SONG?!?"

My Top Ten Berry Songs

Fruity berries... because it's harvest time. The internet informs me that strawberries aren't actually berries... but bananas are. I don't believe everything I read on the internet, but for the sake of argument - to make this list, all songs must have the word "berry" in the TITLE. That's the rules for today.

Special mentions go to Strawberry Switchblade, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Strawberry Whiplash, Strawberry Story, The Cranberries, and, of course, Chuck. But not Nick. Never Nick. (That said, isn't it about time some tosspot from the X-Factor did a really bad cover of Every Loser Wins, just to get us all nostalgic for the original?)

10. The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever

I think I'm almost through my Hating The Beatles phase. I'm starting to appreciate them again.

That said, depending on your age and whether or not you're still sorted for Es and Wizz, you may prefer the Candy Flip version.

Me, I'd rather have the Hayseed Dixie version. That's some damned fast finger-pickin'!

9. Everclear - Strawberry

The one you've probably never heard of, and reckon shouldn't even be here. Luckily, it's my blog - and I like Everclear!

8. Ron Sexsmith - Strawberry Blonde

Had a hard day at work? Turn the lights down, put this on and...chill.

7. Super Furry Animals - Cloudberries

A song about hummingbirds. I think.

6. The Dentists - Strawberries Are Growing In My Garden (And It's Wintertime)

Tonight I'm going to party like it's 1985.

5. Ocean Colour Scene - Huckleberry Grove

One of their best songs, and it was only ever a b-side. 

4. The Move - Blackberry Way

The dark night of the summer of love.

3.  Prefab Sprout - Blueberry Pies

We're getting a lot of Prefab Sprout on this blog. There's a very good reason for that: Paddy McAloon is FANTASTIC.

Plus, blueberries are my favourite fruit.Which brings us to...

2. Fats Domino - Blueberry Hill

Where else can you find your thrill?

1. Prince - Raspberry Beret

Untouchable... but don't blame me if the video below doesn't work by the time you hit play. His highness does hate youtube. UPDATE... oops, spoke too soon - he's removed it. Good old Prince. Here's the Hindu Love Gods version instead...


 



Gilbert O'Sullivan's greatest hits album is called 'The Berry Vest of Gilbert O'Sullivan'. (I really need to find a way to shoehorn some Gilbert O'Sullivan into one of these Top Tens.) So, with that in mind, which is your Berry Vest Serry Bong?