Snapshots #378: A Top Ten Wizard of Oz Songs

This week's Snapshots take us on a journey somewhere over the rainbow...

Here are ten Wicked tunes...

10. Cathedral Saint moves to firm fortress.

St. Paul's becomes a Hard Castle.

Paul Hardcastle - The Wizard

9. Where the kids make pie.

Kids In America make American Pie...

America - Tin Man

8. Dylan.

Bob - Scarecrow

7. Cut me some slack!

Tight Fit - The Lion Sleeps Tonight

I wonder if he can still hit those high notes?

6. Mouse & Miles.

Mickey Mouse & Miles Jupp.

Mickey Jupp - No Place Like Home

5. They need a Kermit to perform.

Frog - Judy Garland

4. Make a sound like Kele's party.

When you make a sound, you emit noise. Kele's Party was on the Block.

Emit Bloch - Dorothy

3. Cut up, skin and blister.    

Skin & blister is Cockney rhyming slang for sister. Apparently.

Scissor Sisters - Return To Oz

2. It's a wonder if you know her...

It'd be a Wonder if gentlemen - and ladies! - of a certain age didn't recognise this Woman.

Lynda Carter - Toto (Don't It Feel Like Paradise)

1. HR twigged his real name.

"HR twigged" was an anagram of Reg Dwight...

Elton John - Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road

If you only had a brain, you'd join me back here next Saturday.

Hot 100 #60

A couple of fine 90s / 00s indie bands illustrate our feature this week as we reach one of those number with loads of great options...

Walter opened proceedings with this cheery lyrical offering from the Manics - Nostalgic Pushead…

One two three four five six seven eight

I am the raping sunglass gaze

Of sweating man and escort agencies

60's alienation the anthem of care

Bet you feel better about your day already.

Next came The Swede who suggested a bit of early Elton John (can't go wrong with early Elton John):

Elton John - Sixty Years On

The Swede also reminded us of a song that got a mention last week due to one of its b-sides…

Sixty Minute Man' by Billy Ward & The Dominoes

That's another of those song that claims to be the first rock 'n' roll record ever (there are hundreds of them). Brian seconded The Swede's suggestion... and Alyson thirded it. But I swore no more peer pressure this week.

The Swede also directed us back to the aforementioned Bonnie Prince Billy' cover... "or preferably the first version I ever heard of the song by The Trammps - discotastic!" I'll throw in this country version by Roberta Lee & Hardrock Gunter from my own collection. I'm sure there are many more. (You may prefer Rigid Digit's suggestion of Ivor Biggun's version... or maybe not.)

Finally, The Swede wondered, "lyrically, how about 'Glam Racket' by The Fall?"

You post out sixty-page computer printouts on the end of forests,

All the above will come back to you and confirm you as a damn pest

Great opening line to that one too. If Mark E. Smith tells you to stop eating all that chocolate... well, I reckon it's time to start the diet.

Lynchie was up next, with one of those songs that just keeps giving to this feature...

The Incredible String Band - Way Back in the 1960s

(I'm gonna have to use that as a Grumpy Old Man song very soon.)

And then this bluesy gem...

Jimmy Reed - Where Can You Be

Ev'ry 60 seconds, of ev'ry minute
Ev'ry 60 minutes, of the hour
Ev'ry twenty-four hours of the day
I just sit a-round an' pray.

Jim then sent us these two suggestions, all the way from Dubai...

Audio Deluxe - 60 Seconds

Tight Fit - Back to the 60s

(Guess which of those I preferred. I know. I need to get a life.)

And then Jim remembered this old favourite, getting its second mention on this feature... with a third still to come...

Bow Wow Wow - C30 C60 C90 Go!

From Dubai to Canada next, welcoming new player Douglas McLaren, who hit the ground running with these fine suggestions...

As a Canadian, may I suggest Gowan - 60 Second Nightmare?

Ah, gowan then. (See what I did there?)

Or to dig into lyrics, my Scottish heritage prompts me to suggest

Fairground Attraction - Mystery Train.

Train arrive, sixty minutes gone
Whoo-ooh train arrive, sixty minutes gone
Well I ain't seen my baby, he's been gone so long

We're always ready for a bit of Eddi round these parts. Thanks, Douglas.

Alyson then came back with two more...

60 Miles An Hour by New Order and Sixty Mile Smile by 3 Colours Red, the first of which breaks my No New Order rule, while the second reminded me how much I liked 3 Colours Red for about 5 minutes back in the day.

Once Rol's No New Order rule had been broken, it seems only right that Rigid Digit comes along to break Rol's other big rule... No U2.

U2 - Sixty Seconds In Kingdom Come

More of Bono's God Complex there, if you ask me.

Much more palatable was RD's second suggestion...

Bruce Springsteen - The Rising

How far I've gone, how high I've climbed
On my backs a sixty pound stone
On my shoulder a half mile of line

Finally from you guys this week, Martin got very excited...

Wahey, I get to pitch a song by The Vapors - 60 Second Interval (live, studio).

That would have been one of my suggestions, but not the winner... because a quick trawl through my own music library produced loads of contenders...

Kenickie - 60s Bitch

The Dead Weather - 60 Feet Tall

America - 1960

Jeff Rosenstock - Pietro, 60 Years Old (Could have been one of my < 40 Seconds Songs)

Neil Young - Crime In The City (Sixty To Zero, Pt 1)

Black Box Recorder - Jackie 60

Rose McDowell - Sixty Cowboys

My Top Three for this week though goes like this...

3. The Indelicates - Julia, We Don't Live In The 60s

"We've never had it so good!"

2. Death Cab For Cutie - 60 & Punk

Already featured here as one of my 2018 contenders.

This week's winner was chosen as a rebuttal to all those many, many posts I write about growing older, sharing my Mid-Life Crisis with you all. It might also cheer up those of you who are a good few years older than me... or perhaps not, if you listen too closely.

Nils Lofgren - 60 Is The New 18



There's an obvious winner for next week in my head... and a less obvious runner-up. I'll be interested to see what you can come up with for 59 though...

My Top Ten Lion Songs

10. Baddiel & Skinner & The Lightning Seeds - Three Lions

I like the Lightning Seeds. I like David Baddiel (though I always preferred Rob Newman). I even like Frank Skinner.

Football, though? Pfff.

9. PAPA - I Am The Lion King

It was this, or Circle Of Life. Hakuna matata, baby.

8. Lloyd Cole - To The Lions

Lloyd loses his job, his girl and his dignity (to a mean bartender) all in the same week.

You could send me to the lions tonight

7. First Aid Kit - The Lion's Roar

Great new band from Sweden, though if you close your eyes you'd think they were from the backwoods of the USA alongside Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver.

And the lion's roar, the lion's roar
Is something that I have heard before
A children's tale, the lonesome wail of a lion's roar

6. The Tokens - The Lion Sleeps Tonight

Of course, you may prefer the Tight Fit version.

Or even the R.E.M. one. (That's my favourite.)

5. Kate Bush - Oh England, My Lionheart

Sadly, those rumours of Kate performing live for the first time in 30+ years at the Olympics closing ceremony proved to be just that. Then again, considering the standard of the performances that night, it was probably for the best.

Oh! England, my Lionheart!
Peter Pan steals the kids in Kensington Park.
You read me Shakespeare on the rolling Thames
That old river poet that never, ever ends.
Our thumping hearts hold the ravens in
And keep the tower from tumbling.

4. Dry The River - Lion's Den

One of my favourite new bands of 2012. They're a little bit Elbow, but if you're going to wear your influences on your sleeve there are far worse...

This song is about a lonely tax collector who finds love. It sounds far sweeter than that description would have you believe.

3. Bob Marley & The Wailers - Iron Lion Zion

I'm on the run but I ain't got no gun

2. Mumford & Sons - Little Lion Man

The first Mumford song I ever heard and still my favourite. Not just for the wonderfully sweary chorus. It's become very fashionable of late to hate on the Mumfs, as usually happens when a band makes it big. Whatever their second album brings, I'll always love this song.

1. Billy Bragg - Life With The Lions

If "I hate the arsehole I become every time I'm with you" isn't one of the greatest opening lines ever, I don't know what is.



Many Lion Songs were left to slumber in the savannah sunshine during the compilation of this Top Ten. Did I exclude one of your favourites?