Showing posts with label Tom Verlaine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tom Verlaine. Show all posts

Sunday, 29 September 2024

Snapshots #363: A Top Ten Songs Featuring Cities That Have Changed Their Names

It's Prince, of course, because he knew a thing or two about changing his name.

Here then are Ten Songs Featuring Towns Or Cities That Changed Their Names. Yep, another snappily titled Top Ten. Sadly I had to leave out the town of Fugging in Austria, which up until 2021 was known by a slightly different name...

One of the reasons they changed the name was that people kept nicking the sign.


10. Switched off the TV.

He abandoned his Television after only two albums (not counting the 1992 "let's-get-the-band- back-together-for-dollars comeback record").

Tom Verlaine - Stalingrad 

It's now called Volgograd. What did Stalin do wrong?

9. Tangled up cello? Solve its mystery!

"Cello... Solve its" was an anagram.

Elvis Costello - New Amsterdam

So good, they named it once.

8. Ron Moody, Martin Jarvis, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Ben Whishaw.

Four actors who have played the part of Uriah Heep in David Copperfield.

Uriah Heep - Salisbury 

As well as being a city in England, Salisbury was also the original name of Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe.

7. Swears he never had any matches.

He did not start the fire!

Billy Joel - Leningrad 

Now Saint Petersburg. I would also have allowed...

Billy Joel - Goodnight, Saigon

...although a gentleman below also had that answer.

6. Found in red and yellow swill. I am simply not going looking for it!

...red and yellow swill I am simply...

Andy Williams - The Peking Theme (So Little Time)

Peking, of course, is now Beijing. I'm still waiting for them to change the name of our local Chinese restaurant.

5. Changed, to protect the innocent.

A rather apt band, and clue, given today's theme...

The Names - Calcutta

4. A diamond in the rough.

That was the name of his second album. John isn't an easy man to come up with clues for...

John Prine - Saigon

...and it's Ho Chi Minh City these days.

3. Rich studs.

Golden Earring - Bombay

Mumbai, if you please.

2. Awake, but not taking part.

Surely the most un-Cerys picture of Cerys on the internet. The 90s have a lot to answer for.

Catatonia - Londinium

1. Try to unravel Betty's thigh enigma.

"Betty's thigh enigma" was an anagram, you say? No way!

They Might Be Giants - Istanbul (Not Constantinople) 

Only one choice for Number One this week...


Sunday, 30 July 2023

Snapshots #303: The Lord's Prayer In Song

This is Father Francis Browne, Irish priest and photographer, famous for his photos of the Titanic on its maiden voyage... though lucky for him, he only sailed from Southampton to Queenstown in Ireland, before getting off to go develop his film. 

Father Browne is going to lead us in the Lord's Prayer this Sunday morning. Please bow your heads...


17. Severe.

Extreme - Our Father

"Our Father..."

16. University club for disco and ballroom.

The Danse Society - In Heaven

"Who art in heaven..."

15. Mix-up at Omani Diner.

Omani Diner anagram!

Iron Maiden - Hallowed Be Thy Name

"Hallowed be thy name..."

14. Man in the box.

The box being a Television...

Tom Verlaine - Kingdom Come

"...Thy kingdom come..."

13. Shared by Omar Sharif and Tanita Tikaram.

Omar Sharif and Tanita Tikaram.

Martika - Love... Thy Will Be Done

"...Thy will be done..."

12. The answers always come on...

The answers to this quiz always come on Sundays.

The Sundays - On Earth

"On Earth..."

11. Don and Clyde follow Postlethwaite.

Don & Clyde are rivers. Add that to Pete Postelethwaite and you get Pete Rivers, or...

Peter Ivers - In Heaven

"...as it is in heaven..."

10. Janet needs a snooze.

Ms. Jackson is sleepy.

The Sleepy Jackson - This Day

"Give us this day..."

9. The best and the worst.

Tina sang The Best. Ike wasn't very nice.

Ike & Tina Turner - Daily Bread

"...our daily bread..."

8. Mercury on a car's wing.

Freddie Mercury on a fender...

Freddy Fender - Forgive

"And forgive us..."

7. Easter eccentric.


She sang about Easter and she'd pretty damn eccentric...


"...our trespasses... as we forgive those who trespass against us..."

6. Found Inside A Clockwork Orange.

"Inside" was the fictional hit song by a band in The Clockwork Orange that gave its name to...

Heaven 17 - Temptation

"And lead us not into temptation..."

5. Shot from the heart.

Bullet For My Valentine - Deliver Us From Evil

"...but deliver us from evil..."

4. Fashionable man in the news.

Depeche Mode means "fashion news". This is their lead fashionista...

Dave Gahan - Kingdom

"For thine is the kingdom..."

3. Big softies.

Gentle Giant - The Power & The Glory

"...the power and the glory..."

2. Don't cry over spilled oil, Grace.


Spilled oil can make a slick, like Grace Slick.


"...forever and ever..."

1. Luke, Flash and Buck. 


Three spacemen...

Spacemen 3 - Amen


Let us pray again next Saturday.

Monday, 30 January 2023

Celebrity Jukebox #65: Tom Verlaine


Well, the Cadillac
It pulled out of the graveyard
Pulled up to me
All they said, "get in, get in"
Then the Cadillac
It puttered back into the graveyard
Me, I got out again

Just as it came time to fire up the Celebrity Jukebox again, the news of Tom Verlaine's passing was announced. I didn't build this jukebox purely as a memorial machine, but it seems to increasingly be used that way. Ashes to Ashes...
 

Being quite an influential figure in the world of rock 'n' roll, Tom Verlaine pops up in quite a few songs. Here are a strong selection...


When she sang about a boy
Kurt Cobain
I thought what a shame it wasn't about
Tom Verlaine


When the gang came down here again
And they're phoning up Australia and they call each other names
And they all just wanna look like Richard Hell and Tom Verlaine
Some of my best friends are trains


I left school with 12 GCSEs, 3 A Levels and only one good song
I'm just another Russell Group punk
Just another Distrokid kid
Just another dime-store Tom Verlaine
Waiting for my 15 seconds of fame


April the 7th, 1979
Didn’t we breakfast together?
We celebrated my seventeenth
And heard Tom Verlaine together
We shouted from my bedroom window
And weren’t we happy that day?
But perhaps it was the whisky
Well at least no-one died that day


I can't turn you off
I just try and laugh you off
Tom Verlaine you maybe are
But you sure ain't rock n roll


Nights by the lake
Ribs and lemonade 
Tom Verlaine
Tape on auto-play


If I could dance
With Tom Verlaine
He's the one
On the television


That when you walk away
It's gonna be for good
You were my Tom Verlaine
Just sitting on the hood



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