Snapshots #225: A Top Ten Songs That Mention Other Bands In The Title

Here are this week's answers... Cheers!

There are loads of song that mention other singers (solo artists) in their titles. I'm sure we'll have a Snapshots or two that will connect some of them in the future. But I had a devil of a time finding songs that mention other bands in the title. Well done if you worked out the connections, although hopefully the extra photos helped... and a late night / early morning guest appearance from Brian to get the ball rolling.

10A. Solo insult from a Princess.

Princess Leia called Han Solo a "Nerf Herder".

10B. Van Halen

Nerf Herder - Van Halen

9A. Major Nathan Chin.

Anagram!

9B. The Velvet Underground

Jonathan Richman - The Velvet Underground

8A. Stubby marsupials.

Sounds like a bunch of wombats to me.

8B. Joy Division

The Wombats - Let's Dance To Joy Division

7A. Howling procession.

Wolf parade!

7B. Fine Young Cannibals

Wolf Parade - Fine Young Cannibals

(Credit where it's due: Ben gave me that one. It's a cool tune though. For a Ben recommendation.)

6A. Dusty MC Oldness.

Anagram!

6B. Daft Punk (Yes, that is what Daft Punk look like under their helmets.)

LCD Sound System - Daft Punk Is Playing At My House

5A. He's crackers!

Clearly he's half a man and half a biscuit.

5B. Styx

Half Man Half Biscuit - Styx Gig (Seen by My Mates Coming out of a...)

4A. The True USA.

Anagram!

4B. The Rubettes

The Auteurs - The Rubettes

Those are some tight pants.

3. Nervous, sad celebrities.

They're stars, but they're blue. And trembling.

3B. Abba

Trembling Blue Stars - Abba On The Jukebox

2A. Four kibbles.

Anagram! (I knew CC would get this one... with a little encouragement.)

2B. Fountains of Wayne

Robbie Fulks - Fountains Of Wayne Hotline

(Robbie Fulks loves FoW, by the way. He's not taking the piss. He genuinely appreciates their skills with a catchy riff. Rightly so.)

"Oh, that Gerald..." always makes me chortle.

1A. Courtney's home!

Where does Courtney Love live? D'oh.

1B. The Beatles meeting The Stones

The House of Love - Beatles & Stones

Come back to where everybody knows your name... even if they don't know all the answers... next Saturday.

The United Kingdom of Song #7: Inverness

You join us today at the mouth of the river Ness in the Highlands of Scotland, birthplace of Karen Gilan from Doctor Who & Guardians of the Galaxy; one of my favourite contemporary writers, Ali Smith; Runrig guitarist Malcolm Jones; and the Loch Ness Monster.

We're steering clear of Nessie today though and sticking to the city itself, which you'll find mentioned in Mike Scott's Long Way To The Light...

I spent the night in Glasgow

Flew to Inverness

I found the Place and at the first

I was not impressed

Nobody said hello

The faces left me cold

Back then how was I to know

All that would unfold?

Tough crowd there, Mike?

You'll also find Inverness mentioned in the sequel to Hank Snow's I've Been Everywhere... gloriously titled I Ain't Been Anywhere...

I ain't been anywhere Joe, ain't been anywhere Joe

I didn't want to go so I guess I'll never know Joe

An old stick in the mud Bud

I ain't been anywhere.

Kumquat, Limerick, Inverness, Loch Ness

Swansea, Cuanda, Colombia, Gold Coast

Edinburgh, Singapore, Galveston, Okinawa

Blarney, Killarney, Karachi, Pyongyang

Warsaw, Tarancon, Down, Libya

Goose Bay, Labrador, Outer Space, no place.

However, surely the greatest lyrical mention of Inverness comes in another song that gets about a bit... even visiting the small Norfolk village where I went on holiday last year. (And now I'm kicking myself for using this track for Inverness... what chance do I have of ever finding another song about Cley-next-the-Sea?)

Land's End at dusk

A day of churches

Her getting her hair cut

A windswept walk to Dunnet Head

Boarding a north-bound train at Inverness

A rainy Cley-next-the-Sea

Her swinging on a tyre

Me taking her picture

A station frozen in time

March stars in a Norfolk sky

407 miles down the country next week, back to my home county, but a little bit further south... it ain't New York City, that's for sure!

My Top Ten Jukebox Songs

Ten songs celebrating the best way to get rid of your loose change on a Saturday night.


Special mention to Jukebox The Ghost... and Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox (check out their cover of All About That Bass... so much nicer than the original.)



10. Glenn Miller - Jukebox Saturday Night

Knocks The Rubettes - Jukebox Jive out of the Top Ten, largely because of the trumpet of Harry James... and the fact that my dad is a huge Glenn Miller fan.

9. Young Marble Giants - Wurlitzer Jukebox

Taken from their only album, 1980's off-kilter classic Colossal Youth; this sounds like nothing else around... then or now.

8. Zoe Muth and the Lost High Rollers - If I Can’t Trust You With A Quarter (How Can I Trust You With My Heart?)

There were plenty of country songs to choose from this week, but this one wins because it has the best title... and also kind of retells the story of our Number One song, with a less successful outcome.

You can call me stubborn
You can call me a snob
You can even call me downright mean...
But I’ve got the finest record collection
That you’ve ever seen

If you prefer your country a little more old style yee-haw, can I point you towards the splendidly monikered Dick Curless and his dynamic duo: Jukebox Man and Drop Some Silver In The Jukebox.

7. Saint Etienne - Haunted Jukebox

Bob Stanley's evocative lyrics + Sarah Cracknell's breathy vocals = pure bliss.

I was just 15
In November '82
When I would meet you after school
And there was bonfires on Halloween
Frosty little windows
All the songs we used to listen to each time...

6. The Beautiful South - Hidden Jukebox

Paul Heaton's doing pretty well around these parts lately, hardly a week goes by that he doesn't crop up in one form or another. Here he is railing against both bigots and the establishment (and the bigoted establishment) and proposing some interesting trade agreements via his hidden jukebox...

5. Rage Against The Machine - Hadda Be Playing On The Jukebox

I don't claim to be the world's biggest RATM fan, but here they nick an old Allen Ginsberg poem and do amazing things with it. If you're gonna call yourself Rage Against The Machine, you need to live up to that name!

4. Foreigner - Jukebox Hero

Could be the best thing Somerset's Mick Jones and New York's Lou Gramm ever did together. Though they're far more well known for wanting to know what love is, this one rocks the jukebox just like it should. Used to great effect in the musical / movie Rock of Ages too...

3. Trembling Blue Stars - Abba on the Jukebox

One for John Peel fans, evoking memories of a holiday romance through snapshot lyrics. The least rock 'n' roll record on this list, but it works beautifully.

A lighthouse sending its light
Out across Thurso bay at night
To Blakeney Point and back again
Walking in the ruins
Of Binham Priory
Abba on the jukebox at Par Sands
A two way trip on the Bodinnick ferry

2. The Jam - Pretty Green

I picked up a pristine copy of Sound Affects (the album this comes from) for just £1 from the local charity shop a couple of weeks back. Bargain - even though I already owned most of the songs on various compilations. Weller's "pretty green" is outdated now as pound notes are no longer in existence... but even when they were, he wouldn't have been able to put them in his jukebox and play all the records in the hit parade, since jukeboxes only take coins. Or am I taking that a bit too literally?

1. Joan Jett - I Love Rock 'n' Roll

If you don't believe this should be Number One, I suggest you watch the video and then reassess your rear ass from your elbow. Not only does red-leather clad Joan know she's met her teenage heartthrob (cradle snatcher!) just because of the song he picks, she also manages to reference that other popular term for a jukebox - a "record machine". Hell, it rhymes with more things that jukebox, which is why Chuck Berry, Van Halen and even Glenn Miller shoehorned it into to their lyrics too. Maybe I'll do a Top Ten Record Machine Songs some other time so I can play Joan again.

The video manages to be both terrifically wild and incredibly tame (by today's standards), and to paraphrase Kris Kristofferson... if you don't love Joan Jett, then you can kiss my arse...





Which one would you spend your last pound coin to hear again?

My Top Ten Birthday Songs

Because it's March 19th, and I am 41 years old. I know, I don't look a day over 40. (Well, strictly speaking, I'm not. Until tomorrow.)


10. My Life Story - Birthday Suit

It's always a treat to find a Jake Shillingford b-side on youtube.

9. Spearmint - Happy Birthday, Girl

From Spearmint's wonderful Christmas album, Oklahoma, but allowed here because the girl in question's birthday is on Christmas Eve. Other than that, too good to miss out.

8. Trembling Blue Stars - Birthday Girl

Lovely.

7. Elvis Costello & Burt Bacharach - Tears At The Birthday Party

From the best album Costello released in the past 20 years. But then, Burt Bacharach will do that for you.

6. The Cookies - I Want A Boy For My Birthday

Sorry, girls, I'm taken.

5. Eels - Let's Ruin Julie's Birthday

This is what happens when E doesn't get an invite to your party.

E, you're welcome at mine any time.

4. The Beatles - Birthday

Yeah, like they really needed the money that would be generated by writing a birthday song.

Still, great riff.

3. The All-Seeing I featuring Tony Christie - Happy Birthday, Nicola

Lyrics by Jarvis Cocker. Hence: brilliant.

2. The Smiths - Unhappy Birthday

If I wasn't superstitious, this could have been Number One. But do I honestly want to wish myself that?

I've come to wish you an unhappy birthday
'Cause you're evil
And you lie
And if you should die
I may feel slightly sad
(But I won't cry)

Thanks, Moz. I can always count on your for a card.

See also It's Not Your Birthday Anymore.

1. Stevie Wonder - Happy Birthday

Just before the tipping point where Stevie went from genius to goon. I Just Called To Say I Love You was still a few years off. Plus, it's a tribute to Martin Luther King, so extra point for that. Still, the 80s electric keyboard sounds very Casio. He should have stuck with a proper piano.


Those were my birthday songs. Which do you wish me?