Snapshots #431: Songs About The Person In Charge

Here’s the man in charge… erm…

The man with the answers… erm…

Still, preferable to his inevitable replacement. Is that really the best we can say about him?

Here are some songs about the person at the top…

15. Born in 1986?

UB40 - King

14. Don’t worry, they’re harmanless.

Dave Harman, aka Dave Dee, had left at this point.

Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Titch – Mr. President

13. Princess Grace only wants to help you… NOT ME!

Princess Grace Kelly only wants to help you, Roland.

Kelly Rowland - Commander

12. See you, Underground Lou.

See you, Jimmy… and Lou Reed.

Jimmy Reed - Big Boss Man

11. The Ashes.

After The Fire - Der Kommissar

10. Her omelettes are really well scrambled.

“Her omelettes” was an anagram.

The Tremeloes - (Call Me) Number One

9. A pretty regular bunch.

Regular as clockwork.

The Clockworks - Can I Speak To A Manager?

8. Billion year old carbon.

“We are stardust…”

Joni Mitchell – Edith & The Kingpin

7. Scholarly hippy.

Professor Longhair - Big Chief

6. X2.

Double - The Captain Of Her Heart

5. Torturous firework.

Catherine Wheel - Here Comes the Fat Controller

4. 3.14, at the beginning of the afternoon.

3.14, as any Maths teacher will tell you, is π represented as three digits. The beginning of the afternoon is af. So Pi+af=

Edith Piaf - Milord

3. Older now, and with fewer brothers in rhythm. 

There’s only two of them left to pass the dutchie these days…

Musical Youth - Generals

2. Good for halting rashes, if properly blended.

“Halting rashes” was an anagram of…

The Shangri-Las - Leader Of The Pack

I love that video. The Leader of the Pack looks like a middle-aged bus-driver.

1. What Not To Wear.

Depeche Mode, as I’m sure you all know, means Fashion News or Fashion Despatch. Hence…

Depeche Mode – Master & Servant

I’ll be back in charge of this twaddle next Saturday morning.

Namesakes #36: Space

In the vast infinity of space, there appears to be an endless number of bands who have chosen to call themselves Space. Here is a selection of the ones I could find... before I ran out of space.

SPACE #1

We start with a songwriter called Sterling Storm who began his career as a member of Californian surf rock band Eddie & The Showmen, and who would later go on to join 80s New Wave band The Humans. Here he is in 1968 with his sole release as Space.

SPACE #2

Next - how about a whole album of Latin psychedelic rock from 1970... because I can't find individual tracks? They were from Puerto Rico, where they also went by the name The Living End. It's only 38 minutes, I'm sure you've not got anything better to do with your time.

SPACE #3

In 1975, the Tremeloes, long after Brian Poole had buggered off to pursue a solo career and the hits were but distant memories, released an album with the rather desperate title Don't Let The Music Die. Perhaps to distance themselves from the past, the record was originally credited to Space... although it was reissued later under The Tremeloes name. Here's the sole Space single...

SPACE #4

1977. Disco. French disco. Didier Marouani (aka Ecama) and Roland Romanelli. #2 in the UK charts. And a video that was cutting edge at the time. Daft Punk were clearly taking notes.

SPACE #5

No date on this one, or any information I can find (Ernie might know better), but it's jazzy... and a hell of a lot better than the next offering, which is also jazzy. If you like this, there's one copy going for £240 on discogs.

SPACE #6

Jazz. Hardcore free jazz, that is, from 1984. Roscoe Mitchell, Tom Buckner, Gerald Oshita were Space... and if this is what passes for conversation first thing in their house, I'm glad I skip breakfast.

SPACE #7

If you thought the free jazz was bad, imagine how bad a techno version of Purple Haze would be. This is why 1990 was not a good year for music. The best I can say about it is that the vocalist is called Doreen Waddell. There's not enough Doreens in pop music.

SPACE #8

The Scouse Space, who I saw live a few times during the high times of the 90s, looked like the archetypal Britpop band with their shaggy moptop hairdos that recalled their 60s predecessors far more than those lunkhead brothers from Manchester. Their music veered off on weird tangents though, with echoes of Brel, Gainsborough and other less conventional 60s acts. Lyrically, they were more adventurous than many of their peers too, though this was sometimes hard to swallow for the anthem-craving masses. Two of their biggest hits, The Female Of The Species and the tune below, didn't sound like anything else on the radio... and they were clearly Lloyd Grossman fans. Who lives in a house like this?

   

SPACE #9

And so we reach The Final Frontier! 

Australian singer-songwriter Jason Smith now lives in LA, where he goes under the name Space. Here's a song about Brian losing his last battle...

Which ones would you find Space for in your record collection... and which ones deserve to be shot into space?

Saturday Snapshots #167 - The Answers

 

I still have no internet, by the way. This week's posts were written off-line then uploaded in one block to cut down on tethering charges. This is why I haven't popped over to read any of your blogs recently. My apologies. I will catch up. They say we will have internet week commencing the 21st. I'm not holding my breath.

Answers...

10. Favoured by cats and dogs, eight or nine hours ago.

The Strokes - Last Night

9. Fancy jewel will be missing for almost a year.

Lynchie worked out the anagram.

Wyclef Jean - Gone Till November

8. Where everybody knows your name (geographically), there's something really scary behind you.

Everybody knows your name at Cheers, the bar in Boston.

Boston - Don't Look Back

7. Diamondy capital; my favourite drink.

Jewelly London?

And yes, John, my beverage of choice is...

Julie London - Black Coffee

That one was for CC. 

6. Earthquake deep under ground makes no noise, respendently. 

Tremors... low.

The Tremeloes - Silence Is Golden

5. Beach Boys zero in on their favourite sport.

The Beach Boys liked to surf (well, apart from Brian, who couldn't surf).

Zero is nada.

Favourite is popular.

Nada Surf - Popular

4. Chairman's daughter lost in greeny brown forest, with Moe Tucker, before lunch.

The Chairman was Frank.

Greeny brown is hazel.

Moe Tucker was a Velvet.

Before lunch is morning.

Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood - Some Velvet Morning

Not many photos of Lee without his signature moustache.

3. Where Hugh Grant meets Jed Clampett... tired of being at work.

Hugh Grant was in Notting Hill.

Jed Clampett was a Beverly Hillbilly.

The Notting Hillbillies - Feel Like Going Home

Not as good as the Charlie Rich version.

2. Formula for a water bed...?

The chemical formula for water is H2O.

H20 - Dream To Sleep

1. Sounds like you're certainly fated to end up in Red Square.

I was worried that fate and karma weren't quite the same thing, but this clue was completed very late on Friday evening.

Lenin is buried in Red Square.

Always reminds me of this scene from my favourite movie.