The Legend of CD108: Part 6

Nearly finished going through the tracks on Sam's favourite in-car CD... and as my new car doesn't have a CD player, I'm wondering if we'll ever listen to this again...

Track 17: George Michael - Outside

I'd lost touch with George Michael by the mid-90s, swept away from pop music in the surge of Britpop. So I only really revisited his late-90s output once I'd grown up and realised pop music wasn't so bad after all.

Outside was famous as the record in which George took a scandal from his private life, grabbed it with both hands, and made a top pop tune (and video) which resolutely stuck two fingers up at the tabloid press that was hounding him. 

 It's wonderful.

Track 18: Idlewild - You Held The World In Your Arms

Was this a football anthem? It sounds like one... only better than most of them. Their only top ten hit, although I'd been following Idlewild since the early days. It's not my favourite, but I loved the big wide-screen stab at glory that this album represented, just as much as I'd loved the more esoteric art-rock of When I Argue I See Shapes three years earlier. 

I think Sam likes this one because it definitely sounds like a football anthem...

Track 19: White Plains - My Baby Loves Lovin'

Just to prove that you can't beat a cheesy late-60s pop hit... here's one that never grows old. 

If you'd asked me yesterday, I'd have guessed that White Plains were from the USA - not that they were an off-shoot of the Flowerpot Men. Then again, where did the Flowerpot Men want to go? They were obviously Americaphiles. A Greenaway & Cooke production, so it was always going to sound a cut above... although there is some debate about who's actually singing. Some liner notes, quoted on iffypedia, reveal...

"Contrary to popular myth, we are assured that the lead vocals were performed by Ricky Wolff, with Tony Burrows doubling him on the chorus". But "due to Wolff's unavailability to promote the record, it would be singer-songwriter Roger Greenaway who appeared as the main lead singer on the promotional material and TV performances."

Bands were weird in the 60s. I love this video though...

Only four songs left on the CD.

What then?

Snapshots #372: A Top Twelve Songs About Different Fabrics

Welcome, all you Material Girls and Boys to a list of songs about fabrics. Lou Reed graced our opening shot yesterday with his Velvet Underground... and today, we have Brett Anderson from Suede.

Here are twelve songs that fit the theme...

12. Can you a Ford to drive these guys around?

The Courteeners - Acrylic

11. Seen in disgusting August.

GusGus - Polyesterday

10. Goes with Marie and a Spanish Bandit.

Donny goes with Marie. A Spanish bandit would be El-Burt Reynolds.

Donnie Elbert - Little Piece Of Leather

9. Pestered by Society.

To pester is to bug. A society might also be a club.

The Bug Club - Cheap Linen

8. Wrote a diary about being a baptist.

Bridget (Jones) wrote a diary. St. John was a baptist.

Bridget St. John - Curious & Woolly

7. Hopefully nobody will think this week's Snapshots features a crap link. Er...

"Crap link. Er" was an anagram...

Carl Perkins - Blue Suede Shoes

6. They don't know their ass from a hole in the ground.

So said Randy Newman, anyway.

Rednex - Cotton Eye Joe

I apologise for that. It's the last thing anyone wants to hear on a Sunday morning.

5. Weller's necklace.

Pearl Jam - Corduroy

4. Like flour, and drawing papers.

Plain and white.

White Plains - Taffeta Rose

3. Fresh.

A very Fresh(-faced young) Prince.

Prince - Pink Cashmere

2. Would you like some insects mixed into your Kiev?

Mix together the letters in "insects" and "Kiev" until it gives you...

Stevie Nicks - Leather & Lace

Or you could have had...

Stevie Nicks - Blue Denim 

1. Where the police go to get pissed.

The Bobbies go to Vin-ton.

Amazingly, this is the first time he's appeared here...

Bobby Vinton - Blue Velvet

More next Saturday.

Memory Mixtape #29: Man In A Shed

View from inside one of the newer, better quality sheds.

Nick Drake - Man In A Shed

My Dad loved a good shed. 

When I say that, you probably picture an average garden shed, maybe 6 foot by 8 foot or a little bigger… well, let me stop you there. My dad was both a farmer and a joiner, so when he built a shed, it was often bigger than the average house, certainly big enough to house half a dozen cows for the winter or to store enough bales of hay to keep said cows fed while the grass wasn’t growing. Such incredible buildings regularly sprang from the earth as if by magic when I was growing up… and I took them in my stride. 

Fire - Father's Name Was Dad

Besides, a proliferation of outhouses became especially necessary when I was 19 and our family moved into the barn. 

Nina Simone - My Father

The old barn, with mistel / cowshed attached. That was demolished when the barn was converted. Pictured is my nephew Gary, stood on the muck midden, and some random builder nicking the asbestos sheets from / mending the roof.

Wait, let me clarify that. My dad was in his early 60s back at this point, and had walked away from the car auction business. He’d started working as a joiner again, for my brother (the house builder of the family), but Dad didn’t have much of a pension and was worried about financial stability for his retirement years… so he decided to sell the big old rambling farmhouse I’d grown up in and downsize us all into the barn next door. He handled this conversion pretty much by himself (calling in my brother and a few other tradespeople for occasional assists) and within a year, the old hay loft I’d played hide and seek in as a child was now my teenage bedroom. It was a lot smaller than the house of my youth, but my brother and sister had long since flown the nest and my parents figured I’d soon follow (although that didn’t happen quite as soon as they’d expected). Anyway, with the barn out of action, other cattle sheds and hay storage buildings soon appeared to replace it… and again, I took it all for granted. Looking back now it seems miraculous, particularly given how much of this work my dad did on his own… with only the occasional assist from Mr. Bagley.

The house that replaced the barn.

K's Choice - Dad

A memory came back to me earlier this week of a journey Dad took us on one misty Saturday… to buy a shed. For this expedition, he borrowed a truck from my brother, and drove me and my mum halfway across the country… I can’t remember exactly where, but it took a good few hours to get there. When we arrived, we met a man who was selling a huge wooden outbuilding that would soon become my dad’s joinery workshop (home to a table saw that would one day almost sever his thumb). This building must have been at least thirty feet long, by about ten feet wide. We set about dismantling it, piece by piece, then loaded it onto the back of the truck and drove it home. I’m guessing this would be some time in the mid-80s, so I’ve no idea how my dad found out about this shed for sale, in the pre-internet days… perhaps there was a classified ad in the back of the Farmers Guardian newspaper I picked up from the local Newsagents along with my weekly stash of comics. Likewise, I’ve no idea how much he paid for this enormous wooden edifice. All I remember is, he needed our help to get it on and off the truck. Beyond that – taking the shed down and reconstructing it on a long concrete foundation he poured and flattened a good three feet above the ground (with steps leading up to it, to keep it from flooding)… he did all that himself.  

Some more random, ramshackle sheds I grew up around. Not pictured: the fancy joinery workshop shed 

we travelled so far to buy. That replaced the hen-hut shed on the right of this picture.

Tashan - Thank You, Father

But this was just my dad, and it was what he did. I just presumed everyone else’s fathers did exactly the same thing.

White Plains - Dad, You Saved The World

Jesse Dayton - Daddy Was A Badass

Snapshots #291 - A Top 25 King Songs

In lieu of pledging allegiance to our new King, which I'm not about to do because I'M NOT A 17TH CENTURY KNIGHT, here are 25 songs in his "honour"...

25. Slip severely and jumble.

"Slip severely" is an anagram.

Elvis Presley - King Creole

24. Trendy appliance.

Fad Gadget - King of the Flies

23. Stare at the text closely.

Stare at the teXT Closely.

XTC - King For A Day

22. Musk without Nitrogen.

Take the N from Elon...

ELO - Rock n Roll Is King

Now that's a king I will pledge allegiance too!

21. This is what happens when you go out in the cold without a proper top on, ladies.

The Nipple Erectors - King of the Bop

Shane MacGowan's first band!

20. They say it all started in Wuhan...

China Crisis - King In A Catholic Style

19. They were probably mild-mannered.

Remember Penry, the mild-mannered janitor...?

The Janitors - Good To Be The King

18. A peach from the same town as John's angel.

John Prine sang of an Angel From Montgomery. Peach Melba.

Melba Montgomery - King of Kings

17. Derek Dick's having a wobble.

Derek Dick is Fish. Jelly wobbles.

Jellyfish - The King Is Half Undressed

16. Their leader crashed his bike.

Look out, look out, look out!

The Pack - King of Kings

15. What will you find inside Bob's adequate box?

Bob'S ADEquate box.

Sade - Your Love Is King

14. Eureka! Reno is where you'll find the solution.

EureKA REN O

Karen O - King

13. Hi-didly-ho, Glenn & Roger!

"Hi-didly-ho," is what Ned Flanders might say to Glenn & Roger Miller.

Ned Miller - From A Jack To A King

12. Brendan, all a muddle.

"Brendan" is an anagram.

Dan Bern - King of the World

11. Candy, Denver, Legend.

The Three Johns - King Car

10. Maybe she's caught a chill.

She looks a bit shivery to me.

Shivaree - Cannibal King

9. Michael Holliday had something similar.

Michael Holliday sang about the Story Of My Life.

My Life Story - The King Of Kissingdom

8. A big hit out of Radio Nowhere.

RaDIO Nowhere

Dion - King of the New York Streets

7. Tips for colouring.

Felt Tips are good for colouring.

Felt - Dismantled King is Off the Throne

6.  Anagram? Shh!

Graham Nash - I Used To Be A King

5. Sounds like Jack's aircrafts.

Jack White has quite a few planes by now, I'd imagine...

White Plains - When You Are A King

4. Thinly plot a mix up.

"Thinly plot" is an anagram.

Phil Lynott - King's Call

3. Where the Green Giant's son lives.

The Green Giant's son was called Sprout. He was like the Scrappy Doo of sweetcorn adverts.

I understand he lived in a prefab.

Prefab Sprout - The King of Rock n Roll

2. Something that gets passed down in the family.

Genes are hereditary.

Gene - We Could Be Kings

1. He tolls to conquer.

Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for William the Conqueror...

William Bell - A Tribute To A King

Just ten Snapshots for you next Saturday morning. I do like to get out of the house occasionally.