Final batch of these, because frankly I've wasted more than enough time browsing the newsagents' shelves this week.
I was a regularly subscriber to Empire Magazine in the 90s, but I fell out of love with them when they gave 5 stars to The Phantom Menace. I think I'd sold my Empire collection (or binned it) by the time Attack of the Clones came out.
We close today though with a band named after a magazine..
...and when you take a look down their discography, it's amazing how many of their songs could well be (or feature) magazine titles. New Life. Master And Servant. Stripped. Strangelove. Personal Jesus. People Are People. In Your Room. That's like a whole magazine rack right there. Not to mention...
There is always some contention raised at Top Ten Towers about whether or not one should receive / start eating Easter Eggs on Good Friday... or wait until Sunday. Personally, I'm well past Easter Eggs - I'd rather have some nice nuts. But some people hate waiting till Sunday for their eggs. What does the hivemind think?
If it's just an average Friday today, or you're having to wait till Sunday for your Easter Eggs, you may be interested to learn that Friday April 3rd 2026 is also...
Don't Go To Work Unless It's Fun Day
"This light-hearted occasion encourages individuals to pause and assess how they actually feel about their work, not just how they think they’re supposed to feel. If the day’s agenda looks like nothing but stress, monotony, or one meeting too many, the message is simple: rethink the plan."
OK, are you going to pay my mortgage while I take time to rethink the plan?
There's a line in there which goes "You can burn it down as far as I’m concerned", which always reminds me of whenever we had a fire drill in my previous job... all those teachers (and students) stood out in the car park, praying it wasn't just a practice.
Walk to Work Day
Is it just me, or will a lot of people not be going to work today because it's a Bank Holiday? I don't think either of these days have been planned very well this year, have they?
But possibly my favourite pointless suggestion for today is this one...
National Find A Rainbow Day
And I quote...
"Quite a few ways to celebrate Find a Rainbow Day can be imagined. It might be fun to grab some friends and try to find a rainbow, although this activity may be dependent on the weather."
D'oh!
Don't despair though, because there's one occasion I can absolutely get behind celebrating today...
World Party Day
"World Party Day is based on the idea that peace is not the opposite of war, merely its absence. The real opposite of war is party, and World Party Day aims to synchronise a massive, world-wide party to celebrate everything that’s good and optimistic!"
I'm not really sure I believe that the real opposite of war is party - for two reasons. Firstly, I've been to quite a few parties that ended up as wars. And secondly, I'd rather stay home and read a book.
However, this day wins because it allows us the opportunity to celebrate the work of the late, great Karl Wallinger...
I've been breathing easy lately as the Grim Reaper appeared to have taken a bit of a holiday. Sadly, he's back, and in the space of 24 hours he took two big names from the world of music, and far too soon.
It was Khayem who alerted me yesterday morning to the sudden death of World Party's Karl Wallinger. What a shock. Like K, I got rather aggravated by various lazy headlines highlighting The Whole Of The Moon in his obituary... great song, obviously, but Wallinger neither wrote nor sang it, although he did play keyboards and sing backing vocals, and may have come up with the synth line, at Mike Scott's request to play something that sounded like Prince. My point is, Wallinger wrote far more songs on his own (including the Robbie Williams hit She's The One), but none of them are as universally recognised as The Whole Of The Moon, so didn't quite provide the story hook the headline writers were looking for. Still, I was surprised by how many of my non-muso friends posted tributes to Wallinger on the Book of Faces... he was obviously better known than the lazy journalists realise.
Mike Scott called Wallinger "one of the finest musicians I've ever known", and our own John Medd called him "a songwriter's songwriter." 'Nuff said.
While I expected an outpouring of love for Karl Wallinger, I wasn't surprised to see Eric Carmen's death go unnoticed by the blogosphere at large... though for me, it's just as big a loss.
Carmen will primarily be remembered for his huge 80s power ballad All By Myself, later converted into a nice little earner for his retirement years by Canadian Megalodonna Celine Dion. I'm sure it's a song you all have an opinion on, and I doubt it's a favourable one in most cases, but I have to admit... long before it was adopted by Bridget Jones and Joey & Chandler in Friends as a symbol of sad-sack loneliness, this is a song I used to sit and have a quiet, self-indulgent cry to in my teenage years. Please don't judge me.
(Classical musos might me like to point out that the verse from All By Yourself is based on the second movement of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, while the chorus... well, we'll get to that.)
Those of us who grew up in the 80s will also remember Carmen for his contribution to one of the biggest soundtracks of the era. Dirty Dancing might not be Citizen Kane, but if you were a teenager in 1987 (I was 15), it probably made quite an impression. Nobody puts Baby in the corner!
However, neither of those tunes represents Eric Carmen's greatest achievement in popular music. That came many years earlier, when he was the lead singer of seminal* 70s power pop band, The Raspberries.
(*With apologies to those of you who don't appreciate the over-use of this word in contemporary music criticism... but if you ask me, it's valid here.)
Of the Raspberries distinctive sound, Carmen once said, "Pete Townshend coined the phrase [power pop] to define what the Who did. For some reason, it didn't stick to the Who, but it did stick to these groups that came out in the '70s that played kind of melodic songs with crunchy guitars and some wild drumming. It just kind of stuck to us like glue, and that was OK with us because the Who were among our highest role models. We absolutely loved the Who."
The Raspberries went on to influence the next generation of American hitmakers, including Springsteen, Tom Petty, Guns 'n Roses and Kiss... plus many of their own power pop successors, like The Posies, Fountains of Wayne, Weezer and Silver Sun. A bunch of my favourite artists right there... and they all owe a debt to Eric Carmen. Rest in peace, fella.
Oh, and the chorus to All By Myself? It was a reworking of this old Raspberries tune, written back in the glorious year of 1972.
This is a rather blurry photograph of Shakira. Despite being a multi-million-selling global pop superstar, Shakira was still amazed the first time she saw a phone with a camera in it. We take such things for granted these days, but just over 20 years ago, the very idea was revolutionary.
You may wonder why Shakira is pictured atop a post featuring songs about The Middle East. Well, it turns out that The Queen Of Latin Music is of Middle Eastern descent - her father's family hail from Lebanon. And Rami Malik, pictured yesterday, is American of Egyptian descent. In case you think I just throw these things together.
Here are ten songs about countries and cities in the Middle East...
Basically, Sam is now obsessed with Formula 1. This seems a natural progression for someone who spent the first 6 years of his life obsessed with Lightning McQueen and Disney's Cars. Since his mum bought him the above book (or last year's version of it... I bought him the new one, on the day it came out), he reads it every day. He has memorised all the drivers, all the teams, all the racetracks. He then quizzes me on it.
I, of course, know nothing about F1. I am amused, however, than Sam seems to think one of the drivers is called Chinny Reckon. (It's Kimi Räikkönen. But Chinny Reckon is good enough for me.)
The other thing Sam does a lot is use the word "basically". I mean, basically, every sentence. I think he must get this from Louise, who uses it infrequently. Basically's not really a word I use much... I'm more likely to say "ultimately", but Sam hasn't picked up on that. It's basically getting on my wick... but not as much as the whistling. He also says "to be fair" and "to be honest" a lot, the latter when he's basically not being very honest at all... I mean, when he's telling a proper chinny reckon.
There is a World Party song called Basically, but I don't want to listen to it. No offence to World Party. This seems more appropriate today...
Followed soon after by Lynchie, who went all weird on us...
Primer mi carucha (Chevy '39) Going to El Monte Legion Stadium Pick up on my weesa (she is so divine) Helps me stealing hub caps Wasted all the time
The
above are the opening lyrics to "Dog Breath, in the Year of the Plague"
by The Mothers Of Invention. The vocals are stupendous, especially
Nelcy Walker's soprano voice backed by Ray Collins & Roy Estrada.
This track led me to purchase "Cruising with Ruben & the Jets" - an
earlier Mothers' album which has some of the best doo-wop songs ever
recorded.
Lynchie's second suggestion was a bit more down-to-earth... and surely a shoe-in for this week's winner as it comes from one of my favourite albums...
A friend of mine became a father last night When we spoke in his voice I could hear the light Of the skies and the rivers the timberwolf in the pines And that great jukebox out on Route 39
Then again, much as I love The Boss, it's only two weeks since he last claimed the top spot in this countdown. Would I really give it to him again?
Our Canadian correspondent, Douglas McLaren, was pretty sure I would...
Darn. Got beaten to the Boss, which I am guessing is the "shoe-in". Oh
well. Though Valentine's Day is (in my opinion) the better song,
Springsteen's "Stand On It" is a rollickin' great-balls-of-fire b-side
belter that also refers to Route 39.
Nope. Not this week, Douglas. What else have you got for me?
A few other offerings as outside chances. For starters, there is last
week's poster boys, UB40, with "Hold Your Position, Mk3". Not the
biggest UB40 fan, but that one sits in the record collection. Lyrics
mention "39 Acker Tree, Frontline"...not sure if that is an address or
what?
Hardly a desirable residence, by the sounds of it.
I feel I should mention Canada's Own Gordon Lightfoot again
this week, as his offering for "40" went down fighting. The song "Drink
Yer Glasses Empty". A typically Lightfoot song, semi-autobiographical I
suppose given that he was in fact born in 1938, but timeless
considering the world today:
Better drink yer glasses empty now It's time to rise and shine There's one less cause in the world To be leaving for It was back in 39 When I was one year old Sitting by the backyard fence And the world had turned so cold...
Another
one that actually sits in the collection since I picked up a vinyl copy
at a charity shop, but I am not actually all that fond of myself
(outside chance perhaps?) is World Party, "The Ballad of The Little
Man". The Latin Teacher in me appreciates the Classical allusion in the
lyrics, though:
He's an animal but he thinks he's God Gets him mixed up with him And we're all at the mercy Of this little man within He was doing fine in 39 Thank God he did not win He kept playing on his fiddle As he watched old Rome cave in...
Well, we crossed the state line about 6: 39 And we saw the sign that said, "Twine Ball exit, fifty miles" Oh, the kids were so happy they started singing "99 Bottles Of Beer On The Wall" for the twenty-seventh time that day...
It
reminds me of my summer vacations as a kid. Every last one of them.
And at least by mentioning in now it pre-empts its obvious chances of
being a take-all winner in 12 weeks time when number 27 comes up.
Yeah, that's the winne... oh, no, sorry, it isn't. Nice try though.
Who else do we have? Ah, George...
Of course Spanish Bombs will not be featuring.........
Well, it will be featuring, George. It just won't be winning. Nothing against Mr. Strummer and co. I'm just not cool enough to worship them in quite the same way many other venerable bloggers do.
Spanish songs in Andalucia The shooting sites in the days of '39 Oh, please, leave the vendanna open Fredrico Lorca is dead and gone Bullet holes in the cemetery walls The black cars of the Guardia Civil Spanish bombs on the Costa Rica I'm flying in a DC 10 tonight
Next up was Rigid Digit, with three fine suggestions...
A beautiful ballad where Kelly shows that love songs don’t just have to be about the young ones…
That is pretty special. Thanks, Deano.
And you all for playing, as ever. Before we get onto this week's winner (as immidiately identified by Martin, and seconded by Deano), here's a few more offerings from my hard-drive...
Sippin' Shirley Thompson doesn't care She's 39 and feelin' fine and not much up to goin' anywhere Her husband is a bible salesman and at 39 his hair fell out She said there's not a hair between him and the heaven that he talks about
All good songs, but the songs from our teenage years often leave the biggest impression, don't they? And that's certainly the case with this tune from Queen's A Night At The Opera album, a favourite of mine was I was 15 (even though it was released 12 years earlier). I never had much of an idea what the song was about, I just thought it was a pretty tune and Brian does a good job on vocals. Iffypedia reveals the lyrics go back to Brian's days as an astrophysicist...
The song tells the tale of a group of space explorers who embark on what
is, from their perspective, a year-long voyage. Upon their return,
however, they realise that a hundred years have passed, because of the time dilation effect in Einstein's special theory of relativity, and the loved ones they left behind are now all dead or aged.
The Swede recently ran a post about a 24 minute song and asked "Do we have time to listen to it?" Not at the moment, I'm afraid... work is still sucking all the joy out of my life.
So here's ten songs that all clock in at under 30 seconds. Easy enough to compile, I just got my music player to put my library in order by duration.
The only rule I had was it had to be a complete song - no excerpts, reprises, intros, fillers, talky bits or skits. Once I'd sifted all those out, here's what I was left with...
I want to be a field day for the Sundays so they can Fuck up my life Embarrass my wife And leave a bad taste Striped toothpaste can't remove on Monday mornings I want to be a target for the dailies so they can show Pictures of me with a nude on page three So lacking in taste Touched up near the waist, looking as limp as Monday morning Touched up near the waist, looking as limp as Monday morning
You could argue that the second side of Abbey Road is all one long track, but it's probably my favourite Beatles album and this is a fine coda.
1. Slaves - Girl Fight
Very loud, very funny - particularly the end... and I'm making it Number One because, despite being only 15 seconds long... they still made a video for it!
Any short songs you'd recommend? They have to be under 30 seconds... I may well do a follow-up post on songs under a minute.
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