Celebrity Jukebox #73: Angela Lansbury

Last week, we lost Raquel Welch. It's only a few months since she featured here... so maybe I am going to stick with dead celebs for the time being. Plenty of them to go around, and as Alyson reminds us, there will be more and more over the next few years.

All of which brings us to Angela Lansbury, who died last year, aged 96. Most famous for her role as crime-busting author Jessica Fletcher in Murder She Wrote, Lansbury had been acting for over 40 years before she took on that part, including major roles in The Manchurian Candidate, Bedknobs & Broomsticks and The Company of Wolves. Not forgetting that she was Elvis's mum in Blue Hawaii. And she could sing too...

Angela Lansbury - It's Today

Would you expect to find her in a Wu Tang Clan song though?

Wu Tang Clan feat. Ras Kass - The End

Hereditary trait, seeking salvation like the Cranberries

Wrote Murder with Angela Lansbury often

Til my biological clock stops and my casket falls

Quite.

Once that's out of the way, we can turn to music (and lyrics) more suited to these aging eardrums...

Laura's Invention - Enter I Said

Sinatra died and Grandma cried and we all sat around until

I asked if you'd ever seen the Manchurian Candidate

It's a John Frankenheimer film

A real attack on McCarthy and

I have to admit Angela Lansbury rocks as the Mom

Brooklyn's Shilpa Ray gets compared to Patti Smith, Nick Cave and Ella Fitzgerald. Got to be worth a listen, right?

Shilpa Ray - Same Sociopath

He's made of rеvisionist history

Rolling deep in cheap mysteries

And I'm Angеla Lansbury

And it's the same sociopath

Canada's B.A. Johnston, meanwhile, has been dumped. I wonder why?

B.A. Johnston - Strange Things Afoot At the Circle K

Murder, she wrote

Murder, she wrote

Our love is dead

And I guess Angela Lansbury could easily solve this

She probably just got tired of my shit

Easy to leave

How about some titular mentions? Starting with an instrumental from Indianapolis's Operators...

The Operators - Angela Lansbury

A little more shouty...

Greeley Estates - Angela Lansbury Keeps Guys Like You Off The Street

And I would be remiss if I didn't remind you all of this 90s gem...

Chaka Demus & Pliers - Murder She Wrote

The best I can come up with today though is this catchy obscurity from Canadian band Prairie of Prax.

Dissecting Agatha Christie prose, such a surprise 

Wherever Angela Lansbury goes, somebody dies

Cover Me Monday #7: The Wu Tang Clan

There was a time I might have claimed to be into The Wu Tang Clan in order to pretend to be down wi' da kidz. Considering that this band came together in the early 90s though... and that's getting on for 30 years ago, in case you need that mortality check... well, I doubt da kidz have a clue who they are anymore.

Today's cover isn't by (or originally by) The Wu Tang Clan though. It's a song called The Wu Tang Clan, originally recorded by The French. I have to admit that I'd never heard of The French before, despite being a fan of Hefner. Apparently The French was a side project back in the early noughties for Hefner's Darren Hayman and John Morrison.

I probably wouldn't even known that this song was a cover... had it not come from something called The Covers EP. The covering band are Allo Darlin', and London-based indie group with an Australian singer who released three pretty cool albums a few years back, and then, I'm guessing, called it a day.

Here's the Casio-flavoured original version of The Wu Tang Clan by The French.

And below, the Allo Darlin' cover, which I find far superior. That said, credit to Darren Hayman for writing this, because lyrically, it's a belter.

She dreams of Staten Island

She never ever dreams of Walthamstow

Her friends are getting married

Getting their haircut like Jill Dando

She hopes that Terry Soanes won't ask her out tonight for the 4th time

She wants to be alone

With the curtains drawn and the stereo on

She swings her hips and dances to the Wu-Tang Clan

And RZA, Ghostface Killah, Inspecta Deck and Golden Arms

Will hold her tight and out of harm in the council flat tonight

And the thought hits her at 105 bpm

That sometimes for a second, she believes that everything will be

Alright