Saturday Snapshots #171

I don't know about you, but that was the best season finale of The West Wing I've ever seen.

What do you mean it was real? 

Don't be ridiculous.

Reality truly is stranger than fiction now.

Fortunately, we still have Saturday Snapshots to keep us all sane.

Remember the new rules... 

The clues are to the artists ONLY.

All the songs are linked.

Work out the link and you might then work out the rest of the songs.

I like this, because it makes you all work together like a team. 

10. Sober skipper.

9. Winking dishes answer.

8. Airbrushed.

7. Humming tip.

6. On their heads.

5. AKA Karloff & Willis.

4. Touché, Leonardo.

3. Jetty offspring blinks a lot.

2. Hell is a Wil Marr LP.

1. Parliament swallows.

Answers tomorrow morning.

Unless the alien invasion starts overnight.

2020 Latecomers: Just When You Thought It Was Safe...

 

Happy New Year, we said. 

2021 has got to be better than 2020, we laughed.

Then 2021 laughed back.

"Kids are going back to school," said Boris on Sunday.

"Kids are staying home," said Boris on Monday.

"Sam is going back to school," said Rol and Louise on Tuesday, evoking keyworker status I didn't even know applied to me last lockdown.

Do I feel guilty about sending him back to school in the middle of the 43rd wave? 

Yes.

But better he's there than stuck at home with two psychotic middle-aged job-hating lunatics on the verge of going postal every second. He's an only child, he needs company his own age. This family needs to cling onto the few last vestiges of our sanity 2020 hasn't yet stripped away. 

Judge us, if you will, but we tried the home-schooling while juggling two full time jobs last year and it nearly killed us all. There's the virus, and then there's mental health. Sometimes you have to weigh up the risks.

And I must be a keyworker: Morrisons gave me 10% off my shopping last week.

Here's a song from last year, about last year, that's more appropriate than ever today...

A party’s a cocktail we drink all alone

Our friends are a movie we watch on our phone

Our parents are teenagers sneaking around in the night

Our children are monkeys that are tied to our wrists

Our houses are wrecking balls tied to a list

A plan is a guess where the jester insists that he’s right

Oh 2020, you’re fading away

Your weeks into months and your months into days

As they all blur together like tears on the page

As if the angels were writing it down

At night I hear sirens and songs in the dark

And the roar of propellers like heaves of dry coughs

In the heart of the city, there’s a hole where John Prine still belongs

Mid-Life Crisis Songs #55: Please Let Me Go Round Again

 

Back to work today, and I don't even want to think about that as I type this on Friday evening... though it has blackened my thoughts for the past few days. If you feel the same, here's the Nicholas Cage coaster I got for Christmas. Don't have nightmares.

As the New Year begins, it's customarily the time that I begin sharing with you the songs that would have been included in my countdown of the previous year... if I'd discovered them in time. More of those will be coming up later in the week, under the heading 2020 Latecomers (there's one party we'd all happily have arrived late to... or missed altogether), but the first one deserves the Mid-Life Crisis heading even more.

I discovered the latest album from Jerry "Swamp Dogg" Williams Jr. a month or so ago because it features two of the last vocal recordings from the late great John Prine. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the album as a whole. At 78, Swamp Dogg has had a pretty amazing career, working with Patti Labelle, Gary US Bonds, Gene Pitney, Irma Thomas, Dr. Dre and Kid Rock, among others. He's been a songwriter, producer, A&R man and performer, though his record releases have tended towards the esoteric and satirical... but this is his country blues album, drafting in John Prine, Bon Iver and Jenny Lewis to help. The more I listen to it, the more I want to dig deeper into Swamp Dogg's back catalogue, though I have been warned not to expect anything else that sounds like this.

The song below, however - one of the very last John Prine would ever lend his vocals to - is in a league of its own. Especially for those of us hip-deep in what Sam has started to call "The Middle Ages" ("you and mummy are in the Middle Ages, you won't be old for a few years yet")...

Everything I put my hands on, I blew it

Women, jobs, money, friends, and I knew it

Actin' crazy, talkin' dumb all the time

I woke up yesterday, I was forty years old, life had passed me by

Please let me go 'round again

Oh, life, can't you afford me another chance?

If you'll let me go 'round again

I'll build a better mousetrap from a far more better plan

As I head back to work today, I wish I had the opportunity to go round again and build a far better mousetrap from a far better plan...

Saturday Snapshots #170 - MY TOP TEN BAG SONGS

 

How do you all get on with the new Saturday Snapshots then?

Hopefully you all gave it a (Vig)go.

The link, as I'm sure you worked out, was...

MY TOP TEN BAG SONGS

10. Use what!?!

An anagram for Wheatus.

Wheatus - Teenage Dirtbag

9. Wireless boss.

Radiohead - Airbag

That would be a Radio Head.

8. Biblical king, girl in the ring.

King James made Bibles.

Brown Girl In The Ring.

James Brown - Papa's Got A Brand New Bag

7. Mad king chooses Gerry's street.

The mad king was George.

Gerry Rafferty sung about Baker Street.

The George Baker Selection - Little Green Bag

6. Forces awhirl.

Another anagram...

Chris Farlowe - Handbags & Gladrags

5. University head released from prison.

The Dean is a freed man.

Dean Friedman - Shopping Bag Ladies

4. I can see your underwear!

Because I'm wearing X-ray Spex!

X-Ray Spex - Plastic Bag

3. Pork scratchings?

Pork scratchings are like little bits of pig in a bag.

Pigbag - Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag

2. Not a Lott.

Pixies, but not Pixie Lott.

Pixies - Bagboy

1. Known for causing an uproar.

Lloyd Cole, famous for his Commotions.

More tension next week...

The ALL NEW Saturday Snapshots (#170)

 

As if 2020 wasn't bad enough... I was sad to read that my favourite actor, Jeff "The Dude" Bridges, is currently fighting cancer. Let's hope this New Year brings him - and everyone else - some better times.

So then... the ALL NEW Saturday Snapshots.

Don't worry, it hasn't changed too much. 

However, I am only now giving you clues (via photo and word play) to the artists.

How on earth do you work out the songs then?

Well, in classic My Top Ten style, all the songs are linked by a common theme. So if you can work out the link... you can work out the rest of the songs.

For example, if one artist was Queen, and another was the Dandy Warhols, you might conclude that the link was Bohemian Songs... and then try to work out the remaining songs from that. (Don't worry, I tried to think of another eight Bohemian songs and rapidly ran out of gas... so hopefully the links will be a little easier than that.)

This will mean that the same artists pop up from time to time, but I'll try to vary the clues when that happens.

OK. Hopefully that all makes sense.

Name the ten artists below... work out the link... and guess the appropriate songs.

Let's give it a go... 

10. Use what!?!

9. Wireless boss.

8. Biblical king, girl in the ring.

7. Mad king chooses Gerry's street.

6. Forces awhirl.

5. University head released from prison.

4. I can see your underwear!

3. Pork scratchings?

2. Not a Lott.

1. Known for causing an uproar.

Answers - and link - tomorrow morning.

Happy New Year, everyone.