Snapshots #243: A Top Ten Vietnam Songs

Many, many songs were written about the Vietnam war. Here are ten of the best...

10. Tough clue, starring Nathan Fillion.

Nathan Fillion was the star of the TV show Castle. Which you might have found a little hard.

Paul Hardcastle - 19 

9. Looks like tiny blokes.

Minutemen refers to the unit of time, but it could also mean they were really small.

Minutemen - Viet Nam

8. A riddle, found in Dover.

A Jimmy Riddle, found among the white cliffs.

Jimmy Cliff - Vietnam

7. Always had wet hair.

Because raindrops keep falling on his head.

BJ Thomas - Vietnam

6. Barbie & Ken do Manhattan.

The New York Dolls - Vietnamese Baby

5. An Innocent Baby.

Grows up to become An Innocent Man.

Billy Joel - Goodnight Saigon

4. Goes well with a sledge hammer or an ice pick. 

Cold Chisel - Khe Sahn

That's a great tune.

3. Elton & Bruce prepare for fishing.

Elton John & Bruce Lee get their hooks ready.

John Lee Hooker - I Don't Wanna Go To Vietnam

2. How do you know when a duck is getting old?

It's bill withers, of course.

Bill Withers - I Can't Write Left-Handed

1. He's representing cubs.

"Representing cubs" is another beaut from God's Gift To Anagrams...

Bruce Springsteen - Born In The USA

This Is The End, beautiful friends. But there will be more next Saturday...

Saturday Snapshots #243

I've been on Holiday this week, but I'm heading back home today.

Luckily, I prepared you one of these before I went away...

Identify the ten artists below and what connects their songs.

Go!

10. Tough clue, starring Nathan Fillion.

9. Looks like tiny blokes.

8. A riddle, found in Dover.

7. Always had wet hair.

6. Barbie & Ken do Manhattan.

5. An Innocent Baby.

4. Goes well with a sledge hammer or an ice pick. 

3. Elton & Bruce prepare for fishing.

2. How do you know when a duck is getting old?

1. He's representing cubs.

2022 Contenders / 1966 Contenders: Judy

Until recently, all I knew from Judy Collins were her 70s hits: Amazing Grace (which charted in 1970, 1971 and 1972) and Send In The Clowns (and I preferred the Streisand version). And then, within the space of a month, I heard two tracks that opened my ears...

The first track was this, from 1966, when she was but 27 years old. It's a performance that places her firmly in feisty Nancy Sinatra territory. It is a cover, but cleaner and slightly less dated than the original duet by Richard & Mimi Farina. And it makes me smile a lot more than Amazing Grace...

The second track was this, from the year 2022, written by Judy herself, now in her 83rd year and currently on tour across North America and Europe. And her voice sounds better than ever. This one makes me smile too, for very different reasons.

Positive Songs For Negative Times #70: Sunset

Possibly because my previous blog was called Sunset Over Slawit, I have a whole folder on my computer of photographs I've taken of sunsets. They're not always that easy to capture, and often result in lens flare, but I quite like the effects despite that.

Jack Adkins was a touring troubadour back in the 80s, mixing Americana with surf rock. He never made it big and retired to work in computers in the 90s, but left behind some good tunes. Best of all being this beauty...

Memory Mixtape #16: Reighton Gap - A Correction

In a previous edition of Memory Mixtape, I wrote about the bungalow we often holidayed at when I was a kid. It was in Reighton Gap, near Filey, and I just found some more photos. It seems that even at a young age, I recognised this as a special place I'd want to remember, and wasted a few precious shots on my holiday film roll to immortalise it. Good job, as the bungalow (and all those surrounding it) was bulldozed a few years later so the land could be used to put static caravans on.

When I last wrote about it, I said "the owner was a lady called Mrs. Kershaw, and I think she worked with my dad", but after a recent conversation with my parents, I have reason to correct that. Apparently it was Mum who knew Mrs. Kershaw. I'll let her explain...

"My friend Mina used to work for a butcher, delivering meat. I helped her sometimes. Mrs. Kershaw was a friend of the butcher, and she let Mina stay at the bungalow one time, but Mina took her dogs and they made the place smell, so Mrs. Kershaw fell out with her and wouldn't let her stay there again. We didn't take dogs on holiday with us, so we kept in with her."

So there you have it. Recorded here, as with so many of these things, to help me remember when I'm older still. 

That's my mum in the doorway. The bungalow lives on, but only in my memory. I also remember that they had an electric fire in the fireplace, with a poker next to it. Because I was used to poking the coal fire at home, I wondered what would happen if I poked the electric fire with the poker. Answer: I blew up the fuse box, but amazingly didn't electrocute myself. Sparks did fly though, and not just from the fire...