Listening Post #39: Born To Cry

Dion - Runaround Sue

I was a big fan of Dion DiMucci as a teenager after hearing Runaround Sue used in an episode of Moonlighting. Soon after that, I discovered his 80s output, including the excellent 1989 album Yo Frankie and it's big single...

Dion - Written On The Subway Wall

A little later, I fell for the allure of perhaps his greatest record, the Phil Spector-produced Born To Be With You... although Dion had such a hell of a time working on that record that he later disowned it. The curse of Phil.

Dion - Born To Be With You

I've even checked in with Dion's 21st Century recordings, including collaborations with some of his biggest fans...

Dion with Patti Scialfa and Bruce Springsteen - Angel In The Alleyways

Dion is 86 now. He's been releasing music for almost 7 decades. I've been listening to his songs for 4 decades. And yet, I only heard this one for the first time a couple of weeks back.

It's a belter.

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.

Snapshots #241: A Top Ten Wandering Songs

Yesterday Henry, today Bridget. (Jane has featured here before.) Two Fondas, because they rhyme with Wander. And because I couldn't find a picture of either Wanda Jackson or Elizabeth Olsen holding a camera. 

Anyway, here are ten great songs to wander to...

10. Sounds like nobility is only down the road in the local municipality.

The Earl is just in town.

Justin Townes Earl - Wanderin'

(Don't even start me on the Queen making Doncaster a city but not Huddersfield. Don't even start me.)

9. Et tu, dosh?

U2, Cash?

Johnny Cash & U2 - The Wanderer

8. Shroud + Cane.

A pall and a birch.

Paul Burch - Wander

7. Shorn in Syria.

Anagram!

Harry Nilsson - As I Wander Lonely

6. What snails use to play golf.

Slow Club - Wanderer Wandering

5. Jamaican hat trick.

The Kingston Trio - The Wanderer 

4. Pink planet.

If you like your steak pink...

The Rare Earth - Born To Wander

3. Almost makes me want to Call Saul...

Jimmy McGill, aka Saul Goodman, in the best show on TV at the moment, is played by Bob Odenkirk. Which almost sounds like...

The Obernkirchen Children's Choir - The Happy Wanderer

Don't laugh. That was in the UK charts for SIX months back in 1954.

2. Sounds like half a Eurovision winner.

Celine Dion won Eurovision for Switzerland in 1988... even though she's Canadian. 

Dion - The Wanderer

1. Jeans make him paranoid.

Lee Jeans make him a Paranoid Android... like Marvin.

Lee Marvin - Wandrin' Star

Do I know where hell is? Hell is in hello. Heaven is goodbye for ever, it's time for me to go...

...but I'll be back here next Saturday, because I've never seen a Snapshot that didn't look better looking back.

My Top Ten Phil Spector Songs

 

Far more column inches would be devoted to Phil Spector's musical legacy this week... had the rest of his life been so filled with ignominy. 

How often do you get to use a word like ignominy? The chance to do so was the final tipping point in my decision to compile this Top Ten. Little Stevie Van Zandt put it best earlier this week...

RIP Phil Spector. A genius irredeemably conflicted, he was the ultimate example of the Art always being better than the Artist, having made some of the greatest records in history based on the salvation of love while remaining incapable of giving or receiving love his whole life.

Let's put aside Spector the man and remember instead some of his finest creations...

10. Leonard Cohen - Death Of A Ladies Man

A much-derided album, described by Rolling Stone as "the world's most flamboyant extrovert producing and arranging the world's most fatalist introvert" and by Leonard Cohen himself as "grotesque". It's not among my favourite Lenny records and parts of it plain don't work, but the title track (and a couple of others) are mesmerising if you devote enough time to them.

9. The Teddy Bears - To Know Him Is To Love Him

Recorded when Spector was 19, just out of high school. His first record... and a template of everything to come.

8. George Harrison - My Sweet Lord

Some people don't like this song because of the whole "Krishna, Krishna" bit. Others call to attention the court case where Harrison was sued for "subconsciously" ripping off He's So Fine by The Chiffons. But people are generally wrong, I find, and this song never grows old.

7. Dion - Born To Be With You

The forgotten entry in Spector's back catalogue, yet still achingly beautiful. I remember reading a review of this album when it was re-issued in 2001, hunting it down and falling head over heels in love. 

6. The Ramones - Do You Remember Rock n Roll Radio? / Baby, I Love You 

Quite the odd ones out in this list (apart from Lenny), and handguns were pulled... but I'm betting the Ramones gave him as much shit as he gave them. 

5.  The Righteous Brothers - You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling / Unchained Melody

If aliens picked up transmissions from earth and these two songs were what they heard, they'd leave us alone because clearly we are a superior civilization. 

4. Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)

OK, the whole album.

A Christmas record for those of us who hate Christmas.

3. Ike & Tina Turner - River Deep, Mountain High

If the intro to this stone cold classic doesn't send a shudder of joy down your entire body: I'm sorry, you're not alive.

2. The Crystals - Then He Kissed Me / Da Doo Ron Ron / He's A Rebel

Imagine having these three songs in your back catalogue and not being as big a household name as The Beatles, The Stones or David Bowie? There is no justice in the world. 

1. The Ronettes - Be My Baby / Baby, I Love You

Sheer pop perfection.

Positive Songs For Negative Times #23: Sam Cooke

Before turning 81 in a few weeks time, Dion DiMucci has just released his latest record, Blues With Friends, a duets album teaming him with a fine selection of collaborators - Bruce, Patti and Stevie Van Zandt, Van The Man, Jeff Beck, even Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top. At this stage in his career, you might expect him to rely on covers or re-recordings of old songs, but Dion wrote most of these tunes fresh, and this one in particular stopped me in my tracks when I heard it last week.

Song For Sam Cooke (Here In America) tells the story of when Dion went on tour with Sam Cooke in the 60s and considering what's going on in the world right now, it's the most relevant tune I've heard all week. Paul Simon duets here, though it's really just harmonies, and he doesn't appear in the video.

We travelled this land back in nineteen sixty-two

We played the places that were home to me and you

We drove to Memphis, we rocked a set

We walked the streets at night and smoked a cigarette

Here in America

There was so much I didn't know

About the way that life could go

Here in America

Down the block I saw the people stop and stare

You did your best to make a Yankee boy aware

I never thought about the colour of your skin

I never worried 'bout the hotel I was in

Here in America

But the places I could stay

They all made you walk away

You were the man who earned the glory and the fame

But cowards felt that they could call you any name

You were the star, standing in the light

That won you nothing on a city street at night

Here in America

Do you want to know the craziest thing about my reaction to this song? I think it's Dion's version of This Is America by Childish Gambino, one of the only contemporary hits to make it into my record collection in many a year. I know their messages are different and they come from very different places, but they have more in common than just the title.

You can't have equality without also recognising diversity.

Saturday Snapshots #136 - The Answers

If you're going out this weekend, don't go out. I mean, you can go out, but don't. Stay alert. If you're going out. Or if you're not. But don't go out. Even though you don't have to stay indoors. So you can go out. But don't go out.

Hopefully this week's Saturday Snapshots weren't quite so confusing...


10. Oy, Arnold (on Dover Beach), aka Ralph-like.

"Aka Ralph-like" was an anagram.

Matthew Arnold wrote On Dover Beach. (What? I'm an English teacher.)

Karel Fialka - Hey, Matthew!

I have to admit, that song used to annoy the shit out of me when I was a teenager. What kind of pop star gets his bloody kid to witter all through the song? I kind of appreciate it a little more now I'm a dad.

9. Crowned on 42, 59 & 110... sounds like a heartbreaker.

Dionne Warwick sang Heartbreaker.

42nd, 59th and 110th are all streets in New York (musical ones, at that).

Dion - King of the New York Streets

(Great to hear that again.)

8. Saint, on the Sabbath, brings deity down to earth.

Joan of Arc meets the lead singer of Black Sabbath...

Joan Osborne - (What If God Was) One Of Us

7. CIA junior headquarters finds a brilliant new hobby (with Hermits).

The headquarters of the CIA is in Langley, Virginia. The junior HQ would presumably be in a high school.

A brilliant new hobby would be getting into something good, just like Herman's Hermits sang.

The Langley Schools Music Project - I'm Into Something Good

(If you've never heard that before, I'd recommend giving the whole album a spin.)

6. Johnny shouts Hey! to the lorry driver and causes a crash that sounds like where #10 came from.

Johnny Cash shouted Hey Porter!

The lorry driver is a wagoner.

The singer in #10 sounds like a Carol. Where might he come from? What if there was a crash there?

Porter Wagoner - The Caroll County Accident

5. A Wainwright double negative.

Rufus was the Wainwright.

Ain't Nobody was the double negative.

Rufus (yes, yes, with Chaka Khan, yes) - Ain't Nobody

4. Pours... just like the guy below.

The guy below was in Orange Juice.

Oran 'Juice' Jones - The Rain

3. Swollen Cyndi lures rats with romance.

"Swollen Cyndi" is an unfortunate anagram.

The Pied Piper lured the rats away with magic, not love.

Edwyn Collins - The Magic Piper Of Love

2. Mr. White's nightwear identifies #1 missing person.

Mr. White was Harvey Keitel. In his PJs.

The missing person in the #1 photo this week was the Beach Boy who wasn't a Wilson brother (he was their cousin): Mike Love. Al Jardine was also missing, in case you're a pedant.

PJ Harvey - This Is Love

1. Triple your enjoyment on the shore, lads.

I'm sure this one was pretty self-explanatory...

Stay indoors until next Saturday when there will be more Snapshots heading your way. Unless you're going out...