Snapshots #347: A Top Ten Tree Tunes

Ten tunes named after different types of trees. Did any remain a mys-tree?

10. French Maid caught in defensive dealings.

Joan was the Maid of Orleans. I'm unsure as to whether she ever traded her armour.

Joan Armatrading - Willow

9. Marconi holds it up, like Rod.

Marconi made the radio. Rod Argent told you to Hold Your Head Up.

Radiohead - Fake Plastic Trees

8. To the point, in an apple meadow.

To be frank, he's in an i-field.

Frank Ifield - Angry At The Big Oak Tree

7. They're so blue.

If you'd asked me before I wrote this clue, I'd have said indigo was more purple than blue. Iffypedia tells me otherwise...

Indigo Girls - Cedar Tree

6. Heard on the Kid Jenson Show, and found in Dalek Management Journals. 

Heard on the Kid Jenson Show, and found in Dalek Management Journals. 

Jens Lekman - Maple Leaves

Or you could have...

Jens Lekman - The Cherry Trees Are Still In Blossom

5. Wish You Were Here, on the Wear?

Judith Chalmers presented Wish You Were Here? I'm not sure if she ever got to Durham...

Judith Durham - Olive Tree

4. He does everything he can.

That's a line from the song he was named after...

Dr. Robert - Sycamore Tree

3. Royalty for fences, now banned in the UK.

I only just discovered that creosote had been banned. Another icon of my youth banished. What next, asbestos?

King Creosote - I'm Up A Plum Tree 

2. Junior nags.

Foals are young horses. But you knew that.

Foals - Birch Tree

1. Discovered in Indiana, and within the Crossroads Motel. 

Indiana, and within the Crossroads Motel. 

Diana Ross - Theme From Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To?)

There were plenty more I could have gone with, some of which were a bit too obvious for you clever clogs...

Tony Orlando & Dawn - Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree

Glenn Miller - Don't Sit Under The Apple Tree

Fools Garden - Lemon Tree

The Black Crowes - Cypress Tree

Nick Cave - Lime Tree Arbour

Van Morrison - Redwood Tree

More Snapshots next Saturday.

Snapshots #230: A Top Ten "All The Way..." Songs

It's Sunday. Let's Carrey on with the answers to yesterday's Snapshots.

Ten songs that go All The Way...

10. Modestly morphing into someone else.

"Modestly morphing" was an anagram.

The Mighty Lemon Drops - All The Way

9. Questionnaire may contain the answers too. 

Questionnaire may contain the answers too. 

REM - All The Way To Reno (You're Gonna Be A Star)

8. When Homer mixes his drinks, he uses this to the measure the shots.

Simpson stirs a gill (measure of drinks).

Sturgill Simpson - Turtles All The Way Down

7. The King's wives.

The King only had one wife...

The Priscillas - (All The Way To) Holloway

6. Rippling berets.

Raspberry ripples on Raspberry berets.

The Raspberries - Go All The Way

5. I am Jordana Grant.

Anagram!

Joan Armatrading - All The Way From America

4. Graceful antelopes.

The Impalas - Sorry (I Ran All The Way Home)

3. Mulder & Rocky.

Fox Mulder & Sly Stallone.

Sly Fox - Let's Go All The Way

2. Formerly The Doc Thomas Group.

Then they changed their name to...

Mott The Hoople - All The Way From Memphis

1. Give him just a little more time.

The Chairmen of the Board sang Give Me Just A Little More Time.

The Chairman of the Board was...

Frank Sinatra - All The Way

Possibly my all time favourite Frank tune. His voice has never sounded better.

More next week. And in case I don't see you: good afternoon, good evening and good night! 

Guest Post Monday: Top Ten Zero Songs

Unable to cope with a Zero edition of the Hot 100 myself, I put the idea out to tender.

First to jump at the opportunity was Charity Chic, who spend a large part of his working week compiling the excellent Top Ten below. He didn't supply a Zero band though, so I chose Remy Zero, who once recorded the theme tune to young-Superman-based TV show Smallville.

Remy Zero - Save Me

I'm running this Guest Post today - rather than on Thursday - because it leads it nicely into the final edition of the Hot 100 tomorrow. Join me then for the full countdown.

In the meantime, take it away, Charity Chic...

Top 10 - Zero Songs

By way of appreciation for Rol’s epic Hot 100 series, I give you a Top 10 of Zero Songs...

10 - The BoomtownRats - Wind Chill Factor (Minus Zero)

Taken from “the difficult third album “ 1979’s The Fine Art of Surfacing, it pre-dates Band Aid, meaning that St Bob was slightly less annoying than he later became.

(Actually, I love that album. - Rol.)

9 - TV 21 - This isZero

TV21 were a post punk band from Edinburgh. Named after a Gerry Anderson comic. Another impressive piece of trivia is that guitarist Ally Palmer is responsible for  curating the Scottish football magazine Nutmeg. I suspect Rol will be aware of the first trivia reference but totally oblivious to the second.

(How right you are. - Rol.)

8 - Bob Dylan - LoveMinus Zero/No Limit

One of the lesser known songs off his 1965 album Bringing it All Back Home.

Described as a hallucinatory allegiance, a poetic turn that exposes the paradoxes of love 

As you would expect, swiftly name checked by The Swede.

7 - Sonny Boy Williamson II - Nine Below Zero

Yes, there were two. The original was John Lee Curtis with number two who is featured here being Alex Miller or Aleck Ford. All very confusing.

(Yeah, you lost me. I'm going to ask George to explain that sentence to me. - Rol.)

Nine Below Zero is also the name of an English Blues band who formed in 1977 and who I saw play on a couple of occasions at Strathclyde Students Union.

6- Isobel Campbell -Below Zero

A lovely song from the album There Is No Other, the first solo album for 14 years from the former Belle and Sebastian chanteuse and Mark Lanegan collaborator. A welcome return.

5 - Yeah Yeah Yeahs -Zero

The opening track from It’s Blitz the third album by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs from 2010.

It was also the first single from the album.

4 - Jill Jackson -Back to Zero

The title track from the 2011 debut solo album by Paisley lass and former Speedway frontwoman Jill Jackson, an artist who I know that Rol has a bit of a soft spot for.

(Indeed. - Rol.)

3 - Public Enemy  - She Watches Channel Zero ?!

A splendid racket and a splendid diatribe by Public Enemy from their seminal album It takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. As topical now as it was on its release in 1988.

In the words of Chuck D...

I don't think I can handle

She goes channel to channel

Cold lookin' for that hero

She watch channel zero

2 - Joan Armatrading  - Down to Zero

A seriously underrated artist . A track from her eponymous 3rd album from 1976 which also contains the brilliant Love and Affection. The compilation album Track Record is an ideal introduction to her work.

1 - Elvis Costello -Less Than Zero 

No shocks, no surprises. None of the others come close.

I suspect that from the get go most of you would have had this down as the number one

The 1977 debut single from the debut album My Aim is True which introduced the world to the prodigious talent that is Elvis Costello.

Thanks for taking up the baton, CC. You get no argument from me on any of those, especially not the worthy (and only!) Number One.

Of course, that's not to stop anyone else coming up with a second list of Zero Songs, if they think they've got 'em. The doors are always open...

Saturday Snapshots #40 - The Answers

No!


Sleep!


Till Saturday Snapshots have all been answered.

Low attendance yesterday - I guess SS can't compete with the football. I think Charity Chic just nabbed the win. Half a point ahead of Lynchie. And Alyson... I think... scraped past the line first last week.

Thanks for playing...


10. God, the German trees in France are all conifers.

Tree in German is baum. Conifers are evergreen. The Normans came from France.

God is the spirit in the sky.

Norman Greenbaum - Spirit In The Sky

9. Emergency! There's knaves in the cellar!

Knaves are Jacks.

Basement Jaxx - Red Alert!

8. Is my belle surprised? I'll ask her.

Michelle is my belle, according to the Beatles. Does that shock you?

"My wife's going to the biggest city in America's northern most state."

"Anchorage?"

"I'll ask her..."

(Alaska.)

Badum-tish.

Michelle Shocked - Anchorage

7. These guys certainly don't own a Blue Nile album. And their disco is full of cotton wool.

Hats is an album by The Blue Nile.

If you wrap something in cotton wool, you are keeping it safe.

Men Without Hats - Safety Dance

6. Bah! Clomp is not a man.

Bah clomp is an anagram of Lambchop.

Lambchop - Is A Woman

5. Morrissey's window cleaner dines with bright kings.

Morrissey's window cleaner was Roy('s) Keen.

Keane - Sovereign Light Café

(Look, this is a good song. It's not his fault he looks like a young David Cameron.)

4. Saint swaps chainmail and dumps January's aviator.

Saint Joan is trading her armour.

January was a hit for Pilot.

Joan Armatrading - Drop The Pilot

3. B.A. hires The Cars for dim bulbs.

B.A. was Mr. T. If he hired a band he would be a booker. MGs were cars. The Cars were a band. Dim bulbs would be...

Booker T & The MGs - Green Onions

2. Little David Bowie's noisy band RSVP.

David Bowie was DB, with a little d. Decibels measure noise.

RSVP is Répondez s'il vous plait.

The dBs - Write Back

(One for Brian!)

1. Playgirl fantasies on Martha's beach run from the barber.

If Playboys liked bunny girls, presumably Playgirls would like Bunnymen.

Martha's beach was Echo.

Spare us the cutter!



You've Gotta Fight For Your Right to play Saturday Snapshots again next week...