Snapshots #422: Songs About Arts & Crafts Supplies

A top notch - and very tricky - edition of Snapshots this weekend. Many thanks to C from Sun Dried Sparrows for her hard work. C, of course, is an artist (as is Ron Wood and today's header image, multi-disciplinary artist Yayoi Kusama). Perhaps that was the best clue to this week's link... 

15. Viv Daisyland is confused.

 

Viv Daisyland is an anagram of David Sylvian.

David Sylvian: The Ink In The Well

14. Destination Saturday?

If you were to go to David Bowie’s Drive In Saturday, you would be At The Drive In.

At The Drive In: One Armed Scissor

13. Not ewe twos!

 

Not ewe = ram, not twos = ones, put them together and you get the Ramones.

The Ramones: Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue

Extra kudos to C for finding a picture of the Ramones where they don't immediately look like the Ramones. From past experience, I know that's a tough one!

12.  A rabbit follows an Ant.

 

Harvey the rabbit (from the film) comes after Ant (McPartlin) who was P J in P J & Duncan / Byker Grove.

P J Harvey: White Chalk

Ditto Polly Jean, actually.

11. Little and fluffy.

 

The Orb sang about little fluffy clouds

Clouds: Watercolour Days

10. A distant Pet Shop Boy.

 

Chris Lowe is a Pet Shop Boy, if he’s distant he’s far, put them together for Chris FARlowe.

Chris Farlowe: Yesterday’s Paper

9. Picasso’s identical friends.

 

Jean Cocteau was a friend of Picasso and twins can be identical.

Cocteau Twins: Wax and Wane

8. Orion and Gogmagog, perhaps.

 

Orion is from Greek mythology and Gogmagog is from English folklore - they might be giants!

They Might Be Giants: Pencil Rain 

7. Gilded French software program.

 

Gold fr app….

Goldfrapp: Clay

6. Manacled in the Queen of Hearts’ garden.

 

Alice in Wonderland in chains…

Alice In Chains: Scalpel

5.  Pot it or be in it.

 

You can pot the pink, or be in the pink.

Pink: Glitter In The Air

4.  A power station for Walter.

 

‘Kraftwerk’ means power station in Walter’s native tongue!

Kraftwerk: The Model

Well, you learn something new every day!

3. Sandi and the disgraced Duke add email.

 

Sandi THOM and the disgraced Duke of YORK add E….

Thom Yorke: The Eraser

2. Reorganise!  Win a kinder cow!

 

Reorganise ‘win a kinder cow’ to spell Dionne Warwick (anagram).

Dionne Warwick: Paper Mache

1. Ruddy regal frippery!

Robert Fripp was in King (regal) Crimson (ruddy)

King Crimson: Frame by Frame

More Snapshots next Saturday - but nothing quite as inspired, I'm afraid to say.

Snapshots #388: Songs About Roads, Streets, Avenues etc.

This is Mike Skinner. Mike's looking rather sad because he's lost his camera. Still, he seemed like the ideal person to introduce today's answers... twelve songs about Streets... whatever we might call them.

Oh, and in case you were wondering why Clint Eastwood appeared here yesterday... well, he was The Man With No Name. And I'm sure you all remember what Bono told us? 

12. Three merry old souls.

A rock n roll standard, originally recorded by... 

The King Cole Trio - Route 66

11. Clint was always talking to them.

Clint talked to the Trees.

Trees - Road

10. Furious & Cannon look for their other halves.

Fast & Furious + Cannon & Ball...

Fastball - The Way

9. Don't look at that streaker! He's not Abel.

Ray Stevens advised "Don't look, Ethel!" Abel's brother was Cain.

Ethel Cain - Thoroughfare

8. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you.

That's a blessing, that is.

The Blessing - Highway 5

7. Pottery, embroidery, macrame.

Three examples of craftwork.

Kraftwerk - Autobahn

(All 23 minutes of it, just for George.)

6. Confused prats retested.

"Prats retested" was an anagram.

Peter Sarstedt - Boulevard 

5. He say yes!

"He say yes!"

The Man from Delmonte - Drive Drive Drive

4. Fancy playing badminton, Osborn? Mixed doubles?

"Badminton, Osborn" was a mixed up anagram of...

Tom Robinson Band - 2-4-6-8 Motorway

3. Mariah Carey loves to break the rules... but she causes twice the commotion!

MC is a rebel, but gets in double the trouble.

Rebel MC & Double Trouble - Street Tuff

2. Hercules, Colorado, Stag.

Three types of beetle.

The Beatles - Penny Lane

Other roads were available, including long and winding ones... but the Beatles were here for the lane today.

1. Dawn rises over the Yellow River.

Tony Orlando was in Dawn. Christie sang Yellow River.

Tony Christie - Avenues and Alleyways

The road leads back to Snapshots next Saturday...

Saturday Snapshots #79 - The Answers

This quiz is automatic...

It's systematic...
It's hydromatic...
Why, it's Saturday Snapshots!

I had to use a spreadsheet to work out the winner yesterday, and I'm still not entirely sure I got it right. I think Lynchie just took it, ahead of a sterling performance from Chris, with Charity Chic coming in third, but only after being awarded bonus points for, as George put it, "showing off. Alyson, Rigid Digit*, George and Ramone666 hoovered up the rest.

(*By the way, if any of you haven't yet read Rigid Digit's latest post, I recommend you do so immediately... it struck a lot of chords with me.)

Thanks for once again proving his quiz has got plenty of Razzmatazz! Here are this week's answers...


10. What do football players say to the ref at the start of a match? Clan named ? loses an atom.

Question loses its last ion.

A Tribe Called Quest - Can I Kick It?

9. Oz tum, eh? Too much gambling. Don't put your last coin in the jukebox...

Anagram + high rolling.

Zoe Muth & The Lost Higher Rollers - If I Can't Trust You With A Quarter, How Can I Trust You With My Heart?

8. Sons of Galveston express surprise at your departure.

Jimmy Webb (aka God) wrote Galveston. These are his boys.

The Webb Brothers - I Can't Believe You're Gone

7. Burt's sick wine ends up enclosed with small shoes, eggs and matches.

Burt Reynolds drinks sick wine or Mal Vina, see?

Malvina Reynolds - Little Boxes

6. Found at the zoo, between the friendly antelopes and other pachyderms.

A friendly antelope would be similar to a tame impala.

The biggest pachyderm is an elephant.

Tame Impala - Elephant

Why couldn't all their other songs be as good as this one?

5. Never-ending efficiency minus 100.

If you're efficient, you're pretty slick. Minus a C(entury) = Slik.

Slik - Forever & Ever

4. McFly eats half an ice cream near the Mexican border.

Marty McFly.

Baskin & Robbins.

Marty Robbins - El Paso

Finally finished watching Breaking Bad last week. Yeah, only ten years behind everybody else. This tune features heavily in one of the closing episodes.

3. Thankful when it gets dark and you can hear the Greenwich Time Signal even though you're on your way to see the satellites?

Tortuous clue that. When you're glad it's night, you can hear the pips from GMT, and you're taking the late train to see the Georgia Satellites?

Gladys Knight & The Pips - Midnight Train To Georgia

2. Think things... Average: 5.6 feet, 650 kg.

When I think things, I wonder stuff.

Cows are, according to the internet, on average 5.6 feet, 650 kg.

This was my favourite clue of the week.

The Wonder Stuff - The Size Of A Cow

1. Is sculpture art or a cheesy job?

Kraft make cheese. Not very nice cheese, but cheese all the same.

Sculpture is about making models.

Jobs are work. (Horrible, in most cases.)



I've got chills - they're multiplying... because Saturday Snapshots will be back next week.

My Top Ten Robot Songs

10. Arling & Cameron - Dirty Robot

Covered by The Lemonheads featuring Kate Moss, which might have worked... had it come without the "featuring Kate Moss" bit.

9. The Aliens - Robot Man

The artists formerly known as The Beta Band with their anthem to robot dancing.

8. Go Kart Mozart - I Talk With Robot Voice

Lawrence (of Felt & Denim fame) returned earlier this year with a new album from his third band, including this wonderful hymn to alienation which has him bemoaning his uselessness at humanoid relationships before guiltily confessing: "Yet I admit I'm still susceptible to vaginas." When was the last time Gary Barlow wrote a lyric like that?

7. Guided By Voices - Tropical Robots

It's only 52 seconds long, but it's still quite lovely.

6. Kraftwerk - The Robots

The track which inspired this...

5. Daft Punk - Robot Rock,

...which in turn inspired this...

4. Flight Of The Conchords - Robots

Finally, robotic beings rule the world! The humans are dead...

Binary solo - 000000100001110000111000111111100001010!

3. The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots

Those evil-natured robots
they're programmed to destroy us
she's gotta be strong to fight them
so she's taking lots of vitamins

2. Robyn - Fembot

Once you gone tech you ain't never going back

Robyn's got robots on the brain. See also Robotboy and The Girl And The Robot (featuring Röyksopp).

1. Radiohead - Paranoid Android

I remember when this was released, the record company promoted it as Radiohead's answer to Bohemian Rhapsody. I still think that comparison holds true. Like Bo Rap, there's far more going on here than one song can usually hold... and yet, it works.

Back in my Championship Hearts playing days, I went by the moniker 'Marvin': the original Paranoid Android. Life - don't talk to me about life...



Those were the songs that get me robot-dancing... which one gives you a binary solo?

My Top Ten Cycling Songs

For Sir Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins, Victoria Pendleton and the rest of Britain's amazing Olympic cycling team...

10. Nazareth - My White Bicycle

Yes, Nazareth.

9. Katie Melua - Nine Million Bicycles

Yes, Nazareth and Katie Melua - in the same Top Ten. Deal with it!

My favourite youtube comment about this video is: "I bet she needs to wash her hair now."

8. Anita Ward - Ring My Bell

Because I knew there'd be complaints if I didn't include it. Personally, I'd have rather have this.

7. The Maccabees - Bicycles

6. The Decemberists - Apology Song

Colin Meloy's apology is to his friend Steven. Colin was supposed to be looking after Steve's bike while Steve was in England but he didn't do a very good job. Somebody nicked it.

The bike was called Madeleine.

5. Elbow - Puncture Repair

4. Tom Waits - Broken Bicycles

Broken bicycles
Old busted chains
Rusted handle bars
Out in the rain.
Somebody must
Have an orphanage for
These things that nobody
Wants any more.

3. Kraftwerk - Tour De France

2. Ballboy - Olympic Cyclist

I should really have included this on my Top Ten Olympic Songs, but the truth is, despite having a fair chunk of Ballboy's back catalogue in my music collection, I hadn't heard this track until The Vinyl Villain featured it last week. Thanks, JC.

1. Queen - Bicycle Race

Yes, the video might appear sexist to our enlightened 21st Century eyes, but in its defence:

1) It was the 70s.

2) It was the brainchild of the gayest man in rock. (Freddie, I love you.)

3) Steve probably loves it.



No, I couldn't bring myself to include The Pushbike Song by The Mixtures. Give me a break, will you?

Apart from that... which song rings your bell?