Celebrity Jukebox #61: Todd Snider

I write a lot of these posts. Every week or so, another famous name takes the long walk and I try to commemorate them with a spot on the jukebox. Anyone who's made any kind of impression on my life - singers, actors, writers, comic book artists... I try to say something about all of them.

Every now and then though, someone passes who makes a bigger impact than the rest. 

I've been a fan of Todd Snider for about thirty years now. I've bought every record he's made and downloaded all the free live versions with storytelling intros that he gives away on his website. Todd was a witty, erudite and astute songwriter, and from everything I read about him, I got the impression he was a damn fine human being too. He's been suffering chronic pain for a while now as a result of spinal stenosis, but he's kept touring and making records (I got his latest, High, Lonesome & Then Some just a couple of weeks back). Late last week he ended up in hospital with pneumonia... and he didn't make it out. He was 59 years old.

I'm not going looking for songs with Todd's name in the lyrics... because I'm pretty sure I won't find any. Instead, I'm just going to post some of my favourite Todd Snider songs. As far as I'm concerned, the guy was a legend... 

Todd Snider - Conservative Christian, Right Wing, Republican, Straight, White, American Male

Todd Snider - War On Terror

Todd Snider - Agnostic Preacher's Lament

Todd Snider - Vinyl Records

Todd Snider - My Generation (Part 2)

Todd Snider - Beer Run

Todd Snider - Rocket Fuel

Amy Rigby & Todd Snider - Til The Wheels Fall Off

Todd also introduced me to The Talkin' Blues. He wasn't the first to do 'em, but he was the first I heard...

Todd Snider - Talkin' Seattle Grunge Rock Blues

As Todd mentions above, that one was recently covered by Tom Jones...

Tom Jones - Talkin' Reality Television Blues

But this one will always be my favourite... makes me smile every time I hear it. Even today.

Rest in peace, Todd. You were an Alright Guy.

Cancel Culture Club #4: Brown Sugar

Welcome back to the Cancel Culture Club, where a distinguished committee of leading lights from the blogosphere (and me) debate old songs with attitudes that now seem rather suspect to modern ears.

Is this week's offering our most contentious contender yet?

I think I'll let Alyson from the Jukebox Time Machine do the introductions, as she's much better at it than I am. Alyson... What's It All About?

Sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. A phrase we’ve all heard of which could almost have been coined for the Rolling Stones. I’m just about old enough to remember both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones from the mid-1960s, when we saw them on telly in black and white. I think I fell a little in love with baby-faced Paul McCartney, but I was always a bit unsure about the Rolling Stones as they exuded something I couldn’t possibly have understood back then. As I got (a lot) older, I realised most of their lyrics referenced sex, drugs or both which brings us on to their song Brown Sugar from 1971, the song up for debate this time.

It seems Mick Jagger wrote the lyrics to Brown Sugar whilst he was in Australia filming Ned Kelly and then in the Muscle Shoals recording studio in Alabama. Mick himself admits the song was a bit of a mishmash, with everything he was thinking of at the time thrown in. He also said he wouldn’t write those lyrics nowadays and the band no longer play the song in concert. But why?

Well, I for one, believe him when he said he was writing about what he was thinking of at the time. It is no secret that the band were habitual users of heroin back in 1971, the drug also known as Brown Sugar. He probably thought it could be a great title for a rock song whilst at the same time getting it past the censors. At this time in Australia, he was probably also missing his girlfriend of the time, Claudia Linnear, who was a very striking backing singer with Ike and Tina Turner. As a young man on the other side of the world, he was no doubt reminiscing about his sexual exploits with Ms Linnear which coincidentally fitted his Brown Sugar lyric. So far, I have no issue with the idea of the song and unlike our American cousins, I don’t think we in the UK had a particular issue in 1971 with interracial sex. If we cancelled all songs that refer to sex or drugs there would be very little left in the rock pantheon.

Once Mick arrived in Alabama to record the album Sticky Fingers, he had to finish the lyrics to Brown Sugar. Apparently, he sat with a yellow legal pad and soon came up with the song we now know. Based in a Deep South state, there is no doubt his mind would have wandered to the history of the place and what happened in the cotton plantations over a 100 years earlier. Again, there was interracial sex, but this time not of a consensual nature but that between master and slave. To be an attractive young black girl back then was a curse as you would have been repeatedly raped and forced to have sex with the white plantation owners and overseers, whilst their wives turned a blind eye. The verses of the song refer to this abhorrent practice which I really hope Mick included as a bit of a history lesson highlighting the gratification the white men got through using violence (the whip) towards a young girl.

Whatever Mick intended, the song now makes for a troubling mishmash of what happened during slavery, combined with references to the enjoyment to be had from both using heroin and having consensual sex with your black partner. A real juxtaposition. I can see how it wouldn’t go down well nowadays in the Southern States of the US. It was however a big hit in 1971 all over the world, as Keith Richards also came up with an excellent riff and rhythm for it. I’m tempted on this occasion not to cancel it but keep it in the public domain as it is still a great example of what the Rolling Stones did at their height and as a reminder of what happens when humans treat fellow humans as possessions or chattels, a practice that still goes on today.

Hope I’m not too out of kilter with everyone else although I think this one is going to be quite divisive.

Thank you, Alyson - as always, your research skills and historical perspective shine through. And yes, I do think we'll find a diversity of opinion below... yet I don't think we'll have too much disagreement overall.

The Special AKA - Racist Friend

Let's see what my old pal Martin from New Amusements thinks...

I must admit I hadn't really thought too much about, or listened too closely to, the lyrics of Brown Sugar before. I've been content to chug along with the riff, and just assumed the narrative was the singer's preference for black women, albeit expressed in sassy 70s dialogue. Maybe it was even an example of positive discrimination - after all, they "taste so good", presumably in comparison to plain old white sugar.

I do think that's an easy interpretation if you don't listen deeper - and as Alyson says above, it would be quite a button-pushing one for rock 'n' roll "bad boys" to make back in 1971.

But it's not about that, is it? It's about the slave trade, and more specifically about the rape and sexual assault of slave-traded women and girls.

The first two verses describe the trader and a house boy engaged in this, the last verse describes the narrator at it too. He attempts to explain this away, singing "I'm no school boy, but I know what I like" ... except that's no excuse.

The Rolling Stones have created a number of lyric videos for their biggest hits, and they're all up on their official YouTube channel... but there's no lyric video for this, which perhaps tells its own tale. And although it's their fourth most played song live (if setlist.fm is to be believed) they haven't done so since 2019. Maybe the band are in the process of slowly, gently cancelling it themselves? If so, that's good enough for me.

I think they probably are. Though as the legendary JC, aka The Vinyl Villain, suggests below, there are limits to self-cancellation in the world of rock 'n' roll...

I’ve long been troubled by this one. It is a ridiculously catchy tune, one that is tailor made for radio,and whose upbeat tempo seems to have a celebratory, ‘wave your hands in the air like you just don’t care’ feel about it.

But we really should care.

The lyrics are genuinely horrific as they glorify slavery, extreme violence against women and rape. 

 

What makes it worse is how much Jagger seems to be enjoying singing the lyric...almost as if he is imagining himself as being the person carrying out all these acts of degradation, while the closer of ‘how come you taste so good, just like a black girl should’ interspersed with all sorts of whooping and hollering means racial stereotyping can be added to the charge sheet.

I believe that Jagger and Richards dropped Brown Sugar from the live set lists a few years back, so in that regard they at least have acknowledged it is a problematic song. But they and their management team will still happily collect the royalties that amass from the regular airings the song gets on radio stations...no real surprise given that the music industry is riddled with hypocrites.

It's easy to be a hypocrite when money is involved. Just ask Billy Bragg in his clifftop mansion. Actually, I think he sold that... no doubt to move into something even swishier. Not that I begrudge him a penny of it, because he's a socialist of the heart.

Billy Bragg - Upfield

OK, so far we've all been in broad agreement. Though with each new comment, we seem to steer closer and closer to cancellation. Over to Walter from A Few Good Times In My Life. What do you make of Brown Sugar, Walter?

That's a really good example to talk about. I put the album on again and listened to it from start to finish, and I have to say that Brown Sugar is one of the weaker songs on this record. A simple rhythm and blues riff certainly doesn't make it one of their most popular. It's more likely the lyrics, which revolve around non-consensual sex between a guard and a slave girl.

It is well known that this type of lyrics are characteristic of Mick Jagger's attitude at that time, and he ventures into misogynistic territory that was later claimed by gangster rappers from the East Coast. 

 

And no, I can't listen to this macho bullshit anymore. Obviously, the Rolling Stones feel the same way, since they removed the song from their live repertoire a few years ago and are trying to downplay this lyrical faux pas by claiming that the song is explicitly directed against slavery.

Ultimately, this song is one reason why we're talking about cancel culture.

Well, yes. Although Walter raises a good point that we touched on last time - and that's the preponderance of sexist attitudes still to be found in a lot of far more modern tunes from the world of rap and r 'n' b. The world has changed a lot since 1971... but how much has it really changed?  

Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines

Someone else who, like Martin, hasn't really considered the lyrics of Brown Sugar until now is C from Sun Dried Sparrows...

I have a confession: I've never actually read, or given any thought at all, to the complete lyrics of 'Brown Sugar'...  Perhaps it's because the tune and chorus are so familiar and it feels as if they have been for my entire life, that it's become a musical equivalent of "a part of the furniture".  It's just there, and always has been, but it's never been that important to me either, so I couldn't actually recite it or sing along with it word for word.  And now you've brought it into focus and, rather than just listen to it again, I sat down and read the lyrics in stark isolation. And the truth is, I felt really quite bothered by it.

I understand that it's describing a scenario and, as in murder ballads and songs like Tom Jones's 'Delilah' or Tony Christie's 'I Did What I Did For Maria', we can hopefully credit the songwriters/artists with (presumably!) not actually sharing the sentiments of the characters they inhabit in the song - just as we do with books, films, plays, etc. - we get that it's not autobiographical, nor are we going to think it's ok to murder someone or whatever just because we've heard a song about it.  That's usually my reason for not wanting to cancel stuff.  

But there's something about 'Brown Sugar' which I'm finding particularly discomforting / distasteful - now that I've finally paid full attention to it, that is!  I think it's due to the combination of factors: slavery, racism, violence towards women and sexual objectification of a young black girl, punctuated with a particularly celebratory sounding chorus as our narrator appears to revel in it.  I'm trying to analyse my new feelings about it now.  Yes, perhaps that's what turns it for me - the inclusion of that chorus against the rest of it.  If it had been an obvious 'story' type song all the way through, the verses could have been bracketed as such.  But there's something about the way the chorus comes in which brings the story more up-to-date and seems to validate the sentiments, horribly.  I don't know if I'm explaining this well...I'm finding it hard to describe and, to be honest, have completely surprised myself with this immediate reaction.  All I know is, something about the song feels distinctly off now, for a multitude of reasons, but I had never even given it a second thought until asked to write about it here. So, Rol, this is quite the shock revelation for me.  Contrary to my own expectations, I'm now not sure I really want to hear it again and given the huge Stones back catalogue to delve into for more superior songs too, that wouldn't really be a great loss.  Wow, I hadn't anticipated this!  And I'll be very interested to hear everyone else's views.

It's at times like this that I feel guilty for hosting this feature. Like I've spoiled this song for C now, and wouldn't it have been better to leave her happy with her surface interpretation? Ignorance is bliss. I hate the idea that this feature will spoil a song for anyone.

Tom Jones - Delilah

This seems like a good time to bring in the Dubhed himself, Khayem... because, unlike C, he appears fully aware of what's going on in this tune... and he's ready to put the boot in!

I might as well put my cards on the table and say that, however much is made of the legendary Jagger/Richards songwriting partnership, I find Jagger’s lyrics achingly poor most of the time. When I was in my teens, I saw the Stones as has-beens with nothing to say about my life and nothing to aspire to. My opinion about their music - the first decade and a half at least - has changed considerably over time but it’s fair to say that I still don’t go to The Rolling Stones to remind myself of Jagget’s lyrical prowess. 

I never particularly liked Brown Sugar either, and that was before I stopped and listened more carefully to what Mick was singing, not just how he was singing it. The ‘ambiguity' about whether he’s referring to slavery or hard drugs or both is undermined by a heavy handed approach that even a naive would-be poet in Year 9 would think twice about committing to.

However, what defined the song for me was listening to the cassette version of Neil’s Heavy Concept Album inn 1984. Yes, as in Neil the character played by Nigel Planer in The Young Ones. The cassette offered up “extra verbal meanderings, including a 58-second ‘version’ of Brown Sugar. 

In brief, Neil comes across a couple of buskers playing an instrumental riff, and he decides to get his guitar out of his bag and join in. Neil clearly has only a vague acquaintance with the song, coming in late when the buskers sing “Brown Sugar! How come you taste so good?”. As he echoes the next line, Neil realises what he’s singing and asks the buskers to stop. “Who wrote this song?” he asks. “I thought it was supposed to be about whole foods, free range eggs…"

And since then that’s what I always think of when I hear Brown Sugar.

Musically speaking, Brown Sugar is a good song. Lyrically, it’s terrible but rather than be cancelled, it should be cited as an example of how not to tell a story!

I've never heard Neil's version before, K... but clearly it's a thing of beauty and brilliance. Thank you.

I will say though that although I don't hold Mick Jagger up as one of rock's great wordsmiths, I do think from time to time he hits gold. Three examples below...

The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter

The Rolling Stones - Sympathy For The Devil

The Rolling Stones - Street Fighting Man

OK, maybe they're not going to steal Mr. Zimmerman's Nobel Prize In Literature, but I do think that all of those could be offered up as defence against any accusations of racism that might be levelled at Mick. He always seemed a pretty socially conscious dude... 

That said, he's also written some very ill-advised lyrics... ones that make even Brown Sugar pale in comparison. Here's Our Man In Portugal... George!

The Rolling Stones, well, Jagger and Richard, have written some objectionable and quite nasty songs, such as Under My Thumb and Yesterday’s Papers. These two tracks seem to be deliberately offensive. 

Brown Sugar, in comparison, is quite absurd with its language and I wonder if “no offence was meant”. Maybe I’m wrong. It’s yet another song where I dissociate from the lyric (or go to Georgie  La-La land as my partner would say). And I say No to cancelling.

I'm surprised George didn't also mention this one, which deserved a mention back in the very first edition of the Cancel Culture Club, when we were debating Young Girl. 

The Rolling Stones - Stray Cat Blues

Going back to Martin's earlier point though... while we can't find a lyric video for Brown Sugar on the tube of you, we can find one for each of the above. 'Nuff said.

I thought it might be worth getting the opinion of an actual songwriter on this matter. So I consulted our resident troubadour, the wonderful Mr. John Medd...

Jagger’s "meagre" lyric writing? Who says?! Oh to have written *any* Stones song over the last 50 years…

Who am I to argue with an expert? But John, what about today's offering?

Brown Sugar? I love this song with every fibre of my being. Is it about cunningulus? Yep, probably. 

Woah, woah - what now?

I just sent you a screen grab.

Okay... well, that certainly opens up a whole new line of enquiry...

Is it about Heroin? Yeah, that too. Does any of this matter? Of course not. It’s the Rolling Stones. In their pomp. In their majesty. Should it be cancelled? No! However, in America, they’ve cancelled it themselves seemingly and agreed not to play it live. Street fighting men? Maybe not so these days.

Of course, being a fan of a particular artist can make us more willing to overlook their tomfoolery. As anybody who still wants to listen to The Smiths will be forced to admit. 

They Might Be Giants - Your Racist Friend

Over at No Badger Required, the estimable SWC recently held a vote on the Best Eponymous Albums Of All Time. Despite our host's own reservations (he refuses to even name the band these days, calling them only The Sm***s - I'm thinking of doing similar with Oasis, and referring to them only as *as*s from now on), their debut album came third in the countdown. I mention this to illustrate the complexities we wrestle with every time we fling open the doors of the Cancel Culture Club. 

The Smiths - Rubber Ring

Anyway, over to SWC himself...

 

Great choice.

One of my dad's favourite songs. 

Mick Jagger is on record saying that he probably wouldn't be able to write this song in today's society.  Which probably gives us some idea but I suppose back in the 70s Mick didn't remotely care about morals and all that. 

Lyrically it is suspect. Musically, the riff at the start is incredible and Charlie Watts' drumming is amongst the best you'll hear and that sax solo about 90 seconds in is incredible. 

It's also one of the best opening songs of any album anywhere.

But yeah...suspect...

SWC's comments illustrate the ambivalence we often feel when it comes to songs like this - the clash between head and heart, perhaps? And nobody summed that more perfectly this time than Swiss Adam from Bagging Area. That's why I saved his comments till the end...

The whole concept of cancelling art is problematic isn't it? Who gets to choose what's cancelled and what isn't? We usually deplore censorship. Regimes that ban art/ music/ literature are weak and authoritarian ones that are frightened of people, race, song, culture, sex, otherness. Cancelling anything is a high handed position to take. I suppose there's a difference between organic popular cancellation and government imposed cancellation but even so, the word cancel carries an ultimate weight of no return. 

Some people try to separate the artist and the art and this seems an eminently sensible position to take but even here there is a sliding scale. Gary Glitter is done and gone. Michael Jackson's songs are still played on the radio. John Cleese complains long and hard about cancel culture- usually in mass market tabloid newspapers or on the tv and comes across as a  mean spirited old duffer totally out of step with the modern world. Fawlty Towers is still (largely) funny. 

Morrissey holds political beliefs and has attitudes about race that are impossible to justify but I can still enjoy The Smiths. Ian Brown has uttered some ridiculous shit about Covid and vaccines. I still listen to The Stone Roses. Nick Cave's position on Israel has been problematic for me and I don't agree with his attendance at whatever royal event he attended- the coronation?- but I get a huge amount from his music. 

I used to love The Who but Roger Daltrey's knobheadery about Brexit and general small mindedness plus Pete Townsend's 'issues' (ok, arrest for child pornography) have made it difficult for me to listen to The Who. Have I cancelled them? Dunno- but I don't listen to them any more (made easier by the fact that I only really like The Who from 1965- 1969). I'm sure there are other artists whose views have put me off them.  

Brown Sugar is a deeply problematic song. Racist? Yes. Sexist? Yes. A glorification of slavery? Yes. All these things and more. Utterly out of date attitudes and impossible to support. Even the Stones themselves have stopped playing it and Jagger has said that he'd check himself if he found himself writing those lyrics now. Keef maintains the song is about the 'horrors of slavery' but the tone, the music and the performance would suggest that everyone's really rather enjoying themselves rather than spotlighting the appalling treatment of female slaves on American plantations. If any song deserves to be cancelled, pulled and removed from playlists, it's probably Brown Sugar. 

That guitar riff though...

Thank you, Adam. This is why I organised the Cancel Culture Club. Not to spoil records for C, and certainly not to ban them... but just to sneakily get people who are much smarter than me to explain my own feelings in ways that my own humble skills would be incapable of doing. 

Mission accomplished... for today, at least.

Bertie Fridays #4: What The World Needs Now...

Time for Bertie the dog to pick another of his favourite music Berts... or Burts in the case of this week's star.

I'm sure I can't tell you anything about Burt Bacharach that you don't already know, although I can confirm that he's NOT related to one of my favourite actors of recent years, Ebon Moss-Bacharach of The Bear (soon to play The Thing in the new Fantastic Four movie).

I think we'll just let the music speak for itself today...

Jackie DeShannon - What the World Needs Now (Is Love)

Herb Alpert - This Guy's In Love With You

Perry Como - Magic Moments 

Shirelles - Baby It's You

Walker Brothers - Make It Easy On Yourself

Dusty Springfield - I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself

Gene Pitney - Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa

Isaac Hayes - Walk On By

Dionne Warwick - Do You Know the Way to San Jose?

The Carpenters - (They Long To Be) Close To You

Love - My Little Red Book

Tom Jones - What's New, Pussycat?

Aretha Franklin - I Say A Little Prayer

Neil Diamond - Heartlight

BJ Thomas - Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head

Christopher Cross - Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)

Patti LaBelle & Michael McDonald - On My Own

Elvis Costello & Burt Bacharach - Toledo

The majority of those were written with lyricist Hal David, of course. But he's not a Bertie. Or even a Burty.

If I was forced at gunpoint to choose a favourite recording of a Bacharach composition, it would be this one, which I bought as a 7" single in 1990. I was convinced it made Number One, but clearly I needed to buy a couple more copies, because it was held off the top spot by Timmy Mallet. Oh, the inDignity*!

*I'm particularly proud of that pun. Little things please little minds.

Next week... "For the money, for the glory, and for the fun. Mostly for the money."

Snapshots #353: A Top Ten Rock Band Name Songs

This is Steve Perry, charismatic frontman of the band Journey. Don't stop believin', Steve!

Here are ten songs named after famous rock bands...

10. Natty fella caught perspiring after dark. 

Nathaniel is natty, but  he does sweat at night.

Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats - Survivor

9. Keepers of the Hamster Wheels. 

Pet Shop Boys - Heart

8. Found in weird, uncanny places with lowbrow necrophiliacs. 

Found in weird uncanny places with lowbrow necrophiliacs. 

Duncan Browne - Journey

7. Joining together to share the cost of your hopes and aspirations.

The Dream Syndicate - Boston

6. Pleasant and agreeable enough.

The Nice - America

5. Master of Ceremonies Alan Montgomery requires a personal servant. 

MC Al Mont gets a Butler.

McAlmont & Butler - Yes

4. Gretchen & Brenda.

Gretchen Peters & Brenda Lee...

Peters & Lee - Rainbow

3. Winners of the Nobel Prize for Music.

Alfred Nobel invented dynamite.

Big Audio Dynamite - Rush

2. Fielding's lad paints pictures with sound.

Henry Fielding wrote Tom Jones.

Art of Noise featuring Tom Jones - Kiss

1. Wallie's medicine is a tough mixture to swallow.

"Wallie's medicine" was an anagram...

Deniece Williams - Free

Journey back here next Saturday for more...

Self-Help For Cynics #16: Great Responsibility

Grand Funk Railroad - Responsibility

With great power comes great responsibility. So goes the mantra by which our friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man lives his life. It's a lesson he learned at a terrible cost. When Peter Parker first receives his spider powers, he treats sees them as a selfish opportunity to achieve fame and fortune. Why should he use them to help other people? 

Let’s be honest, I think most of us would do exactly what he did – look after ourselves first. And to a degree, there’s nothing wrong with that. You can’t help others if you can’t help yourself. Self-preservation is hot-wired into our brain as its most important function, and that’s why the amygdala takes charge so often. The monkey brain is our protector.

Miles Kane - The Responsible

Peter’s lesson about responsibility comes when he has the chance to use his powers to stop an escaping criminal and doesn’t…

As you’re probably well aware, this act of selfishness comes back to bite him in a very big way when that same criminal later shoots his Uncle Ben dead in a bungled robbery attempt. After that, young Peter dedicates himself to using his powers to help others…

…and this is where the third of Dr. Jennifer Shannon’s three assumptions kicks in: Over-Responsibility”. Along with Fear of Uncertainty and Perfectionism, which we’ve looked at over the past couple of weeks, Over-Responsibility is another big stress-factor for our over-protective amygdala.

Barry White - Responsible

When we fall victim to Over-Responsibility, we put other people’s happiness and well-being above our own. Is that necessarily a bad thing? Don’t we do that automatically with people we love? Maybe… but if we end up resenting them for it, we need to think again. Or if we ourselves end up suffering in the process of helping someone else, couldn’t that be construed as counter-productive? In her book Don’t Feed The Monkey Mind, Dr. Shannon’ advises…

Bottom line: if taking care of your own needs is a casualty of taking care of others, you’re being over-responsible.

Benjamin Zephaniah - Responsible

The story of Spider-Man is not merely a metaphor for Responsibility – it’s also a warning about the dangers of Over-Responsibility. Peter Parker continues to disappoint friends, let down loved ones, lose jobs and fail to take care of his own well-being because he’s so obsessed with helping others. I’ve read stories where he’s taken this to an extreme, pushed himself to the point of mental and physical breakdown, trying to be Spider-Man 24/7. Just in case he’s not available that one time when he could have made the difference. And because Spidey is the one fictional character I relate to more than any other, maybe I end up acting a little Over-Responsible myself from time to time. 

Avi Buffalo - Can't Be Too Responsible

Dr. Shannon lists some of the problems that arise from an Over-Responsible mindset… and I reckon I could tick off a good few of them…

“…working harder than others (no), taking on other people’s problems (sometimes), poor self-care (trying to address that right here!), burnout (been there), constant worry and rumination about others (er…), giving advice to others to the point of pushing them away (probably not, because of the last item in this list), blaming yourself for things that are not your fault (definitely), difficulty setting limits (the fact that I’m not even sure what that means leads me to believe: yes), and difficulty with asserting yourself (undoubtedly).” 

Phew. I’m exhausted by the responsibility of simply reading that list. 

Buffalo Tom - My Responsibility

Apparently, one of the reasons we take on too much responsibility for others is that it’s a good way of being liked and loved. 

Of course someone’s going to like you if you go out of your way to help them. But they also may come to rely on you too much, to their detriment. This is a knife edge all parents walk on a daily basis. You are responsible for your child, but you’re also responsible for them developing into an independent human being who can look after themselves! Sometimes the most responsible thing you can do is let them take on their own responsibility.

Dolly Parton - Responsibility

I feel like it’s my responsibility to keep investigating this… but I also feel responsible for taking up too much of your time. One final word from Dr. Shannon then, and I’ll call this one a day…

“Over-responsible people have difficulty recognising what is within their control and what is not. Even when you have a strong personal stake in a conflict, if a solution is beyond your control, it is not your responsibility.” 

Snapshots #295: A Top Ten Biblical Character Songs

Time for Sunday School! Did you get all the Biblical characters featured in yesterday's Top Ten Commandments? Here they are...

10. Runner gets biceps.

Anagram!

Bruce Springsteen - Adam Raised A Cain

Or you could have had...

Bruce Springsteen - Daniel In The Lion's Den

9. Perforations.

The Pierces - The Good Samaritan

8. Did they kill a mockingbird?

Go read To Kill A Mockingbird again. Boo didn't do it.

The Boo Radleys - Lazarus

7. Nick Drake will meet these guys later.

Nick Drake sang about it getting Bryter Later,

Brighter - Noah's Ark

6. A hijack on lamas.

Anagram!

Mahalia Jackson - Joshua Fit The Battle Of Jericho

5. Hurley, Montgomery, Olsen... I'm listening.

Three Elizabeths... and Frasier Crane.

Elizabeth Fraser - Moses

4. Syrups for long-haired hounds.

Wigs for Afghans.

The Afghan Whigs - John The Baptist

3. Grab the Boss by the horns, by a homeware store.

Bruce is the Boss. By the horns, by. The Range is a big shop.

Bruce Hornsby & The Range - Jacob's Ladder

I prefer the Huey Lewis version, but Bruce hasn't featured here before... and he did write the song.

2. Mix Orange with Mellow Yellow.

Jason Orange + Donovan...

Jason Donovan - Joseph (Any Dream Will Do)

1. Parrot Seeking / Moon Jets.

Two anagrams for the price of one... and two songs to boot!

Regina Spektor - Samson

Tom Jones - Delilah 

Let there be more next week.

Hot 100 #24

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the excellent Fallover 24, with their superb tune, Pessimistic Man. What finer tune could there be to issue in another bumper edition of our countdown?

Bumper being the operative word, let's crack on with your suggestions and see if anyone guessed my "obvious" 24...


First out of the gates this week was Charity Chic, certain that he'd backed the odds on favourite...

I'll save everyone the bother this week as there can only be one winner.

Gene Pitney -24 Hours from Tulsa

I've made no secret of my love of this song in the past, so surely CC takes the prize?

Erm... no, sorry. Not this time. I love the way Gene nods his head when he sings "okay" in that video though.

Martin was then straight in with the obvious follow-up suggestion...

Carter USM - 24 Minutes From Tulse Hill

Followed by Lynchie, who reminded us of Gene's lesser-spotted 24...

Gene Pitney - 24 Sycamore

It may please you all to know that they were the first three on my list. Which isn't in any order other the order I think of them or find them on my hard drive.

Jim in Dubai also reminded us of the Yachts' cover of 24 Hours From Tulsa, which featured on this blog just a few weeks back.

Martin then returned to point out that there are "shed load of different songs called "24 Hours", so take your pick from (amongst others)..."

Tom Jones - 24 Hours

Look up "over-emoting" in the dictionary and there's a link to that video.

10cc - 24 Hours

(That one almost goes on for 24 Hours as well.)

Joy Division - 24 Hours

And Martin's favourite 24 Hour song (but not mine... there's a clue)...

The Sundays - 24 Hours

While we're at it, I also found these...

Shack - 24 Hours

Sky Ferreira - 24 Hours

Todd Snider - 24 Hours A Day

Barbara Pennington - 24 Hours A Day

Eddie Boyd - 24 Hours

Eddie Boyd - 24 Hours of Fear

Edwin Starr - 24 Hours (To Find My Baby)

Athlete - 24 Hours

The Handsome Family - 24 Hour Store

The Candyskins - 24 Hours (U.S.E.D.)

The Vibrators - 24 Hour People (steals its intro from Johnny B. Goode)

Jim in Dubai added another one...

The Chefs - 24 Hours

Jim also suggested the band at the top of the page, and Twenty 4 Seven - I Can't Stand It which brings back the true horror of the charts in my teenage years. Thanks for that, Jim. I haven't slept for a week.

Now, last week, those of you who were paying attention will have notice a new rule which was imposed upon this quiz as we get nearer #1. A new rule which will henceforth be known as "The Lime Green Rule"...

Oh, one final thing. Unless they're amazing suggestions, I'm going to stop allowing lyrical 24s (and so on) as we get nearer number one. Let's face it, there are way too many. So you'll have to be really persuasive if you want to sell me on a lyrical reference from now on. Sorry.

First to fall foul of this rule was Lynchie (who did later realise his mistake) when he suggested...

Smokie - Living Next Door To Alice

'Cause for twenty-four years I've been living next door to Alice

The thing is, I really like this song. However, it has been forever tarnished in my mind by the band re-recording it with Roy Chubby Brown as (Who The Fuck Is) Alice? Which is right up there in my mind with Lindisfarne's Fog On The Tyne featuring Gazza. I'm not linking to either of those debacles though, no matter how much it upsets George, who appears to be a fan.

George did redeem himself with his next idea though...

Does 2 4 6 8 Motorway count?

No, but it's still a belter.

Tom Robinson Band - 2468 Motorway

Someone else who ignored the Lime Green rule was Rigid Digit, but fortunately both his real suggestions have featured previously back in week #36, so go find them there. In desperation he adds...

...or, how anything by Status Quo - lifted from 12 Gold Bars Vol I and Vol II

(2 lots of 12 are 24 - is that the sound of a barrel being scraped?)

Definitely. However, just to keep you and Jez happy...

Status Quo - Caroline

Next up was Douglas, limiting his own suggestions this week...

Firstly, Lana Del Rey's song "24" is actually quite lovely in her fragile sad kind of way. I know there is a lot of feeling that she went off the rails after the stellar Born to Die album, with her quest for fame and newfound penchant for explicit lyrics, but this one is back to form, I think. Sounds a bit like she's auditioning for a Bond film end-credits theme.

Agreed. And it was on my list.

Lana Del Rey - 24

Then there is Pink Floyd, with "Chapter 24". I wonder what they were smoking when they came up with the lyrics for that one?

Pink Floyd - Chapter 24

That one wasn't. But at least it's from the Syd era.

And I know it breaks your No lyrics" rule but sure the "Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go...I wanna be sedated" lyric is so iconic and so close to being in the title that an exception could be made...?

Just this once. Because the video is pretty cool.

The Ramones - I Wanna Be Sedated

But still nobody guessed my "obvious" choice. Oh wait, here's The Swede, certain he's cracked it...

I'm assuming that your really obvious one must be:

Prince Far-I - Psalm 24

It certainly sprung immediately to my mind.

I'll also offer:

Clem Snide - Tuesday, October 24th

And:

Jason Isbell - 24 Frames

The last one was in serious contention, Swede.

I was about to put this post to bed when curiosity got the better of Douglas...

Okay, I'm puzzled that the "obvious" has still gone unmentioned so I will venture a few more guesses...

Mary Chapin Carpenter - John Doe No. 24

That's lovely. And was on my list.

Kings of Convenience - 24-25

That wasn't, because sadly I only own one KoC album. So far.

Stevie Nicks - 24 Karat Gold

That was also on the list. But not the winner, as Douglas himself guessed.

I feel these are getting less and less "obvious", though some are decent enough songs. But what is left? I think we are all going on strike if it turns out to be the awful Bruno Mars song I came across in my digging that I won't even mention by name...

I had no idea of the track Douglas was referring to, so I had to go investigate.

Bruno Mars - 24K

And there we have the "obvious" winner!

Only joking.

Before we get to the reveal then, here's a few more spewed up from the depths of my archives...

Red House Painters - 24

Kozelek.

Mudhoney - 24

Julian Cope - 24a Velocity Crescent

Momus - A Complete History of Sexual Jealousy (Pt. 17-24)

Another contender. Didn't make it this week, but that's not to say it won't stand a chance in 7 weeks' time.

So, which song made me smile the most this week if it wasn't 24 Hours From Tulsa?

Here comes C... not with the answer, but its inspiration...

Happy Mondays feat. Karl Denver - 24 Hour Party People

All of which leads us back to Nigel Blackwell, who's having a bit of trouble down at the 24 Hour Garage. (Presumably this was soon after visiting Argos to record this: Half Man Half Biscuit - £24.99 from Argos.)

Take it away, Nige... start doing what you can to wind up that guy behind the counter!

I’ll have ten Kit Kats and a motoring atlas

Ten Kit Kats and a motoring atlas

And a blues CD on the Hallmark label

– that’s sure to be good

Far fewer 23s to choose from, but the Lime Green Rule still applies. Let's see what you can come up with...

Saturday Snapshots #116 - The Answers

What is Saturday Snapshots?

Portraits hung in empty halls
Frameless heads on nameless walls
With eyes that watch the world and can't forget
Like the strangers that you've met...

Fortunately, they need be strangers no longer, because here are this week's answers...


10. Get Snake or MacReady to scan the fetus.

You scan the fetus with an ultrasound.

MacReady and Snake Pliskin were characters played by Kurt Russell.

Apologies for the obscure b-side side, but... what a tune!

Ultrasound - Kurt Russell

9. Contemporary Leg Joint Company.

Knee-Co?

Contemporary = these days.

Nico - These Days

(I think she was going out with Jackson Browne at the time she decided to record his tune.)

8. ...a foundling offers self-help?

"The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling" is the full title of Henry Fielding's novel Tom Jones.

Self help? Help yourself!

Tom Jones - Help Yourself

7. Sweet lady's latest issue.

New Edition - Candy Girl

6. Not Gwen Stefani. You hit that on the head!

That ain't (the lead singer of) No Doubt. You hit the NAIL on the head.

Jimmy Nail - Ain't No Doubt

(She's lying.)

5. Cher greets ten p, catches a Clodoald double-decker.

"Cher greets ten p" is an anagram.

Google "Clodoald" and you'll learn he was also known as Saint Cloud.

Gretchen Peters - On A Bus To St. Cloud

4. Get to the other side of CX Avenue without Cecil or Linda.

CX Avenue would be 110th Street in Roman numerals.

Cecil & Linda were Womack & Womack. But it's not them...

Bobby Womack - Across 110th Street

3. Elvis: born in the 70s.

Elvis was the king rocker.

If you were born in the 70s, you were Generation X.

Generation X - King Rocker

2. Reins? Smoke rings.

Reins are bands on horses.

Cigarettes are smokes; rings are wedding bands.

Band of Horses - Cigarettes, Wedding Bands

1. There's a ding dong when skins split... but Travis is outside to take you home.

Banana skins. Banana split. Rama lama ding dong.

Travis Bickle was a Taxi Driver played by...



They would not listen, they're not listening still
Perhaps they never will

But if they change their mind, Saturday Snapshots will be back next week...