Songs About Super-Heroes!

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon. 

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As people have often noted, discussion on this site frequently drifts away from comics and into the realm of music.

This is understandable, as, like comics, music is a thing which often appeals most strongly to us in our youth.

However, there is a way to marry the two topics.

And that's to contemplate songs that are actually about comics. Especially comics that involve super-heroes.

Super-heroes. They're so great, who wouldn't want to sing about them?

Based on experience, 99% of artists, ever.

However, there are, thank God, exceptions.

Though, granted, I'm struggling to think of them.

The Beatles' Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill does, of course, mention Captain Marvel, while Mansun's 1997 LP Attack of the Grey Lantern is clearly inspired by the Green Lantern but doesn't feature any songs on it that are actually called Attack of the Grey Lantern. XTC had a hit, in 1981, with Sgt Rock (Is Going to Help Me) but, the last I heard, Sgt Rock isn't a super-hero.

However, of the few super-hero based songs I can actually think of, three stand out as my favourites.

They are:

O Superman by Laurie Anderson.

If 1981 made us despair at the tastes of the UK record-buying public, thanks to Joe Dolce beating Ultravox to the Number One spot, the year made amends, big-style, when O Superman also nearly hit Number One. Although finally stalling at Number Two, that was a near miracle, seeing as it's eight-and-a-half minutes long and is a big wodge of cryptic Vocoderiness over heavy breathing.

It's also great; completely hypnotic, hinting at a near-future that is cold, sterile and devoid of human contact and emotions. Not only did it seem extraordinary back then but has come to seem even more so with the passage of time, especially with claims, from some quarters, that its lyrics somehow predicted the events of 911.

Superman by the Stereophonics.

This stands out because I hate the Stereophonics and their brand of "Rock" that rarely seems to involve raising the tempo above dawdling pace.

However, this one's more than acceptable to me because, taut, lean, scathing and contemptuous, it sounds nothing like the Stereophonics, to such a degree that it's hard to imagine how it ever came to exist.

Magneto and Titanium Man by Paul McCartney and Wings.

It's a track which has had more than one mention on this blog, over the years, mostly thanks to its big fat bouncy bassline and razor-sharp guitar work. I still don't quite understand what the story it's telling is actually trying to say to me but who cares? It's a song about three Marvel master criminals, and that's good enough for me.

So, those are my nominations for great songs inspired by super-heroes. If you have any, make sure to mention them below.

Then again, you can also mention ones that aren't great or that you hate or that you've forgotten about or that you've never even heard of. You might want to tell me my selections are total cobblers. It's all entirely up to you.

The 2019 Special Christmas Post! Never settle for second best. You don't need to, because I'm about to do it for you.

Because you The Reader demanded it, here it is; this year's Christmas song post!

Granted, there's a certain problem with such a thing, as, last year, I did one demanding to know your favourite Christmas song of all time.

Obviously, because I've already done it, I can't do that again - even though I want to - so I've hit upon an idea no one has ever had in the entire history of mankind!

And that's demanding to know what your second favourite Christmas song is.

What's that noise you hear on your rooftop? Is it the sound of Rudolph's hooves scraping on the slates, as Santa comes to deliver your presents?

Why, no, it's the sound of this site scraping the bottom of the barrel.

But, then again, perhaps it's not, because this now means that, next year, I'm going to be able to ask you for your third favourite Christmas song of all time. I can't wait for the year 2145 when I can, at last, discover the identity of your 127th favourite Christmas song.

Anyway, the second best Christmas song of all time. For me, it's an easy one because, if you have Slade's Merry Xmas Everybody as your Number One, as I did last year, there's only one record you can have as your Number Two.

And that's Wizzard's I Wish it Could Be Christmas Everyday. Has there ever been a catchier, bouncier, more joyous and successful attempt to capture the mood of a British Yuletide?

Yes there has; Slade's Merry Xmas Everybody.

But, that one aside, has there ever been a better attempt than this one?

No, there hasn't. The moment I hear that cash register open at the beginning of the track, I know the season of magic and goodwill is once more upon us.

But it does always strike me as being amazing that, arguably, the two greatest British Christmas songs of all time were written by men born within 12 miles of each other and mere months apart - and that those records were released in exactly the same month, December 1973.

It also amazes me to think that, had Roy Wood not fled ELO when he did, this would have been an ELO single.

Then again, it also amazes me that he was only 27 at the time. How does any man look that old at 27?

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the matter. You may have thoughts of your own, and you're free to express them below.

For that matter, you're free to express any thoughts you may have about any Christmas songs, because it's Christmas, and Christmas is meant for sharing.

Your favourite Christmas song of all time.

There must come a moment in the life of any nostalgia-based website when it feels compelled to scrape the bottom of the barrel and ask the question that cannot be avoided.

And, my friends, that moment has arrived. After eight years of evading it, I'm finally tackling the always thorny issue of just what is the best Christmas song of all time.

Obviously, it's Merry Xmas Everybody by Slade and I'm sure my total certainty about this has nothing to do with it having been the first song I ever heard on my first ever radio, way back in the winter of 1973.

With its Beano Annual sensibility and its strange shifts in tone from the jovial to the darkly glimmering, it perfectly caught the mood of a British Christmas. Like the band's earlier hit Coz I Luv You, it managed to sound like it had been around since before any of us were born but also to simultaneously hint at the impending arrival of an unsettling new era.

But what a remarkable winter that was. Not only did it give us Slade's masterpiece, it also gave us Wizzard's I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday, and two songs that each demanded to be Christmas Number One by right found themselves battling it out for the privilege.

Of course, a year before that had seen the release of John and Yoko's Happy Xmas (War is Over) although the decade prior to that had been a strangely quiet one for Christmas classics.

In fact, I'm struggling to think of any great Christmas songs from the 1960s or, indeed, any Christmas songs at all from that decade - unless one has the courage to recall Dora Bryan's All I Want For Christmas is a Beatle.

I can only assume people didn't celebrate Christmas in the 1960s.

The 1950s is a total black hole for me when it comes to Christmas songs.

The 1940s, of course, gave us White Christmas, the Everest of Christmas hits.

That decade also gave us Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas and The Christmas Song, otherwise known as Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire.

The 1930s gave us Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Who would have guessed that Bruce Springsteen was making records way back in the 1930s?

But, while 1973 may have hit Peak Christmas, the 1970s had at least two more tricks up their sleeves. 1975 gave us Greg Lake's I Believe in Father Christmas, written specially for anyone who likes to be a Mr Grumpy Boots each Yuletide, while 1977 gave us the ever bizarre alliance of Bing Crosby and David Bowie bringing Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy into our lives.

Having said that, the track wasn't released until early the next decade, when such awesomeness couldn't be kept from the world any longer.

The 1980s gave us Merry Christmas Everyone by Shakin' Stevens, Stop the Cavalry by Jona Lewie, Macca's Wonderful Christmas Time, the Waitresses' Christmas Wrapping, Siouxsie and the Banshees' Israel, Kate Bush's December Will Be Magic Again, Do They Know It's Christmas? Wham's Last Christmas and Fairy Tale of New York by the Pogues and Kirsty MacColl.

The 1990s gave us Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas is You, possibly the only Christmas track from that decade that's managed to match the popularity of its predecessors from earlier eras.

The 1990s also gave us East 17's anomalous Stay Another Day, one of those Christmas songs that has nothing at all to do with Christmas, other than that the band were wrapped up warm in the video.

That raises the perennial question; "Is Frankie Goes to Hollywood's The Power of Love a Christmas song?" All common sense says no. And yet it's somehow become inextricably linked with the festive period in a way that many singles which have made far more effort to be Christmassy haven't.

And what of the 21st Century? What Christmas treats has that given us when it comes to music?

Well, it's given us...

...erm...

...er...

To be honest, the only post 2000 AD Christmas song I can think of is the Darkness' heavily ironic Christmas Time, which is great fun but sounds suspiciously like a hyperactive teenager's parody of those 1973 Christmas hits that launched this post in the first place.

Can it be true? Can the era of the great Christmas song be dead?

I have no idea.

Perhaps you do have an idea.

More to the point, perhaps you have your own thoughts about what's the best Christmas song of all time. And perhaps you'd like to share them with the world, in the comments section below. If you would, you can. That is, after all, what the spirit of Christmas is all about.

Sharing.

Sharing.

And more sharing.

Special Bonus Feature! Magneto and Titanium Man animation. Paul McCartney and Wings.

Greetings, pop-pickers. I have nothing vital to do right now, so I thought that, for no reason other than that I like it, I'd post the above work which is an animated fan video for Wings' legendary track Magneto and Titanium Man - from the album Venus and Mars - which we all know is still the best song ever written that involves the Crimson Dynamo and a long, tall bank on the main street. I am especially taken by the sight of the late Jimmy McCulloch with a snooker ball for a head.


Potential further listening:

I can hear music

Strange is the human mind and, just as we have a tendency to associate certain smells and sounds with certain places and events, so we can come to associate certain songs with certain objects.

Thus it is that, for various reasons - some straightforward and some more arcane - I tend to associate certain songs with certain comics I read as a kid. In one of my attempts to be inclusive, I thought I'd share which songs I associate with which comics and ask if you have any similar song/comic associations.

Kids in America by Kim Wilde, with Nightmare #17.


For some reason, I never appreciated Kimberley's monster early-1980s hit at the time but have come to recognise it as possibly that decade's finest three musical minutes. It was out at the same time as I first read the UK reprint of this comic.

In retrospect, I think the record was better than the comic.

January by Pilot, and Angie Baby by Helen Reddy, with Savage Sword of Conan #4.


As mentioned elsewhere, I got this comic on a Sunday. Sunday was and is the day of Radio 1's UK singles chart countdown and I'm fairly sure both songs were played on that rundown on the day I first read this mag.

Shine A Little Love by ELO, with Nova #3.


As Nova #3 came out in 1976 and ELO's Shine A Little Love came out in 1979, I don't have a clue why I associate these two things with each other but I do.

Gonna Make You a Star by David Essex, with Mighty World of Marvel Annual 1975.


I remember David Essex being on Top of the Pops, doing the song in question as I read the annual for the first time. The Goodies were also present. They mimed the line, "I don't think so."

Whispering Grass by Don Estelle and Windsor Davies, with Avengers #66.


As I said mere days ago, I heard Don and Windsor while on a coach headed for Blackpool as I read the first part of this story in Marvel UK's weekly Avengers mag. To this day I can't see the panel where the Vision's stood over Wonder Man's grave without hearing those magical words, "I will not 'av gossiping in my jungle!"

Dancing in the City by Marshall Hain, with Rampaging Hulk #9.


I seem to remember this being a hit around the same time I read Rampaging Hulk #9. The two are now inseparable in my mind, which is a bit of a shame as it's not a song that's ever overly interested me.

I also associate it with Substitute by Clout but there's no way I'm ever admitting to that on the Internet.

Roll Over Beethoven by ELO, with Mighty World of Marvel #5.


I remember singing this on Pond Street bus station escalators shortly after getting Mighty World of Marvel #5 from a nearby news kiosk. I don't think I liked the song at the time. I just liked the noise it made and also that "Beethoven" sounded like, "baked oven." The things that amuse you when you're eight.

On the Run by ELO, with Conan the Barbarian #5.


There's a worrying amount of ELO on this list. I recall this playing on the radio while I was dutifully using my felt tips to colour this story in Fleetway's legendary 1972/3 Marvel Annual. Dave Lee Travis may have been the DJ. The fact that it'd taken me over six years to get round to colouring it in says everything about my dedication to the task.

Down  in the Park by Gary Numan, with X-Men #108.


Now here's an odd thing. I remember hearing Gary Numan's We Are Glass on Radio 1 as I read this story for the first time, in Marvel UK's Rampage magazine. But, the human psyche being a perverse thing, it's not We Are Glass that I associate with the book but instead the more memorable Down in the Park.

If you sing Down in the Park without the accompaniment, it sounds like one of those nightmarish hey-nonny-nonny folk songs they always made us sing in primary school. This realisation always gives me more pleasure than it should.


So, am I alone in such madness? Or does this association between comic book and song afflict you as well? If it does, what songs do you associate with the comics you read as a child?