I learnt a piece of music trivia today that I am pretty sure I never knew before! Perhaps this should have been added to my With Just A Hint Of Learning blog, but as it is purely music related I have kept it here.
Anyway that bit of trivia concerns how Sham 69 got their name. The name supposedly came from some faded football related graffiti that Sham 69 front man Jimmy Pursey once saw on a wall in his home town of Hersham. The graffiti celebrated the local non league football teams success in winning the Athenian League in 1969. Allegedly the original graffiti said “Walton & Hersham ’69” Can you guess which bit had faded? In theory I suppose it’s possible that they might have been called Walt 69.
I was reading an interview with Nile Rodgers off of Chic in the latest issue of The Word magazine. He is promoting the publication of his memoirs entitled ‘Le Freak‘. There were two parts in the interview that really sparked my interest. Firstly Nile has documented his recovery from cancer in his blog, ‘Walking On Planet C’ It’s really candid and very well written, click here to read it. I hope that Nile completely kills off the Big C and is able to produce even more great music.
Secondly Nile and his Chic cohort Bernard Edwards once produced an album by uber diva Diana Ross which included some great stuff; “Upside Down”, “My Old Piano” and “I’m Coming Out“. Whilst I don’t consider any of these to be Ms Ross’s career peak they sure as hell knock spots of that dreadfully awful song “Chain Reaction” which sadly made the top of the UK charts. Anyway I would like to focus on Mr Rodgers’ comments about “I’m Coming Out” which when you listen to it is such a very obvious gay song. According to Nile when Diana Ross asked about the sexuality of the song she was informed it wasn’t a gay song. However Nile also confirmed that it most definitely was a gay song when he revealed the inspiration for it. He had been at a transvestite club called the Gilded Grape and the call of nature took him to the urinal. It was here that he spotted three or four Diana Ross styled trannies! As soon as he got home he called Bernard Edwards and that is how “I’m Coming Out” was born!
Whenever Ms Ross meets Lil Kim she feels a right tit............ or is it a left one! Danger, Danger...... wardrobe malfunction!
Coming home from work today I was listening to Jessie J’s song “Price Tag” Ever since I first heard it I have liked it. But today I must have listened with a different head on, as scary as that sounds! I began wondering whether the lyrics to this little nugget of great pop music were actually Jessie J’s successful attempt to predict the current Euro zone financial crisis. Let me tell you about it by taking small excerpts of the lyrics to explain my reasons. please note that my tongue is lodged somewhat firmly in my cheek ok!
Okay, Coconut man, Moon Heads and pea; you ready Clearly Coconut Man is George Papandreou the current Greek Prime Minister (well at least for tonight anyway). He looks like a coconut and clearly he is nuts. The Moon Heads must therefore be the heads of the G20 nations currently working hard/ living it up in Cannes. As for Pea, that must be a special nickname for President Sarkozy of France, because he is very small isn’t he?
Seems like everybody’s got a price, I wonder how they sleep at night. Obviously the banks and Greece seem to have a price, although I’m not sure what it is. Bankers have no morals so it does make me wonder how they sleep at night
When the sale comes first, and the truth comes second, just stop for a minute and smile. Because when you’ve sold or lost all you have (for the Greeks read dignity and the Elgin Marbles) and the lies of financiers and politicians have dropped you six feet deep in poo you can’t do anything but smile can you?
Why is everybody so serious? Acting so damn mysterious? Got your shades on your eyes and your heels so high. That you can’t even have a good time. This part is about Berlusconi I believe. He is seriously mysterious, wears shades and as a short man I reckon he wears Cuban heels. I think our Jessie got it wrong on the having a good time front, Mr Berlusconi seems to like a bit of Bunga Bunga
Everybody look to their left (yeah), Everybody look to their right (uh) This must refer to the fact that it doesn’t matter what flavour your political party is you’re pretty much all in the shit
Can you feel that (yeah) We’re paying with love tonight. More on Mr Berlusconi methinks only I think it probably should read he’s paying for his ‘love’ tonight.
It’s not about the money, money, money. We don’t need your money, money, money. We just wanna make the world dance,
Forget about the price tag. Well looking at the way Greece appears not to want to accept a massive debt write off from those incredibly generous bankers (NOT!) it can’t really be about the money can it? I’d bloody accept an offer like that. In fact if Greece don’t take it can I have it please? But maybe the Greeks do want to make the world dance, anyone fancy the twelve-inch vinyl DJ Bouzouki remix of ‘Zorba The Greek’ Yo’r probably want to forget about the price tag too if your wages were cut. What’s a Grecian earn? It’s a big old vase isn’t it?
Ain’t about the (uh) Cha-Ching Cha-Ching. Ain’t about the (yeah) Ba-Bling Ba-Bling Back to Berlusconi again, the political leader with the most bling!
Wanna make the world dance, Forget about the price tag. We need to take it back in time, When music made us all unite!
And it wasn’t low blows and video hoes, Am I the only one getting tired? Why is everybody so obsessed? Money can’t buy us happiness. Can we all slow down and enjoy right now. Guarantee we’ll be feeling alright. This is a plea to take us back to the days when we all loved Greek music. How could we forget that classic slab of rock music “Forever And Ever” from the King of Kaftans himself Demis Roussos. The money can’t buy us happiness reference is a topical pointer to Macca’s recent nuptials.
[B.o.B rap]
Yeah yeah. Well, keep the price tag and take the cash back. Just give me six strings and a half stack
And you can, can keep the cars leave me the garage and all I, yes all I need are keys and guitars
And guess what, in 30 seconds I’m leaving to Mars. Yeah we leaving across these undefeatable odds
It’s like this man you can’t put a price on a life. We do this for the love so we fight and sacrifice every night
So we ain’t gonna stumble and fall never waiting to see a sign of defeat Uh uh
So we gonna keep everyone moving their feet
I feel that Mr B.o.B’s rap has missed the point or perhaps he just hasn’t got that same Nostradamus gene that Ms J has. Although he does mention those Bouzoukis and perhaps the dancing is more about Zorba. As for the mention of Mars, well that’s a schoolboy error from Mr B.o.B isn’t it; Mars is a Roman God and a chocolate bar, nothing to do with Greece!
Jessie likes a bit of Greek bubblegum, because the bubble is always about to burst
What do you think and do you know of any pop songs that might predict the future? I won’t accept “I Predict A Riot” from those nice boys from Leeds, the Kaiser Chiefs. That is just too obvious!
One of the subscribers to the blog has reminded me of the plight of Babar Ahmad, currently in prison for 7 years without charge or evidence. He needed 100,000 signatures on this petition site to trigger a debate in the Commons, and that might free him, or at last restart the justice system for him. I am pleased to say that I just signed and the total now stands at 100,106 (in the time it has taken me to compose this post it has risen to 101,126. But let’s try and push the total even further. The following text is lifted direct from Ben’s e mail. Please read it and more importantly please sign the petition. However you arrived at this site, if you’re a UK citizen please take the time to sign the petition.
Babar Ahmad’s story, widely covered in the Guardian and elsewhere, is a horrifying account of what the ‘war on terror’ has meant in particular for British Muslims.
Baba Ahmad has been in prison for seven years, pending extradition to the US on charges of terrorism for which no evidence has been given. If this petition gains enough signatures there will be a debate on his case in the House of Commons, which could increase his chances of going on trial prior to extradition. A trial would compel the evidence against him — if there is any — to be produced. Whether convicted or cleared, he would at least have had justice.
Babar Ahmad was originally arrested in 2003, assaulted at midnight in his home by several officers from the ‘territorial support group’ (the riot police), and then immediately released. A year later — 5 August 2004 — he was rearrested on an extradition warrant from the US and has been in prison since.
In 2007, the European Court of Human Rights suspended his extradition pending presentation of evidence. Under the Extradition Act 2003, the US does not have to provide evidence when seeking extradition from the UK, including for British citizens (which Ahmad is); there are stirrings of dissatisfaction about this within the current parliament.
In 2009 the Metropolitan Police admitted liability for assault during Ahmad’s first arrest and paid him £60,000 damages. This year, in a separate trial, the officers were found not guilty of assault. Evidence of the officers’ histories of racist assaults was not shared with the jury (see BBC story here, including CCTV footage of Ahmad being brought, injured, into police custody; see also this Guardian account, and this Guardian story; be warned that the accounts of the behaviour of police officers Roderick James-Bowen, Mark Jones, Nigel Cowley, and John Donohue are unpleasant).
Maybe you won’t will take much persuading about this, but anyway I urge you to sign the petition, and to circulate it to anyone who might also support it. The deal with the Number 10 ‘e-petitions’ site is that any petition that gets over 100,000 signatures must be debated in the Commons. The petition currently has 50,000 signatures, and the deadline is 10th November.
If extradited to the US, Baba Ahmad faces life in solitary confinement. He is not the only UK citizen still held in the UK without trial or evidence; he is just the longest-serving.
This is not just about justice for Baba Ahmad; it concerns the moral character of the entire UK legal and political system, and so concerns each of us personally: if it can happen to him, it can happen to me and you.
As I have said many times before, this is a music blog, so here are some appropriate(ish) songs;
This is probably bigger than my own little world view and maybe there’s a lot of it that I don’t understand. But what is it with the Euro bail-out for Greece? The great and good (well not much greatness or goodness really is there?) leaders of Europe held a series of summits to resolve the Euro crisis. Focussing in particular on the parlous state of the Greek economy. In simple terms the solution was that major banks would write off 50% of Greek debt and the rest would be funded through stringent austerity measures to be introduced by the Greek government.
Well it looks like they can't produce can they? A T Shirt slogan on a bag........that is so FAIL!
So just a few days ago everyone was patting themselves on the back on what a spiffing job they had done; crisis over….. for now. Then comes the news that before they accept these actions the Greek government will ask their voting population what they think in the form of a referendum. Now I may be a little simple at times but on this occasion I suspect that the there will be an overwhelming no vote? What do you think?
I think that our erstwhile leaders should have taken a look at the car washing scene in Pulp Fiction before any back slapping took place.Well, in particular the line ‘let’s not start sucking each other’s dicks quite yet’. So what happens next? I presume that Greece will default on their loans. After that who knows, do the banks send in the bailiffs to repossess Greek property. Unlikely really; all their crockery is broken and they lost their marbles ages ago.
But at least the forecast looks good....... actually so does the forecaster don't you think?
Just a couple of questions from me to close this post;
If Greece doesn’t want the bailout money can I have it?
So then, let’s get back to music as this is really a music blog, but there is often the odd rant from me. Here are a few songs that I feel are appropriate. Especially the last one of the three from Jarvis Cocker
Musicradar.com readers have voted Muse’s “Hysteria” as the greatest bass line of all time. The full list including song, band/ artist and bass player is;
01. “Hysteria” – Muse (Chris Wolstenholme)
02. “YYZ” – Rush (Geddy Lee)
03. “Another One Bites The Dust” – Queen (John Deacon)
04. “Under Pressure” – Queen & David Bowie (John Deacon)
05. “Money” – Pink Floyd (Roger Waters)
06. “Orion” – Metallica (Cliff Burton)
07. “Billie Jean” – Michael Jackson (Louis Johnson)
08. “Roundabout” – Yes (Chris Squire)
09. “My Generation” – The Who (John Entwistle)
10. “Schism” – Tool (Justin Chancellor)
11. “Give It Away” – Red Hot Chili Peppers (Flea)
12. “The Lemon Song” – Led Zeppelin (John Paul Jones)
13. “Taxman” – The Beatles (Paul McCartney)
14. “Good Times” – Chic (Bernard Edwards)
15. “The Chicken” – Jaco Pastorius
16. “Walk On The Wild Side” – Lou Reed (Herbie Flowers)
17. What’s Going On – Marvin Gaye (James Jamerson)
18. “Stand By Me” – Ben E King (Wendell Marshall)
19. “The Guns Of Brixton” – The Clash (Paul Simonon)
20. “Sweet Emotion” – Aerosmith (Tom Hamilton)
21. “Super Freak” – Rick James (Oscar Alston)
22. “Pusherman” – Curtis Mayfield (Joseph “Lucky” Scott)
23. “These Boots Are Made For Walkin'” – Nancy Sinatra (Carol Kaye/Chuck Berghofer)
24. “In The Midnight Hour” – Wilson Pickett (Donald “Duck” Dunn)
25. “Make It Funky” – James Brown (Fred Thomas)
Click here to check it out on the musicradar site. I was really pleased to see that my three favourite bass players are in there; James Jamerson, Donald “Duck” Dunn and Bernard Edwards. Who is your favourite bass player and what songs do you think are missing from this list? While you’re thinking about it enjoy the top 5 below;
desperate to keep his testicles high up, JB uses the two hand clutch approach.....
Justin Bieber‘s balls have dropped according to his manager Scooter Braun (is that a made up name? Surely it is, isn’t it?) Yes the Bieber voice has broken, but I guess that it had to happen sometime didn’t it? Can we hope that this will spell the end of his career? Well sure we can hope, but somehow I think he’ll be around a bit longer. Even if his voice disappears there is so much you can do with crap in the studio. Just look at Boylife and Westzone for evidence. Yes I know I have mixed the names up, but frankly they are just identikit boy bands.
......clearly the two handed approach has failed and one of Bieber's monster cojones hits the deck
Incidentally the broken voice discovery was made while he recorded a duet with Maria Carey, a cover of her hit “All I Want For Christmas“. Yes the Biebertron has a Christmas album coming out this week. A Christmas album released in December? That’s not a cynical marketing ploy at all is it?
Justin confirms to waiting fans that indeed both of the Bieber bollocks have dropped
As for the Bieber balls I wonder whether the action figure of the little dude will now include a drop and retract testicles feature, maybe a bit like the Action Man Eagle Eye feature? What do you folks think?
Finally the realisation sets in that his career may be heading in the same direction as his testicles
UPDATE/ EDIT – OK I had forgotten that I posted this after the death of that vile bastard Saville, but I wrote this before any of his evil nonce activities came to public light. I despise people like him and when the news did come out I gave my views, click here to read them. I am not one for removing the past so, at least for now I will leave this post here with a link to the follow up. In fact I had long forgotten that I had made this post until someone made a comment on it a few weeks back. I have removed all pictures and videos.
You have probably already read about the death of Jimmy Saville this weekend. He passed away at his home in Leeds aged 84. Whilst he wasn’t a musician the late, great Jimmy Saville has played a prominent role in the music world. He was a dance hall disc jockey in the 40s and 50s and he also claimed to have been the first person to put two turntables and a microphone together. He came to prominence as a DJ when he worked at Radio Luxembourg and was among the first DJs on Radio 1. On 1st January 1964 (coincidentally my 5th birthday) he presented the first ever Top Of The Pops from the BBC’s Manchester Studios. He was also one of the presenters of the last ever Top Of The Pops in 2006.
His TV show ‘Jim’ll Fix It‘ made him a true household name as it ran for 20 years on UK TV. the concept was that you wrote to Jim to see if he could ‘fix it’ for you to do something you’ve always wanted to do. At its peak the show received around 20,000 letters per week. I remember that one of my young cousins thought that Jimmy’s first name was in fact Jim’ll.
He also raised vast amounts of money for charity. His accountant apparently said that he stopped counting how much had been raised when it hit £40 million. He ran more than 200 marathons in his tireless effort to raise money. I saw him when I ran my one and only marathon in 1986. I am proud to say that Jimmy Saville finished before me in the London Marathon, obviously he was wearing his trademark gold tracksuit too!
As strange headlines go ‘Saddam’s Buttock Fails To Sell At Auction’ is surely among the best isn’t it? But what makes it even better is that it isn’t one of those ridiculous Sunday Sport “Elvis Is Alive And Lives In A London Bus On The Moon” type headlines; it’s actually true!
The cheek of it!
A former SAS man managed to retrieve part of Saddam’s posterior for posterity. (Two words I don’t think I’ve ever used in the same sentence before!) when the infamous statue of Saddam Hussein was pulled down in central Baghdad back in 2003. He put it up for sale at an auction in Derbyshire in the UK.
The cheeky new owner was hoping to raise £250k for soldiers charities. When he was given the bums rush by potential purchasers with a maximum offer of some £21k he realised that he had just been going through the motions and he was gutted. But the idea has a nice ring to it so I believe that he should push hard to do it again and not just go home and sit on his stool. It certainly doesn’t stand up to much anal isys and maybe hard to digest, but perhaps he doesn’t have fart to go before a new owner plops some money into his back pocket to clench (sic) a deal on a number 2 auction.
With all the bottom references and it being nearly Halloween, how could I resist including this?
Read the story on the BBC by clicking here. I would love to hear your thoughts on this bit of news, but in the meantime here are a few hopefully related songs;
Earlier this evening I went to a gig by the Tindersticks at York Barbican. It was probably the most avant-garde show I have ever been to and the quote from John Lennon that kept popping into my head was ‘avant-garde is French for bullshit’. Now in many cases that may well be true, but regarding the Tindersticks it clearly isn’t. The show was based around the soundtracks that the band have recorded for Claire Denis, a French filmmaker. They played live to excerpts of Denis’ movies, which were somewhat weird and provocative. The nearest comparison I have is the short film that was effectively David Bowie’s support on the 1976 ‘Thin White Duke’ tour; ‘Un Chien Andalou’
The show was an 18+ event given the sex and violence in the films. The music really does work with the film though, in a way I wouldn’t have imagined. Perhaps the strangest clip for me was of a couple seemingly having wild sex which then turned into the woman eating the guys face. I mean biting of bits of flesh, it wasn’t a show for the faint hearted or easily offended. But back to the band; instrumentally they were truly amazing. Eight really gifted musicians who are pretty tight together. It was a completely instrumental set as unfortunately lead singer Stuart Staples had laryngitis.
Overall I enjoyed the show, but it isn’t the sort of gig I would normally go to. The film with live soundtrack was a very brave and different thing to do and mostly it worked well but on occasions it was a little soporific. I also felt that the auditorium being less than half full had more to do with the competence of the venue rather than the appeal of the band. I doubt that I will go and see a similar show again, but I will download some of the soundtracks I think. If anyone reading this was at the show tonight or any of the others on the tour I would love to know what you thought of it. And finally I should point out that none of the pictures or video included in this post are actually from tonights show.
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 