No bras AC/ DC
Did you know that AC/DC guitarist Malcolm Young once worked in a bra factory as a sewing-machine mechanic? No? Me neither.
BrAC/ DC?
Could you fit a whole lotta Rosie in that?
“Pick up your balls and load up your cannon” August 2, 2015
The AC/DC fans among you will be familiar with the firing of cannons during “For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)” when they play live. But did you know this 21-gun salute came from the fact that the band were recording around the same time as the Royal Wedding of Charles and Diana in 1981?
“Forget the hearse cause I’ll never die” February 21, 2015
Kurt Cobain was quite open about the music he loved and was very clear that he ripped off the riff for Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” from Boston’s “More Than A Feeling“. Which for me are both great songs. Did you what the first song that Kurt learned to play on the guitar that he got for his 14th birthday was? It was another slice of classic rock, none other than AC/DC’s “Back In Black“. Incidentally don’t you think it’s sad that Kurt would have been 48 yesterday. A great loss to rock music! Talking of great losses, AC/DC’s Bon Scott died 35 years ago on 19th February 1980, just a day before Kurt Cobain’s 13th birthday.
“So you think my singing’s out of time, well it makes me money” March 7, 2014
After Bon Scott‘s death in 1980 AC/DC allegedly offered the lead singer role to Slade’s Noddy Holder. He turned it down and the band turned to Slade soundalikes Geordie for their lead singer Brian Johnson. I wonder how things would have progressed had Noddy accepted the job? Would have led to song mash-ups? How about “Cum On Feel A Whole Lotta Rosie”?
“Satan is a evilous man” October 24, 2013
This is apparently the 666th post on this blog, so I thought I’d celebrate that with devilishly beastly top 13 Satan songs. I’d also love to hear what other songs you might have chosen. Given that we are days away from Halloween I suppose that this borders on being a topical post too 🙂
“Well everybody’s got the notion I’m your goodwill industry” October 27, 2010
Forbes magazine recently published it’s list of the top earning dead celebrities in the year to October 1st 2010. Unsurprisingly there are a number of dead musicians, singers and a composer in the list. They share the space with authors, actors, a cartoonist, a sports franchise owner, a TV Producer and a scientist!. Obviously I only intend to focus on the musical aspects of the list, but here is the top 13. Why 13? Why not? It also includes their earnings for the year. Only one living celebrity topped Jacko’s earnings and that was Oprah Winfrey. He also earned more than the combined totals of the two biggest living musical earners; U2 and AC/DC. Read about it on the Forbes site here and also on the BBC here.
No. 1 Michael Jackson – $275 million – Here is Michael with the Jackson 5 with the frankly underrated and underplayed “Sugar Daddy”. A truly brilliant slice of Motown magic!
No. 2 Elvis Presley – $60 million – Here he is with a classic and probably one of my favourite Elvis songs, “Suspicious Minds” originally recorded in the Memphis sessions in the late 60s
No. 3 J.R.R. Tolkien – $50 million
No. 4 Charles Schultz – $33 million
No. 5 John Lennon – $17 million – I have included loads of Lennon stuff recently so here is an excellent Lennon tribute song from Dan Bull called “Lennononandonandon”
No. 6 Stieg Larsson – $15 million
No. 7 Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel) – $11 million
No. 8 Albert Einstein – $10 million
No. 9 George Steinbrenner – $8 million
No. 10 Richard Rodgers – $7 million – This is the Richard Rodgers off of Rodgers and Hammerstein and below you can see a rather interesting version of their classic song “The Lady Is A Tramp” sung by the somewhat eccentric Nina Hagen.
No. 11 (tie) Jimi Hendrix – $6 million – Here is Jimi with his classic cover of Bob Dylan’s “All Along The Watchtower”. Dylan was so impressed with it that it is now the arrangement he uses when he plays the song live.
No. 11 (tie) Steve McQueen – $6 million
No. 13 Aaron Spelling -$5 million
“Oh baby it’s so funny I almost don’t believe it” August 21, 2010
Senior Officers caught many inappropriate underwear offenders in their spot checks. Is it me or is there a skid mark showing? I mean on the road obviously!
Earlier this week it was reported that the West Midlands Police Force in the UK have put a ban on police officers wearing inappropriate underwear. So that’s no Calvin waistband showing over the top of the trousers, no whale-tail thong appearances, no brightly coloured bras under white tops (I think that one is for female officers) and presumably the grubby string vest is way off the mark. This is all very well but is a Visible Panty Line (VPL) going to prevent West Midlands Officers from catching criminals? Somehow I don’t think so. This is the Nanny State taken to the extreme in my opinion. The Guardian article on a rozzer’s Y-front’s can be found here and it does contain some excellent quotes from officers affected by the new rules. Personally I think the whole idea is pants! What do you think?
The shortage of holsters for the armed response unit meant that they were the first to breach the new rules
As usual I should complete this post with some appropriate music as this is a music blog and not a site for those with a fetish for used police underwear. So here are a few (in)appropriate songs, feel free to suggest your own contributions;
“The Thong Song” – Sisqo – His real name is Mark Althavean Andrews and he is a former member of R & B combo Dru Hill. “The Thong Song” was his first solo hit and comes from his album ‘Unleash The Dragon’ His solo success led to Play Along Toys creating a Sisqo doll.
“Leap Up And Down Wave Your Knickers In The Air” – St Cecilia – A UK hit in 1971 and one of the many produced by Jonathan King. He hasn’t had a hit in ages, has he been away? 😉
“Big Panty Woman” – Barefoot Man – I believe this guy’s name is George Nowak and he lives in the Cayman Islands, appropriately for this post he also released an album called ‘Thong Gone Wrong’
“The Underwear Song” – Rodney Carrington – He holds down three jobs; stand up comedian, actor and country singer. The lyrics to this little ditty are, in my opinion, bloody funny!
“Underneath Your Clothes” – Shakira – A mega successful Colombian export who now lives in the Bahamas. she tends to choose a some terrific songs to cover in live shows. Notably AC/ DC’s “Back In Black” and Aerosmith’s “Dude (Looks Like A Lady)”
A senior police officer models what the force rule is appropriate underwear
Iron Man 2 May 3, 2010
He's behind you!
We went out to catch the latest Marvel movie today; Iron Man 2. I felt it was a pretty good movie but perhaps not quite as good as the first instalment, although Robert Downey Jr plays the Tony Stark/ Iron Man role supremely well. Samuel L Jackson is also brilliant as Nick Fury.Â
The action scenes are excellent and there is a great teaser at the end that points to a forthcoming Avengers movie. So at last the whole Marvel Universe is hitting the screens! I was disappointed that I didn’t see the usual cameo from Stan Lee, but maybe I missed it.Â
Iron Man seems to be doing a number two!
The soundtrack is unusually not a mixed compilation, but more like a best of AC/DC, although there are a couple of other noticable songs used during the film; “Magnificent Seven” from the Clash and “Pick Up The Pieces” from the Average White Band. The end credits are soundtracked by one of my favourite AC/ DC songs, “Highway To Hell”Â
If you like Marvel movies you will love this, I will definitely get the DVD when it comes out too. Now roll on the next Fantastic Four instalment, the Thor movie and then the Avengers!Â
None of the other kids wanted to get on the slide while Tony Stark was on it
“And we know we shall win as we are confident in the victory” April 13, 2010
I was saddened and angered by the news I read today that Somali militants have banned the playing of music from the country’s airwaves. Well technically the transition government only control a small part of the capital Mogadishu so it is actually the work of the militants that run the rest of the country. There has not been a functioning government in the state since 1991. The militants have closed down five BBC radio relay stations in the south of the country, so now there are just two FM transmitters left in the transition government and UN controlled part of Mogadishu. Is there anything we can do about it? I don’t know, but I doubt it. The waters off Somalia are already full of proper pirates so the chances of setting up a pirate radio station off shore seems unlikely. Can we write to our politicians? Well sure you can, but certainly in the UK at the moment the self-regarding parasites are so far up their own sphincters with the General Election and new ways to fiddle their expenses that they won’t be bothered by something so trifling as this. But if you do believe there is something we could do then please get in touch. If anyone from Somalia is actually reading this I would love to hear from you. You can read the BBC report on this story by clicking hereÂ
The ban on music radio in Somalia has led to the discovery and use of many innovative living instruments. I'm not quite sure where you blow on this one though!
This whole sorry episode got me thinking about songs that have been banned from airplay in the UK, so that, my dear readers is what this post is all about!Â
One of the biggest en masse bans occurred just after 9/11 back in 2001. A Programme Director at one of the Clear Channel Radio Stations produced a list of songs that he felt might be in bad taste after the events of 2001. It was allegedly meant as a guideline and supposedly received no corporate backing. I kind of see where this person was coming from with some of the choices (although I do not agree at all) but how the hell did the following make it on to the list?Â
“Ob La Di Ob La Da” – BeatlesÂ
“What A Wonderful World” – Louis ArmstrongÂ
“99 red Balloons” – NenaÂ
Alice In Chains, the Beatles and Metallica have four entries each while AC/ DC are way out in front with six. It seems that almost any song mentioning planes, fire, death, bombs, New York or the middle east was included. Click here to see the whole list. The BBC actually preceded this during the Gulf War of 1991. This list included Abba’s “Waterloo” and also the instruction that Massive Attack would be referred to as Massive during the conflict. Click here to see the BBC’s Gulf War banned list and many other lists referenced in this postÂ
The BBC has quite a long history of banning songs for various reasons and here is just a small selection along with the reasons they received a beeb ban!Â
“Je T’Aime” – Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg. Obviously the powers that be at the BBC back in 1969 understood french far better than I did then or even do today. personally I think there would have only been a tiny minority of people in the UK in 1969 who would have understood the lyrics anyway. It allegedly wasn’t helped though by the inclusion in the lyric of Serge’s desire to “entre te reins” which I’m told means between the kidneys, or in English probably ‘up the bum’Â
“The Day After You” – Blow Monkeys (supported by Curtis Mayfield). This was banned for being anti Margaret Thatcher. Since when was that a crime? I always have been and always will be. If you feel the same maybe you should also check out Elvis Costello’s “Tramp The Dirt Down”Â
“Tribute To Buddy Holly” – Mike Berry and the Outlaws. This was a Joe Meek production from 1961 and was banned for being a morbid celebration of a dead teen idolÂ
“Cover Of The Rolling Stone” – Dr Hook and the Medicine Show. Obviously the BBC were not going to advertise an American publication, which in those days was almost impossible to get in this country anyway. The band tried to help by recording a new version of the song which replaced Rolling Stone with Radio Times, which was and still is a BBC published TV and Radio listings magazine (other listing magazines are available!)Â
Many other songs, especially more recently have been banned for including swearing. The earliest of these that I am aware of is John Lennon’s “Working Class Hero” in 1970. John Lydon (formerly known as Johnny Rotten remains the only person to have sneaked the ‘C’ word into a song and had it played though. Listen to the Sex Pistols “Pretty Vacant” again and hear how he pronounces ‘vacant’ in the chorus. I understand that this was deliberate. Nice one Mr Lydon 😉Â
I could go on and on with this post but I will draw it to a close, but I would like to hear your stories of banned songs wherever you are. Personally I think the world would be a nicer place if the likes of Boyzone, Westlife, Robbie Williams and anyone who wins X Factor were to be banned from getting any airplay ever!Â
I will finish with a story about Michael Logan who recently received an ASBO for singing Bob Marley songs outside his home in the UK from 8 a.m until midnight. (Click here for the link to the story from the Manchester Evening News) Now I don’t condone that sort of thing but it does give me a great excuse to end with a Bob Marley song! This is Bob with a great live segue of “War/ No More Trouble”
Did you know that the lyrics to Marley’s “War” were the words of a speech made by Haile Selassie?
“I think I’m done with the kitchen table, baby” April 8, 2009
Welcome back my friends to the blog that never ends…….. well ok it does take the odd sabbatical, anyway enough dithering and on with the show as they say! Well Queen and Leo Sayer say it as they both had hits about the show going on!
Some important news for you to start with, apparently Lady GaGa refuses to have sweaty cheese in her dressing room. Her current rider states that it must be odourless and served on ice. She also requires a whole roasted chicken in her dressing room. Thank you to those nice folks at ‘The Smoking Gun‘ for that information. So did you know that the Lady’s real name is Stefani Germanotta? No? well you do now!
Lady GaGa's Cheesy Rider
It’s April 8th and it would have been the 80th birthday of Jacques Brel the Belgian born singer/ songwriter who died of cancer in October 1978. In the English speaking world Brel is better known for the English translations of his songs which many artists have recorded. Including such luminaries as Nina Simone, Scott Walker, Marc Almond, Dusty Springfield, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, David Bowie (yep him again!) and Terry Jacks. “Seasons In The Sun” an English translation of a Brel song was recorded by Canadian singer Terry Jacks and was a big hit around the world in 1974.. Bowie recorded Brel’s “Port Of Amsterdam” and often played “My Death” live during the Ziggy days (click the song title to see the Dame doing the song more recently). Marc Almond often played Brel songs live and in 1989 he recorded a whole album of Brel songs called ‘Jacques’. Click here for a very comprehensive list of Brel covers on Wiki
Did he really write "Jumping Jacques Flash"? He's sure got a lot of sole!
On this day in 1967 a live soul revue at the Hammersmith Odeon in London included sets by Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Eddie Floyd, Arthur Conley and Booker T & the MGs. Now that is one fantastic package, it’s just a pity I was only 8 years old at the time. Well that and the fact that my parents preferred country music. So I suppose it could have been worse! Here is Arthur Conley with the classic and still one of my all time favourites and yes it is one of the 50 songs in my Top 10, “Sweet Soul Music”
Arthur was well known for his skill in playing the invisible trombone
Also on this day in 1967 Sandie Shaw became the first UK female artist to win the Eurovision Song Contest with the appalling song “Puppet On A String” She worked at the Ford Motor Plant in Dagenham, Essex, England when she left school. A very high proportion of Dagenham’s working class population worked there too. Unlike many of her contemporaries she also recorded many of her songs in French, German, Italian and Spanish. This clearly helped to popularise her more outside the UK. She also became the first artist to cover a Led Zeppelin song. Here is Sandie with a more recent update of “Puppet On A String” called “Puppet On A Brand New String”
Sandie had clearly been selling Mozzer short or perhaps they were going to a Fancy Dress Party as Tom Cruise and his wife!
On this day in 1994, Gary Smith an electrician who was working at Kurt Cobain’s house in Seattle discovered Kurt’s body lying on the greenhouse floor. A shotgun was found next to the body. Seattle Radio Station KXRX broke the news at 9.40am that morning that the late great Cobain was dead, he was just 27. Conspiracy theories about Cobain’s death still abound, personally I don’t buy them at all, clearly he had considered and attempted suicide before so in some ways his death by his own hand, whilst very, very sad was not too much of a surprise. Cobain was given a guitar for his 14th birthday and soon learnt to play, apparently to covers he mastered early on were “Back In Black” (AC/DC) and “My Best Friends Girl” (The Cars). Here are Nirvana from the rehearsal of their ‘Unplugged’ show with Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold The World“. Nirvana were actually on the bill at the Reading Festival in the UK in August 1991 the same month my son Luke was born. Yes you guessed it here is yet another shameless plug for Luke’s band ‘Steal The Smile‘ They are currently recording an EP. To check out their MySpace page just click on the band name.
Freddy Krueger does grunge horror in 'Nightmare On Nirvana Street'
And finally on this day in 1998 George Michael was arrested by an undercover policeman at the Will Rogers Memorial Park in LA for committing a sex act in a public toilet. George Michael was quoted as saying “I was followed into the restroom and this cop, well I didn’t know that he was a cop at the time obviously, started playing a game. I think it’s called ‘I’ll show you mine, you show me yours and then when you show me yours I’m gonna nick you” Michael was later fined $810 and ordered to complete 80 hours community service for committing a lewd act. He later lampooned the arresting officer, Marcelo Rodriguez in the video for “Outside“. the cop later sued George for $10m for his apparent portrayal in the video and the emotional stress it had caused him, he lost the case, in fact it was thrown out by the courts. The UK tabloids had a lot of fun reporting George’s arrest. Whilst I really dislike what the UK tabloid press has become (cheap, nasty, invasive and greed driven) it’s clear that their headline writers do indeed have talent. The main headline from the Sun was ‘ZIP ME UP BEFORE YOU GO GO’
George gets ready to 'Whip It Out Before He Go Go's' he's such a 'Bad Boy' especially if you believe those 'Careless Whispers'
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 