PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Before you read this I should warn you that if you are offended by profanities you might not enjoy it!
2021 is the 70th year of the UK Christmas Number one and up to now only three acts have managed three successive Christmas number ones; The Beatles, Spice Girls, and Ladbaby (a.k.a Mark Hoyle), the latter is vying for four in a row with “Sausage Rolls For Everyone” supported by Elton John and Ed Sheeran, the song is effectively a rework of Ed and Elton’s new Christmas tune, the current number one. It is also worth pointing out the Beatles took Yuletide number one on four occasions. The 2021 Official Christmas Number 1 will be announced on Friday, December 24 by Scott Mills live on BBC Radio 1’s The Official Chart Show. So you can download or stream up to midnight on 23rd and that will help your favourite move up the charts. Ed Sheeran and Elton John’s “Merry Christmas” might hang on to the top slot and everyone from Abba to Gary Barlow to Craig Revel Horwood to George Ezra are in the mix. But so are the Kunts with an updated version of “Boris Johnson Is A Fucking Cunt” from last year, the slight change is that it is now titled “Boris Johnson Is Still A Fucking Cunt”. (There are eleven versions of the Kunts track, don’t forget to download them all, you know you want to. I totally agree with the sentiment and personally, I would love to see the Kunts at number one, although I suspect that Ladbaby will win in the end. The saving grace for all of Ladbaby’s hits is that all the proceeds go to the Trussel Trust who supports a nationwide network of food banks in the UK. As I said earlier I really would love to see the Kunts top the chart, but if it has to be anyone else then at least the Ladbaby song is raising money for a great cause. Who is your tip for UK festive number one?
If you have enjoyed this article feel free to follow the blog, or follow us on;
Thanks to a site called Obscurify. It claims to tell you how obscure your listening on Spotify is. Compared to the rest of the UK I am now supposedly 99% more obscure than other users in the UK, which has increased from a mere 90% in July! It also lists my most obscure artists, (the top three of which have been there since I began doing these posts) which currently are
So who were the top artists for October (29th) and November (20th)? Check the full lists below, but I can reveal that Delilah Bon was the chart-topper in October, her second time at the top and her fourth appearance overall. Once again it was Dame David Bowie in November for his fifth time at the top. There are a few new artists in there, notably Dea Matrona, Joy Crookes and, Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton. I was pleased to see Apollo Junction, Emily Capell and, Nightmares On Wax making an appearance too. Also plenty of the usual classic acts, including Elton John, Amy Winehouse and, the Biffy Clyro. Regular readers know that as I share this Spotify account with my wonderful wife Catherine (a.k.a. Catwoman) a few artists finished much higher than they might have done if they were only my choices 🙂 Notably the Carpenters and Rick Astley. Give Obscurify a spin and let me know what your chart looks like and how obscure your tastes are 🙂
Mayhem’s Top 20 Artists on Spotify (November 20th 2021)
David Bowie Nightmares On Wax Damon Albarn Radiohead Carpenters Rick Astley Notorious Lightbulbs Avalanches Emily Capell Biffy Clyro Blur Apollo Junction Ima Robot Bruno Mars Millie Manders & the Shut Up Bob Marley & The Wailers Bunny Wailer Norman Connors Joy Crookes Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton
Mayhem’s Top 20 Artists on Spotify (October 29th 2021)
Delilah Bon Elton John David Bowie Steven Wilson Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Durand Jones and the Indications Amy Winehouse Emily Capell Billy Nomates Biffy Clyro Strange Bones T Rex Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings Darts Counting Crows Nightmares On Wax Cleopatrick Beans On Toast Be Bop Deluxe Dea Matrona
If you have enjoyed this article feel free to follow the blog, or follow us on;
I thought I would share some of my Spotify listening habits. Apparently I listened to Spotify for more than 12 days last year, I wish I knew how much time I listened to vinyl, CDs, MP3s, radio and other on line sources too. I discovered 577 new artists, wow! My most listened to song was David Bowie’s version of “Wild Is The Wind” and unsurprisingly Bowie was my most listened to artist once again (996 minutes, nearly 6% of my total Spotify listening time) I was also in the top 0.5% of Bowie listeners. The other artists in my top 5 were Biffy Clyro, the Streets, Ella Fitzgerald and Woke Up Dead. I listened to 1,286 artists. My top decade was the 1970s, again no surprise there. Top genres were Rock, Soul and Dance Rock. Rather fascinatingly my music is more obscure than 80% of UK users, what on earth does that mean? I also found a few rather amusing, to me anyway, graphs and charts to accompany this post!
Since starting on this post I have also discovered a few sites on which you can regularly update your Spotify statistics split between artists and tracks and then last 4 weeks/ current, Last six months and all time within that. My favourites among these sites so far are Favourite Music Guru, Obscurify Music and Stats For Spotify. Have you used any of these or can you recommend others?
In case you’re interested in my warped eclectic taste these are my top artists on Spotify (Current, Medium Term and all time) The top songs follow those lists. Incidentally the Kunts and Jarvis Cocker feaure strongly on the tracks lists simply because I did my bit to get them to be the Christmas number one in the UK these last two years!
Top Artists — Short Term (4 weeks)
The Beatles
Yusuf / Cat Stevens
Eagles
London Symphony Orchestra
Evie Sands
Rumer
Jackson Browne
David Bowie
Bobbie Gentry
Harry Styles
Top Artists — Medium Term (6 months)
David Bowie
Biffy Clyro
Gregory Porter
The Avalanches
John Lennon
Eminem
Stevie Wonder
Stephen EvEns
Ella Fitzgerald
The Beatles
Top Artists — Long Term (years)
David Bowie
Bob Marley & The Wailers
Biffy Clyro
Frank Turner
Bruce Springsteen
Four Tops
Eminem
Johnny Nash
Elton John
The Streets
Top Tracks — Short Term (4 weeks)
Boris Johnson is a Fucking Cunt – Single Edit — The Kunts
Billy the Kid, Ballet Suite: I. The Open Prairie — Aaron Copland, London Symphony Orchestra
True Faith ’94 — New Order
Jamaica Say You Will — Jackson Browne
Everybody Used to Love You — Silverjet
Raison D’Être — Stolen Dead Music
Wear A Mask — Sing Sing Rabbit
Three Points on a Compass — Martin Rossiter
Drag Me to the Light — Miles and the Chain Gang
Alfred – Intro — Eminem
Top Tracks — Medium Term (6 months)
Boris Johnson is a Fucking Cunt – Single Edit — The Kunts
Taking It Slow — Heartsink
Concorde — Gregory Porter
Freakin’ At the Freaker’s Ball — Dr. Hook
Pepper — Butthole Surfers
Career Criminal — Stephen EvEns
Close — The Islas
Belladonna — Spunsugar
Make Us Eat — The Shining Tongues
Smiling — Alanis Morissette
Top Tracks — Long Term (years)
Boris Johnson is a Fucking Cunt – Single Edit — The Kunts
Running the World — Jarvis Cocker
Star Treatment — Arctic Monkeys
(red, white, and blue) Cheerfulness — Perry Farrell
Balance, Not Symmetry — Biffy Clyro
Future Legend – 2016 Remaster — David Bowie
Deep Sea Dreaming — Ocean Flaws
Loser of the Year — Woke Up Dead
Three Points on a Compass — Martin Rossiter
Wild Is the Wind – 2016 Remaster — David Bowie
If you have enjoyed this article feel free to follow the blog, or follow us on;
This is the second of an occasional series of songs that I don’t believe ever got the airplay they deserved, the previous and first was for “Everybody Was Rockin'” by the late great Betty Wright. Click here to check that one out. I suspect that when I have completed a few in this series there will be an accompanying playlist!
My favourite Elton John album is ‘Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy’ and it has been ever since it was released in 1975. “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” is not only my favourite song on the album it was the only single to come from it. The record performed well in the US chart, reaching number 4, (and number 2 in Canada), but in the UK chart, it only made a lowly 22. The song, and indeed the album, is autobiographical and covers Elton and Bernie Taupin’s early life together as struggling songwriters. “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” describes Elton’s failed suicide attempt on the eve of a potential and probably disastrous marriage in 1968. He had tried to gas himself, but when Bernie Taupin found him the window was also open. Which meant it was an inept attempt at suicide or maybe just a classic “cry for help”. The “someone” and the phrase “sugar bear” in the song are believed to refer to Elton’s 60s friend Long John Baldry who spent a lot of time and effort trying to steer the then Reg Dwight away from that marriage. For me, it ranks as one of the best lyrics Mr Taupin ever wrote (lyrics are copied below). Maybe the song was too long for a UK single at 15 seconds shy of seven minutes. But Elton, given the deeply personal nature of the tune, refused to edit it for single release. It was also the last single, for 8 years, to feature the classic Elton John Band line up of Dee Murray (bass), Davey Johnstone (guitar), and Nigel Olsson (drums). The song has been covered by Mumford and Sons, sampled by Kanye West and referenced a few times in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series.
I have added a bonus live version of the song from Central Park, NYC in 1980. If the woman who made it onto the stage at around 6 and a half minutes in is still around I would love to chat with her for another post. Is it you? Is it your Mom? Do you know her? Please let me know!
“Someone Saved My Life Tonight” – Elton John (music Elton John, lyrics Bernie Taupin)
When I think of those East End lights
Muggy nights
The curtains drawn in the little room downstairs
Prima donna Lord you really should have been there
Sitting like a princess perched in her electric chair
And it’s one more beer
And I don’t hear you anymore
We’ve all gone crazy lately
My friends out there rolling round the basement floor
And someone saved my life tonight sugar bear
You almost had your hooks in me didn’t you dear
You nearly had me roped and tied
Altar-bound, hypnotized
Sweet freedom whispered in my ear
You’re a butterfly
And butterflies are free to fly
Fly away, high away bye bye
I never realized the passing hours
Of evening showers
A slip noose hanging in my darkest dreams
I’m strangled by your haunted social scene
Just a pawn out-played by a dominating queen
It’s four o’clock in the morning
Damn it listen to me good
I’m sleeping with myself tonight
Saved in time, thank God my music’s still alive
And someone saved my life tonight sugar bear
You almost had your hooks in me didn’t you dear
You nearly had me roped and tied
Altar-bound, hypnotized
Sweet freedom whispered in my ear
You’re a butterfly
And butterflies are free to fly
Fly away, high away bye bye
And I would have walked head-on into the deep end the river
Clinging to your stocks and bonds
Paying your H.P. demands forever
They’re coming in the morning with a truck to take me home
Someone saved my life tonight, someone saved my life tonight
Someone saved my life tonight, someone saved my life tonight
Someone saved my life tonight
So save your strength and run the field you play alone
And someone saved my life tonight sugar bear
You almost had your hooks in me didn’t you dear
You nearly had me roped and tied
Altar-bound, hypnotized
Sweet freedom whispered in my ear
You’re a butterfly
And butterflies are free to fly
Fly away, high away bye bye
If you have enjoyed this article feel free to follow the blog, or follow us on;
This is it Christmas Eve, day 12 of my 12 days to Christmas series of posts. The final one that brings you famous people from history featured in a song, obviously they have all been real and today is no exception. I bring you the bearded weirdy, the fat bloke in the red coat, yes old saint Nick or as I prefer to call him, Father Christmas. He is real ok, don’t let anyone hear you say otherwise! Father Christmas first appeared in the 17th century and until the Victorian age he was seen as a symbol of adult merry-making and feasting. It was around then that he became the bearer of yuletide gifts, especially to children. Santa Claus is an American traditional name for the Christmas figure. Father Christmas’ coat was depicted as green, brown and even blue. It was a big advertising campaign by Coca Cola in 1931 that switched to the now far more common red robes. As it’s Christmas I won’t be focusing on any particular artist today, but I have selected a diverse set of Father Christmas and Santa Claus songs. Finally I would like to wish all of my readers a very happy Christmas, or happy holiday, or a happy life, whatever floats your boat. Just be happy! If you would like to track Father Christmas’ progress in your area click here.
Sadly I missed the Kickstarter campaign for this album from the talented and magnificent Daniel Versus The World. ‘Remember Who You Are’ is another fine release from Dovetown Records, the label that brought you Colour Me Wednesday and the Tuts among others. The album came out last year and I purchased the CD version a few weeks ago. The songs are all wonderfully catchy pop tunes, most of which grab you very quickly and bury themselves in your brain. Lyrically Mr Stocker is a great talent and he and the band have the chops to back up those often sublime lyrics.
I find the music and singing sometimes reminiscent of early Elton John or Billy Joel. But these words are not words that Elton could have even dreamt of singing back in the day, although as a great campaigner for the LGBT community I reckon Reg would enjoy this record. The album is dedicated to ‘all the angry queer punx’ which is in itself a fabulously bold statement especially in the dark days of so-called president Trump. (I somehow doubt that the Tango Prez will like Daniel Versus The World, but hey that’s the orange comb-overs loss!)
The album’s manifesto is most clear on opening track “Second Class Citizen” which relates to the treatment of gay people by many in this ‘modern’ society of ours. I find it incredible and horrifying that there are still people out there that continue to persecute minorities. Sadly it is often people of my generation that are guilty of such misinformed arrogance and hatred. Yes I am a middle-aged/ old straight white bloke, but I am also an Earthling. I totally accept people for who are what they are I have never been bothered by skin colour or sexuality. If you are a good person then I reckon I’ll probably get on with you, if you’re not then I’m pretty sure that I won’t!
“Thank You” is currently my favourite song on this collection. On first listen you might think of it as a heartbreak song, however while it certainly does seem to be about Daniel being spurned by a former lover the message turns to glass half full with the line ‘thanks for making me, me’. I should mention the band who are very tight and offer a more than accomplished canvas for Daniel’s song paintings. Laura Ankles on drums, Jaca Freer on bass and Carmela Pietrangelo on guitar. Daniel Stocker himself plays piano and obviously vocals too.
The CD, download and music streaming age make it easy to skip tracks on albums, however ‘Remember Who You Are’ is one of those gems on which there are no tracks that you need to skip. Another favourite of mine is “Little Blue” especially for its couplet around ‘love will make you six feet tall, but I’m six-foot three’. In a parallel universe “I’m So Fun” has topped the charts for the last twelve weeks. Next week my favourite Daniel Versus The World songs will probably different, but what is wrong with that? If Daniel did take on the world right now he might not win but he would give that mean old world a few good body blows at least. I recommend that you buy, download or stream this album immediately, no on second thoughts that is not a recommendation it’s an order!
So after nearly eight years of blogging I am approaching my 1,000th post on here. This one you are reading is post 999. But for post 1,000 I made a little offer to my Facebook friends, I asked them to name one song (or one artist) that they wanted me to include in post 1,000. So before I get there I would like to extend that offer to any of you in the blogosphere that would like their song added and receive a name check. I promise to try to say something nice about your song choice! Just message me or add a comment.
Anyway now for post 999, I went through a whole range of ideas for this one; songs about or related to the emergency services was a favourite until I thought of doing a sum. So what follows is a list of twenty songs with numbers in their title. If you add all those numbers together they total 999. Trust me they do, I used a spreadsheet 🙂 I hope you enjoy them and that you exercise your brain with a bit of mental arithmetic while you do!
Obviously most of you are aware that there is a referendum looming for us folk in the UK. It is a vote on whether we as a country should stay a part of the European Union or whether we should leave and go it alone. Personally I fundamentally disagree with the need for a referendum; if an elected government can’t make big decisions then why are they there? Give the people a referendum on all big decisions from keeping Trident to MPs pay. That would be much fairer and a true reflection of what people want. But no; we are lumbered with making a massive decision on a subject that no one really knows the answer to Just listen to all the drivel spouted by both the Brexit (incidentally I despise that invented word) and Remain camps. If anyone truly understands this decision and all its implications then I have never heard of them. Do I understand it? Of course not, although in some sleepless moments I might think that I do. But I am enjoying the spectacle of the Tory party tearing itself apart over it. Anyway I thought I would put a helpful list together of the reasons to vote Remain and the reasons to vote Brexit on June 23rd. I hope that you like it and feel free to add to it and share your opinion. I have also added a referendum poll if you wish to cast a vote here. Oh and obviously there is some (in)appropriate music too. Feel free to suggest your own referendum stay or leave songs.
Reasons to vote Remain
Reasons to vote Brexit
1 Brexit is a shit word concoction which shows no imagination
5 It will annoy the Biffers of Britain First and their ilk immensely
5 Gideon will be upset
6 Donald Trump won’t like it
6 UKIP will have no reason to exist
7 To stop Boris Johnson succeeding in his reality TV interview for the Prime Minister’s job
7 Millions of UK ex pats will be returned to the UK from Europe. (Incidentally why aren’t they called immigrants?)
8 To cling on to a very thin chance to ditch the unelected House of Lords
8 To lose all the lovely foreign folk that clean for us, work in our essential services, pick our food and serve our food. You know those people that do the jobs no native of this country wants to do
9 To cling on to a slim chance of seeing the end of the monarchy in the UK
The other day I decided to take a quick count of all the artists in my album collection where I have at least 10 albums by a single artist. I included CDs, LPs and cassettes (although the only non compilation cassettes that I have are David Bowie bootlegs). Oh and while I’m on bootleg recordings obviously I have included them whether they are live, studio outtakes or simply unreleased stuff. I have not included digital recordings. I was surprised to find that there are 4o artists where I have at least ten releases by them. The list is below, (artist followed by the number of albums) there are no real surprises for me, are you surprised at any on this list? Have you ever done anything similar? I have also added a song from each of the top ten artists 🙂
David Bowie 141
Bob Dylan 30 Johnny Nash 26 Bruce Springsteen 26
Beatles 25
Neil Young 25
Elton John 19
Bob Marley 19
U2 19
Rod Stewart 18
Pink Floyd 17
REM 17 Elvis Costello 15
The Eels 15
Prince 15
Paul Weller 15
Ryan Adams 14 Led Zeppelin 14
Madonna 14
The Clash 13 Elvis Presley 13
Radiohead 13
Kate Bush 12
Oasis 12
Lou Reed 12
Stevie Wonder 12
Morrissey 11
Tom Waits 11
ZZ Top 11
Jeff Buckley 10
Julian Cope 10
Johnny Cash 10 Michael Jackson 10
John Lennon 10 Manic Street Preachers 10
Kylie Minogue 10 Iggy Pop 10
Rolling Stones 10
Frank Turner 10
The Who 10
Don’t you just love Elton John’s “Bennie And The Jets” from his 1973 double album ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road‘? I certainly do. I knew that it wasn’t a live recording but the applause included on the track makes it sound as though it is. Did you know that the applause wasn’t even recorded at an Elton gig? In fact it is drawn from recordings of the audience clapping and shouting at Jimi Hendrix’sIsle Of Wight festival set in 1970.
I know of another occasion where that kind of thing has happened too. The sound of the crowd used on the title track of David Bowie’s ‘Diamond Dogs‘ album is actually the applause taken from a live album by the Faces! Can any of you offer any similar gems?
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 