Month: June 2024

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Earworms 17 June 2024

Mike Nesmith – Rio – from DebbyM

Good evening, and welcome to your selection of songs about holidays / vacations. Must be good, because the sun has just come out.

If you have an Earworm you’d like to share, please send an.mp3, .m4a or a link to adempster73@gmail.com, together with a few words about why you’ve chosen it. Next week’s theme will be Jangle and Twang, as suggested by glassarfemptee. If it’s any help, jangle pop features jangly guitars reminiscent of the 1960s, twang is more country-pop, often telling a story. But that’s just my interpretation, and you may have entirely different ideas. Worms should reach me by close of play on Sunday 23 June.

Many thanks to all contributors. Keep calm, and carry on!

Radiators – Summer Holiday – tincanman: What would the summer jollies be without an irreverent Aussie pub band earworming in your head? (The word ‘irreverent’ may be superfluous).

The Go-Go’s – Vacation – Fintan28: This always conjures up a beach for me. A beach being a requisite for vacations.

William Bell – Everyday Will Be Like a Holiday – tincanman: William & Booker T. must have been on a holiday from school when they wrote this. “Everyday means “ordinary” or “typical.” Every day is a phrase that means “each day.” https://grammerly.com

Taken By Trees – Holiday – glassarfemptee: Victoria Bergsman (ex-Concretes) wants to take you on a holiday. She had a whole album inspired by a holiday in Hawaii, but this is not from that album.

Robert Gordon – Summertime Blues – tincanman: Eddie Cochran cover from the rockabilly revivalist’s Fresh Fish Special, with guitar god Link Wray and Elvis’s The Jordanaires.

The Undertones – Here Comes the Summer – Uncleben: it’s bloody taking its time, but it looks like it’s getting there now.

Sly and the Family Stone – Hot Fun in the Summertime – severin: Enjoying the summer, the sunshine and the beach. For most Brits that equates to going away on holiday. If you’re from San Francisco, maybe just walk out the front door and drive to your favourite beach.

Lovin’ Spoonful – Coconut Grove – Fintan28: Palms and sand and cool drinks a feature of the Spoonful’s getaway.

Pink Floyd – St Tropez – severin: Lounging around, in sunny St Tropez, musing about coming back home.

Miu – St. Tropez – DebbyM: Miu goes country(ish) Who doesn’t immediately think of St Tropez when it comes to holidays?!

Franz Ferdinand – Jacqueline – Shoegazer: Franz Ferdinand from twenty years ago.

Wild Billy Childish & the Buff Medways – Medway Wheelers – Uncleben: A cycling trip from Rainham to Torquay, stopping off in Clovelly for a cup of tea.

Red Elvises – Boogie On The Beach – Fintan28: It’s the same whatever beach you’re on. Time to boogie!

The Clint Boon Experience – Cool Vacation – glassarfemptee: When you’re feeling miserable, it’s time for a cool vacation in the sunshine. Wise advice from Clint Boon (ex Inspirals).

Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band – Postcard – severin: A cynic’s view of the British 1960s beach holiday. “I hope I get bronzed this year!”

Luna – Black Postcards – glassarfemptee: What do you do on holiday? Send postcards, of course. Luna is a fave of mine, and they really need a holiday. I particularly like the line “If I had to do it all again… I wouldn’t”.

Clémentine – Quel Temps Fait-Il à Paris – DebbyM: The theme from Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot, one of my all-time favourite films. I’d love a holiday in Saint-Marc-sur-Mere, or anywhere on the French coast, really.

Joni Mitchell – Carey – Suzi: Feel pretty sure I’ve sent this in before, but Joni’s farewell to Cary (she spelt it wrong) is a song I don’t think I’ll ever tire of. They lived the hippie life for a while in a cave in Matala, Crete, and they’ve remained friends. Who wouldn’t want to join them in the Mermaid Cafe?

Madredeus – Alfama – DebbyM: Many, many, many years ago I had a boyfriend whose sister was a teacher at the German school in Lisbon. We used to go down in the summer holidays and look after the house while she took her family back to Germany for a couple of weeks. Wonderful times!

The Saw Doctors – Clare Island – Suzi: Live version of a song I’m sure I’ve sent in before.  An island off the coast of County Mayo which sounds like a lovely place to escape to.

Main Playlist, blurbs above:

YouTube playlist, blurbs below:

The Stranglers – Peaches – LongTallSilly: My all time favourite summer holiday sound. It was a great summer for the peaches that year!🤣🤣🤟

Chaos UK – Take Me Back To San Clemente – wyngatecarpenter: A bona fide holiday song – it even mentions knotted hankies.

Battalion Zoska – Greetings From Blackpool – wyngatecarpenter: After a couple of trips over the pond to “the Vegas of the North” to play Rebellion, this US band don’t sound impressed. 

Ringo Starr – Sail Away Raymond – AliM: It’s a sunshine life for me, if I could get away… written by George Harrison.

The Kinks – Holiday – MaggieB: The Kinks from the hairy ’70s😎.

Madonna – Holiday – LongTallSilly: Unfortunately the first thing that came to mind! Sorry.

Miley Cyrus – Malibu – AliM: Sounds good to me.

Led Zeppelin – Ramble On – LongTallSilly: Always a great way to spend a holiday. Gone are the days I could ramble round the Cleveland way with all my goods and chattels on my back, but I still love a good wander.

Otis Redding – (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay – LongTallSilly: If not walking, then sitting watching the sea while contemplating setting sail in the sunshine, seems an admirable way to spend holiday time.

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This Week I Have Mostly Been Listening To… Crowded House

The New Zealand-born brothers, Tim and Neil Finn, have, between them, released no fewer than 39 albums in the 52 years since the older brother, Tim, founded his first band, Split Ends. And that’s just the official studio albums. If you include compilations, live recordings, soundtracks and other collaborations, we’re probably looking at twice that number.

The Auckland-based band played their first gig in 1972, changed their name to Split Enz in 1974 and went on to become the first New Zealand band to achieve major international success, with the single I Got You reaching #12 in the UK charts in 1980. Tim’s younger brother, Neil, had joined the band in 1977 and they carried on (with varying degrees of success) until it all ground to a halt in 1984.

That might have been that, but Neil soon had a new project on the go. Initially called The Mullanes, the band formed from the ashes of Split Enz, soon morphed into Crowded House and, in 1986, the self-titled debut album was released, featuring the international hit single, Don’t Dream It’s Over. Since then, Crowded House have released a further seven albums.

The first four albums (released between 1986 and 1993) arguably represent the band’s golden period, with the classic line up of Neil Finn, Paul Hester and Nick Seymour being augmented by the addition of Tim Finn on the 1991 release, Woodface. But we shouldn’t ignore the four more-recent Crowded House albums (including the brand new 2024 album, Gravity Stairs) or the solo albums released by the brothers, or indeed the two albums released under the Finn Brothers moniker in 1995 and 2004. Great songwriters like the brothers Finn don’t suddenly lose the ability to write great songs even if they don’t always achieve the heights of their glory years.

Whittling down 38 years of the music of Crowded House into a seven-song playlist was an exciting challenge and I have to say that I’m pleased with the result.

Enjoy…

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Earworms 10 June 2024

Of course it’s about charisma

Good evening, and welcome to your songs about charisma. LongTallSilly says he has had a charisma by-pass this week, and it is a quiet week so I’m guessing this is a common feeling. I will try and think of more engaging themes…

If you have an Earworm you’d like to share, please send an .mp3, .m4a or a link to adempster73@gmail.com, together with a few words about why you’ve chosen it. Next week’s theme will be holidays – things you might do, places you might go, camping, ice cream, skiing, knotted hankies, anything you can justify. And if you have an idea for a theme, please let me know.

Worms should reach me by close of play on Sunday 16 June. Many thanks to all contributors. Keep calm, and carry on!

Toad the Wet Sprocket – Fly From Heaven – Fintan28: Jesus had a brother. His take on the cult of charisma delivered by Paul goes straight at it’s disdain for his brother’s humanity in order to elevate faith over deeds. James sees it painfully clearly. Faith or deeds? And here we still are.

Dire Straits – Ticket To Heaven – Fintan28: Has the silky theft of the charismatic always been with us. They prey on the best of our hearts with little compunction.

Lou Reed and John Cale – Style It Takes – Suzi: From Songs For Drella, their tribute to Andy Warhol, who certainly did have the style it takes.

Jackie Wilson – Lonely Teardrops – Fintan28: I’m old enough to have seen both Elvis Presley and the Beatles appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show. Great stuff but it’s seeing Jackie on American Bandstand that still stays fresh in my memory. Sharkskin suit, Cuban heels and dance moves from another world. Yeah! Mr Excitement indeed.

ShelleyDevoto – Can You See Me Shining? – shoegazer: Pete & Howard together one last time.

Hole – Boys On The Radio – tincanman: Courtney Love knew all about the irresistible lure of bad boys on the radio; she was married to one of them.

Patti Smith – Gloria – severin: The most charismatic artist I ever saw on stage. First at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1976 at the age of 18 (me, not her) and more recently at the South Bank Centre when she curated Meltdown. I failed to get a ticket for her own performance but did see Television. They were great in their way but didn’t exactly excite us. Then Patti came on at the end to sing a brief song with them and the atmosphere in the room changed instantly.

Megan Moroney – Why Johnny – tincanman: Johnny Cash turned on all his charisma and sex appeal and all that to get June to forgive his drinking and drugging and womanizing.

Unthanks – Lucky Gilchrist – severin: Lucky G you had it tough, dragged up in the Glasgow rough / How come you were sensational, wild and inspirational? / Lucky G was full of glee, a bit like Freddie Mercury / Camp and yet angry… I think this bloke sounds like he had charisma.

Oysterband – This Is The Voice – Suzi: Celebrating a musician, a political activist too, it seems. We never learn who this song is about, but clearly he was pretty inspirational.

Main Playlist, blurbs above:

YouTube Playlist, blurbs below:

Schwartzeneggar – Child of the Times – wyngatecarpenter: Superficial charm but dead inside.

The Damned – Dozen Girls – wyngatecarpenter: Dave Vanian is mystified as to why the subject of the song is so successful with women, Captain Sensible comes in at the end and gets to the bottom of it.

Carole King ft Slash – I Feel The Earth Move / The Loco-Motion – MaggieB: I’ve been waiting for an excuse to post this 🤣

Jonathan Richman – There’s Something About Mary – severin: Even if his friends can’t see it.

ZZ Top – Sharp Dressed Man – AliM: They come runnin’ just as fast as they can’ Cause every girl’s crazy ’bout a sharp-dressed man.

The Offspring – Pretty Fly (For a White Guy) – AliM: If you haven’t got it, fake it – So if you don’t rate, just overcompensate / At least that you’ll know you can always go on Ricki Lake…


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This Week I Have Mostly Been Listening To… beabadoobee

The 2017 debut of the Filipino-born, English singer songwriter, beabadoobee (then just 17-years old), in many ways epitomised Bedroom Pop. The track in question, simply entitled Coffee, leaves us with the wonderful impression of its having been recorded with a hand held microphone on a 1970s cassette recorder. You can almost picture the scribbled note on the door reading, Recording In Progress…

A number of EPs followed over the next few years, each one building on the promise of its predecessor, before, sometime in 2019, Canadian rapper Powfu inventively sampled Coffee to provide the main melody and song structure for his track, Death Bed (Coffee for Your Head). It became an instant hit with the TikTok generation and beabadoobee gained a huge amount of exposure and access to new audiences.

Death Bed has now had over 160 billion listens on Spotify and beabadoobee’s career has continued to go from strength to strength.

The debut album Fake It Flowers appeared in 2020 and was followed in 2022 by Beatopia which reached #4 in the UK Album charts and #1 on the Indie charts.

2023 saw perhaps the biggest moment of her career so far when she was invited to open for Taylor Swift on 12 nights of the Eras Tour in March and April 2023.

A third album is due out in August and it’s produced by Rick Rubin – yes, that Rick Rubin. The first two tracks are out and it’s all sounding good.

Definitely one to watch!

Enjoy…

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This Week I Have Mostly Been Listening To… Richard Hawley

From 1980s indie obscurity with Treebound Story, to Britpop B-Listers Longpigs, via a brief spell in Pulp, and on to a solo career spanning 10 albums over 24 years, it’s been quite a ride for Richard Hawley.

Having indie/pop luminaries such as Guy Garvey, Jarvis Cocker and Paul Weller in your corner, together with a highly positive music media is never going to be a bad thing but mainstream ‘success’ has eluded Hawley. He’s never really troubled the scorers, slipping beneath the radar with album release after album release despite producing, in my mind, some of the greatest pop music of this century. At the 2006 Mercury Awards, when Hawley’s critically acclaimed fourth album, Coles Corner, failed to win the coveted award, Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys), stepped up to receive the award and began his acceptance speech with the words, ‘Someone call 999; Richard Hawley’s been robbed!’

The music is simple and melodic (most of the time) with a tinge of country which always stays on the right side of the state line. The lyrics are thoughtful, intelligent, witty and often confessional. The overall effect is magnificent but it’s Hawley’s voice that really makes you sit up and take notice. There’s something wonderfully old-fashioned about it; he’s a crooner for the 21st century…

With a tenth album out this week there was no shortage of material to choose for the playlist. In fact, for the first time this year, I had to cheat and choose an eighth track. And even then I feel that I’ve left several tracks sitting on the bench that probably should have made the starting lineup. Hawley’s an avid Sheffield Wednesday fan, so the analogy might seem a bit off kilter, but Richard Hawley truly is the Real Madrid of indie pop.

Enjoy…

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Earworms 3 June 2024

Cécile McLorin Salvant with Sullivan Fortner and Dusan Balarin: I have to send this in, because everyone deserves to revel in its absolute magnificence: DebbyM

Good evening and welcome to your selection of songs that ask a question of love, or the nature of love.

If you have an Earworm you’d like to share, please send an .mp3, .m4a or a link to adempster73@gmail.com, together with a few words about why you’ve chosen it. Next week’s theme will be charisma, rizz, magnetic personality – either the artist themselves or the subject of the song.

Worms should reach me by close of play on Sunday 9 June. Many thanks to all contributors – keep calm, and carry on!

Aja Monet – Why My Love – tincanman: Why my love always gotta go through obstacle courses, hop on one leg, do backflips, learn rocket science and speak mansplain?

Wet Leg – Being In Love – severin: “I feel like someone has punched me in the guts but I kinda like it ’cause it feels like being in love” – I think that raises quite a lot of questions even if they aren’t asked specifically.

House of Love – I Don’t Know Why I Love You – shoegazer: Band that never really got the success they deserved.

Ruth Brown – I Don’t Know – Fintan28: Ruth asks all the sizzling questions love offers and knows in her heart she can’t be sure of the answers. Still it’s worth the risk.

Jens Lekman – How Can I Tell Him – tincanman: How do you tell your best friend you’ve fallen in love with him? #askingforafriend.

Alison Moyet – Is This Love – glassarfemptee: I was a big fan of Alison Moyet in the Eighties, but she seems to have dropped off my radar since. She asks if love requires entwined minds as well as entwined bodies.

Squeeze – Is That Love? – DebbyM: Not sure this is asking a question of love as such, but I miss being a teenager listening to Squeeze so it’s going on the list.

Buzzcocks – Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve) – severin: Probably. But, then again, was it actually love in the first place? So many questions, so little time…

Dion – Who Do You Love? – Fintan 28: It’s more than possible to make a playlist with just covers of this Bo Diddley classic. Bo proved you could rock with just a guitar and your voice and Dion more than takes that to heart.

Brian Ferry and Roxy Music – Is Your Love Strong Enough? – Suzi: The early stages of a relationship – he wonders if he’s asking too much.

Erasure – Who Needs Love Like That – severin: Their first single and it features a question about love. The first big hit (do we still call it that?) was “Sometimes” but I don’t think it was an answer record.

Lori McKenna – That’s How You Know – tincanman: Implied question: How do you know when you’re finally over someone?

Little Eva – Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow – Fintan28: Gerry & Carole’s baby sitter takes a knowing run at their first # 1 hit. Carole King’s arrangement on this makes me wonder if this is more how she first heard it in her head. Great backing vocals by The Angels.

Nick Lowe – Cruel to be Kind – glassarfemptee: Nick Lowe’s early hit laments the maxim ‘cruel to be kind’, when applied to him!

Main playlist, blurbs above:

YouTube playlist, blurbs below:

George Harrison – What is Life – AliM: Matching cardigans R us. A blast from the past from my favourite Beatle.

Poison Girls – Lovers, Are They Worth It? – AliM: Thank you wyngate for introducing me to this excellent song.

Bob Marley – Is This Love? – AliM: I miss Goneforeign and his Reggae contributions, he had such great musical knowledge and alerted me to all sorts of different sounds.

Thin Lizzy – Don’t Believe A Word – LongTallSilly: And you definitely shouldn’t believe me if I tell you… 🤣🤣

10cc – I’m Not in Love – LongTallSilly: Sorry, reliving my teenage angst again!

The Coral – Dreaming of You – AliM: “What’s up with my heart when it skips a beat? / I still want you, but I don’t need you now…”

Habanera from Bizet’s Carmen – Ginger Costa-Jackson / English National Opera – MaggieB: Beware! Beware!