vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on May 10, 2018 8:06:10 GMT 1
So, Bloody Sunday was a dreadful event, and Paul McCartney decided to respond with an upbeat country rock ballad that basically turned 1500 years of confused history into a jingle.
Not sure what he was trying to do here. Get back into Lennon's good books? Trash his reputation as being the Nice Beatle? Whatever, it probably didn't really have the intended effect; it was banned, nearly unheard, struggled in the charts, and is now forgotten.
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Post by raliverpool on May 10, 2018 18:05:41 GMT 1
^ It depends whether you think it was OK for the British Government to sanction British troops in Derry in Northern Ireland to shot dead thirteen unarmed Civil Rights Marchers and wounding many others during a peaceful protest march against internment, and injured 58 others via gunshots, vehicle impact, rubber bullets and flying debris.
As I don't think the British Government behaviour was appropriate, then I don't have a problem with the record's message. Sure the lyrics are rather simple & direct, and the tune sounds like a bad Irish country folk song (it reached #1 in Ireland, & Spain), but at least Steve Coogan's Alan Partridge could not make an inappropriate joke about it like he did with a 1983 U2 song on the same subject matter.
The very fact the subsequent The Widgery Tribunal was a near total "whitewash" of the major incident during "The Troubles" which saw a large number of civilian citizens killed, by forces of the state, in full view of the public and the press only helped increase Catholic and Irish nationalist hostility towards the British Army and exacerbated the conflict. This surely was not a good thing, in the same way that pouring Paraffin on fire is not a clever thing to do.
It is also telling that back in 1990 when Paul McCartney played a hometown Kings Dock gig in Liverpool, he compared his involvement (in pre interviews) with this record to his involvement on the 1989 Hillsborough Stadium Disaster single "Ferry 'Cross The Mersey".
As we now know history has shown his suspicions about the British Government covering up her majesty's forces behaviour in that tragedy was just as appalling & erroneous as it was at Bloody Sunday.
It is things like this that you have to remember why Paul McCartney was not knighted until 1997 and largely only due to the fact he had sponsored and set the LIPA performing arts school in Liverpool at this point which saw him personally input a small 8 figure amount (guestimated at £15-20 million).
Whilst the likes of Jimmy Saville was knighted in 1990; and Cliff Richard was knighted in 1995 (even though by then he was a resident for tax purposes in Portugal, and best not bring up what John Lennon said about him in 1970 which certain websites have plenty of "information" about his alleged "unorthodox" habits from the 1960s onwards which have been kept out of the public domain, despite being as well known as the now not alleged behaviour of a few of his former acquaintances in a court of law)
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on May 10, 2018 23:03:14 GMT 1
I don't think it was appropriate, obviously, but I don't think that's a reason for overturning the democratic will of a couple of million people.
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Post by raliverpool on May 11, 2018 19:16:05 GMT 1
Tinchy Stryder & The Chuckle Brothers - To Me, To You (Bruv)
The London born grime artist 2014 single turned out to be his final of his 19 UK chart singles. I guess collaborating with the legendary Yorkshire brothers of pensionable age responsible for ChuckleVision killed his creditability stone dead.
"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear".
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on May 19, 2018 21:28:19 GMT 1
Going to put two in here.
Some things just utterly beggar belief. I cannot comprehend how this happened in this universe. Someone decided to turn Mike Reid into a disco star. This is Mike Reid, the Cockney wide-boy comic whose standup routines were more second-hand car salesman dripping in bling than engaging stories.
And to turn him into a disco star Pye gave him a song made up of literal gibberish. Written by an Italian, Adriano Celentano, who did not speak English. Celentano was a comedian and songwriter of long standing, and took the original into the top 5 in his home country. And somebody decided to get Mike Reid to record it. Mike Reid.
And that wasn't all. It wasn't a hit so Pye tried again. With a nursery rhyme. This is about as well cast as Herod as a babysitter. Yet enough people bought it to put it in the top ten.
The consequence of which saw Reid turned into a kids' television presenter on Runaround. Which was better in rememberance than in actuality. Although it did give us a p*ssed Charles Hawtrey impersonating Dracula in front of an audience of kids who had no idea who he was.
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Post by raliverpool on May 23, 2018 20:35:56 GMT 1
One of the best yet most bizarre singles to reach USA #1, Canada #1, Australia #2 & UK #2. On a track which samples parts of the 1989 Batman film, as well as utilizing various riffs and lyrics from other tracks on the soundtrack album. How many tracks do you know of which features gun shots & a female screaming for 5 seconds did so well commercially: Prince - Batdance
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Jun 6, 2018 23:52:30 GMT 1
The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band may be the most eclectic act to have a top 5. Surreality and wind instrumentation was provided by Vivian Stanshall, who left in 1970 and recorded this solo single, ostensibly with the Sean Head Showband. But the most notable member of that particular one-off studio act was Mr Eric Clapton...
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Jun 14, 2018 21:11:25 GMT 1
Keith Michell was an Australian actor much praised for his Shakespearean performances, and won an Emmy for his portrayal of Henry VIII (albeit not in the Swan of Avon's play). He also had a minor hit single at a time when there was a thing about getting actors to do singles (most notably Richard Harris).
But did anyone see this getting into the top five? Basically an album of poetry for kids by Jeremy "Hi-de-Hi!" Lloyd, declaimed by some of the finest thesps in the land, and after Tony Blackburn gave this a spin, the campaign for Hissing Sid's innocence got under way - the publicity helping the 45 into the higher reaches of the charts.
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Post by Mic1812 on Jun 14, 2018 22:31:53 GMT 1
Mike Reid did a lot of singles in the 70s. I bought most of them but fgell in love with a b-side he did called This Kind Of Love.
Captain Beaky was great. I bought the follow up as well.
Loved Tinchy Styder getting with the chuckle brothers.
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Post by Mic1812 on Jun 14, 2018 22:33:30 GMT 1
Remember this one. Thought it was gonna be massive but it wasnt. Keith Lemon at his best or worst. make your own mind up
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Post by suedehead on Jun 15, 2018 1:03:10 GMT 1
Captain Beaky was a novelty song that also happened to be rather good.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Jun 19, 2018 21:47:42 GMT 1
East Of Eden were early prog rockers, albeit probably more on jazz than rock, and also a bit more random than the later, more calculated, prog that would come out in the mid seventies. They had one charting album (Snafu) in 1970, but, the next year, scored a bona fide top ten single with this - the title track from their following album. A bit different to their normal material...
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Post by raliverpool on Jun 19, 2018 22:07:55 GMT 1
A new entry to this category is this "thing":
The Stars House Band - Rasputin Rebooted
Freddie Flintoff’s history as a delusional with singing aspirations began way back in his Lancashire county cricket days when he would indulge in Elvis impersonations. So we can understand how he might be persuaded to cough up a few notes on a World Cup football butchering of the Boney M song in tribute to Harry Kane to send England on their way to Russia. Less obvious is the rationale of Ricky Wilson, who at least approximates to a vocalist in his capacity as lead singer with the Leeds pop ensemble The Kaiser Chiefs. But maybe he is still sore at not cashing in on reworking his biggest hit as "Rooney, Rooney, Rooney, Rooney ...".
But what the hell is William Rees from Mystery Jets producing it; and why on earth is Ellie Roswell of Wolf Alice on guitar on this debacle.........
Besides it is not a patch on CBBC's Hey Duggee - The Kick Song (featuring Miranda Hart & Alexander Armstrong)
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Jun 30, 2018 23:57:23 GMT 1
Easy answer to the question of what Madness and Judge Dread have in common - they both took their name from Prince Buster cuts. This is the latter's inspiration. But unlike a typical ska single, this is the Prince in the guise of a judge giving massive sentences to rude boys. It sounds more like a b-side than an a-side, something experimental as a throwaway. But the sort of thing that might have become a hit with a bit more attention.
The rude boys on this track are played by Fitzroy Campbell (Buster's brother) and the immortal Lee "Scratch" Perry.
The single also inspired a Kia Ora advert.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Jul 8, 2018 19:18:28 GMT 1
A mix of paranoia and insomnia. Max Headroom was a phenomenon on Channel 4, with some people genuinely thinking that he was a computer-generated character (actually actor Matt Frewer), and others thinking that at least the background was (it was actually old-fashioned animation). Max Headroom started off as a short film character but was best-known for fronting a music video show on C4, before MTV broke into the mainstream.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Jul 15, 2018 12:50:20 GMT 1
There have been a few singles that run so long that they occupy the A and B-side of a single. Two of the more notorious are not likely to get much airplay because of the artists involved. "Rock & Roll" by Gary Glitter is very well known and not really bizarre, but this one by The Crystals has been surrounded by all sorts of urban myth. The most popular being that Spector put it down because he wanted to screw (hence the title) Lester Sill, the Les of Philles Records, out of royalties that Sill was entitled to from the next Philles release.
But it seems never to have been intended as a single release; only a few copies were ever printed up, and one of them Spector sent to Sill, probably as an eff you - the male voice is Spector's attorney Marty Machat. The weird thing is that without the spoken-word bit this could have been a groundbreaker - albeit it would have needed some editing, it doesn't work over 10 minutes.
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Post by raliverpool on Jul 15, 2018 13:10:40 GMT 1
Seeing as it is the Wimbledon Men's Tennis Grand Slam Final today .... remember this novelty single from 1982 ..... Definitely a case of rap with a capital C:
The Brat - Chalk Dust (The Umpire Strikes Back)
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Jul 16, 2018 19:11:35 GMT 1
Jo Durie did a single called "Wimbledon Lawns", which I only heard the once. From memory it wasn't that bad, although her voice was multitracked to hide its (presumed) weakness. But I cannot find any trace of it.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Jul 18, 2018 23:29:20 GMT 1
Polydor: What we really need is some repetitive Belgian funk with some heavy breathing to get us banned from the Beeb.
The Chakachas: Hold my beer.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Jul 21, 2018 20:23:59 GMT 1
It's bizarre that punk progenitors The Modern Lovers, so ahead of the game that the Pistols covered them, had a top 5 hit with what sounds like a knocked-off-in-five-minutes b-side.
I'd love to show the Legs & Co video, with them doing the Wilson Keppel & Betty sand-dance and Sue and Patti inside a camel, but the **** stains at SME have blocked all those versions. Even though the British licence payer paid for it.
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