there's one for you, nineteen for me....

Earworms of the Week


"Theme from Shaft" - Isaac Hayes

What can I say?  The facts speak for themselves: on the night when we all did karaoke in Ho Chi Minh City, this was the performance that the machine scored the highest all night.  98%.  Who's the black private dick who's like a sex machine to all the chicks?  Er.  Me?  You're damn right!

"All Along the Watchtower" - Jimi Hendrix

When confronted with the news this morning that some people had been queuing for Take That tickets since Wednesday, the Radio Five breakfast show asked who you would consider waiting that long in the cold for.  My immediate reaction: Hendrix.  I'm not sure why that was my first thought.  Basically, I'm not sure there's anyone I'd queue for like that at all, so I just went for someone dead, and he popped into my head before I even got as far as the Beatles.  The Smiths?  Only if I could see them as they were c.1985.  I'm not sure I want to see them reform.  Anyway.  This is a cracking song, of course.  Knocks the Dylan version into a cocked hat.  What a liquid, languid guitarist Hendrix was.

"Search & Destroy" - Iggy Pop & The Stooges

Whenever I hear this, I am reminded that I first heard the song as a b-side of "Under The Bridge" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.  I still quite like their version, but there's no substitute for the Stooges, is there?

Theme tune to "Blackadder"

If I was talking about Dorothy Parker with the guys who sit around my new desk the other day, today I spent a good half hour discussing the Plantagenet family tree with the guy who sits next to me.  Amazingly, he started the conversation, perhaps little realising that I have a masters degree in Medieval History, and was hardly likely to leave his assertion that Richard III was the last Plantagenet unchallenged.  In my view, dynastically speaking, the Plantagenet line ended in 1399 with the death of Richard II.  The Lancastrians and the Yorkists both CLAIMED descent from the Plantagenet line, but only through a younger brother.  As primogeniture applies, I don't think that dynastically that counts.  The Lancastrians and the Yorkists were thus cadet (i.e. not descended through the first born son) branches of the Plantagenet line.  Henry VII also claimed lineage through the Angevin line, but as it was through his mother and via an illegitimate connection anyway, that definitely doesn't count.  Discussion of English history?  Cue the Blackadder theme tune - Edmumd himself related to Richard IV of England, of course.....

"Patterns" - Band of Skulls

As last year, I've been lining up albums to gift to my younger brother for his birthday.  Last year, I gave him things like Elbow and Maximo Park, but the real hit was Mumford & Sons, which sits proudly atop his LastFM charts.  This year I was thinking Mt.Desolation, "Bryter Layter" by Nick Drake, "The Greatest" by Cat Power and the Band of Skulls album.  Quite a bit of variety in there, anyway, and he's not heard of any of them.  I love that Band of Skulls album, and was listening to it again in the office, with the inevitable result that this song sank straight in and wouldn't let go.

"Today" - Smashing Pumpkins

Apparently Victoria Pendelton, the multiple gold medal winning cyclist on the Great British team, has "Today is the greatest day I've ever known" tattooed on her wrist.  She finds it inspirational, apparently, and a source of real strength.  She said she didn't have the next couple of lines put on quite deliberately:

"Can't live for tomorrow,
Tomorrow's much too long
I'll burn my eyes out
Before I get out"

Possibly because there just isn't room on her wrist, or more likely because it all gets a bit depressing.   Great record, anyway.  Check out Billy Corgan in the video too.  Hair!

What lyric would you tattoo?  I was thinking: "I will be in the bar, with my head on the bar".  Either that or "RED WAR WILL FALL ON MY ENEMIES".

"Killing an Arab" - The Cure

The song that got me interested in the Cure.  Oh Meursault.....

"Hate to Say I Told You So" - The Hives

Their first, and still their best, song.  Is it me, or is this timeless?  It still sounds AMAZING.

"Infinite Dreams" - Iron Maiden

I don't know whether you've noticed, but quite often the earworms list I publish here on a Friday contains at least one song that I've used a lyric from for a post in the last few days.  Using song lyrics as your post headers when you are ridiculously susceptible to earworms thus becomes something of a self-fulfilling prophecy.  As I was discussing with Stef and the Reed brothers the other day, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son was always my favourite Iron Maiden album when I was a teenager, but when I listened to it the other day, I was very disappointed to find that the production has dated quite badly since 1988.  You listen to songs like "The Trooper" and "Aces High" and the classic Iron Maiden sound is present and correct and still sounds great.  For some reason, the song on this album haven't aged as well.  That said, this one has been stuck on a loop in my head for some time now, so it must have done something right.

"Taxman" - The Beatles 

I got back from work this evening to find a cheque from the Inland Revenue for some £973 and a few pence.  That 9 months I took off keeps on getting better and better.  Can I take another one, starting now?

Oh please? 

That's your lot, kids.  We're watching "A Haunting in Connecticut" with some friends on Halloween.  It was trailed on the "Adventureland" DVD we rented, and even the trailer was terrifying, so when it appeared on the checkout at the Coop for £4, C. snapped it up and proudly showed it to me when I got home from work that evening.  C. likes scary movies, you see.  I don't. 

I'm watching "Team America: World Police" tonight.  That's much more my thing.  Fuck yeah!

Have a good weekend y'all.