Hello and welcome to this weeks edition of the best blog on the planet. I hope you are all feeling well and ready for another bumper issue of fun and frolics. This week has been a bit slow on the old Captain Jack front, and to be honest there is not that much to talk about this week on the whole, so I will try and keep you as entertained as possible. But then you have all come to expect that!
As you will all know the Planet Rock deadline has come and gone, well twice now, and what was the outcome? Well thanks to all the support I am pleased to announce….
Yes with all our support a buyer has been found and the station is saved, but not by who we thought. The station has been bought this week from GCap Media by Malcolm Bluemel, an entrepreneur and rock music fan, for a nominal sum. Bluemel, 55, who beat a bid from Queen guitarist Brian May, runs TLCS Global Visa Services, which manages visa and passport applications for corporate customers.Despite amassing 563,000 listeners and being named digital station of the year at the Sony Radio Awards, Planet Rock was put up for sale by GCap to conserve cash as it unsuccessfully tried to fight a takeover bid from Charles Allen’s Global Radio. But with this sale taking place the countries number one rock station has now been saved, thanks to Captain Jacks Tracks readers, oh and of course Magnum, Thunder, Marillion, Iron Maiden, Moterhead, Whitesnake, Ian Gillan, Fish and of course Brian May, but it was my readers that did most of the hard work! Anyway it’s a big thanks from me for all those that signed up, even those who never even listen to the station!
Now with the football season over, finally I hear the ladies all say, it dawned on me that in this seasons Euro 2008 finals there is no home support! So who are we all going to follow? Well as always I have had my spies out, and from inside a secret training camp, I have an exclusive video of one of the main teams in the competition. Now to be fair, I’m not entirely sure who they are, but I’ll be supporting them fully!
Now that’s why they call it the Beautiful Game, well at least until the last few moments anyway. As you can expect from this blog, always up to date on all major sporting events, I will be bringing a weekly Euro 2008 report, which will replace It’s A Funny Old Game for a few weeks, so we can all see what we could of won, if we hadn’t had such a crap manager!
So onto this week then, and all the regulars are here again for your pleasure. Ask The Captain, Ronnies Bull Plop, Classic Tracks, Karaoke Classics, a Hot Chick and all the other great features you know and love. And first up as usual is this weeks…….
What am I to do? I know that some of you got last weeks almost straight away, and some of you struggled a bit. Now I did get told they were getting too easy. So lets see if this weeks is any easier for the lets say slower amongst you! I mean how easy do you want me to make them? I could do like in the quiz at the Hotel and just give you the answer and you could send me the picture in at some point! Now where is the fun in that. Right lets get on with it then. Here is this weeks picture, followed by three cunning clues about the Song.
1. This was the artists 14th consecutive Top Twenty Hit.
2. It was released as a double A-side and hit number 5 in the UK charts in 1978.
3. It has been covered by such different artist as Tom Jones and Tina Turner.
Devilish I think you will find this week! Ah well, it would be know fun if you got them to easily would it now!. So what to do now then. Do you scroll down and peek at the answer at the bottom of the blog, or do you read on until you get there. Personally I would read on as you know this is only going to get better, but then some of you are impatient little monkeys! Time for a bit of a class now, yes it's time for this week's......
Classic Track # 18
She Talks To Angels by The Black Crowes
Bit of blues style rock for you on this weeks Classic Track. This song is an acoustic masterpiece, and has all the elements of a great rock track, great lyrics, brilliant production, haunting melody and brilliant vocals. But the band have never really been taken under the wing, excuse the pun, by the British music fans, despite the band being influenced by Led Zeppelin, and of course the masters of Blues Rock The Rolling Stones.
The song is about drug addiction, and dependency, a subject the band come to know lots about. If you've ever been unfortunate enough to find yourself on this hell bound train, you know full well that this song is about addiction. The word is not mentioned in certain company because everyone is in denial. She'll tell you she's an orphan, after you've met hr family, signifies the life of lies and deceit she must live in order to support her habit and to justify her behaviour.
The lines about painting her eyes as dark as night and pulling the shades down tight describe the private world she creates for herself when she's using. She can be anyone she wants to be, and she wants no interruptions during this very private time. I see the lock of hair as someone that, at one time, meant everything to her but is no longer a part of her life. It represents the excruciating pain that brought her here, as well as the guilt and shame that keep her here. The cross is to signify spirituality. It's the only thing she has left to provide a glimmer of hope in a lifestyle that is hopeless by definition.
She gives a smile when the pain comes. The pain's gonna make everything alright is about the pain associated with IV drug use is nothing compared to the effects of the drug, which will, if only for a short while, allow her to forget the traumatic events that have changed her life forever. I think the smile is because that is her only release of the pain. Probably because no one understands her pain. Because it is a pain so great that no one else can even begin to know the true feeling.
The Crowes released their first studio album, Shake Your Money Maker, in 1990. On the strength of singles Hard to Handle, She Talks to Angels, Jealous Again, Twice as Hard, Sister Luck, and Seeing Things, their debut album received multi platinum certification and eventually sold over three million copies. The band's cover of Otis Reading’s Hard to Handle and She Talks to Angels both broke the Top 30 on the charts in 1991. The Black Crowes pumped up their sales by opening for ZZ Top on a tour, and have also toured with Aerosmith, AC/DC, Bon Jovi and their hero’s The Rolling Stones. They have just reformed after splitting in 2002, and have recently released a comeback album called Warpaint.
"Donna talka to me, Luigi," replied Antonio. "I been inna da jail." "Jail!" exclaimed Luigi. "What for you been in jail?"
"Wella, Luigi," Antonio said, "I was lying onna da beach, and the cops come, arresta me and throw me inna jail."
"But dey donna throw you in jail just for lying onna da beach!" Luigi countered.
"Yeah, but dissa beach was ascreamin' and akickin' and ayellin'."
Well what has Ronnie got for us this week. A good friend of Ronnie, one David Beckham has been stuck for idea’s as to what to buy her indoors Posh for her birthday, and he came up with the perfect gift, her own vineyard! Yes toe football legend has purchased his wife her very own Californian Vineyard so she can make her own fine wine. According to friend’s of Posh and Becks the pair became wine buffs whilst he was playing for Real Madrid in Spain, and David thought it was the perfect way for his wife to start up her own little sideline. The 33-year-old sports superstar has recruited a team to help them run the vinery, and from the look of Ronnie’s picture, they will have a lot of work to do! More from Ronnie next week.
That Ronnie is just nothing but a nemedropper you know! Still it's keeps me amused, and his artwork has been getting serious offers from some top galleries! Well when you say galleries, its more of a car boot sale but all the same! Anyway before we get all excited with this weeks Hot Chich, lets relax with a little game with this weeks......
Naughty Detective Game
It’s back to someone we all know this week, and someone who fits all the curves and general sexiness needed to become a firm favourite, so lets all give a big huge Captain Jack welcome to this weeks Hot Chick, who is very shagadelic as she was once described, its none other than our very own......
Born June 10, 1965, in Hampshire, England, Elizabeth Hurley is the daughter of an army officer and an elementary schoolteacher mother. While growing up in Basingstoke, England, Liz dreamed of becoming a dancer, which prompted her to attend a boarding school specializing in ballet at the age of 12. Her attendance at the boarding school was short-lived, and she then went through a different phase, the English punk stage. Although it must be hard to imagine the now so glamorous Lizzy with pink hair and a nose ring, she was a victim of punk fashion of the early '80s, since this was the thing to do at that time and place. Anyway here she is with something pink!
At age 21, she got her first film role in the 1987 film Aria, after having attended the London Studio Centre on scholarship. Her role in the film Remando al viento, or Rowing In the Wind that same year could be considered a crucial one, as it also starred her future boyfriend Hugh Grant. One year later, she received critical acclaim for her role as Christabel Bielenberg in the BBC mini series, Christabel. She also gained some recognition in the US for her role in the 1992 action film Passenger 57, starring Wesley Snipes. Although this was a Hollywood role, she was still having difficulty receiving quality roles, and consequently returned to England.
Whoever said that clothing is not important must not know about Elizabrth Hurley's claim to fame. Apparently, Versace did Hurley a favor by giving the statuesque beauty an unsold dress to wear to the 1994 London premiere of Hugh Grant's film, Four Weddings and a Funeral. The low-cut risqué dress held together by safety pins became Hurley's ticket to stardom, as she made heads turn at the premiere. So why waste an opportunity to have a look at her in ‘that dress’
More attention followed when Estée Lauder signed Hurley to be the face of the international cosmetics company. If by this time someone had still not heard of Elizabeth Hurley, 1997's Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, the little movie that became a smash hit, was sure to get her the recognition she deserved. With her comedic turn as agent Vanessa Kensington alongside Austin Powers, played by Mike Myers, Hurley was now seeing the movie scripts rolling in. Yes this is where she was described as being very shagadelic, and it would be a shame not to see why!
I know it wasn’t in the film, but who cares! After a 13-year relationship, she and Hugh Grant parted ways in 2000. Rumors that the breakup stemmed from a disagreement over having children together abounded. Liz began a romance with L.A. millionaire producer Stephen Bing in 2001, and gave birth to a son, Damian Charles, on April 4, 2002. Bing initially denied being the baby's biological father, claiming he and Liz had a non-exclusive relationship. DNA testing has since proven that Bing is indeed the child's father, although he and Liz are no longer romantically involved. Despite having a child she has kept her supermodel looks, as you can see from this picture.
Her dark hair and deep-set eyes add a mysterious quality to her stunning beauty. The fact that she was chosen to represent one of the top cosmetics companies, Estée Lauder, over so many other beautiful women the world over is a testament of Liz's delectable beauty. As for her beauty secrets, Hurley claimed in an Evening Standard interview that she gets her "hot-date look" by devouring large amounts of watercress soup. If that's what works for her, more power to the soup! She also has been known to scare herself stupid by playing with huge snakes thus stretching her skin and keeping it young looking, as you can see here.
An astute businesswoman, the actress-model has also made a splash on the fashion scene with her eponymously named swimwear line, Elizabeth Hurley Beach. Now far be it from me to knock one of my Hot Chicks, but a superstar actress come model who brings out her own line of swimwear, why she is only after getting a picture on here isn’t she, yes of course she is!
In March 2007, Hurley married Indian businessman Arun Nayar in a secret service in Gloucestershire. The couple decided to keep the ceremony private so held it one day early but with only the guests being informed of this change in date. Hurley contracted an exclusive magazine deal with magazine Hello!, thought to be worth £2 to 5 million with the overall cost of the wedding being estimated at a total of £2 million. The wedding festivities continued in Mumbai, India where they joined a private celebration held at Juhu Beach before moving on to Jodhpur, India. In Jodhpur, they held a private Hindu ceremony held at Umaid Bhawan Palace, where she wore a sari made especially by Donatella Versace. Despite her being taken, she is very much still a Hot Chick, and lets hope we see much more of her at events if she turns up looking like this final picture. Ah well, only seven day’s until the next Hot Chick!
Crikey what a stunner. It's enough to send you over the edge the amount of norks on parade in that section every week, in fact it's about time ther was a pill! Wait a minute whats this..
Well they will have to do for now. Time to move on now and next up is......
Who do we find trying to make it into the Star Wars world this week? Its none other than those three aging rockers from ZZ Top. Yes here you can see them parading as their favourite characters, the Wookies. Not many times can it be said that the celebrities who are dressing up don’t need to use much make up, as the huge beards the ZZ Top boy’s are famous for, gives them far more hair than Chewbacca ever had. Stick to the music boy’s!
You see the problem too much hair can cause! But then again it's not half as much trouble as the old demon drink can cause. Speaking of which I could murder a nice cocktail right about now, so lets all venture down for one of.....
1 shot Gin
3 shots White Rum
3 shots Dark Rum
1 shot Ameretto
1 dash Grapefruit Juice
1 dash Grenadine
1 measure of Pineapple Juice
1 measure of Orange Juice
5 Ice Cubes
1 Maraschino Cherry
Good, plenty of ingredients this week. Should make it interesting! Cor blimey govner me old fruit that’s got a kick in it! I’m not sure I could manage another one of those! Sod it, its drinky time, and I do like a drink, pour us another me old fruit.
Jeez thatch got a kigger bick to it than the lascht one mate! Heniwazs lascht week avter levin the bar, I happened to fall on my harse in a big puddly of water, horribly stuff! As my crize of hanguish we unheard by the pashing cwowdz, I felt that all woz losht! Then vesse two sailor blokes came up to me han hashked, What ya lookin for mate? Sho I shouted at then, Ya best be helpingsh me ladsh, I happear to ov losched the shore! Show meez the wayst to gose ome!
Now that look's like one of my more discerning readers. I bet she wouldn't have any need of sending in to some Advice Line to help her with her problems, but if she did she could always write and send one in to........This time seems to roll around so quickly each week doesn’t it. There are just so many of you to help. I have yet again been locked in a room with my team of dedicated hot chicks, sorry team of experts, to try and read only the most needy of your letters, for those of you most in need of my high standard of help. It was a hard choice, but this week’s letter really tugged on our heart strings. It’s from Tracy in Essex.
She writes:
This may be the first time you will of heard this problem Captain, so I only hope you can help me. My boyfriend steals panties from my bedroom. He takes them from my drawer or out of the clean washing...should I be concerned? He only steals clean panties...but still? Do you think I should tell someone about this, I am running out of my best M & S undies, and I’m afraid he may go for my Ann Summers stuff next. Is there any advice you can give me you wise old sea dog.
Captain Jack Replies: Wise old sea dog, cheeky mare! You mean you spent a whole week and this is the best one out of the lot, you really are taking the micky out of me you lot are. Do you think I enjoy being sat in a room with you lot in your bikinis! What do you mean I’m writing all this down! Crikey right so lets look at this again. Ah yes the bird with the weirdo fella! It's not a problem for your boyfriend to be taking your underwear it just shows that he is expressing a deep romantic feeling for you, you only need to be concerned if you spot him doing very unusual things with your underwear, i.e wearing them, sniffing them etc. After seeing the photo you sent in of the pair of you mind, I can see there may be more of a problem. I knew that weird looking little bugger was a wrong 'un. Shifty eyes has he! Maybe he thieves other items of your clothes as well, and has secret dress-up sessions. Keep a close eye on him, because he might thieve all of your clothes from your wardrobe, and go into the entertainment business as the new Lily Allen, or worse Pat Butcher! Dump him quick luv, he’s a nutter! Anyway thanks for dropping me a line, and I hope I was a help.
Ah the thrill of the stage! Now that looks like a top production, and of course I get top billing naturally. No ugly little scrote like Andrew Lloyd Webber messing with my show I can tell you!
Its time to get serious now with this weeks little musical section. Now I know you all loved the Pianocian last week, and as he has lots of great videos to show you, here is another one to keep you culture vultures happy!
So after you have relaxed yourselves there with that little classical interlude, lets get on with the really good stuff. We have another Alternative Musical History to bring you soon, and another host of classic Karaoke treats for your enjoyment, but to get things started, here is this weeks…..
30 Seconds To Mars ~ The Kill
Pinkpop Festival 2007
This is the stuff that this blog used to be all about! Strange how it has become just another section, just without the boobs! Talking of boobs, the Captain Jacks Quiz team won yet another quiz this week. That makes it seven on the trot now, and this week, our main rivals, lovingly naming themselves ‘The Seconds’, seemed to be a little to knowledgeable on the old picture quiz. Now I’m not saying that there was any cheating going on, but for a team who in previous weeks thought that Zoe Ball was Britney Spears and that had no idea who sang It’s Raining Men, how the hell did they know who Alexander Litvinenko was. I mean not that they may not be up on modern events, but I’m not sure they are fully up on their Russian Spies! Still they may all be working for MI5 so I best keep on their good side!
But in the spirit of being sporting, I decided to offer the ‘runners up’ the £10 drink’s voucher First Prize, and took the Bottle Of ‘Aspi Spewmaniti’ second prize. In hind sight, this will be the last time this happens, due to the fact of the lack of quality of the second prize! Still you can’t say we are not sporting on our team. Lets see how they try and beat us next week.
On to the songs then. This week, I sang 5 songs. So this week I sang these classics. 1. The Boy’s Are Back In Town by Thin Lizzy 2. Tempted by Squeeze 3. When You Were Young by The Killers 4. Ruby Tuesday by The Rolling Stones and 5. Tiny Dancer by Elton John.
The Boys Are Back In Town by Thin Lizzy
Highest UK Chart Position: Number 8 July 1976
First up tonight is the classic track from Irish rockers Thin Lizzy. This was the track that became a huge hit for the band, reaching the top ten in the UK charts. It was praised by critics as full of Gaelic Soul with Phil Lynott’s vocals, and the twin guitars of Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson’s making the song one of the most memorable rock tracks ever.
It was taken from their album Jailbreak. Thin Lizzy found their trademark twin-guitar sound on 1975's Fighting, but it was on its 1976 successor, Jailbreak, where the band truly took flight. Unlike the leap between Night Life and Fighting, there is not a great distance between Jailbreak and its predecessor. If anything, the album was more of a culmination of everything that came before, as Phil Lynott hit a peak as a songwriter just as guitarists Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson pioneered an intertwined, dual-lead guitar interplay that was one of the most distinctive sounds of '70s rock, and one of the most influential.
Lynott no longer let Gorham and Robertson contribute individual songs, they co-wrote, but had no individual credits which helps tighten up the album, giving it a cohesive personality, namely Lynott's rough rebel with a heart of a poet. Lynott loves turning the commonplace into legend, or bringing myth into the modern world, as he does on Cowboy Song or, to a lesser extent, Romeo and the Lonely Girl. And this myth-making is married to an exceptional eye for details, when The Boys Are Back In Town, they don't just come back to a local bar, they're down at Dino's, picking up girls and driving the old men crazy. This gives his lovingly florid songs, crammed with specifics and overflowing with life, a universality that's hammered home by the vicious, primal, and precise attack of the band.
Thin Lizzy is tough as rhino skin and as brutal as bandits, but it's leavened by Phil Lynott's light touch as a singer, which is almost seductive in its croon. This gives Jailbreak a dimension of richness that sustains, but there's such kinetic energy to the band that it still sounds immediate no matter how many times it's played. Either one would make it a classic, but both qualities in one record makes it a truly exceptional album.
Tempted by Squeeze
Highest UK Chart Position: Number 41 August 1981
Well we have all been tempted once in a while, and tonight I was tempted to sing this song, Tempted by Squeeze. That’s the pun’s out of the way then! This well known track surprisingly didn’t even hit the Top 40 in the UK, but it has gone on to be one of the bands most recognisable songs. The band consist of a who’s who of well known musicians. Glen Tillbrook, Jools Holland, Paul Carrack, Chris Difford and John Bentley.
In 1981 the band cut perhaps their best-known album, East Side Story. It was produced by Elvis Costello and Roger Bechirian, and featured Carrack's lead vocals on the radio hit Tempted. Carrack himself left after the release of East Side Story, and was replaced by Don Snow.
Initially, the album was to be produced by Dave Edmunds, but the group scrapped those sessions to work with Costello and Becherian. Upon its summer release, East Side Story was hailed with excellent reviews, but it didn't become a huge hit as expected. Nevertheless, it found an audience, peaking at number 19 in the U.K. and number 44 on the U.S. charts.
Critics in both the UK and US were calling Difford and Tillbrook the new Lennon and McCartney, and their growing reputation it was a surprise the singles were not more popular in the UK. Admitted and discernable influences include the Beatles the Kinks, the Monkees, Velvet Underground, Small Faces, Nils Lofgren, Randy Newman, as well as some of the older theatrical writers like Rogers and Hammerstein, Bernstein, etc. to name a few.
Difford who wrote the song, got his idea in the strangest of places. He said in an interview “ Tempted was written in a cab on the way to Heathrow, I just wrote down what I saw and how I felt as we wormed our way through the traffic. I also must have anticipated a good time on tour as the chorus suggests ”
When You Were Young by The Killers
Highest UK Chart Position: Number 2 September 2006
A huge hit for The Killers back in 2006. This was taken from the bands second album Sam’s Town. It has proven to be one of their most successful singles, only beaten by Mr Brightside. The song displays the band's move towards a more American musical style, as it is part of an album that was supposedly heavily influenced by the music of Bruce Springsteen.
Few bands in the mid-2000s rose so quickly to the forefront of pop music as Las Vegas quartet the Killers. With a mix of '80s-styled synth pop and fashionista charm, the band's street-smart debut, Hot Fuss, became one of 2004's biggest releases, spawning four singles and catapulting the group — particularly their dandyish, 22-year-old frontman, Brandon Flowers into the international spotlight. Hot Fuss revealed in the garish glitz of the band's native Las Vegas, spinning tales of androgynous girlfriends and illicit affairs to a public whose taste for revivalist dance-rock would prove to be virtually insatiable. Franz Ferdinand, Interpol, and The Bravery all benefited from such retro-minded interest, but the Killers unapologetically trounced them all, even when their sophomore effort, Sam‘s Town, deemphasized the group's new wave sensibilities in favour of something more akin to the heartland rock of Springsteen and U2.
The popularity generated by When You Were Young led up to the highly anticipated release of Sam’s Town in early October 2006. While the album did not match the commercial popularity of the band's debut, it nevertheless sold 700,000 copies worldwide during its first week, eventually spawning three U.S. singles and gaining the Killers two additional Grammy nominations.
There are three characters in this song, the guy telling the story, the presumed girl and the guy who doesn't look a thing like Jesus. When thinking about a song, you think about the title. The Killers don't just pick titles because they are the lyrics most sung, they do it very deliberately. When we are young, we are innocent. The Killers also talk quite a bit about God, like in All These Things I've Done. This song totally reminds me of pretty woman. Some handsome guy sweeping in to take the girl away from her awful past. After all, what she's done isn't who she is. She's looking for salvation and forgiveness and someone to take her away. He doesn't look a thing like Jesus, But he talks like a gentleman. To me this suggests she is settling for this guy, when she should be looking toward God for this kind of forgiveness. The devils water usually suggests alcohol, but here, I think is referring to temptation, like Adam and Eve, the serpent devil was tempting them. This new guy is tempting. She knows he probably isn't what she really needs, but she can dip her feet for a little while. I think this is something she does over and over again, and she wishes she could go back to when she was young.
Of course it also appears on the PS3 game Guitar Hero III, and is one of the best and easiest songs to play on the game. The music video for this song was filmed in Mexico. It portrays a young Latina girl around the age of 20 who's run away and arrives at a large white wooden cross in the desert. She mourns in front of it until her supposed husband shows up and comforts her. The video then shifts to the apparently what happened before. The band is playing in a small bar that the girl meets her husband and socializes. When she returns home later that night she discovers her husband with another woman, after which she falls into contrast and runs out crying with her husband chasing after her. The video then shifts back to the desert with the girl and her husband leaving and returning to the bar. While they are there the girl looks at Flowers as he sings the last verse, but looks away as the video ends.
Ruby Tuesday by The Rolling Stones
Highest UK Chart Position: Number 3 January 1967
Another Stones classic now for you to enjoy. This was actually a double A-Side to Lets Spend The Night Together, but in time has become one of the bands best loved songs.
The song has had many people try and figure out who it is about, but perhaps the best and most plausible story is that the song is about one of Keith Richards girlfriends, Linda Keith.
According to Keith Richards in a 1971 Rolling Stone Magazine interview he wrote the song in a Los Angeles hotel room in early 1966. He said in the interview “ Who was Ruby Tuesday? Can't remember her name. It certainly wasn't Ruby. That's one of those things - some chick you've broken up with. And all you've got left is the piano and the guitar and a pair of panties. And it's goodbye you know. And so it just comes out of that. And after that you just build on it. It's one of those songs that are easiest to write because you're really right there and you really sort of mean it. And for a songwriter, hey break his heart and he'll come up with a good song. ”
The song's lyrics concern an apparently free-spirited woman, with Jagger singing, Who could hang a name on you? When you change with every new day Still I'm gonna miss you.
"That's a wonderful song," Mick Jagger said in an inteview in 1995. "It's just a nice melody, really. And a lovely lyric. Neither of which I wrote, but I always enjoy singing it." Bill Wyman states in Rolling with the Stones that the song was completely written by Keith Richards. However, Marianne Faithful says in her biography that the song was written by Brian Jones, and that Keith Richards only added minor parts.
The song reminds me of the positive human experience of feeling the renewed hope or promise that each new day brings and perhaps at the end of the day a momentary sense of loss. She is both beginning and the end. It’s about regretting losing someone you loved but could never keep because they were constantly seeking some new thing to fill their lives, a new experience, place, feeling or love. It's basically about accepting that you were in love but it could never last.The Rolling Stones' 1967 recordings are a matter of some controversy; many critics felt that they were compromising their raw, rootsy power with trendy emulations of The Beatles, The Kinks and Bob Dylan. Between The Buttons is probably one of their strongest, most eclectic LPs, with many fine songs that remain unknown to all but Stones devotees. The lyrics were getting better, and the arrangements more creative, on brooding near-classics like All Sold Out, My Obsession, and Yesterday's Papers. She Smiled Sweetly shows their hidden romantic side at its best, while Connection is one of the record's few slabs of conventionally driving rock. But the best tracks were the two songs that gave the group a double-sided number one in early 1967, the lustful Let's Spend the Night Together and the beautiful, melancholy Ruby Tuesday, which is as melodic as anything Jagger and Richards would ever write.
Tiny Dancer by Elton John
No UK Release
Tiny Dancer was 1971 song by Elton John with lyrics by his co writer of many years, Bernie Taupin. It appears on Elton's fifth album, Madman Across The Water. The song features a piano-based melody during verses, typically inscrutable Taupin lyrics during the chorus, and an arrangement that at the start features a pedal steel guitar and light percussion instruments but, transitioning subtly halfway through one of the choruses, by the end is driven by Paul Buckmeisters's dynamic strings, along with a barely heard backing choir. Clocking at 6:13, it was one of the longer radio singles of the period, probably the songs downfall.
While Tiny Dancer was initially a non-starter as a single, reaching only number 41 on the US Chart and not charting at all in the UK. The song slowly became one of John's most popular songs, and became a regular on radio stations, as the song grew in popularity.
The song received an additional boost in popularity in 2000 after appearing in a scene in the Cameron Crowe film Almost Famous, where it is played over the sound system of a tour bus as everyone is sitting tensely after their lead guitarist embarrassed them in public. As the song plays, eventually no one can resist the urge to sing along to the chorus as the riders reconcile. John has attested to the film's popularization of the song, saying in 2004, “I hadn't played it much until Cameron put it in Almost Famous. Now we get more requests for it than anything else.”
The lyrics were written by Bernie Taupin, John's writing partner. They were inspired by Taupin's first trip to America. John and Taupin are from England, and this was the first album they wrote after spending time in the US. The Blue jean baby, LA Lady, is apparently Maxine Feibelmann, Bernie Taupin's girlfriend. She travelled with the band on their early tours, often sewing together the costumes and fixing their clothes. She and Taupin married in 1971.
Two of rocks biggest stars also both do covers of the song on a regular basic. Red Hot Chilli Peppers guitarist John Frusciante, plays the song in his solo section when the band play live, and Foo Fighters front man Dave Grohl, also plays the song acoustically, normally when he appears on shows, and also in live shows.
Now this is not exactly what you would call a normal Alternative Music history, but this week sees Muppets Mad Drummer Animal taking a different route in his career. The famed drummer from the Muppet Show is renowned for smashing away on the drums, and generally being one of the loudest of the muppets, with his “Animal” catchphrase. But here we see him with a much calmer profession, as a harp player! Who knows this may be a new leaf for the flame haired nutter.
Well its back to normal again this week for the next section, as Man United didn't win anything this week for a change, but with my Euro 08 report starting next week, this will be the last for a couple of weeks, so sit back and enjoy this weeks...
Romania’s entry in the 1930 world cup finals gave a whole new meaning to “By Royal Appointment”. King Carol the II, known as the “Playboy King”, insisted that a representative team be sent to the tournament after the original invitation had been turned down because the players could not get the necessary two months off work. The King selected the team himself and then arranged time off on full pay for each of the players. They were eliminated from the competition after playing just two matches. When King Carol was overthrown in 1940, he fled to south America, where he was warmly remembered as the “Football-mad-king”. in Romania, like our George III, he was just remembered as ‘mad’.
So now I bet your all scratching your head for the answer to this weeks little picture quiz again aren't you. Well I did think it was a slightly tougher one this week, so for those who got it then well done, big pat on the backy there for you all, and for those who struggled! Tut Tut Tut! Don't think next week it will get any easier! Anyway the answer was of course...You see easy when you know the answer aren't they! well that is that for this week. Hope you are all fully entertained. I'm off now to shoot some more bad guys on Grand Theft Auto IV So until next week. Ta Ra.
Shrek: WHY... are you following me?
Donkey: I'll tell you why. 'Cause I'm all alone! [singing] There's no one here beside me / My problems have all come / There's no one to deride me / But you gotta have friends...
Shrek: STOP! SINGING! It's no wonder you don't have any friends!
Donkey: Wow. Only a true friend would be that cruelly honest.
