Many months ago, writing on my Lyrics Menu, I wrote: “I think about them all the time, have done for decades. Even so, over the years, when discussing lyrics, and when asked to name a great lyric I have often paused, unable to pick out anything specific from the tens of thousands of lines that… Continue reading “When there’s no future how can there be sin?”
Are you familiar with the song “Patches” by Clarence Carter? If not there’s a link later in this paragraph for you to follow, but before you do let me issue a “Mascara Warning”, even if you don’t wear mascara. “Patches” is right up there with “Honey” by Bobby Goldsboro as a song that is likely… Continue reading “Patches”
I don’t dwell too much on misheard lyrics. There are a few examples of memorable misunderstandings, and some of them still amuse me, but if you stretch it too far the idea can become a little tedious. I remember many years ago finding a website that had numerous instances of them and by the time… Continue reading “He stated firm”, anyway, and other misheard lyrics
33 years ago this week, back in 1984, “Careless Whisper” by George Michael was #1 in the UK Charts. The chart featured in Paul Gambaccini’s “Pick of the Pops” on BBC Radio 2 last Saturday. You probably know the song already. It contains the lines, “I’m never gonna dance again / Guilty feet have got… Continue reading Guilty Feet
Liam Gallagher is back. His new single, “Wall of Glass” (check out the official video here), has been all over the radio, or at least the radio stations I listen to, and he gave a compelling performance at Glastonbury. I watched it from the comfort of my living-room early one Sunday morning after a later-than-planned… Continue reading Word of the week: paraphernalia
At least one of the following things happens every day of my life: I notice yet another song on TV, radio or a playlist that rhymes “heart” and “apart”; I have to type a whole word on my phone that has not been anticipated by predictive text; I hear someone say “No pressure” in an… Continue reading “No Pressure”
I have speculated more than once in these posts about people’s ability to remember the words to songs. There’s a memory from my 20s here, speculation about whether there’s a link between people’s ability to remember jokes and lyrics here and this more recent piece looks at songs that I have heard thousands of times… Continue reading Lyrics that stick and lyrics that don’t
A handful of albums have been regular companions through the last 30 years and more. A year might go by without playing one or two of them but never longer than that. Two of these albums have been on my mind, and on my car stereo, and on various other media, in recent weeks: David… Continue reading Cigar-chewing Charlies and Femme Fatales
Our 9-year-old daughter is learning the words to the old Queen song “Killer Queen” at her Friday evening children’s theatre group. They have changed one of the lines, from “Let them eat cake, she says / Just like Marie Antoinette” to “Let them eat cake, she says / Shopping on the internet”. The opening line… Continue reading Queen, Sparks, 10cc: Moet, kimonos and lasagne
A pronoun is, simply, a word that takes the place of a noun. He, she, you, they and it are all pronouns. They (pronouns) can cause trouble. When pronouns come up in conversation (and they do) I usually recall a story that Lesley Anne Down told in the early 1980s on the TV show “Clapperboard”.… Continue reading Word of the week: pronoun
The Compartments 