Sonofabitch (alternatively sunuvabitch, son-of-a-bitch or even “son of a bitch”) is an old-fashioned exclamation or term of abuse that I have been hearing a lot over the last month while I work my way, very happily, through all 11 series of the sitcom “Modern Family”. (I wrote about the show in this earlier post.) I… Continue reading Word of the week: sonofabitch
Back in 2018, in this piece, I posed the following question: What do the songs “Virginia Plain” and “Up the Junction” have in common with each other, and with no other singles that have reached the UK Top 10? It’s one of my favourite pop trivia challenges. The answer was revealed in that earlier piece,… Continue reading “Up the Junction” and “Virginia Plain” revisited
Last month, in this piece, I wrote about MiniDisc technology. In recent weeks I have been playing back some of my old MiniDisc recordings, stretching back over more than two decades. They’re similar to the kind of things we recorded back in the 1980s: mix-tapes and radio shows. There are chart run-downs, American-themed shows presented… Continue reading Word of the week: mint
The current UK #1 is “Head & Heart” by Joel Corry featuring MNEK, enjoying its fourth week at the top of the charts. I hadn’t heard it until a week ago, when I used this YouTube clip to check it out. Since then I have also heard it on BBC Radio 2 and have realized… Continue reading More Pop Trivia: a few updates prompted by “Head & Heart”, the current UK #1
July 1972 was a good time to walk into a record shop and buy your first 7” single. (12” singles did not exist yet.) You might have asked for one of the releases that had been #1 in May or June and was now making its way down the charts, “Vincent” by Don McLean perhaps,… Continue reading The first record I ever bought
Back in 2018 I wrote this piece (“An 80-year-old punk”) about Jet Black, drummer in punk-era band The Stranglers. He had just celebrated his 80th birthday. I mentioned that he was older than Neil Sedaka, Judy Collins and Ringo Starr. Ringo, drummer in The Beatles (I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that) has… Continue reading An 80-year-old Beatle
You might remember a story about the devil going down to Georgia, looking for a soul to steal. He was in a bind, he was way behind, and he was looking to make a deal. He came across a young boy (name of Johnny) playing the violin (“sawing on a fiddle and playing it hot”).… Continue reading Charlie Daniels RIP
You remember telegrams, right? Or maybe not; maybe you’re too young. Recently I was explaining to my children, who are both teenagers, how telegrams used to work. They were the quickest way of sending a message composed of text to anyone in the world. They were also expensive, so people restricted the number of words… Continue reading Word of the week: telegram
Coronavirus will probably turn out to be the “Word of the Year” for 2020, not just here in the UK but worldwide. It may well become the Word of the Decade. The word Corona on its own has two meanings for me, both recalling the 1970s. First of all, Corona was a soft drinks brand.… Continue reading Word of the week: Corona
My choices for “Album of the week” have become rather irregular. For six weeks in a row I managed to pick a different album each week, listen to it far more than I usually listen to a single disk, and then Blog about it. The reasons for starting the sequence were explained in this piece… Continue reading Album of the week: #9 “Sunrise” (Elvis Presley)
