Not Namesakes Tuesday: To Kill A Mockingbird

As George and Ernie are both out on manoeuvres, and because last week's bumper edition nearly finished me off, we're having a rest from Namesakes this week. All being well, it will return to bore you next Tuesday.

At the weekend, Louise and I went to see the new stage adaptation of To Kill A Mockingbird. It was excellent. I've long been a fan of Aaron Sorkin's sparky, snappy dialogue, and he found some excellent ways to use the themes of the novel to say important (if ultimately futile) things about the state of America today. If it comes to your neck of the woods, I'd highly recommend going along to see it.

Here are some tunes related, in one way or another, to Harper Lee's famous novel...

Bobby Womack - Song Of The Mockingbird

Carly Simon & James Taylor - Mockingbird 

Del Amitri - Mockingbird, Copy Me Now

Grant Lee Buffalo - Mockingbirds 

Mark Lanegan - Mockingbirds

The Mockingbirds - You Stole My Love

The Noisettes - Atticus

Calexico - Scout

Tom Robinson - I Shall Be Released

Guest Post Thursday #7: Top Ten Heart Songs

Another Thursday, another Guest Post. And we welcome back George, who's getting all mushy on us...

George's Top Ten Heart Songs

Rol made the huge mistake of saying I would be welcome to do another piece for his blog.

And I have chosen My Top Ten Heart songs so I could shoehorn in one of My Favourite Songs Of All Time, brought to me by Andy Kershaw many many years ago. I was thinking originally of a Top Ten Meal songs but that led to me that huge pile of old pish Breakfast In America, which would never ever be included in such a list but I had to banish that song from my mind. And instead we have this top ten. Spoiler alert: No Supertramp. Actually, that’s hardly a spoiler, but hopefully you get the point.

That’s a picture of a cow’s heart. Something I have cooked up for the dogs and cats, who could not scoff it quickly enough. When I told Talho Jorge that I was vegetarian it caused great amusement. We used to get a great slab of heart-and-lung (different butcher) which I just could not deal with. Enough of this offal talk. On with the music:

A Top Ten Heart Songs has to have this in it. Peerless. Well, almost.

1. Hank Williams - Cold Cold Heart

When he sings about the robin, it can, and indeed has, moved me to tears. He never did a better song than this.

Bonny Tyler - Total Eclipse of the Heart   BEHAVE yourselves.

(George just does things like that to taunt me. Total Eclipse is Jim Steinman at his immense batshit-craziest. I will post the video as evidence for the defence. - Rol.) 

2. Neil Young - Heart of Gold

This song has been ranked as the 303rd greatest song of all time, in 2010.

Again, perverse not to include, and better than the Boney M cover.

You’ve never heard that one? For your pleasure here it is, performed live!

The Isley Brothers - This Old Heart of Mine, which took me longer than I thought to find because I was thinking it was by The Four Tops…

3. The Isley Brothers - This Old Heart of Mine

(George has now redeemed himself for dissing Ms. Tyler & Mr. Steinman. That is one of my all time favourite songs, as featured here many times before. - Rol.)

I was something of  a Hendrix obsessive in my youth, amassing 26 albums by the age of 19. This is from the Royal Albert concert of 1969, on the same day as Denis Law’s 29th birthday:

4. The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Bleeding Heart

It’s amazing how clean that guitar sounds, and how all you need for a fantastic blues song are three people. No embellishments, just Hendrix playing the blues, bass and drums.

5. Calexico - Black Heart

There might be one or two people reading who don’t actually own Feast Of Wire. You really should catch yourselves on and rectify that right now. It is frequently considered The Best Album Ever Made In The Entirety of Recorded Music. That title has also been bestowed upon ABC, Rod Stewart, and The Turbines. At the momentum it belongs again to Calexico. And this song replaced a Clyde McPhatter and The Drifters song, THAT is how good it is:, it’s the slow, sweeping orchestration, the almost tortured painful vocal, it’s a glorious and dark, dark song...

It’s after this track that the realisation dawns that the entire album is something special.

6. Dwight Yoakam - Heartaches by the Number

The final track on Dwight’s best album, which would be his first one (which reminds me, some bloke’s writing a weekly piece of about second albums that are better than the first...)

7. Buddy Holly - Heartbeat

Now for some, this song might have been rather spoiled by the bloody ghastly ITV programme of a few years ago, but listen to it now, it’s a fantastic, simple love song, beautifully played and sung, 2 minutes and 7 seconds of pure pop perfection. Come on, who amongst you will not sing the “piddle dee pat” bits. And the rest of it???

8. Cream - Deserted Cities of the Heart

This song is from the completely over the top and self-indulgent double album Wheels of Fire album (one track involves an especially tedious Ginger Baker drum solo), but this a great psychedelic/rock song, showing what a great vocalist Jack Bruce was, really powerful, there’s no unending guitar noodling from Clapton, just a brief interlude, and those huge thumping drums of Ginger Baker.

I love how that song seems to begin with Jack Bruce launching into the vocal and Clapton and Baker are almost caught unawares.

9. Al Green - How Can You Mend A Broken Heart

I was thinking about not including this, because the singer appeared in my previous outing here. I played it again and thought that if this is to be a Top Ten and not just Ten Songs with Heart In The Title, then it would be ridiculous to exclude it.

(Agreed. - Rol.)

It’s a tremendous song, but remarkably not his best! Another song that can move me to tears. If you don’t like this, you’ve got no heart...

(The Bee Gees do a murderously poor version of this song. Dear god, you’d have thought they’d written it!)

10. Carl Butler and Pearl - Heartaches For Lunch 

And here’s the shoehorn - I jettisoned the Top Ten Meals Songs idea for the rather easier Heart Songs just so I could include this song. Well, it has been one of my (and I suspect Charity Chic’s) Favourite Songs Of All Time since first heard 30 or so years ago. Like the Dwight song above (OK, I know that’s a cover) I can sing along, or “sing” along, to this word-perfectly. Almost word-perfectly. It’s meant to be sad but it always makes me smile, the cheery music just does not go with the sentiment of the song. Now THIS is a peerless song...

Carl Butler and Pearl - Heartaches for Lunch

Two minutes and 50 seconds of country music genius. You’ll not hear a better song today.

“I opened up my sack, and lord there it was, my baby’s goodbye note, heartaches for lunch”

“Teardrops change the flavour of things I loved once”

Where else but in country music do you get such great lines??

So, no Jayhawks (Two Hearts) which was briefly a contender. No Joy Division (very very briefly a contender, but not as strong as The Jayhawks). No Bruce Springsteen, obviously.

There might, just possibly, be something that I missed, but looking at the list the only tracks that could possibly be replaced are the Neil Young and Cream songs, the others are nailed on surefire bets for being in any Top Ten Heart Songs.

And thanks to Rol for allowing me again to pollute his pages.  

No, thank you, George. For anyone who's interested, I did a Top Ten Breakfast Menu Songs back in 2013... and promised I would include Supertramp in a future Top Ten that never materialised. One day, Supertramp fans, one day.

Now I never even thought  of tackling a Top Ten Heart Songs because there are so many available options. George did nail a couple of my favourites above... but if he missed out any of yours, feel free to contribute a list of your own for a future instalment of Guest Post Thursday.  

Next week: more booze!

Hot 100 #16

I've got your picture for next week sorted, said Charity Chic. I have an album by a band called 16 Horsepower.

And you know what? I thought I did too. But it appears to have disappeared from my music library. Anyway, thank you for the reminder.

The biggest problem about the Number 16 on our countdown was summed up by Lynchie that many suggestions might be "a bit dodgy - older men singing about mid-teen girls."

In more cynical / enlightened / post-Glitter & Saville times, we may now find these songs creepy... but part of me thinks they were never actually meant that way. Oh for a return to innocence...

Chuck Berry - Sweet Little Sixteen

B.B. King - Sweet Sixteen

Well, maybe that one's a bit creepy. But this one, from Brian, is pure as the driven snow...

Johnny Burnette - You're Sixteen

Of course, Ringo managed to made it very creepy...

Ringo Starr - You're Sixteen

I think this is the case with a lot of these songs, actually. There's the sweet, innocent version...

Neil Sedaka - Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen

(Rigid Digit adds "One from the man who started Madchester by recording at Strawberry Studios.")

And the Call Operation Yew Tree version...

Neil Diamond -  Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen

On the other hand, we get the male version...

Craig Douglas - Only Sixteen

And the female version...

The Supremes - Only Sixteen

Is one sweeter than the other? You decide.

Brian threw this one in the ring...

For the third week in a row, let's give Stray Cats a shot with Sixteen Candles. It was used during the closing credits of the movie.

Stray Cats - Sixteen Candles

Now I didn't have that one in my own collection. I did have the original though...

The Crests - Sixteen Candles 

As well as this, which is the same in name alone...

Danielle Dax - 16 Candles

And while we're on the subject...

Fall Out Boy - A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More "Touch Me" 

Then there are the age 16 that don't even try to be innocent. The Swede was the first to suggest this...

Iggy Pop - Sixteen

And Rigid Digit was quick to add this one...

Kiss - Christine Sixteen

Here's someone else you wouldn't let your 16 year old anywhere near...

Billy Idol - Sweet Sixteen

Of course, some 16 year old girls can be shameless. Take this Rodgers and Hammerstein classic suggested by Rigid Digit...

Sixteen Going On Seventeen from The Sound of Music

For your information though, Charmain Carr was 23 when that was filmed. Which takes us back to a point I raised last week. (Go look it up yourself, it takes me long enough to write all this stuff down once without going back and reading it again.)

And if you think that was scary, try this...

Soft Cell - I Am Sixteen Going On Seventeen

More shameless sixteen year olds can be be found here...

The Heavy - Sixteen

At least Travis understand the dangers of getting involved with young girls...

Travis - U16 Girls

I met a girl in L.A

The million dollar kind

She was all for all or nothing

She was open all the time

But when I called her number

Her mother's on the line sayin'

You've no business

As god's my witness

With a child as young as mine

So make sure that she's old enough

Before you blow your mind

She may look like she knows enough

But look in her eye

And if so

Let her go

You'll let her down in style

Looking back on being 16 is something that gets harder as the years go by. There are a few songs written from that perspective, and C was the first to offer this very popular suggestion, saying, So good, in so many ways, and no dodgy lyrics about young girls! First heard when I was still 14 and sixteen sounded old...

The Buzzcocks - Sixteen Again

An' I wish, I was sixteen again

Then things would be such fun

All the things I'd do would be the same

But they're much more fun

Than when you're twenty wo' wo' wo' wo' wo' one

C then recalled another one on similar lines: Ooh and let us not forget... 

The Sweet - The Six Teens

And then there was this chuck of wish-fulfilment from Rigid Digit...

The Dictators - Sixteen Forever

Which led me to recall this...

The Casket Girls - Sixteen Forever

And this...

Green Day - 16

Every time I look in my past

I always wish I was there

I wish my youth would forever last

Why are all these times so unfair?

The Swede also nominated this one. Brian added: It was No. 15 on my Festive 50 for 2019, and indie couple Amelia and Rob deserve a moment on top of the heap.

A new band to me, but one that immediately went on the Check Out pile...

The Catenary Wires - Sixteen Again  

The Swede also offered this from an old favourite of his...

Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 - Sixteen Years

I'll throw in this lovely "remember being 16" song from my favourite album of the 21st Century...

The Indelicates - Sixteen

Let's go to town and switch the magazines

Drink milkshakes until we're sick

Oh oh, it'll be so funny

Oh oh, it'll be so funny

If we don't do it now then someone else will

Oh oh, it'll be so funny

Oh oh, it's the power not the money

This scene is the scene to be seen in

Not that the scene is what we'd be seen with

We just wanna be 16 (16) 16 (16)

Even though we're 23

And then this...

Calexico and Iron & Wine - Sixteen, Maybe Less

And then there's this one from The Big O (via Rigid Digit) which offers some timely "enjoy it while it lasts" advice to 16 year olds everywhere....

Roy Orbison - You'll Never Be Sixteen Again

It's worth pointing out that 16 can be a terrible time in your life. Luckily Swiss Adam brought up this, a strong contender from my own shortlist...

The Replacements - Sixteen Blue

Brag about things you don't understand

A girl and a woman, a boy and a man

Everything is sexually vague

Now you're wondering to yourself

That you might be gay

Your age is the hardest age

Everything drags and drags

You're looking funny

You ain't laughing, are you?

And on the same subject...

Andrea Carroll - It Hurts To Be 16

Janie Black - Lonely Sixteen

The Ronettes - What's So Sweet About Sweet Sixteen?

Hello Saferide  - X Telling Me About The Loss Of Something Dear, At Age 16

And last but not least in this category... surely the saddest song about a 16 year old ever?

Townes Van Zandt - Sixteen Summers, Fifteen Falls

Putting aside age-related songs then, what else did you have for me?

Lynchie returned to a fine offering from a few weeks back...

Tom Waits - 16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought Six

The Swede offered...

Green on Red - Sixteen Ways 

Anomoanon - Sixteen Ways 

Johnny Osbourne - Lend Me the Sixteen

Brian added...

Josef K - 16 Years

The Decemberists - 16 Military Wives

The Brilliant Corners - Sixteen Years

Jim in Dubai came up with a couple of lesser-known belters...

The Jazzateers - Sixteen Reasons

The Passage - Sixteen Hours

And Charity Chic returned to remind us all of...

The Jayhawks - Sixteen Down

The Flatlanders - Number Sixteen

OK, time to scrape the barrel / hard-drive before we get to this week's winner...

Tom Verlaine - Sixteen Tulips

(That might be worth a post of its own one day soon.)

Animals That Swim - Sixteen Letters

Jack White - Sixteen Saltines

Paul Kelly - Song From The Sixteenth Floor

Pop Will Eat Itself - Sixteen Different Flavours Of Hell

Rainbow - Sixteenth Century Greensleeves

The Stylistics - Sixteen Bars

Manic Street Preachers - Sorrow 16

Whiskeytown - 16 Days

Kate Jackson - 16 Years

Shakespear's Sister - My 16th Apology

Sunny Sweeney - 16th Avenue

The National - Conversation 16

That has to be the strangest video I've seen in a long time, featuring some reasonably big name actors, in some kind of bizarre SNL sketch that doesn't fit the song at all.

Anyway... the winner. Which will probably be obvious by now. It was first suggested by Lynchie, then seconded by Swiss Adam, though I'm sure a few others would have given it consideration.

Have you ever heard the Stevie Wonder version?

Stevie Wonder - 16 Tons

George can have that for his Wednesday covers feature over at CC's place if he likes.

Here's the original, a classic Hate Your Job tune, of which... as you know... I have a special interest in recent times...

You load sixteen tons, what do you get?

Another day older and deeper in debt

Saint Peter don't you call me, 'cause I can't go

I owe my soul to the company store

Which brings us to #15. Your suggestions, please.

Hot 100 #41

Sum 41 were the obvious choice to illustrate this week's entry in the countdown... I was always partial to getting a Fat Lip from them.

There was early agreement over this week's winner, although those of you who aren't big Boss fans were keen to offer worthy alternatives.

George was obviously going to try his best to steer me away from New Jersey, with a couple of fine suggestions...

Iron & Wine & Calexico - Prison on Route 41

Eddie Cochran - Somethin' Else

My car's out front and it's all mine 

Just a '41 Ford, not a '59

No, I don't think that was suggested for #59, George, but it should have been.

And what a riff on that song! Stolen - blatantly - by Liam Lynch... Whatever!

Our other resident non-Springsteen fan is C... although I have to say, I felt she was scraping the barrel a little with her offering...

The Dave Matthews Band - #41

Not sure what my final verdict is on Dave Matthews... but he's no Eddie Cochran. He's not even Hootie & The Blowfish.

Onto those of you who accepted the inevitable but offered alternatives for variety, starting with Martin (who only owns one Bruce Springsteen album, so I might have to send him some more in the post)...

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - US 41

Pretty good, Martin, but if we're going with Tom, I'm probably going to have to bend my own rules a little and offer this one...

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - American Girl

It was kind of cold that night 

She stood alone on her balcony 

She could the cars roll by 

Out on 441 

Like waves crashin' in the beach 

And for one desperate moment there 

He crept back in her memory 

God it's so painful 

Something that's so close 

And still so far out of reach

Actually, I was rather surprised that Martin didn't suggest this one...

Sleeper - Factor 41

I was equally surprised that Alyson didn't suggest this one...

The Bee Gees - New York Mining Disaster 1941

Or even this one, from the same year...

Harry Nilsson - 1941

Thanks, guys, leave the heavy lifting to me, that's fine.

Lynchie, meanwhile, offered an alternative which was a new one to me...

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band - Born In Chicago 

I was born in Chicago 1941

I was born in Chicago in 1941

Well, my father told me,

"Son, you'd better get a gun."

Sounds a bit like what my dad told me about Huddersfield. Lynchie adds...

"The song was written by the wonderfully named Nick Gravenites, who's worth checking out."

And from the sound of that, I concur.

Today's final suggestion was a lyrical one, from Rigid Digit...

The Allman Brothers - Ramblin' Man

My father was a gambler down in Georgia

He wound up on the wrong end of a gun

And I was born in the back seat of a Greyhound bus

Rollin' down Highway 41

All of which brings us to today's obvious choice, as identified by The Swede, Alyson, Lynchie and Martin. Inspired by the death of Amadou Diallo, an innocent young black man who was mistaken for a rape suspect by plain clothes police officers in 1999 and shot dead.



Life begins next week. We may be some time.