Frying shallots

Q. Ceteris parabus, guess where The Man Of Cheese and I are off to tonight?

A. Here.

Stay away, Spencer

Spencer Elden, whose photograph as a baby was later used on the cover of Nirvana's Nevermind, has tried to sue the band for distributing child pornography.

Or for a shedload of money, perhaps. You decide.

Fortunately, the legal system in the US has got it right, with Judge Olguin basically ruling that this is ridiculous. Of course, Spencer and his lawyers plan to appeal... monkey see, monkey do, as Kurt once sang.

Footnote: I couldn't embed this video from Nirvana's official YouTube channel, because it's age restricted.

Tiny houses, here and there

Back in 2018, I edited a short story collection entitled The Petrified World and other stories. It's here if you're interested. Rol's in it too. You'd like it, I think, the book. It's very reasonably priced, any profit goes to charity, all of that. Take a punt, why not?

But anyway, pitch over, back to the point. As I cycled to work this morning along car-choked roads, through yet another spiralling housing estate of identikit rabbit hutches, today's song sprung readily to mind. As did this quote from Sir David Attenborough, that I included in the introduction of the aforementioned book:

All environmental problems become harder - and ultimately impossible - to solve with ever more people.

Sorry. Downer, I know, but no less true for that. Here's the song, and an appropriately claustrophobic video shot in a rehearsal room, from Blur's Indian summer of 2015.

There are too many of us
That's plain to see
We all believe in praying
For our immortality
We've posed these questions to our children
That calls them all to stray
And live in tiny houses
Of the same mistakes we made

'Cause there are too many of us
In tiny houses here and there
Passing out of somewhere
But you won't care

There are too many of us
That's plain to see
And we all believe in praying
For our own immortality
For a moment, I was dislocated
My terror on a loop elsewhere
The flashing lights part vacated
On the big screens everywhere

'Cause there are too many of us
In tiny houses here and there
Just passing out of somewhere
But you won't care

There are too many of us
In tiny houses here and there
All looking through the windows
On everything we share
We pose these questions to our children
It leads them all to stray
And live in tiny houses
Of the same mistakes we make

'Cause there are too many of us
Oh, that's plain to see
All living in tiny houses (passing out of somewhere)
Of our own mortality (but you won't care)

New to NA: Cardinals

Heard Masquerade by Cork six-piece Cardinals on the radio earlier in the week, and spent most of its three minutes thinking "This is good, but who does it remind me of?"

No sooner had it finished than Jo Whiley was saying, "Shades of Pavement, anyone?" and she's exactly right. Guess that's why she's a national radio DJ with a seven-figure audience and I'm blogging to about eight people on a good day.

Moving right along

Robert Redford may have played a slight second-fiddle to Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (though he got the girl), and taken a chance flexing his thespian muscles next to Dustin Hoffman in All The President's Men, but The Sting was his movie, in my book. No mean feat given Newman and Robert Shaw as co-stars. Example: it's a low-key sub-plot, but I love Johnny's interaction with Loretta ... who turns out (spoiler alert) to be Salino.

RIP, Robert.

Cover Charge #60 - Duran Duran to The Specials

Cover Charge is simple: A covers B, B covers C, C covers D and so on, until I loop back to where I started, Ouroboros-style.

Last time: Shirley Bassey to Duran Duran

From the outset, the goal of this series has been clear - explore a sequence of artist-linked cover versions, and try to end up back where we started. As you may recall, where we started was with The Specials. And how pleasing, to me at least, that I can bring the series to a close on a nice round number, with the sixtieth link in the chain on what would otherwise be an inauspicious day. This cover is a new one on me though; come on, hands up, who here knew that in 2023 Duran Duran released a Halloween-themed album called Danse Macabre? +5 kudos points to anyone for that. Anyway, they really did... and track eight was their Straight Bat rendition of Ghost Town.

No disrespect to Simon et al but, okay though that is, it feels like the subtext of the original has been lost, to this listener at least. But who cares because it brings us back to The Specials! Ouroboros has eaten his own tail! And not only that, but I get to end the series with not just my favourite Specials track of all, but with one of my favourite singles by anyone, ever. I have a memory of taping this off the radio back in 1981 that is so vivid, I can feel the play and record buttons under my fingertips.

And that, my friends, is the end of Cover Charge. Thanks for tagging along - it's been fun, I hope. Who knows, maybe I'll do a second loop around some time in the future when I run out of blogging ideas (which, let's face it, happens often).

I should also acknowledge the excellent SecondHandSongs website, without which this series would have been a lot harder to pull together. But, apart from that, for now...

...that's Numberwang!

The Cover Charge "chain" to date.

Cover Charge #59 - Shirley Bassey to Duran Duran

Cover Charge is simple: A covers B, B covers C, C covers D and so on, until I loop back to where I started, Ouroboros-style.

Last time: Chaka Khan to Shirley Bassey

This series has thrown up a few real surprises, covers that you wouldn't have imagined if you hadn't heard them for yourself. I think today's is another of that ilk. Dame Shirley clearly felt that, having recorded three original Bond themes herself, she was more than entitled to have a crack at other people's. However, her 1987 take on A View to a Kill was hampered with a poor arrangement and even worse production, which might explain that whilst she mimed it for a TV special (below), Shirley subsequently nixed its release for years.

She did her best but you can tell, I think, that she knows a lame duck when she hears one. Best to leave post-New Romantic synth strings to the purveyors of post-New Romantic synth strings, I reckon. And on that note, here's the corking 1985 original from Duran Duran. I bought this on 7", you know, and it might just be the best thing about the film, apart from Christopher Walken's villain (itself a cover, in a way, of Auric Goldfinger). Fun video too.

Next time: the end.

The Cover Charge "chain" to date.

Cover Charge #58 - Chaka Khan to Shirley Bassey

Cover Charge is simple: A covers B, B covers C, C covers D and so on, until I loop back to where I started, Ouroboros-style.

Last time: Girls Aloud to Chaka Khan

Like live performances and TV specials, Bond themes provide a rich seam of cover versions (as we have already seen). I guess everyone knows them, they are generally well liked - safe ground for a cover then, right? Especially if you play it with a pretty Straight Bat, as Chaka Khan did with her 2004 reworking of Goldfinger. This was recorded for her album ClassiKhan, in which Chaka ran through a series of covers and standards, accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra.

That's pretty good, right? Except the problem with taking the Bond cover pill, especially with this song, is that you're inviting comparison with a well-known and much-loved original. Brilliant though both Miss Khan and the LSO are, no cover of this track can ever measure up to the original by Dame Shirley Bassey, presented here in title-sequence context. Put simply, this is the best Bond theme of them all, from the best Bond film of them all. Enjoy.

Next time: from Cardiff to Birmingham...

The Cover Charge "chain" to date.

Falling out... but not over peanuts

When I saw this story in the news today...

...two songs leapt immediately to mind.

I have always loved Peanuts. Is £1.5m peanuts to Sting, I wonder? Either way, got to love a royalties claim based on the band entering into an "oral agreement" to share income. Hmm. Good luck with that.

Cover Charge #57 - Girls Aloud to Chaka Khan

Cover Charge is simple: A covers B, B covers C, C covers D and so on, until I loop back to where I started, Ouroboros-style.

Last time: Arctic Monkeys to Girls Aloud

If you're a manufactured girl group, fresh from the TV circus that spat you into the arms of Cowell, how do you strive for even a scintilla of credibility? By covering a giant, of course! At least I imagine that was the thinking behind Girls Aloud's straightest of Straight Bat retreads of I'm Every Woman for the TV special Discomania in June 2004. Should anyone care, this was later included on the expanded 20th anniversary edition of their second album What Will The Neighbours Say?

I know, what choreography, right? So let's cleanse our collective palate, and enjoy the 1978 source material from Chaka Khan which, I'm pleased to report, has more views on YouTube than the GA cover. Note also the similar five-part choreography... although all five roles here are Chaka Khan in what must have been fairly groundbreaking video trickery for the day. I guess she was being "every woman"... I'll get my coat.

Next time: from one big voice to another...

The Cover Charge "chain" to date.