who's the boom king?

Earworms of the Week

Jerry St Clair from Phoenix Nights- “Come and get your black binbags”
(to the tune of "Men in Black")

I've no idea why this scene from Phoenix Nights popped into my head, but it's a beauty so I'm going to roll with it.  They're on offer til December!

Coldplay - "Viva La Vida"
Leonard Cohen - "Dance Me To The End of Love"

This time last week and the wedding of the year century millennium was just getting started.  As I've already said, it was a whole lot of fun.  For people who are interested in these things, the happy couple's first dance was to Coldplay.  Given that the shortlist also included "I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked" by Ida Maria, this is probably something of a relief.  As it is, I can't unsee the horrific sight of the groom, towards the end of the evening, removing his wife's garter on the dancefloor with his teeth.... I'm taking that image to my grave.  Now, my thoughts on the first dance are that whatever you pick should be short and up-beat.  We went for "Fell In Love With A Girl" by the White Stripes.  1m 50s.  Viva La Vida is 4m 01s.... long.... the groom at one point followed in the footsteps of every other groom in the last 50 years by trying to encourage other people to join them on the dancefloor about halfway through.  Obviously, as it always does, that failed.  Rather smartly though, they did screen the video to the song as they danced... and as lots of people have never seen it before (and it was filmed in the Hague, where the happy couple live), lots of people watched that instead of the bride and groom.  I know Coldplay aren't cool, and I don't like a lot of their newer stuff, but I do like this song.  I have no idea who thought it was a good idea to put this Laughing Len song onto the playlist that we heard - twice - as we waited for everyone to file into the Wedding Breakfast past the bride and groom and their families.  Dance Me to the End of Love?  Really?

Nirvana – “Come As You Are”

Every so often, I am reminded of quite how good Nirvana were.  Today, it was when I heard the echoing opening chords to this song.

Soundgarden - "Rusty Cage"

I've been listening to a lot of Johnny Cash recently, and although I like his version of this song very much, it was nice to be reminded of the power of the original.  Chris Cornell is some singer. Not all of Soundgarden's older material has aged well, but this one still sounds pretty good to me. Who doesn't want to burn dinosaur bones?

The Smiths – “Suffer Little Children”

The Moors Murders took place in the Greater Manchester area between 1963 and 1965.  Given that Morrissey was born in Manchester in 1959, it's perhaps not so surprising that it was a subject that he was interested in: he'd grown up with it.  He was also only a little younger than most of the victims, and would have been familiar with the places that the kids grew up and where, ultimately, they were killed by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley.  I hadn't listened to the Smiths' debut album for quite a long time before I put it on earlier this week.  It's not a polished as some of their other stuff, and for me some of these songs are performed more definitively on some of their session recordings (like "Hatful of Hollow"), but I was still struck by the power in the lyrics to this song.  It caused tabloid controversy at the time, but when I hear it now, I think how sensitive the lyrics actually are:

Lesley-Anne, with your pretty white beads
Oh John, you'll never be a man
And you'll never see your home again
Oh Manchester, so much to answer for
Edward, see those alluring lights ?
Tonight will be your very last night
A woman said : "I know my son is dead
I'll never rest my hands on his sacred head"

Stunning record.

Simon & Garfunkel – “El Condor Paso”

Well, who wouldn't rather be a hammer than a nail?  Yes, I would.  I really would. Etc.

Whitney Houston - "I'm Every Woman"

Thank you, PA track playing in reception.  This is just evil.  I'm proud to say I had to look this up on google to confirm who sang the song (the version I heard, anyway).

Fifth Dimension - "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In"

What can I say?  I watched the 40 Year Old Virgin the other day.  Mystic crystal revelations and all...

Flight of the Conchords – “Boom”

For this one, I need my 1987 DG-20 Casio electric guitar. Set to mandolin, yeah....

If I have to explain this one, then I might as well give up.

Now, we're rolling on a boom boom
Riding to my private boom
And we know what’s boom and we both assume
We're gonna boom boom boom 'til the break of boom

Laters, y'all.  Have a good weekend.  Enough small boom let's boom the boom?  Fast forward-selecta!