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Archive for the ‘Music - Songs’ Category

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Vanessa Paradis – Joe Le Taxi

Posted by Big Boo on August 20th, 2010

Joe Le Taxi Vanessa ParadisI was driving in the car the other day when Joe Le Taxi by Vanessa Paradis suddenly came on the radio. I had forgotten all about this song until then, and hearing it again instantly took me back to my childhood, with memories of looking up the lyrics in my sisters copy of Smash Hits.

Joe Le Taxi hit number 3 in the UK charts when it was released at the beginning of 1988, but what is most surprising about this fact is that the song (as the title suggests) was sung in French, meaning most of us in the UK didn’t really have much of a clue as to what the song was saying, other than it was presumably about a taxi driver named Joe who liked the saxophone.

However, it was a very catchy song that you ended up humming or singing along with, despite not knowing what the words meant, so it was nice to see a song do well in the charts because people presumably must have really liked it.

Another surprising fact is that the singer, Vanessa Paradis, was only fourteen at the time, and this wasn’t even her first released song – that honour went to La Magie des surprises-parties (my French is not great but I’m guessing that’s The Magic of Surprise Parties) which was released in 1983, so she must have been just ten for that song!

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You’ll Never Get To Heaven…

Posted by Big Boo on August 6th, 2010

baked bean tinSchool trips were always fun for several reasons. First, it always seemed like a day off school. Secondly, you sometimes got to go to some interesting places. Thirdly, the coach trip often descended into what can only be described as mayhem! Fun mayhem that is!

The teachers would first try to keep everyone amused by playing something like I-Spy, but we soon all bored of that and somebody would try and liven the journey with a group song. I’m not talking something sensible like Kumbaya though, no, it would be something in the Ten Green Bottles vein to start off with.

The kids would get down to about 4 or 5 bottles remaining on the wall, whereupon one of the teachers wouldn’t be able to take it any more and would request a change of song. That’s when You’ll Never Get To Heaven started up. This was usually sung by having one person leading, and everyone else repeating the lines to start with, then everyone would join in for a recap of the verse. Here’s an example verse:-

Oh, you’ll never get to heaven,
In a baked bean tin,
‘cos a baked bean tin’s,
Got baked beans in.

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99 Red Balloons

Posted by Big Boo on July 7th, 2010

99 Red Balloons99 Red Balloons was a number one hit for Nena, which was both the name of the female singer of the song and her band too, in February 1984. This was the English translation of the original German version, which was called 99 Luftballons, and between the two versions Nena managed to achieve the number one slot in the charts in at least ten countries, including the UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada and home country Germany.

Surprisingly enough, though it only managed to reach number 2 in the US, this was with the original German language version of the song, which was quite an achievement.

The song was a very poppy, bouncy (fitting for a song about balloons) yet still a bit rocky affair, but the story it tells had a rather darker over tone. The two versions tell broadly the same tale, although the English version isn’t actually a direct translation of the words. It goes something like this…

Some friends buy a packet of balloons (perhaps a packet of 100 but one popped during inflation? Who knows?) and decide to blow them all up and let them loose into the sky. Off they merrily bob, only to be picked up on radar and mistaken as a possible UFO or maybe an enemy attack, which leads to fighter jets being scrambled and the brink of war! Ouch!

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Anita Dobson – Anyone Can Fall In Love

Posted by Big Boo on March 12th, 2010

anyone-can-fall-in-loveIt was the mid eighties when the BBC launched their soap opera EastEnders with much fanfare, causing my Mum and mothers across the land to tune in eagerly for a dose of market trading folk from a small London suburb. Such was the popularity of the show back then that the characters who made up the original cast are still fondly remembered today.

The programme has a very memorable theme tune, but it came as quite a surprise to most people when Anita Dobson, aka Angie Watts, the Queen Vic landlady, released a record which put lyrics to the theme song.

The lyrics may well be considered cheesey now (and probably was back in 1986 when it was released) but it has to be said that Anita Dobson didn’t actually have a bad singing voice, so whilst it was most likely the popularity of EastEnders that saw the record reach number 4 in the UK charts, at least there was some talent involved in the production of the record.

The EastEnders theme tune was originally composed by Simon May, with the lyrics added afterwards by Don Black. It was produced by Dobson’s husband Brian May. That’s right, the big haired Brian May from Queen! Well, it’s nice that he supported his wife, isn’t it?

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Stocking Fillers - Suppliers to Father Christmas
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John Kettley is a Weatherman – A Tribe of Toffs

Posted by Big Boo on July 3rd, 2009

A Tribe of ToffsIf you take a perusal of the songs I’ve featured in the Music – Songs category of this site you’ll soon realise that most, if not all, are novelty songs of some kind or another.  Part of the reason for this is that as a kid I was never really into music in a big way, and certainly wasn’t a fan of any one band in particular, so the songs which I tend to remember most vividly, perhaps regrettably, are the rather less serious ones.

Apology out of the way here’s todays whimsical offering – John Kettley is a Weatherman, by A Tribe Of Toffs.  This little ditty was released in 1988 and although many people will remember it even now it only actually made its way to number 21 in the UK charts.  The chorus lyrics were simple and straight to the point:-

John Kettley is a weatherman, a weatherman, a weatherman.

John Kettley is a weatherman, and so is Michael Fish.

The main verses went through a series of well known people at the time and a little something about them, such as Johnathan Ross collects moss (possible I guess?), Andy Crane has no brain and Simon Parkin is always larking.  Amusingly enough whilst Simon Parkin was a childrens TV presenter at the time of the record he is now, wait for it, a weatherman on ITV!

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Morris Minor and the Majors – Stutter Rap

Posted by Big Boo on April 20th, 2009

stutter rapStutter Rap was the only hit for comedy rap group Morris Minor and the Majors, a British parody of the Beastie Boys.  Where the Beastie Boys were famous for wearing the Volkswagen logo, unsurprising the singers of Stutter Rap favoured the rather more old fashioned (but quintisentially British) Morris Minor.

The song lyrics play heavily on the idea of trying to rap when you’re cursed with a stutter, and how difficult this is, and cleverly work in some well known lines from other songs in a twisted way, including the songs subtitle No Sleep Til Bedtime, which borrowed from the Beastie Boys, and the groan worthy line “he was going to chuck a bottle, he was going to chuck a can, chuck-a-can,chuck-a-chuck-a-chuck-a“.

The band members were Morris Minor, Rusty Wing and Phil Errup, better known as comedian Tony Hawks (no not the skateboarder – that’s Tony Hawk), Paul Boross and Phil Judge.  Tony Hawks wrote the song, and it’s B side track “Another Boring B Side“.  Ironically Tony started off as a song writer but didn’t do so well, so became a comedian and then struck gold with this song, which climbed the charts to number 4 in the UK and number 2 in Australia.

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Paul Hardcastle – 19

Posted by Big Boo on March 6th, 2009

19 paul hardcastle“19″ by Paul Hardcastle is a track that everybody who was around in the 1980’s must surely recognise and remember. It was released in 1985 and took the UK chart by storm, staying at number one for 5 weeks. It also enjoyed a stint at the top of the charts in many other countries including Austria, Germany, Italy and New Zealand, and more besides.

The track consisted of a dance music backing which was overlaid with vocals provided by Peter Thomas, an American narrator of documentary TV shows. The vocals were in fact exactly that, the narration of a TV show about America’s involvement in the Vietnam War, with a little electronic trickery applied to them. Thomas’ voice was sampled and played back in different ways by a synthesiser, allowing for words to change in pitch or have parts repeated, creating a kind of stuttering effect. How many of us have attempting to sing along by going N-n-n-nineteen I wonder.

Whilst Peter Thomas was initially against the song he relented and allowed it to be released, and just as well as not only was it a great song, it was also educational! Many people of my generation had heard of the Vietnam War, but didn’t really know much about it, especially those of us from Europe. The song does a good job of letting us know about the atrocities of that war, with the title, “19″ coming from the average age of the soldiers that fought in Vietnam, which contrasts sharply to the average age of a World War II soldier, which was 26.

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M|A|R|R|S – Pump Up The Volume

Posted by Big Boo on February 11th, 2009

marrs pump up the volumeThe late eighties saw many pop records starting to use more electronic methods of music production over the more traditional methods of playing a musical instrument into a microphone.  Synthesisers, drum machines and music sequencers became common place and meant that people could now create music more easily, without having to spend years learning to play piano or guitar first.

Another new technique that was just beginning to find its feet was that of sound sampling.  This involved digitally grabbing a section of an existing song, perhaps a particular snatch of music or some lyrics, then using that sound in different ways by speeding it up or slowing it down, or repeating sections of it to give a stuttering effect.  Filters could also be applied to give the sound echos, make it sound robotic and much more.  These samples could then be strung together to make a whole new piece of music.

Pump Up The Volume was one of the first and most successful examples of the sound sampling method.  It was attributed to M|A|R|R|S which was a collaboration between two groups, A R Kane and Colourbox, who were both released on indie label 4AD.  Both groups had had the idea of releasing a more commercial dance record, as this style of music had yet to hit the mainstream, so the record label boss suggested the two groups work together to do this.

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