Random Lyric Long Weekend - Part Trois

It's another long weekend - which means another weekend of random lyrics getting posted to my facebook page, confusing, confounding and annoying my facebook friends.

As is the tradition, the weekend's worth of random lyrics get written up here, giving a bit of history of the lyrics. It also sorts out the odd argument and proves just how thoroughly dodgy my taste in music really is.

So here we go. Another random public holiday. Another weekend of random lyrics.

Saturday 10 March, 15.04.

Tin Roof... Rusted.

The B52s. Love Shack.

I have to hand it to Glee. It's only taken me 25 years to find out what Fred Schneider was wailing about in this song. Then you get a Glee cover and it all comes into line. Wow! I had the same thing happen when I heard a cover version of Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights" where the normally unintelligible James Reyne made the song understandable.

The B52s are one of my favorite bands from my mispent youth. The voice of the beehive - great to dance too though other than inspiring a Gus van Sant movie don't have that much substance. Still, I challenge anybody not to get up and have a drunken dance when the Rock Lobster come on at a wedding.

March 10, 15.52.


Candle Shadow in the flame, of the moments that we try to start again.


Icehouse, Dusty Pages

1984. A year of first love. The year I got my driver's licence. That first date - where first love took us into Adelaide to see the first Police Academy movie (I'm feeling really old now)

I will always love this song. Icehouse were fantastic. Iva Davies, classically trained musician and incredible talent - Icehouse were always due for big things and this is them at their very, very best.

March 10, 22.18 pm

Does his makeup in his room, douse himself in cheap perfume.

Placebo - Nancy Boy

Major ear worm song - this one can get stuck in my head for days. A London song - this song dates to 2007 - a year I went into a complete tail spin. I was in a job I hated. There were clubs. There were the odd occasions when recreational pharmaceuticals were used. My father died. One other life changing event happened. There were the inappropriate men at inappropriate times.

Placebo puts me here.

And I still argue with friends that the Pixies version of "Where is my Mind?" is far, far better than the Placebo version of the song - though as a cover isn't too bad (Nirvana do a better job of it but).

Nancy Boy - however - still gets stuck in my head for days on end.

Sunday 11 March, 7.11.

Let me be your Lighthouse Keeper

Protect you from the angry seas
In the storm in times of trouble
When there's no visibility


My Friend the Chocolate Cake: Lighthouse Keeper

Ever noticed how there are so many songs about on the topic of lighthouses and lighthouse keepers?

Personally, I don't think it would be a bad job. Walk up the stairs at night. Turn the light on.Walk down the stairs. Repeat in the morning but turn the light instead. Check the lamps occasionally. Wash a few windows. Lots of time for reading. Cool job.

This is another lighthouse song. The song comes to you from my friend who gave me a "My Friend the Chocolate Cake" album for my birthday. The band were big around Melbourne in the 90s when I was safely ensconsed over in London. They played all around with their folky, boppy, collaborative music. They've also written background music for a lot of high profile advertisments over the last few decades. I missed the band but I'm fond of the album.

Sunday, March 11, 11.36 am.

Stop, collaborate and listen...

Vanilla Ice, Ice Ice Baby.

You're at the zoo watching the seals. What other song is going to come into your brain?

Extra dorky, it's up there with "You can't touch this" and "Funky Cold Medina" and anything by Milli Vanilli in the dork files. Most people of my age can sing along to this with a daft grin on their face, proud of the fact that they learned the words to this when they were in high school.

What song do I know every word to? Cold Chisel's Khe Sahn. Good for my bogan street cred.

This song also goes to prove that white boys aren't the best rappers (though Eminem aint too bad). Vanilla Ice should have stuck to selling photcopiers.

Bad, bad, bad song.

March 11, 1.17 pm

I landed in the garden, longing for the view behind the fence.

Josh Pyke, Memories and Dust.

Josh Pyke is a recent find  - this song being the standout on a compliation CD. I like the folky sound, the acoustic guitar - and a song about growing up. Josh Pyke's Lighthouse Song is superlative too.

March 11, 17.40

And I can see no bravery, no bravery in your eyes any more.

James Blunt, No Bravery

I don't really like James Blunt - for the same reason that I don't like Adele, Amy Winehouse, Norah Jones and Duffy. Their songs get caned on the radio. If I hear "You're Beautiful", (or "Rolling in the Deep" or "Rehab" or "Mercy" again I'll scream....).

However, I love this song. James Blunt is ex-army. Just out of uni, he was deployed as a peace keeper in Kosovo as a part of his conditions that the British Military paid for his tertiary education on the proviso that he spent four years in the army afterwards. This song is about his experiences on the field. I love how you actually see the depth of feeling in this song. Magic. Probably the best thing he's ever written.

March 11, 16.41

Come on Pilgrim, you know he loves you...

The Pixies, Levitate Me

Token Pixies song. It's not Random Lyric Long Weekend without a Pixies song thrown into the mix.

Levitate Me is the near quintessential Pixies song. Loud. Soft. Loud. Grungy. Great drums. Wailing guitars. Somewhat nonsensical. I remember doing this as an encore at the V-Festival at the Gold Coast going nuts in the mosh pit. Brilliant!

If you're interested, there's a couple of great covers of this song on YouTube. The version by the Beach Boys is worth a listen.

Saturday, 11 March, 21.34

Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial.

Green Day, Good Riddance

The last song played on Seinfeld. Overused at funerals. Not as political as a lot of Green Day songs, it's just cool.

Of these lines - my tattoo got spotted the other day at the gym. Changing, what I thought was reasonably discretely, it was spotted by a training buddy.

"You have a tattoo?!" The question was fired at me more like an accusation.

"No shit, Sherlock."

"You don't look like somebody who has a tattoo."

"Well there you go. I'll never get buried in a Jewish cemetery." 

"Why do you have a tattoo?" I was asked.

"Because I always wanted one."

"When did you get it?"

"A few months after my father died. It's the Chinese symbol for love."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Yes."

"You still don't look like a person who has a tattoo."

"And you don't look like somebody who judges people for having one."

I find it funny that our choices from many, many years ago come back to haunt us. Something as inconsequential as a small Chinese character hidden away on my hip has made somebody reconsider me.

It's something unpredictable, but in the end that's right. I hope you had the time of your life....

Monday 12 March, 8.42

We dress like students, we dress like housewives, or in a suit and a tie.

Talking Heads, Life During Wartime

I'm looking at this clip and thinking how fit David Byrne was back then. Like wow. Another song from the annals of my youth. Talking Heads is up the there with the Pixies in their deity status.

Seeing David Byrne in concert is one thing I will never forget. He was amazing! Stoned - yes, but incredible. They encored with a cover of "Sympathy for the Devil". It went on for about 20 minutes....

I'm really glad that Talking Heads, for the most part, haven't been relegated to fogey radio. They've still go credability - even if their Little Creatures album was a bit commercial and a couple of their back catelogue have found their way onto the MIX FM playlist.

Life During Wartime remains untouchable.

March 12, 10.11.

Don't get strung out by the way that I look, don't judge a book by its cover.

Rocky Horror Picture Show Soundtrack. Sweet Transvestite

More from the annals of my youth. That cinena in Leicester Square, rocking up in a French Maids outfit, spendies, stockings, heels, back in the day I could walk in them. Throwing rice at the wedding....

What do the youth of today do now that's strange and ironic and just plain daft? Rocky Horror is one of the few musicals I can enjoy (along with Chicago and Rock of Ages) mainly because it doesn't take itself seriously. Could never have that much fun at an Andrew Lloyd Webber production of Paint Never Dries.

Looking at this clip, how did Tim Currie not break his ankle trolloping round in those heels?

Love it.

March 12, 11.14.

I search myself, I want you to find me, I forget myself, I want you to remind me.

I Touch Myself. The Divinyls

This is here for a reason. I've put the Rolf Harris cover for the clip as it's still the silliest cover ever performed. I had a friend over on Saturday night and she was rolling around on the floor laughing.

I think they banned the song when it first came out. Pity it didn't say banned so Rolf couldn't get his hands on it.

March 12, 12.38

I've got the right day but got the wrong week and I get paid for just being a freak.

Skyhooks, Living in the 70s

I love Skyhooks. My friend, Alice, doesn't. She hates them. My love of Skyhooks caused her to riff with her husband, Dougall.

I'd given them a copy of a compilation of Skyhooks songs which duly went onto their hard drive.

A few months later, this came on.

"What's this crap?" demanded Dougall.
"I don't know, it's your shit. It's awful." Alice retorted.

A row followed.

Twenty minutes they looked at each other. 'This is Pandora's crap."

The loss of Shirley Strachan a few years ago was one of life's tragedies. A great bloke.

As for Skyhooks - the seven year old in me will love them eternally.

Monday, March 12, 17.38

I could be first or I could come last, it's not who breaks the ribbon, it's how you get across.

John Buttler Trio, Zebra

Catchiest riff ever.

I challenge anybody hears this not to be singing it three hours later. Another perfect ear worm

Well, there you have it, another random public long weekend, another random choice of songs.

Until the Queen's Birthday in June.

xx