Pop thinking – Page 4 – For the fainthearted . . .

Carpenter lines

Mid-term break means no discussion of music in the staffroom at quarter past seven each morning.

The eclectic conversations range across music of every genre. My colleague, a rock and blues guitarist, in his leisure time, is the expert. I try to follow, making the odd contribution from time.

When they resume, there is a point of clarification to be sought. Last week, he suggested that the best lyrics from The Carpenters were those of Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft.

What?

How could someone who is particular in expressing his …

I always thought that I’d see you again

Did you ever keep count of how many times you had heard a song?

Listening to BBC Radio 1 in teenage years (and what else was there to listen to if you lived in rural England?), it was possible to hear a song maybe twenty or thirty times in a week. The station seemed to have a playlist that ensured huge exposure for some records whilst other, frequently better, recordings might find airtime among the more esoteric late night offerings, or in the weekend programmes where presenters seemed more at …

Confused by the words

Arriving at 7.15 each morning, we discuss music as we prepare for the day. Today it was awful lyrics.

I thought The Carpenters’ Calling occupants of interplanetary craft was a contender for the worst. My colleague felt it was no competition for Adrian Gurvitz’ Classic which has the lines

Got to write a classic
Got to write it in an attic
Babe, I’m an addict now
An addict for your love

Always more amusing than the bad lyrics were the misheard lyrics.

There was Kenny Rogers’ Lucille.

“Four hungry …

A rainy night in Walkinstown

January was unusually dry. In fact, the whole autumn and winter have been unusually dry. Inevitably, the good fortune of those of us who prefer to walk everywhere rather than sit in Dublin traffic had to come to an end.

Stepping out of the door to go to Supervalu, the rain semed like water thrown from a bucket. The squall made holding the umbrella difficult. The Long Mile Road was a lake of surface water, passing cars sent up showers of spray.

The supermarket offered light and heat and dryness. …

The cover of the Rolling Stone

Firefox has been causing me to spend money.

First, there was the offer of the Mozilla VPN network. The annual subscription of less than €5 per month allows access to material otherwise blocked to users outside the jurisdiction in which it is broadcast. Last weekend, it meant I could sit in my car driving around Dublin listening to the BBC Radio Bristol coverage of Bath against Leinster on Saturday and the BBC CWR coverage of Wasps against Munster on Sunday (both of which matches resulted in very satisfying substantial wins …

Desert Island Choices

Desert Island Discs will be eighty-years this old this month. The very first episode was broadcast on 29th January 1942. The voice of Roy Plomley, the programme creator was a voice of reassurance. In bad times, the programme must have reminded listeners that there was still much that was good in the world.

In the times before the wavebands were filled with stations at every millimetre turn of the dial, Desert Island Discs was one of those programmes to be frequently encountered at home and in the houses of friends. …