Preachy Pop Stars

David Cameron has declined to stop listening to the Smiths, despite being ordered to by Johnny Marr (whose banning tweet was endorsed by Morrissey).

I have a confession to make- I am also a fan of the Smiths*. Like all Smiths fans there does come a time when one has to accept that despite making some of the best music of the last 50 years, the band themselves were complete bell ends. At least the two principle men- Morrissey and Marr.

Apart from their personal behaviour- they famously got together to defraud their fellow band members of royalties (before penning a ditty about materialism and greed no doubt), the pronouncements of either of them on politics are infantile and dogmatic.

Most Smiths fans do accept this, I follow a 'Smiths' page on Facebook and even most of the comments there- a page frequented by people whose main thing they have in common is they like the Smiths- agree that Marr is being a twat.

But if Jews can listen to Wagner, conservatives can listen to the Smiths.

* It is a marmite like taste. Most people reading this will think that they're whiny and depressing.

Musical Interlude

This song was from their less well regarded 2nd album so isn't played but is one of their best in my opinion.

Panic On The Streets Of London, Panic On The Streets Of Birmingham...

I thought this would be innappropriate tonight.


Meanwhile lets hope that some of the rioters manage to kill themselves.

Seriously

Some sample lyrics from recent pop music:

Sample 1:

Don't be fancy
Just get dancey
Why so serious? 

Sample 2:

I’m so sick of being so serious
It’s making my brain delirious!

 Sample 3:

Why is everybody so serious
Acting so damn mysterious

It's clear that there is concerted campaign to undermine the notion of seriousness being waged by the purveyors of bubblegum pop music. I think the most probably explanation for this is that there is a cabal of sinister people trying to persuade the yoof of today not to to pay attention to serious and important matters so they don't notice the bad stuff going on in the world today.

The Guardian Does Music- Finds Racism

Does anyone at Guardian jTowers ust listen to music because they like the tunes, and not in order to discover vast racist conspiracies?

First up athe weekend is Barbara Ellen in which the Glastonbury croud are compared to a Klan rally for being unenthusiastic about a particular performer:

Even now, the "No to Jay-Z at Glastonbury" thing feels acutely embarrassing. Was this the Noughties' "Queen play Sun City"? Was popular culture turning bizarrely racist, the Glastonbury crowds transformed into supremacist loons, teaming white hoods with Hunter wellies? Of course not, but it was bad.

 Because anyone who doesn't like a particular genre of music is against "black music". The Grammies were also on this week and whilst they are probably the biggest joke out of all the award ceremonies out there a Guardian race nut is upset:

Once again, Eminem's raw emotional power has been rewarded at the Grammys – but perhaps at the expense of black artists

Aside from the fact that paired with the other article it seems like white music afficinados can't win- dislike hip hop and you're against black music but if a white person does hip hop it is "at the expense of black artists"- you can tell it's going to be victimhood poker.

no black artist who is as publicly and consistently angry as Eminem has ever reaped similar rewards, either from the academy itself, or from the music industry more broadly. Third, this peculiar truth has come to pass not simply because Mathers is white, but because his anger has historically been directed towards women, queer people and himself – that is, marginal subjects – rather than white supremacy and/or patriarchy.

 S
Yeah like fight the power maaaan!

John Barry

I was very sad to see that John Barry had died. This was partly because I initally thought that John Barrowman had died and was gutted to realise otherwise. But it's mostly because he could compose such memorable themes as this:

Can I Claim Royalties Or Something?

There are plans to start broadcasting NFL games with a musical soundtrack. This is an idea that I had for football games years ago, except I was thinking more along the lines of giving each player their own individual tunes.

Uruguay Vs Netherlands, Settled In Song

To mark tomorrow's match between these two countries here's a couple of songs. First up is a 1960s Uruguayan band "Los Shakers":



And here is 1970s to 1990s Dutch indie band Bettie Serveet:

One For The Privacy Paranoiacs

People I Have An Irrational Dislike Of- Part Two

The England Supporters Band who follow the English football team making a sodding cacophony for 90 minutes whilst people are trying to enjoy the game.

Actually whilst my dislike of them isn't irrational, the scale of it is. I detest them. They've decided to impose themselves on all the other fans in the stadium and at home who don't really want to listen to their repetitive shite. It destroys the atmosphere because the sound of the crowd should really relate to what is happening on the field of play, not whatever these clowns have on their play list next.

Is there anything more depressing than hearing them churn out "the Great Escape" every 15 minutes? Fair enough if the team has done something that would make that song particularly appropriate by rescuing themselves from certain defeat for instance but they just play it at random points in the game for no obvious reason.

Frankly I hope that their plane to South Africa is diverted to Zimbabwe and they spend the entire World Cup locked in a prison in Harare under the threat of death.

Update: From the Urban Dictionary:

Bunch of "loyal" fans, generally regarded as attention-seeking atmosphere-killers employed by the English Football Association to play at England matches. Home and away. Possibly the most infuriating, pointless, mind-numbing collaboration of idiots the world has ever seen. They have an extensive repertoire of four songs, one of which they can't play properly. Their renendition of the "Great Escape" theme has been going on for about eight years now, it has never once been appropriate. No one likes them anymore, their kitsch, camp appeal died after the first three matches.

Musical Interlude

Bonus points if you guess who does backing vocals on this single.

Claim To Lame

I was in a pub today and the person I was drinking with pointed out someone at another table who is apparently member of Showaddywaddy. It's all glamour with me.

WTF?

Bernard Manning does the Smiths.

The Perfect Eurovision Song

I was going to wait a few months before posting this as it isn't topical right now, however I can't wait that long:

Musical Interlude

Mentioning US TV a couple of posts ago reminded me of a song that appeared once in the soundtrack of what is my personal favourite show. Anyway as I've never heard the track anywhere else or heard of the band in any other context I'm guessing that few of my readers have either so I thought I'd put it up here. It is called Cuentan Que El and it's by 'Whitehouse':

Musical Interlude

Say Has Something Happened To Michael Jackson?

"Is the press coverage of Michael Jackson's death getting a bit excessive?", I thought to myself as I sat down to watch the Newsnight special edition about the singer's death. Still it isn't as if anything important is going on in the world.

Misleading Headlines.

Sir Paul's squirrel 'to be shot'

No, Paul McCartney hasn't abandoned his committment to animal rights.

Eurovision Defends Biggest Fan.

Apparantly a Eurovision entry from Georgia has been rejected because it insults Vladimir Putin. I can nderstand Eurovision's decision because you just know that he is one of their biggest fans.

New Poll.

As I don't really want to end the week on eugenics how about a poll? What is the best song from the "Rocky" series? Is it:

Eye of the Tiger by Survivor:


Or Gonna Fly Now by Bill Conti: