Category: Music

Guns of Navarone

The song, Guns of Navarone was originally an instrumental single recorded by The Skatalites back in 1961 for the film of the same name.

Being the age I am, however, it is probably unsurprising that I first encountered this song when The Specials covered it back in the 1980s. I loved the song then, and it still makes me bounce today.

I recently discovered that Jazz Jamaica also have a cover of Guns of Navarone, proving beyond all doubt that great songs never die.

What’s Up

I have to admit that I’d always thought of 4 Non Blondes as a bit of a one-hit wonder. What’s Up was a hugely successful song back in the early 1990s, then… nothing. It turns out, though, that they were a lot more successful than I’d realised. 4 Non Blondes fell apart a couple of years after What’s Up was released, which launched the solo career of Linda Perry, who was the band’s main songwriter and lead singer.

Joon Wolfsberg is a German singer/songwriter whose country/rock style is well worth a listen. And this makes her acoustic cover of What’s Up well worth checking out.

Big Mandalorian Iron

I have to admit that I still haven’t seen any of The Mandalorian. We don’t have Disney+ and I’m loathe to start subscribing to a streaming service just for one series, for which I will probably never find the time to actually watch.

Luckily for me, the whole series is summed up rather brilliant in Funk Turkey’s rather brilliant reworking of Marty Robbin’s Big Iron.

BxMxC

I first encountered Babymetal somewhere in 2006 when I stumbled across the video for Gimme Chocolate, and if you haven’t already seen this go and watch it now. I’ll wait.

The band describes their style as “kawaii metal” or “cute metal” and combines some metal instrumentation with the sort of squeaky-voiced melodies that you would normally associate with Japanese pop music. Initially, I reacted to them as I would any novelty band — they were fun but the joke soon wore thin and I moved on.

I encountered them again a few years later and things had changed somewhat, primarily the backing band which were sounding really rather good.

I recently realised that the band has been going for 10 Years, and they’re still evolving and their recently released BxMxC incorporates rap along with everything else. And it’s really good.

So if you ever wanted to know what cute Japanese nu-metal sounded like, you’re welcome.

Got The Time

I was something of an Anthrax fan back in the day. Among the Living was, and remains, an absolutely superb album and State Of Euphoria continues to have much to recommend it.

And then came Persistence Of Time which was something of a disappointment. In fact, the only song on that album that really stands up is a cover of Joe Jackson’s Got The Time.

Not only do I like the Anthrax version, though, but I prefer it to the original.

Ticking in my head.

Das Modell

I mentioned Kraftwerk’s The Model back in June when I stumbled across a cover of the song from the marvelously named George Hinchliffe’s Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.

In September I discovered that DJ Cummerbund had helped a reluctant Rammstein find their funky junk.

When Rammstein covers The Model, I think we’ve hit Peak Teuton.

Obviously, this is not the official music video for the song and, as far as I can tell, none exists. The footage in the above video is taken from Domino, the 2005 film starring Keira Knightley. It does work remarkably well, though.

Rotterdam (Or Anywhere)

Back in the summer of 2016 we went back to the UK to visit my parents in Wales. What was unusual was that we wanted to fit a wedding in the Midlands into the itinerary. Our solution was to sail overnight from Zeebrugge to Hull instead of taking the usual, and much quicker, Dover to Calais route.

The crossing went really well and the boys, especially the twins, were not only thrilled at being able to sleep on a boat, but also managed to sleep almost as soundly as I do. So much so that they still talk about it to this day, and we keep saying that we will do the North Sea crossing again just as soon as we can fit it around everything else.

Brexit and Covid-19, however, have conspired to put something of a fly in the ointment, however, leading P&O Ferries to announce it will end its crossing between Zeebrugge and Hull in April.

All is not lost, though:

The company’s more popular Rotterdam-Hull route, however, will continue.

So, since I usually post a song on Sundays, here’s The Beautiful South

Creep

I’ve always thought of Creep as being a very male song, which probably says more about me than it does about Radiohead.

But Haley Reinhart’s vocals on this vintage Postmodern Jukebox cover provide an incredibly effective reminder that everyone is a weirdo and none of us belong here.