Today is...World Music Therapy Day

Music can be powerful, the right tunes can lift our mood, calm, motivate and comfort us and over our lifetime we develop a taste for certain genres of music and we all have our go-to songs when we need a bit of a boost but Dutch cognitive neuroscientist, Dr. Jacob Jolij, recently ran an expansive survey of songs ranging across all genres to compile the top feel-good songs that scientifically make people happy.
The science bit is that to be a mood changer the song must have a high tempo, positive lyrics and the listener should be able to sing-a-long to it and for your mood enhancing pleasure the top song is Queen's Don't Stop Me Now but before you upload it onto your MP3 player and become a shooting star leaping through the sky or a tiger defying the laws of gravity or even a racing car passing by like Lady Godiva, consider the results of this other study from BBC Gardeners Time of all places.
King Charles has often been lauded as a ruby short of a crown for talking to his plants because rather than talking to them he should have sang some Black Sabbath instead.
In an experiment, different genres of music were played into four greenhouses and the ones that grew up to be the biggest and healthiest was the blooms that had the heavy metal directed at them.
Hilariously, the greenhouse that had the soothing tones of Cliff Richards played to them all died, i'd like to think it was suicide, but yet more human research shows that if you favour a more Heavy Metal strand of music then you are actually a lot less aggressive than your T-Shirts lets on, being gentle, intuitive, creative and introverted so listening to Metallica in the queue at Tesco could actually reduce your desire to use the box of PG Tips in your basket to beat to a pulp the man who is holding you all up as he looks for his debit card.
Listening to Pop music can increase confidence as can hearing hip-hop such as 'The Message' by Grand Master Flash & The Furious Five which boffins at the University of Cambridge have said can help soothe a troubled mind as they generally offer a message of hope and whatever your music of choice it can certainly be very emotive and can stir some deep emotions so the Cambridge boffins are probably on to something and it may be rap music for some and Beethoven for others.
Personally, i find listening to Christmas songs at any time of the year a massive lifter and has the added bonus of telling my family if they can hear 'Frosty the Snowman' coming from the CD player in July, it probably isn't the best time to ask for a favour.

What Your Music Collection Say's About You

I was emailed a Research Article regarding Musical Preferences which sounded interesting but as the very first paragraph included the formula S = (AQ-R-<AQ-R>)/150 & E = (EQ-<EQ>) /80, i decided to go straight to the Results section and it turns out that if we are one of those types of people who judge people by their musical tastes then well done because it turns we are right to as the kind of music we like is actually a pretty reliable reflection of us.
Whether it's assumptions about the intelligence of Country and Western fans or the working eardrums of Jazz fans, the research found that the likes of listeners to Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston or Celine Dion have an abundance of empathy while someone who prefers harder-edged, more rock orientated music is more of a logic-oriented person and open to try new experiences.
If you like Pop music and mostly listen to chart-topping pop songs then you are more likely to be extroverted, honest, hard-working and confident although less creative while Heavy Metal fans are actually a lot less aggressive than their T-Shirts would let on, they are gentle, intuitive, creative and introverted although they also tend to have lower self-esteem.
Hip-hop fans are outgoing, sociable confident, and show no higher propensity toward violence than anyone else while the much derided Country and Western fans are identified as hardworking, conventional, outgoing, right wing politically and emotionally stable although are less open to new experiences and a bit boring.
Fans of the indie genre registered as introverted, intellectual, and creative, but rather lazy and more anxious than fans of other styles but those who preferred dance music were typically outgoing, assertive, and open to experience but are not particularly gentle, thoughtful souls.
The genres which came out best were Classical, Jazz, Blues and Soul whose listeners are all introverted but at ease with themselves and the World while being very intelligent and creative whilst having a healthy amount of self-esteem.
Obviously this doesn't fit for every person, my old boss listened to nothing but Classical but you wouldn't trust her to sit the right way around on a toilet but if your record collection is full of Soul or Blues legends then you can consider yourself a decent, well rounded person but if you look and see an album by either Garth Brooks or Dolly Parton staring back at you, put it down to temporary insanity and slip them into a bin a safe distance from your home and let's never mention it again.

Meat Loaf Paid The Price For His Ignorance

Sad news about Meat Loaf but even sadder is the news that he died of COVID-19 and was one of those who never took the threat of the disease seriously.
He wasn't an anti-vaxxer, i never heard him spew anti-vax propaganda, although he was anti-mask and anti-lockdown saying lockdowns were 'political' and masks were 'useless'. He also posted a clip of Eric Clapton and Van Morrison’s anti-lockdown song, Stand & Deliver, writing, 'Listen and Learn'.
Being an ignorant arse isn't a crime but when you have an audience such as he had, anything you say will be amplified and as he was suffering from health issues including asthma, to rage against masks is sadly ignorant.
His vacinne status has not been published and he  did say recently in an interview: 'If I die, I die', which in hindsight was really, really stupid because he should've cared if not for himself then for his family.
It does detract from him slightly, i always quite enjoyed whenever he showed up on TV, he seemed a real fun guy and he had some decent songs, '2 Out Of 3 Ain't Bad' and 'Dead Ringer For Love' especially, but for whatever reason he paid the ultimate price for his ignorance and has become a warning of not taking COVID-19 seriously and that's probably the saddest thing of all.

Boris Johnson Is Still A What They Said

Many people have inspired songs to be written about them and Boris Johnson has joined that elite group who have been immortalised in verse.
The song all about Boris Johnson sits at number 5 in the UK Chart but in case you haven't noticed, Boris isn't popular in the UK which gave BBC Radio One a dilemma when it was doing the Official Top 40 Chart run-down because the song is called 'Boris Johnson Is Still A Fuc*king C*nt' (my asterisk) by punk group The Kunts.
Scott Mills decided that there was no possible way that he could play the hit, read the name of the song or mention the group name so said: 'At number five this week is a song about Boris Johnson that has so many bad words in it i can’t possibly play it on daytime Radio 1'.
Ladbaby, who scooped the number one slot said that The Kunts and their song was vulgar and their own hit was for food bank charities so deserved to be number one' which The Kunts responded by saying that they had made a large donation to MIND and Cardiac Risk in the Young after the success of their song and 'We may be vulgar in the language we use to get our point across but we would not be so vulgar as to use food banks to hawk records, increase our profile or sign lucrative sponsorship deals'. Touche Mr K.
The song is the tune of Gary Glitters 'Rock N Roll Part 2' and is a minute and half of just repeating the name of the song over and over but thankfully convicted sex offender Mr Glitter will not get any royalties from it because he sold all of his rights to music years ago to cover legal costs.
Maybe the Song For Europe people should approach The Kunts to perform our entry for Eurovision next year but as a responsible adult i cannot possibly condone a song where the leader of my country is called a Fu*king C*nt, especially when everyone knows he is actually a Fu*king Pr*ck.

Cosmos Loving My Hair Apparently

Every summer there seems to be a song that follows me around everywhere and this year it was Chic's 'Good Times' that i was hearing on a loop in Supermarkets, on the radio, on TV and just about anywhere that my ears went.
Not a bad song to have trailing me through what should be the hot months although this year the British Summer was a few warmish days in June and the rest of it slightly warmer than normal rain but whenever the same song keeps popping up in unexpected places i take it that the Universe is trying to tell me something but what is the message to me from the guitar of Niles Rogers?
The problem i have with the song is that the tune is the same as the one for 'Rapper's Delight' so when it kicks off with that distinctive bass my mind goes ' I said-a hip, hop, the hippie, the hippie, to the hip hip hop-a you don't stop the rock, it to the bang-bang boogie, say up jump the boogie to the rhythm of the boogie, the beat' (yep, i googled that) rather than the Good Times lyrics which i am delving into to see what the Cosmos is desperate to alert me to.
Quite worrying that the chorus is 'Good times, these are the good times' because that means it's saying this is as good as this is going to get which looking at what is happening in the news is a bit rubbish but there is a bit about girls in pony tails and i have been growing my hair so have actually had it in a pony tail but then it goes onto roller skates which i haven't owned since about 1987 and when i did i spent more time on the floor than actually skating so i am ignoring the Universe wants me to buy some roller skates.
The words 'Good Times' appears 32 times in the song so applying Occams Razor to the problem, there is a good chance that the Cosmos is saying that the bad times are over and it is all rainbows and lollipops from here on in or it is really loving the pony tail.
Yep, i'm going to go with the Universe really likes my hair, thanks Galaxy.

Soul Asylum - Runaway Train

1993 was the Grunge years in music for me but in June of that year there was a different kind of song which got to number 7 in the UK Charts which would appear between the Nirvana and Pearl Jam videos which i always found quite hard to watch, because it's subject matter was wholly depressing.   
The song was Soul Asylum's 'Runaway Train' and the video featured children who had gone missing along with their full name and when they had gone missing and these sections were tailored for different countries so the video for the United States version begins with 'There are over one million youth lost on the streets of America' while the UK version begins with "100,000 youth are lost on the streets of Britain'.  The video was directed by Tony Kaye and showed some difficult scenes of abuse, child prostitution and babies being stolen from pushchairs but what made it so hard to watch was that it was true, these things were really going on and the children whose name was on the screen were real, missing children.
After the video, the lead singer speaks direct to camera saying 'If you've seen one of these kids, or you are one of them, please call this number' with the following screen showing a number one could contact.
The song came back to me today on a Guess The Year radio show and i did wonder if any of the kids in the video had actually been found and after Googling it i found an interview where Kaye said that 26 had been found although he didn't say if that was just in America or Worldwide although 26 is great, it is quite bittersweet.
In the UK Version of the video was Vicky Hamilton and Dinah McNicol, who each went missing in 1991. Their remains were found in 2007 at a house in Margate, victims of Peter Tobin who was later convicted of both murders.
It also featured Mark Bartley who was kidnapped in 1992 and was recognised in the video by a man who knew Bartley was staying in the flat below him but by the time the police arrived, Bartley and his kidnapper were gone and he had never been seen since.
What is pleasing is that Kaye and Soul Asylum defied the Record Companies who didn't want the missing kids in the video, instead wanting more shots of the band so they could get better exposure but the band refused, and said the video with the kids stayed.
I'm not sure what Soul Asylum did next, i don't think i ever heard another song by them, but because of them 26 kids returned home or were located and they deserve a massive clap on the back for that.

God Save The Queen

I was never a hardcore fan of the band Queen, i liked them fine but i wouldn't say i was a massive fan but it appears there are plenty who are because their Greatest Hits album, released in 1981, is at number 1 again in the UK Albums charts.
To celebrate its 40th year anniversary, the record label released the album on CD and cassette which might have made for some amusement with anyone under 20 on what the hell to do with a cassette, i haven't seen a cassette player for years and to be honest i was glad to see the back of them, the amount of times a favourite cassette was chewed up by the machine and i had to carefully unwrap it from around the cogs of the damned thing and wind it back into the plastic holder with a pencil.
I remember running back home one day in 1995 holding Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morissette in my hot little hand only for it to be immediately sucked into my cassette player workings and snapping and having a lesson by a friend in how to sellotape the bits of tape back together and NOT BUYING BLOODY CASSETTES! 
Anyway, Don’t Stop Me Now and Killer Queen are probably my favourite Queen songs, i have heard the likes of Bohemian Rhapsody, Another One Bites The Dust and We are The Champions way too much over the last 40 years for them to excite me anymore although i can always appreciate Freddie Mercury's
mighty vocals and Brian May's brilliant guitar work.
The album has spent a total of 952 weeks, a tad over 18 years, on the UK album chart, selling over 6.3 million copies just ahead of ABBA's Greatest Hits which has sold 5.5 million and The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on 5.3 million.
Looking at the Top 20 albums in the UK, i have or have at some point owned only 5 of them which may say something about my musical tastes but as 15 of the 20 were released pre-2000, it may also say something about today's music, or the people buying records, whatever, it's Sunday afternoon and i can't be bothered to work out which it is.  
So i am guessing that the Queen album is being bought today by a new, younger generation who will be like a shooting star leaping through the sky, like a tiger defying the laws of gravity...or they will once they work out who still owns a cassette player.

Advice From 1999

I can't remember what i was doing in 1999 and that's normally a good sign that it must have been something good but i do recall a spoken word song called 'Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)' which i pretty much ignored in favour of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Blink 182 but i heard it today on the radio and it had some good advice in it which 30 year old Lucy poo-pooed but 51 year old Lucy nodded along to sagely.

Wear Sunscreen - Yep, sunburn hurts but skin cancer hurts even more.
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth - true, because before you know it you are 51 and listening to songs you ignored 20 years ago 
Don't worry about the future - The future will come regardless and it is never as scary as you imagine it to be
Do one thing everyday that scares you - Feel free to ignore this one
Sing - I sound like a donkey wearing a bucket over it's head but i still sing when i can, my being so bad is other a problem for other peoples ears.
Don't be reckless with other people's hearts - Spot on, apart from trapping your fingers in a car door, having your heart broken in love is one of the most painful experiences in life. 
Floss - Whatever, American stuff, just make sure you brush
Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults - Good point, insults say more about the person who makes them, and it says they are a jerk so why worry what a jerk thinks?
Keep your old love letters - Tricky one, keeping love letters if they are not from your spouse could lead to some awkward conversations
Stretch - Throw in a yawn and you are set for the morning.
Get plenty of calcium - i guess
Be kind to your knees - You don't know how much you use them until one of them starts creaking
Read the directions, even if you don't follow them - obviously aimed at men who do seem to love the excuse that 'it's a spare screw' until the thing they spent 3 hours putting together falls down.
Understand that friends come and go - like knickers, they change frequently and some are more comfortable than others, some chaffe and some you hope nobody ever sees but in five years time you will forget the ones you have now as you will have new ones.
Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle - Not even sure what this means
Travel - As much as possible to places you never imagined.
Don't mess too much with your hair - Ignore. Dye it, cut it, perm it, grow it, shave it and abuse it in every way possible, it grows back.
Be careful whose advice you buy - Best advice on the record. You wouldn't ask a car mechanic for advice on the best home insurance policy to buy as much as you wouldn't ask a hairdresser for advice on whether to buy an Android or Apple phone. If you want advice, ask an expert.

Nirvana Unplugged Leaves Me Unenthused

The guitar that Kurt Cobain played in the Unplugged session has been bought for $6m by an Australian businessman making it both the most expensive guitar and piece of memorabilia.
I was a huge Nirvana fan at the time, the brilliant Nevermind Album, the image, the easy on the eye Kurt Cobain and the whole Grunge scene that they sat proudly atop of.
The one thing that was not so good, and it has not improved with age or repeated listening, was the Nirvana Unplugged set where the $6m guitar featured.
I'm sure that the debate will start up again about just how good it was but i remember being disappointed at the time and as much as i enjoy watching Kurt Cobain sat on a stage playing his semi-acoustic guitar, listening to it today it still fails to enthuse me.
Nirvana's music was all about the several thousand decibels of power behind them and the Cobain formula of soft verses and raucous chorus.
Everything about this performance just seemed tepid and while we waited in vain for the big hits like 'Teen Spirit' or 'Lithium', we got 'Jesus Doesn't Want Me For A Sunbeam', 'The Man Who Sold The World' and a handful of vague, unknown songs and it just left an empty feeling.
I am not knocking the Unplugged series, i thought Alanis Morissette was outstanding, as was REM, but if Cobain had not taken his life shortly afterwards, this set would be viewed as a mistaken diversion from the real, angrier thing.
Their strength and appeal was in their energy, drive and pounding guitars but this album gives a false impression and will sadly be forever placed alongside their far superior earlier output.

11 Better Songs With A 20 Second Chorus

With all this hand scrubbing going on, the advice is that you wash your hands for 20 seconds but you need some sort of timer to know when you've reached that 20-second threshold and the NHS recommended song is Happy Birthday sang twice.
The British Government did make a half-hearted attempt to make the 'official' hand washing song 'God Save The Queen' but that didn't last very long but there are better well known songs that come in with a 20-second choruses, just don't skimp on the instrumental parts or the long held notes.

Ironic by Alanis Morrisette
It's like rain on your wedding day
It's a free ride when you've already paid 
It's the good advice that you just didn't take
Who would've thought, it figures

Copacabana by Barry Manilow
At the copa, Copacabana
The hottest spot north of Havana
Here at the copa, Copacabana
Music and passion were always the fashion At the copa
Don't fall in love

Basketcase by Green Day
Sometimes I give myself the creeps
Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me
It all keeps adding up
I think I'm cracking up
Am I just paranoid?
Or am I just stoned

You Could Be Mine by Guns N Roses
Because you could be mine
But you're way out of line
With your bitch slap rappin'
And your cocaine tongue
You get nuthin' done
I said you could be mine

Kiss by Prince
You don't have to be rich to be my girl
You don't have to be cool to rule my world
Ain't no particular sign i'm more compatible with
I just want your extra time and your Kiss

Greased Lightning by Grease
Go grease lightning you're burning up the quarter mile
(Grease lightning go grease lightning)
Go grease lightning you're coasting through the heat lap trial
(Grease lightning go grease lightning)
You are supreme the chicks'll cream for grease lightning
Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go

Whats Love Got To Do With It by Tina Turner
What's love got to do, got to do with it
What's love but a second hand emotion
What's love got to do, got to do with it
Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken

Eye Of The Tiger by Survivor
It's the eye of the tiger, it's the thrill of the fight
Risin' up to the challenge of our rival
And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night
And he's watchin' us all with the eye of the tiger

Beat It by Michael Jackson
Just beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it
No one wants to be defeated
Showin' how funky and strong is your fight
It doesn't matter who's wrong or right
Just beat it, beat it x4

Africa by Toto
It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had

Hotel California by The Eagles
Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place (such a lovely place)
Such a lovely face.
Plenty of room at the Hotel California
Any time of year (any time of year) you can find it here  

Merry Christmas Evil Dictators

Noddy Holder said that his 1973 Christmas hit, Merry Christmas Everbody, is his pension money and as it makes approximately £512,000 annually, the best way for musicians to fund their twilight years is to follow the Slade singers route and write a successful Christmas song or hop on a plane and perform for the world's most corrupt regimes which plenty of our best loved singers have done.
Sting's bank account swelled £1 million in 2009 by playing a show organised for the daughter of Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan's dictatorial leader and justified it by saying that: 'cultural boycotts are pointless gestures and counter-productive', also not very lucrative he could have added but never.
Jennifer Lopez serenaded Turkmenistan's dictator and leader, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, in 2013 but said afterwards that if she had known that Berdimuhamedow's regime was among the most repressive in the world, she would not have performed there so it was lucky she only found out afterwards and not before she got paid.
Libya's Colonel Gaddafi, last seen being dragged from a sewer pipe and shot, has hosted concerts by Lionel Richie, Beyonce, 50 Cent, Mariah Carey, Usher and Nelly Furtado but admittedly they were all before we remembered that he was an evil dictator and removed him from power.
In 2013, Kanye West accepted £3 million to play at the wedding of the grandson of Kazakhstan's leader and resident dictator, Nursultan Nazarbayev and in 2015 Nicki Minaj celebrated Christmas by playing a concert in human right avoiding Angola for the countries president, José Eduardo dos Santos, and called it 'No Big Deal' although Mariah Carey had the shame to never mention it when she received a cool $1 million in 2013 for performing at a similar event.
Racism may have been rife in apartheid South Africa but Dolly Parton, Queen, Elton John and Liza Minnelli never let a trifling thing like that stop them as they all played gigs at the Sun City resort in Bophuthatswana, as did Frank Sinatra who walked away trying not to trip over the bodies of dead black men, women and children as he took his £2 million for a weekend of shows to the bank.
When soul singer Erykah Badu sang for the bad boy King of Swaziland, Mswati III, she came up with the zinger that she did it: 'to shine a spotlight on this situation using me as a tool' which all goes to show that if only Noddy had gone and done a show in the home of some unspeakable evil dictator in the 1970's, we may have been spared hearing him bellowing 'Its Christmas' from every department stall speaker at this time of year.

Making Me Feel Old

The BBC channel has been re-running some old Top of The Pops and at the end they show you the year that song was a hit and after almost every song i say 'that can't be right'.
I clearly remember hearing Nirvana bang out Smells Like Teen Spirit for the first time on The Word and was quite shocked to see it was 1991, 28 years ago, which means that it is now as old as 'Surfin' USA' by The Beach Boys and 'He's so fine' by the Chiffons when it was released.
Will Smith was being interviewed on the TV and my husband mentioned how old he is looking now which hurt as he is the same age as me which got me wondering just what else do i refuse to acknowledge is telling me that my youth is quickly vanishing in the rear-view mirror.
I still say i will need to 'tape that' or put the tape on for that' when i see something i want to record on television which my children find hilarious and i saw people queueing up to go see Detective Pickachu who were not even born when the cartoon series introduced him to us in 1997.
Seeing a birth year of 2000 on application forms always makes me think at first glance that they entered the date wrong before i realise that they would make them 19 and once i could run for miles and just feel a bit out of breath and no aches while now i ache for the rest of the day just by sitting at a funny angle for 10 minutes.
The 'Now That's What I Call Music' series has reached 102 and i have number 2 in my record collection, bought for me as a 14th birthday present and playing 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' by

Cyndi Lauper over and over.

Worst of all is one of my favourite films is Back To The Future, where Marty McFly travelled back 30 years to a very old fashioned looking 1955 and realise that if he made the same trip today, he would have to go back to 1989!
Bloody hell, i'm feeling old all of a sudden.

Bye Bye Avril Lavigne...Or Maybe Not

We haven't heard much from Avril Lavigne recently which is hardly surprising considering that she's dead according to a conspiracy theory that she died in 2003, aged 18, and was replaced by a look-a-like.
To show that it isn't the just made up, the conspiracy theorists have gathered lots of evidence to support the theory, mainly being the change in her appearance and the clues in the lyrics of her songs.
According to the theories, the Canadian singer hanged herself after the death of her grandfather but the record label didn't want to let her go at the height of her career, so they drafted in a doppelganger, Melissa Vandella, hoping nobody would notice.
One piece of evidence is that the new Avril has fewer freckles on her arm than the old Avril and the change in her musical style and appearance.
There are also claims that there are several clues about the death of the original Avril in the lyrics and covers of the next albums. For example, her 2004 hit 'Nobody's Home' is allegedly a clue for her suicide 'It’s where she lies, broken inside. With no place to go, no place to go to dry her eyes. Broken inside'.
Another clue is in the song 'My Happy Ending' with the lyrics ' Don’t leave me hangin’, In a city so dead, Help up so high, On such a breakable thread'.
It could be it's just the normal change of appearance that women go through between the ages of 18 and 32 and most musicians change style as they progress through their career or just maybe she's actually dead but someone should probably tell Sum 41 singer Deryck Jason Whibley because he married her in 2006, three years after she supposedly died, and you can't help but think that he would have noticed.

Spider-Man 2 Game Pizza Theme

I overheard a student talking about how he had found the Spider-Man 2 Game Pizza Theme on his little brother's toy guitar and then played it a recording he had made of it on his phone and his friends all agreed that it was the tune from Spider-man game and how weird that it was on an infants toy.
I guess it is no surprise that a bunch of 18 year olds didn't know the Funiculi Funicula was one of the most famous tunes around and if they are introduced to it through a Spider-Man game then better than not knowing it at all.
I always found Funiculi Funicula a brilliant tune but as it is sung Italian i didn't find out until years later it's a song written to commemorate the opening of the first funicular cable car although there is an English version called 'A Merry Life' which is about the world being made for fun and frolic and not being melancholic.
I do put it in my book of 'Songs that is just waiting to be sung properly' which will turn it into a classic along with 'The Impossible Dream' and Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah', two other songs just waiting to be picked up and done justice.

Leaving Neverland And Michael Jackson's Reputation

As Gary Glitter found out, being branded a paedophile is suicide to your career as your records stop being played and you are resigned, quite rightly, into the bargain bin of pop music.
Somehow, Michael Jackson avoided that fate although his reputation was tarnished but not permanently damaged until now with the film Leaving Neverland appearing to make it clear that the once King of Pop was a paedophile.
Some Jackson fans will clearly deny any allegations while others will try and separate the music from the man while others will just erase the musician from their record collection.
The allegations against him are hideous although they just confirm what was strongly suspected at the time and it will be interesting to see if Jackson's music will now be treated the way Glitter’s is, banned from radio and TV, especially as Jackson was so much a bigger star than Glitter.
I was never a massive Jackson fan but his songs are part of my teenage years, especially the Thriller years, but him being a child abuser will now always trump his music which means that this is what he will become, quite rightly known for, by generations after my own.  
There will be those who will make the awful mistake that an artist automatically embodies greatness because they like their work but that is a dreadful mistake to make because as hard as it is, sometimes the crimes are just so bad that it is practically impossible to separate the man from the music.

Pete Shelley

Sad news that Pete Shelley of the Buzzcocks has died at the age of 63 from a heart attack.
Buzzcocks were one of the more tuneful bands of the punk era and trod that well worn path of if it ain't broke don't fix it and although they never got a song in the UK Top 10, they are part of punk royalty.
Like a lot of bands, they hit upon a style and sound early on and kept with it on a succession of the rapid-fire punk songs that would become classics even if they were not quite so appreciated at the time with Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've) probably their best known song.  
The only consolation when a musical giant dies is that their songs will be all over the TV and radio for the next few weeks but The Buzzcocks will be written into musical history from the punk era along with The Sex Pistols and The Damned which is a tribute as when Shelley founded the Buzzcocks, they were the bands he wanted to emulate

Songs To Annoy The Neighbours

My friend had a problem with her downstairs neighbour who was a grumpy old woman with several cats who would bang on the ceiling at the slightest noise and after diplomacy came and went she went full Tony Blair and waged war on her with the contents of her CD collection.
The problem with the sonic warfare thing is that aside from annoying the victim at high volume, it can't be songs that are torture to your ears and as her CD Collection contains nothing heavier than The Best of The Carpenters, hearing 'Goodbye To Love' at 100dB isn't going to cut it.
Apparently what will really drill into the brain is anything with a heavy bass for maximum annoyance,  house or techno music for example but we should consult the real experts at massively annoying people, the US military.
Back in the days of Good Ol' Boy George W Bush the military at Guantanamo Bay would blast out songs to captives to induce shock and disorient so what was their top tips of annoying hits to play at full volume.
Take Your Best Shot - Dope, White America - Eminem, Kim - Eminem, Barney Theme Song - Barney the Dinosaur, Bodies - Drowning Pool, Enter Sandman - Metallica, Meow Mix TV Commercial - Meow Meow Meow and the Sesame Street TV Theme are their preferred tunes.
You can also be twisted and Clockwork Orange find a song the victim likes and play that continually at full volume but if it turns to be Barbie Girl then remember that you have to hear it also and after 5 hours of that i would be looking for a sturdy roof beam.
Of course laying your speakers on the floor and playing the Sesame Street Bass mix until 3am shouldn't be condoned but then if you have a copy of the Meow Mix TV Commercial then you are probably not in a very good mental place to start with.

Singing Drummers

Drummers get a bad rap as not only are they usually at the back of the stage but they have to spend the whole concert looking at the wiggling backsides of their band mates but some drummers have decided they can sing and thrown their sticks away and moved front and centre.
Most famous would be Phil Collins who took over the microphone when lead singer Peter Gabriel flounced out of the band although he was hesitant at first as he didn't like singing and after a few singles we didn't like him singing much either.
Don Henley stayed behind the drums and sang although he said that playing the drums and singing hurt his back as he had to twist his body into strange positions to do both at the same time which is probably why you don't see it too often.  
When John Lennon was asked if Ringo Starr was the best drummer in the World he replied that Ringo was not even the best drummer in the Beatles which is possibly why he stepped out from behind his drum set to sing a few later Beatles songs and probably why after the Beatles he made a career out of talking the words for a kids show about trains.
Karen Carpenter began her musical career as a drummer as did The Monkees Mickey Dolenz sort of, he was an actor pretending to play drums so he had to learn how to play them for realism and before he knew it the Monkees were huge and he was the drummer and later vocalist.

You're Not Fooling Anybody

The BBC regularly shows old Top of The Pops but it has the problem that as they were presented by Disc Jockey's who were later revealed to be dirty old perverts or worse then there are some shows they can't re-show.
I saw one such show recently from 1993 which was presented by Gary Davis who never went on to sexually abuse anyone so was safe to broadcast but had the song by The Shamen called 'Ebeneezer Goode' with it's chorus which repeats 'E's are Good, E's are Good'.
As the early 90s was the high water mark for taking Ecstasy (or E's), it wasn't subtle and the BBC did later ban it but incredibly the band continued to deny it was a song about ecstasy.
Another song obviously about drugs but poo pooed by the band at the time was Golden Brown by the Stranglers but although they denied it at first, they later came clean and said it was about Heroin which surprised nobody as that's what we all assumed anyway.
The Beatles said Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds was all about a picture by John's son who had drawn his friend from school called Lucy surrounded by stars and that's about as credible as Paul saying he doesn't dye his hair.
Musical Youth's 'Pass the Dutchie' was said to be about passing around a cooking pot but turned out to be about pot alright but not the cooking type and how can Puff The Magic Dragon by Peter, Paul and Mary not be about drugs, it's lyrics contain almost every drug reference possible although the band's defence is 'who would be mean enough to write a children's song with a covert drug message?'
The answer is Peter, Paul and Mary are mean enough obviously.

Music For The Conservatives

It's the political Party conference season and the organisers have the same thorny issue of who's music are they allowed to use?
To avoid the fate of D:Ream and their 'Things Can Only Get Better' song forever being associated with the now toxic Tony Blair and his New Labour movement, bands are falling over themselves to stop political parties tying their songs to whichever lies they are telling to their own members.
Florence and the Machine, Calvin Harris, Primal Scream, Keane and the Dandy Warhols have already slapped a ban on any of their songs being used by the Conservatives and as most musical artists are left wing, it is more of a problem for the right-wing Conservatives than the Labour Party.
Donald Trump had the same issue when nobody would let their songs be used for his inauguration, not wanting to be tainted by him even before we knew what a moron he was going to be, Trump used 'It's the End of the World As We Know It' and needless to say, Michael Stipe didn't feel fine and told him to go do to himself what he did to Stormy Daniels in that Nevada Hotel Room.
As the venues have a music license i don't know if they can actually stop their songs being played at the conferences but it's a bit embarrassing to have a pop star slagging you off and drawing attention to how much they hate you after you have chosen them to represent you.
To avoid such problems maybe the Conservatives should go for bands and singers who are more right leaning, like Spandau Ballet, Eric Clapton, Geri Halliwell and Phil Collins, i'm sure they got a song which represents Conservative Values, Collins 'In The Air tonight' sums up Theresa May's Brexit policy perfectly and i'm sure Spandau Ballet wouldn't object to either their 'Only When You Leave' or 'How Many Lies' being used. 
'Kill The Poor' by Dead Kennedy's and 'Lies' by Fleetwood Mac are probably not on the play list but everyone likes The Beatles and they have the perfect song for the Conservative Party, Taxman.

If you drive a car, I'll tax the street.
If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat.
If you get too cold, I'll tax the heat.
If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet  

Sums up the Conservatives economic policy perfectly.