Ten Tonnes Raining Down In The Autumn Quiet - #ALifeInNumbers #10

Today has seemed incredibly quiet, like the sound of traffic and everyday life has been muffled. And no I am not going deaf, it's just the heavy grey skies and falling leaves are the definite harbingers of autumn, and precursors to winter.

Anyway there were again a few contenders for Number Ten , such as Bruce Springsteen's "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" and Kingmaker's "Ten Years Asleep" , and I got to thinking about songs I had missed that have now gone past such as Tom Robinson's "2-4-6-8 Motorway" and Van Der Graaf Generator. Mentioning Springsteen reminded me he's a shoe in for number 57 and I would like to include some Thousand Yard Stare if I can, but can only think of "0-0 AET" as one of their number songs.

Anyway I have chosen the awesome Royal Blood's "Ten Tonne Skeleton", one of those amazing series of two piece bands along with Black Keys, White Stripes and Gallery Circus, and I am sure there are many more, but not in my head at the moment.

Anyway it's time for bed unless you are staying up to watch the Grand Prix or you are in another part of the world, but I will say my goodnight my wonderful friends.

What If Six Was Nine? #ALifeInNumbers #9

Again there were a lot of possibilities for this one, but before I go on about the music , I noticed that the nights and mornings are getting rather dark rather quickly, leaves are falling and it's getting colder. I went out for fish and chips tonight and had to wear a warm jacket, either I'm getting old or the weather is getting cold, or both. On the bright side it's Friday night and it's the weekend so plenty of opportunity for rest and relaxation but this is really about another form of R&R as you well know.

Anyway, as I was saying, there were a lot of thoughts going through my head for this one, for instance anything by Nine Black Alps or Nine Inch Nails, then there is Riot In Cell Block #9 by The Coasters or Dr Feelgood , Nine Feet Underground by Caravan as well as quite a few other songs. But when you have the chance to include The Jimi Hendrix Experience you have to take the plunge don't you especially with a song like "If 6 was 9" from Axis:Bold As Love as featured in the film "Easy Rider" starring Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson and Dennis Hopper , with a cracking soundtrack which oddly replaced The Band's version of The Weight with a cover version by Smith.

Anyway enjoy this wonderful song and see if you can guess my choice for number ten. Sleep well my wonderful friends.

From Genesis To Eight #ALifeInNumbers #8

I always liked Genesis by Grimes, which led me to the song "Eight" which is perfect for this part of the sequence. An obvious one would have been The Beatles "Eight Days A Week" or David Bowie's "Eight Line Poem" (though Bowie has already appeared at number five) but I fancied the Baghdaddies "6/8 Song" but couldn't find a Youtube video of it, although it is somewhere in this concert here.

The Baghdaddies can often be seen busking or playing major festivals, I really haven't seen a band like them, sort of Klezmer but infectiously excellent.

Anyway "Eight" is a wispy ethereality  set on to of a threatening mechanical backing, the original is quite short but I fount this extended version that lasts all of three minutes. Grimes are definitely worth investigating and I'm glad to bring them into this.

Anyway this is a short post as I am quite tired after an intense day at work, then coming home and watching the finale of Wolf Creek and the "V For Vendetta" , that government is virtually here and I am finding it very worrying just dividing up the country between their corporate cronies.

Anyway less of that and more positivity, I love my friends and am looking forward to a relaxing weekend, and hope you are two. Sleep well my wonderful friends.

Seven Times Seven - #ALifeInNumbers #7

There were quite a few possibilities for number seven, such as Neneh Cherry and Youssou N'Dour's Seven Seconds and Gary US Bonds' Seven Day Weekend but I decided to go back to my teenage years and revisit the "B" Side of Hawkwind's "Silver Machine" , "Seven By Seven", certainly not as commercial the "A" side but dreamily psychedelic awash with bubbling electronics and definietly very cool.

I am now getting away for the source so to speak and like every journey, each new step presents new challenges, also in this case at some point the next step may actually be impossible. I suppose in that case I could write something , or plunder Mozart who wrote at least 40 symphonies (we started with a classical piece).

Also thanks to my friends for suggestions although Manfred Mann's 5-4-3-2-1 is not going to happen unless I use it for 54 or 43. The song I thought I was going to use for 54 will actually be used for 41 , I wonder if anyone will work that one out. I am listening to that song now.

Anyway it;s time for bed now, enjoy yourselves my brilliant friends.

The Six Teens - #ALifeInNumbers #6

I'm still trusting to my head and memory to supply me with songs for this chain, and while the numbers so far have given me a choice but the number 6 has only really thrown up one song, The Sweet's Six Teens. There are lot's of songs that mention the number Six Six Six such as Iron Maiden's Number of the Beast or Suppers Ready by Genesis, and Aphrodite's Child had an album called 666. No doubt lots of bands will have an album called six and as a kid all my friends smoked Number Six cigarettes. I bought a packet of Number Tens tried one, got half way through and gave my mate the packet, so I was lucky enough to never get into smoking, which unbelievably when I moved up to Newcastle led to some serious criticism from acquaintances.

The Six Teens is a perfect example of Glam Metal Pop with a killer chorus as great metal guitar. It's quite amazing still , the number of people who don't rate the Sweet when they produced amazing songs like this, Ballroom Blitz , Blockbuster and their finest single Action. Sweet FA is six minutes that if you play the instrumental parts to people, they'll say it's Deep Purple, and then will either listen more or go off in a huff.

Anyway give this a listen and if you don't know The Sweet get a "Best Of" and give them a real listen, especially if you are a die hard Heavy Metal fan.

Anyway have a brilliant Wednesday my friends.

Five Years - #ALifeInNumbers #5

It was bound to happen, sooner rather than later, that David Bowie would make an appearance. Number Five is "Five Years" by David Bowie, a song about the coming apocalypse , the end of the world, which is coincidentally part of the theme of my last post in this series, I hope I can make things at least a little more cheerful with the next post.

One thing I hadn't notice until posting this, is that "Five Years" was on the "The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars" (how long is that title?) which was issued in 1972. That was five years before punk and Thatcherism hit the country both of which signified the end for a lot of people, and we are still paying the price of the latter and enjoying the benefits of the former.

Five Years is one of those songs that you think you don't know until the understated drum beat sinks you into the news of the impending end of the world. It still does it for me.

That's my number five, and now it's time for work. Have a wonderful day everybody.

A Greek Apocalypse - The Four Horsemen - #ALifeInNumbers #4

The Number of The Beast

I thought I would do this before bed, but I had this in mind for number four. The slideshow is one I put together featuring the work of the North East's greatest artist John Martin. His works are often huge featuring apocalyptic images and I thought a perfect soundtrack would be the relentless "Four Horsemen" from the album "666" by Aphrodite's Child a Greek band which featured Vangelis and Demis Roussos.






The song has a relatively peaceful , but threatening intro before launching into five minutes of relentless attack. Some of their music was almost embarrassingly trite (check out "Break") , but "Four Horseman" cuts the mustard all the way. It's one of those songs that you would buy an album for. The rest of the album has some good bits , some awful bits but really should be in your collection.

I know this is a sort of early installment but I do have another 55 songs to actually choose and write about, and I know it's going to get harder with every step forward. At the moment I am just let my brain and memory throw out the suggestions and I will let you know when I have to start looking.

I will of course be looking and noting potential future songs as I go along, so hopefully I wont hit a proverbial brick wall, but you never know. Then I will probably find a way to bulldoze straight through it.

Anyway that is number four and now it's time for bed for me.

Goodnight my brilliant friends.