Wednesday 5 October 2016

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.

Tuesday 4 October 2016

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.

Monday 3 October 2016

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.

Three Choices For Three - #ALifeInNumbers #3


I thought I had this nailed. I was going to go for "3 Is A Magic Number" by Bob Dorough, then thought maybe that's a bit obvious so thought I'd pitch for "Three Cool Cats" by The Coasters, a totally great song , but then thought what about "Harry Lime Theme" the theme from The Third Man by Anton Karas which is something you have heard and know totally but maybe wouldn't have expected me to come out with it.

It's unusual that it's played on the zither, and instrument I don't think I've ever seen let alone tried to play. This is one song I've not used before although Orson Welles who starred in The Third Man directed by Carol Reed has appeared before.So that's todays choice.

This morning I drove back from Whitby, dropped off the car before dropping into work. I also got some more lovely birthday presents and tonight intend to relax and have an easy night.

I don't think every number is going to present me with these choices, what will I do for 37 or 43 for instance. I will find a way , sometimes it's just a was of looking at things and applying a little lateral thinking.

Anyway that's enough words for me, if i average 250 words a post (which I often do) then that's going to be close on fifteen thousand words on this trail of songs. I don't know if that's overkill , but of course it will be interspersed with the joys and mundanities of everyday life and well as observations on other things that catch my interest and may interest you too.

Anyway enjoy your Monday evening, I am going to try and relax

Sunday 2 October 2016

Two To Know - #ALifeInNumbers #2


Right off I've taken a bit of a liberty with this one but the number TWO is important in the song. I am lyning in bed drinking Buck's Fizz courtesy of the lovey people at La Rosa as I write this. This is unusual because I don't normally drink alcohol but it's still my birthday weekend and and I'm in La Rosa.

Anyway the song I've chosen is Pink Floyd's "Arnold Layne" which contains the line:

"Two To Know"


Two To Know
Syd Barrett's lyric was picked up by the Oxford Book of Fine verse as a particularly fine example of alliteration or some grammatical construct. Amazingly I'd already written about this three years back and it came up in a Google Search here , which shows the benefits of blogging , that I am now referencing my own research on things. I will also use the same video of course as this is number two in a series of fifty nine songs which I will select by hook or by crook.








Anyway that is that, also I have come up with a way of predicting horse racing results using freely available tools and here are four horse for today so you can see if it's working or not.

Yesterday I predicted five out of seven and the other two placed. So if you fancy a flutter here they are:

Todays Tips




Have a brillaint Sunday everyone, I intend to.




Saturday 1 October 2016

One Fine Day - #ALifeInNumbers


Alice
Last year on my birthday I did a series of posts selecting a record from every year from my birth up to the present day under the tag of Odyssey58, this year I going to choose one record containing the numbers starting at 1 to 59. I don't know if that is possible . I have chosen number one, Puccini's One Fine Day from Madame Butterfly, and already know 54,55,56 and 59 but it is going to be a challenge, which is something that I like. I expect it to get difficult after about 23, so your suggestions may help.

Yesterday I was totally shattered and was in bed before 7:30 before waking up and looking across at Whitby Abbey from Lewis (after Lewis Carrol) in La Rosa. 





Yesterday I was going to write about  how quickly September had gone but was far too tired and couldn't be bothered to set up the lap top, anyway today will be spent wandering round Whitby and being happy, I hope your day is going to be similar,