Only Connect V

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It's been almost two months--everybody all rested up and toned? You psyched? You primed?

Rules are here. Winner gets a mix CD from me, and gets to start round VI...

Let's start with the best record ever made, Louis Jordan's "(You Dyed Your Hair) Chartreuse."

Go to it!

― Douglas, Saturday, 1 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Once mused by one of the characters in a defunct comic strip: "What's 'feminine protection' anyhow? A chartreuse flamethrower?" That strip, friends, was Bloom County, which is not to be confused with Wayne County or even Jayne County.

― Sean Carruthers, Saturday, 1 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Wayne County was rather famous for his work with the Electric Chairs, as opposed to Keith Rolf from the Yardbirds, who, whilst setting on a chair, was electrocuted by his guitar.

― Dom Passantino, Saturday, 1 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Wait, now. Let's clarify: you have to make the connection TO a SPECIFIC RECORD. In fact, let's clarify it a little more and say you have to make the connection to a SPECIFIC SONG in OC V.

― Douglas, Saturday, 1 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Guitars may kill fascists, but it says "This machine kills lawyers" on the Roland keyboard pictured inside Saint Etienne's debut album Foxbase Alpha, on which they cover "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" by Neil Young, a song which was also covered by Psychic TV on a Young tribute album called The Bridge which was released by Caroline but has nothing to do with the Beach Boys song "Caroline No," originally surfacing as a Brian Wilson solo single, Wilson having nothing to do with the Wilson sisters from Heart, whose song "Barracuda" is not quite the same thing as the Damned's song "Fish" or Parliament's "Aqua Boogie," whose subtitle 'a psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop' was borrowed as a self description by the Boredoms for their Soul Discharge album, Discharge itself being a band Metallica covered twice, though only covering Nick Cave once, Cave having written a song called "Foi Na Cruz," though Celia Cruz herself had more of an influence on Gloria Estefan, who suffered an auto crash during winter, "Winter" itself being an early Tori Amos solo song, another being "Past the Mission," which was done with backing vocals from Trent Reznor, who had a song on his album The Fragile mixed by Dr. Dre, one time member of NWA.
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 1 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Darn italics. A specific song? Okay...NWA, who among other things have a well known song called "Express Yourself."
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 1 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

BAH! There. Continue!

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 1 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

"Express Yourself" leads us into Kraftwerk's "Trans Europe Express," which Afrika Bambaataa plundered for "Planet Rock," which is very closely related, title- and otherwise, to Herbie Hancock's "Rockit." Hancock's "Sextant" is track two on Ocean of Sound, one of my favorite compilations ever, where it's sandwiched between King Tubby's "Dub Fi Gwan" and Aphex Twin's "Analogue Bubblebath I," probably the Twin's finest moment, though that might go also to "Girl/Boy Song." "Girls & Boys" is by Blur.

― M Matos, Saturday, 1 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

The opening line of "Girls and Boys" is "Streets like a jungle", whilst the Jungle Brothers are from the street, and gave us "VIP". "VIP" contained a sample of the theme tune of "I Dream of Jeannie", whilst David Bowie was more concerned with the "Jean Genie", which bared an uncanny resemblance to "Blockbuster" by the Sweet. Blockbusters was a UK game show, as was "Going For Gold", later a hit for Shed 7, referenced in "Long Live The UK Music Scene" by Helen Love, who later went on to cover the Clash's "Tommy Gunn". Cornelius recorded the bizzare "Clash", a song punning on the way the Japanese are meant to pronounce "Crash", which leads us to "Turning Japanese" by the Vapours.

― Dom Passantino, Saturday, 1 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

"Girls and Boys" also being a song by Prince that was covered by Italian industrial yuksters Pankow, who released an EP whose English translation is "Freedom for the slaves" who appropriated an H.R. Giger piece for the cover art, who also was commissioned to the cover art of a Blondie record, the artists behind "Heart of Glass" appropriate for a hard techno song called "Gas126" by Kiki.

― Brian MacDonald, Saturday, 1 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Blur's singer contributed some half-assed mumbling to the Gorillaz thing, Gorillaz or rather "Guerilla" being the kind of "Radio" preferred by Rage Against the Machine, whose ex-frontman's solo record has some El-P beats on it. El-P embarassed himself mightily in a recent Wire Invisible Jukebox, as did Don Letts, who worked with Big Audio Dynamite, a Clash offshoot. The Clash covered Junior Murvin's "Police and Thieves," which was produced by Lee "Scratch" Perry, whose "Why Are People Grudgeful" was covered by the Fall. The Fall have been covered by many people including Sonic Youth, whose new album Murray Street is classic rock, as is Blue Oyster Cult's Tyranny and Mutation. Patti Smith wrote lyrics for BoC and "Because the Night" with Bruce Springsteen, who gets regular blowjobs from Dave Marsh, who worked with Lester Bangs, who was friends with Peter Laughner of Rocket From the Tombs, a band name that makes one think of Rocket From the Crypt, whose John Reis also plays with Hot Snakes which leads us to Arrow's "Hot Hot Hot."

― adam, Saturday, 1 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Damn, fucked that up. Sorry.

― adam, Saturday, 1 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

GRRRR... "Turning Japanese" ---> "Girls and Boys" by Prince

"Turning Japanese" was apparently a song about masturbation, much like "She Bop" by Cyndi Lauper, who was one of the attendees of the We Are The World sessions circa 1985, which Prince did NOT take direct part of but DID contribute a song to the full album in question, and also did a song called "Girls and Boys"

― Brian MacDonald, Saturday, 1 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Wait, let's clarify that again: in each entry, you have to make a connection from the song in the previous entry to ONE specific song. Chaining a whole lot of songs together = not cricket. One link, and make it a good one--points get racked up for the cleverness or thoughtfulness of the connection, not for a big pile of 'em.

― Douglas, Saturday, 1 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Girls & Boys relates by name to the band Girls Against Boys, who were in the same bin on the used store wich i bought PSB's singles comp

― Chupa-Cabras, Saturday, 1 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Douglas, I think the attempt to get rules going is being defeated unintentionally by all of us... ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 1 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Am I right in thinking that no-one's made a legit move from "(You Dyed Your Hair) Chartreuse"? I'm game: "(You Dyed Your Hair) Chartreuse" is by Louis Jordan, who first hit it big with "Caldonia," which was covered by Woody Herman in 1945: and "1945" is a bad if somewhat charming Social Distortion song. Is this fair play, or do we try to avoid going through other songs/artists?

If the latter, then "(You Dyed Your Hair) Chartreuse" an anagram for "Charade Rudy Eyrie Youths Our"; I take "Eyrie" to be a phonetic alternate for "Irie," which means we're clearly talking about the English Beat, and You Died Your Hair Chartreuse => Rudy (A Message to You) by the Specials, of course. Whose punctuation I may have wrong, I'm working from memory here, gimme a break.

― John Darnielle, Saturday, 1 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Except that "Message to You Rudy" isn't by the Beat, it's by the Specials. Duh.

― John Darnielle, Saturday, 1 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

The Specials was produced by Elvis Costello, whose best single is "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea." Chelsea had the "Right to Work." Men at Work did "Who Can It Be Now?"

― M Matos, Saturday, 1 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

The Who was inspired by early rock & roll such as Elvis, who recorded You Were Always On My Mind, that was covered by the Pet Shop Boys and can be found in the single scomp i bought

Alternate: Thw Who singer appeared on this week That 70 show, in wich some characters like disco, Disco was the main influence for Pet Shop Boys as can be seen on the singles comp i bought

― Chupa-Cabras, Saturday, 1 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

John is correct on two counts: nobody had yet made a legal play off "Chartreuse," and for this round, it is indeed impermissible to go through another artist/song on the way to the artist/song at the end of one's move. (Sorry, Matos.)

So the song in play is still John's: "Rudy, A Message To You," by the Specials. (And I gotta say: the anagram/interpretation gambit is a pretty great start. Don't everybody do it now, though.)

Go!

― Douglas, Sunday, 2 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

so forgetting to note that "A Message to You" is on The Specials disqualifies me? ho-kay.

― M Matos, Sunday, 2 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

oh, I see--only one song. eh. see ya later

― M Matos, Sunday, 2 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

(Don't go away mad, Matos! I'm just being arbitrarily arbitrary!)

(And speaking of being arbitrary: of course anyone can take as many turns as they like until the end of the game--you just have to wait for at least one other person to take a turn before you take another one. Fair?)

― Douglas, Sunday, 2 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Don't go away mad. Just go away. (No, I jest, Mr. Matos. You know how fond I am of you, but I've already fufilled my ILx quotas for flirting with straight guys, so the rest is silence.) That was by Motley Crue...excuse me, it's Mötley Crüe. We are the rock critics, we are the dreamers of dreams, we must be precise and exacting about some things. But do the umlauts change the pronunciation in any way? I have no idea. I have little idea what a motley is, either. When I was tennish, I discovered that Enrico Caruso's recording of "Vesti la Giubba (On with the Motley)" first-ever million selling record, back in 1903. Being an American ten(nish)-year-old, I had not been exposed to that word before, and I had no meaningful clarifications on the issue later in life, so this word -- "motley" (as a noun) -- has been a source of puzzlement in my life for a grand total of five minutes.

Googling the phrase "a grand total of five minutes" brings me to this review ("In the seven years during which he existed under Nazi rule, Anton Webern heard a grand total of five minutes of his music in concert performance...") of a record by "The artist formerly known as Nigel Kennedy" (yes, that's what is says) who I know as a spiky-haired dork with an obligatory recording of The Four Seasons and cameos on Robert Plant solo records. Argal (my 2nd Hamlet ref.!), "In the Mood."

― Michael Daddino, Sunday, 2 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

If we're still with A Message To You Rudy, I'll go to Judy (rhymes with Rudy) by Rudy Grayzell. It's an old would-be-Elvis number.

― Martin Skidmore, Sunday, 2 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Judy is short for Judith, so it's clearly a Biblical allusion, but the problem is that the Book of Judith starts off by mentioning that Nebuchadnezzar was the king of the Assyrians, when, in fact, as any schoolchild knows, he was actually the king of the Babylonians. Therefore, "Contradiction" by the Ohio Players.

― Douglas, Sunday, 2 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

The Ohio Player's main bassist was Marshall "Rock" Jones, whose nickname is similar to the real name of Stone "Stone" Phillips, host of Dateline NBC. Today's "very special" episode of Dateline involves a deep look into high school cheerleading. I hope the reporter didn't research his piece by watching that other deep look at high school cheerleading, the video for "Mickey" by Toni Basil.

― dave k, Sunday, 2 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

er, his/her piece. ick.

― dave k, Sunday, 2 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Monkee Mickey Dolenz was last seen (by me, anyway) taking part in a "victory parade" following the Gulf War. He was perched on some rickety float and could be clearly heard exclaiming "The Good Guys Won!!!" A similarly complex and insightful Rocker's Perspective on world events can be got from Neil Young, who --- when not busy espousing the many virtues of relinquishing one's constitutional rights --- can lately be heard singing "Let's Roll"

― The Actual Mr. Jones, Sunday, 2 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

"Let's roll" were the famous words shouted out by the, ahem, "have a go heroes" of Flight 93 on September 11th, who still ended up dead in tiny pieces, kind of like disgraced former South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje. Songs about cricket are few in number, except "Nineteen Not Out" by the Commentators.

― Dom Passantino, Sunday, 2 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Dom, I gotta say that that was in poor taste, but I think it's also a fair move. Resisting the temptation to just say "Paul Hardcastle's 'Nineteen' which is itself an example of commentary," we look at the number nineteen, reducible in numerology to 1 + 9. Keywords for defining the number 1 are "Initiating action, pioneering, leading, independent, attaining, individual"; for 9, "Humanitarian, giving nature, selflessness, obligations, creative expression." Do I gotta say it? As if there were anybody on this board who couldn't have already figured that we're talking about Jaz Coleman here. First song (initiating action) on the first Killing Joke album, "Requiem." Honour the fire, y'all.

― John Darnielle, Sunday, 2 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Damn right!

― Alex in NYC, Sunday, 2 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

In an attempt to get this moving (or at least get it into new answers): "Batman: The Killing Joke" was a graphic novel by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland. Moore, it's not widely known, has also made a number of records with his pals from Bauhaus, including a deeply silly single in 3/4 time credited to the Sinister Ducks, called "March of the Sinister Ducks."

― Douglas, Monday, 3 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

bill withers

― dave q, Monday, 3 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Bill Wither's signature tune, "Ain't No Sunshine (When She's Gone)," was later covered by future Cop Shoot Cop low-end bassist Nasty Jack Natz's skronky Lower East Side band, The Black Snakes, whose ranks also included noted pervy photographer/filmmaker Richard Kern.

― Alex in NYC, Monday, 3 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I want to play this, but was "Bill Withers" a legit move?

― John Darnielle, Monday, 3 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

"its your move" was a short lived sitcom on nbc starring jason bateman. it was a spin off of "silver spoons" which also featured a young whitney houston on one episode.

― chaki, Monday, 3 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

"Next Episode" is what "Dre Day" should have been called, since it's the most-repeated line in the song. The song features a young, lanky, permanently amused Snoop Doggy Dogg, whose name is correctly pronounced "Snopes Ducky Duck" if you've been downing Nyquil all week while reading outdated volumes of the history of Scottish military music: "March of the Sinister Ducks." Yes, AGAIN

― John Darnielle, Monday, 3 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

"Disco Ducks" was a novelty hit by Rick Dees & his Cast of Idiots back during the disco heyday (or the latter-end of it, at least). Years later, Dees hosted an ill-fated late night talk show that bizarrely played host to a live appearance by the Mission UK.

― Alex in NYC, Monday, 3 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Mission UK's "Slave to Lust" does not rock nearly so hard as Skid Row's proletarian ode "Slave to the Grind". In addition to a lustrous stage career, Sebastian Bach would go on to collaborate with Frogs guitarist Jimmy Flemion in the Last Hard Men; Flemion's most notable contribution to the 1999 live album "Bring 'Em Bach Alive" was "Superjerk, Superstar, Supertears".

― J Blount, Tuesday, 4 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

No, the connection remaining to be made is "Disco Duck" => . "Disco Duck" was on the entirely unlamented RSO label. I know, because my sister bought it. Out in Southern California we had to suffer Rick Dees for eons. Anyhow, a quick listen to the horns in "Disco Duck" yields the surprising information that somebody's been listening rather carefully to their Tower of Power collection. The next move is "Birdland."

― John Darnielle, Tuesday, 4 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

'bill withers' was a legit move. You know, the joke about leaving a duck in the sun all day?

― dave q, Tuesday, 4 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Chubby Checker's "Birdland", from his "Beach Party" LP may seem eerily prescient of a then Jersey-bound Patti Smith, but not nearly as much as the same LP's "She's a Hippy", which not only prophesises the rise of Ms. Smith and Lydon's rejoinder but, more importantly, Fred Carson's MSR opus "There's a Hippy Girl in Town".

― J Blount, Tuesday, 4 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Okay, I give up. Clearly this "rulemaking" thing was a terrible idea. I declare OC V over, and there's no winner (although of course you are ALL winnahs). Whoever wants to start VI is welcome to. Apologies to anyone I scared off.

― Douglas, Wednesday, 5 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

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