Top Ten Spaceman & Spacewoman Songs

We're still up in space... but before we visit any more planets, here's a few songs about the men and women who might be making the journey alongside us.

10. Babylon Zoo - Spaceman

If you remember the 30 second jeans ad that made this song a hit, you might remember being rather confused on hearing the full-length version. The rest of the song sounds very different to the bit everybody knows. Watching the video again, I can't help but conclude that Jas Mann was a bit of a git: and his lyrics are pretentious drivel (please stop listening before you get to the "intergalactic Christ" bit). Still, it was a moment in time.

9. Drugstore - Spacegirl

See, I was about to type, "ah, Drugstore... whatever happened...?" until a little birdie told me the band recently got back together and released their first album in almost a decade. Further investigation is required...

8. Belle & Sebastian - A Space Boy Dream

I dreamt I had to go to Mars.

I'm always kidding on about going to Mars for the day
But faced with the reality of it, in a dream, I was terrified.

And it wasn't going to be like a moon trip
There was three of us going, but we couldn't all go on the same ship
We had to go one at a time with a day between us.

The other two astronauts were going to be my dad and my sister
And my dad would come first after me
So I decided when I landed I would just stay in my seat until he got there
And then we could get out together and have a look around
And see what sort of things were there.

7. The Killers - Spaceman

Whatever else you might think about Brandon Flowers, you've got to give him some credit for wearing the outfit he wears in this video. He looks kinda like Mister Sinister from The X-Men. If I were his dad...

"You're not going out wearing that in public, are you, lad?"

6. The Byrds - Mr. Spaceman

As the man who uploaded this to youtube remarks: "good song". Fair enough.

5. Patti Smith - Space Monkey

Of course, it wasn't men or women who went into space first - it was the animals. (We'll have more of them in my Top Ten Astronaut Song list next week.)

I have come to the conclusion that the best Patti Smith songs (with the exception of the one co-written by Bruce) are the ones where she sounds like the kind of insane, rambling lunatic you might meet in the street and give all your change to just to make her go away. This is a prime example.

4. The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band - I'm The Urban Spaceman

Ah, those wacky 60s. Prepare yourself for the twist ending!

And, just for Dave... The Cud cover version. Which is better than I remembered.

3. Harry Nilsson - Spaceman

Now that I am a spaceman, nobody cares about me.

In many ways, that's the tragic story of Harry Nilsson's life right there. Maybe that's why I'm such a fan...

2. The All-Seeing I featuring Phil Oakey - First Man In Space

Not only has it got Phil Oakey on vocals - it's got Jarvis Cocker on lyrics! Sheffield's finest musical sons (well, two of them), together at last.

Darling, come quick - I can see our house from here!

1. Spiritualized - Ladies & Gentleman, We Are Floating In Space

Perhaps not an obvious choice for Number One on this particular Top Ten (though it was inevitable it'd turn up somewhere on my trip)... until you remember that the man behind Spiritualized is called J. Spaceman. After that: it's perfect.



As I said, next week is Astronaut Songs. But first - which musical Spaceman would you want to be trapped in a capsule with?

Top Ten Easter Songs

Everybody has a favourite Christmas song, but poor old Easter always has to make do with second best...

10. Patti Smith - Easter

A classic example of a great album let down (slightly) by its title track. There are far better songs on Easter, but I couldn't really ignore this. She is Patti Smith, after all.

9. The Associates - Tell Me Easter's On Friday

Easter's on Friday, Billy.

8. Mansun - Egg Shaped Fred

I did like Mansun, but this is just a blatant attempt to rewrite I Am The Walrus with added indie guitars. You're not Oasis, lads. (Thank god.) Really should have included this in my Top Twenty 'Na Na' Songs.

7. Ashton, Gardner & Dyke - The Resurrection Shuffle.

This band sound like a firm of accountants and look like a bunch of dodgy plumbers you wouldn't let into your house to fix your washing machine. They made a nice enough racket though. This one might also give you a clue as to where we'll end up...

6. Ricky Ross - Cold Easter

Can't find it anywhere online so you'll have to take my word for it: to quote the late Frank Carson, it's a cracker. (Sorry, wrong religious holiday pun.)

5. Tori Amos - Crucify

In which Tori has just got out of the bath. (Rol waits while Steve goes to check out the video and is inevitably disappointed.)

4. Mott The Hoople - Roll Away The Stone

For those of you who think Mott The Hoople only had one good song (the one Bowie gave them), watch this. Hell, watch it anyway for Tony Blackburn and a Womble.

3. XTC - Easter Theatre

Tasty as a big chocolate egg.

2. Julian Cope - Easter Everywhere

There are long periods in which I forget just how good Julian Cope really is. Then suddenly, I remember.

1. The Stone Roses - I Am The Resurrection

No, but just imagine for one second if Ian Brown had been The Resurrection? Would Christianity really have lasted this long?



So... what's your favourite Easter song?

Top Ten Songs About The 50s

Because I want to do a Top Ten Songs About The 80s in a few weeks time, and because I'm a saddo list-compiler completist, I first had to go back further, to the dawn of rock 'n' roll. Just be glad I couldn't find enough songs about the 30s or 40s... or the 1800s.

To be clear - this isn't my favourite songs FROM the fifties... all these tracks were released much later. It's just a list of tracks that recall that mythical decade in one way or another...

10. Ronnie Milsap - Lost In The 50s Tonight

It's crass music journo shorthand to call Ronnie Milsap the "country Stevie Wonder" just because he's blind... so I won't.

This song was recorded in 1985... yet it could easily have come from thirty years earlier.

9. Patti Smith - 1959

I like Patti Smith. Horses? Great album. That one with Because The Night on? Even better. Let's face it, there are those who believe Morrissey and Marr named their band after her... so really, who am I to be critical?

However...

This song does contain the following lyric...

Wisdom was a teapot
Pouring from above.

???

8. The Police - Born In The 50s

OK, Sting, here's the problem. You call your song Born In The 50s, yet all your lyrics refer to events that took place in the 60s.

My mother cried
When president Kennedy died
She said it was the communists
But I knew better

Also, it seems Sting knew exactly who shot JFK... even when he was a little kid. Pity the Warren Commission didn't just ask li'l Gordon. And what's more...

They screamed
When the Beatles sang
And they laughed when the King fell down the stairs
Oh they should've known better
Oh we hated our Aunts
Then we messed in our pants

I swear I'm not making these lyrics up. I take back everything I said about Patti Smith's teapot.

7. Dion - Queen of '59

From the album Streetheart, which came bundled up on CD with its far superior (Phil Spector produced) predecessor, Born To Be With You, this is a nice little duet with Phil Everly, written about Dion's wife Susan. Damned if I can find it anywhere on the internet though.

6. Tom Waits - Ol' 55

Tom Waits takes his vintage automobile out for a spin. I have no idea what sort of car this would be, but I want to say Buick. Apparently the Eagles covered this track, but Tom wasn't too impressed, calling their version "antiseptic". But then, he hates the fucking Eagles, man.

5. The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound

You ain't supposed to die on a Saturday night, not even for making a career out of impersonating the E Street Band.

4. Beach Boys - Disney Girls (1957)

A nostalgic ode from Beach Boy Bruce Johnson, released in the 70s when the 50s already felt like a golden age. I'm not sure how much of this is American Happy Days mythologising (certainly Britain in the 50s doesn't look half as appealing with hindsight) but you can hear in this song exactly why Marty McFly had to go back there.

3. Morrissey - Munich Air Disaster 1958

As if to prove my point about Britain, here's Morrissey with a song dedicated to the Manchester United team killed on their way home from Germany. In black and white, no doubt.

2. Billy Joel - We Didn't Start The Fire

Some may question this track's inclusion. To them I say: compile your own list. This infamous 80s list song begins in the year of Joel's birth, 1949, but spends more of its time in the 50s than it does in the 60s, 70s or 80s... as illustrated in this excessively detailed guide to every single lyric.

We Didn't Start The Fire was released at the height of my teenage Joel-mania, when I really should have been listening to the Smiths... but wasn't. I still love it, even the bit where he obviously can't think of a rhyme for "JFK blown away". He should have asked Sting.

1. Richard Thompson - 1952 Black Lightning

A wonderful story about Richard Thompson's favourite motorcycle, and the heartbreaking romance it inspires. Would also likely make Number One in my Top Ten Motorbike Songs... if I ever get round to that.

Said Red Molly to James that's a fine motorbike
A girl could feel special on any such like
Said James to Red Molly, well my hat's off to you
It's a Vincent Black Lightning, 1952
And I've seen you at the corners and cafes it seems
Red hair and black leather, my favorite color scheme
And he pulled her on behind
And down to Box Hill they did ride

So... do you remember any songs about the 50s? Or are you all too young?