Top Ten Seabird Songs

The only reason is just because.

I really wanted to find room for Half Man Half Biscuit's 'National Shite Day' which features a guest appearance from a dead wading bird, parcelled up and posted to the "rubber-faced irritant Phil Cool / With a note inside which read(s): 'Is this your Sanderling?'". I have no idea what the story is behind that gag, but it always makes me smile.

Anyway...

10. Bad Company - Seagull

Here is a man asking the question
Is this really the end of the world?
Seagull, you must have known for a long time
The shape of things to come.

Chris Packham tells me there's no such thing as "seagulls". There's just different types of gulls, many of which live by the sea. So there.

9. A Flock Of Seagulls - Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You)

Unfairly remembered more for their ridiculous haircuts than their music, this band actually took their name from a lyric in the song Toiler On The Sea by The Stranglers.

8. Engelburt Humperdinck - Lesbian Seagull

If you've never heard this before, you probably think I'm making it up. Written by Tom Wilson Weinberg "in response to a government study of long term monogamous lesbian behaviour in seagulls" (thank you, wikipedia, please don't close down for good). The Engelburt version was recorded for the end credits of the movie Beavis & Butthead Do America. It's all true, I swear!

7. British Sea Power - The Great Skua

Seabirds often seem to inspire instrumentals, and this is a wonderfully atmospheric one from BSP about a bird that's also known as The Bonxie.

6. Ooberman - Goodbye, Gadfly

Another evocative and romantic song from the mighty Ooberman, a band no longer with us, but whose entire back catalogue (including this track) can be downloaded free from their website at the link above. Well worth your download allowance.

5. The Shins - New Slang

No, Slang isn't a seabird. Neither are Shins. However, the chorus goes like this...

And if you took to me like
A gull takes to the wind.
Well, I'd 'a jumped from my tree
And I'd a danced like the kind of the eyesores
And the rest of our lives would 'a fared well

4. Guillemots - Redwings

No, Redwings aren't seabirds either. Guillemots are though - and Guillemots are cool. Not quite as cool as Penguins or Puffins, but I couldn't find a song about either of those. Sadly.

3. Rialto - Summer's Over

Kamikaze seagull planes
Fighting over chip-shop take-away remains
And when you’re walking on the cliff
You can’t help thinking of how far down the sea is
And what if they should give...

My favourite seaside song that isn't Everyday Is Like Sunday, and this one has a kamikaze seagull too!

2. Fleetwood Mac - Albatross

Undoubtedly the most famous seabird instrumental, spoiled slightly by its ubiquitous use in TV holiday show soundtracks, it's still one of the most relaxing records ever recorded.

1. The Maccabees - Pelican

A new entry at the top of the chart, this earworm from the Maccabees has been circling my harbour incessantly for the last few weeks. I have no idea why it's called Pelican... and I'm not sure I want to know.

Title Fight - Drive

They've got the same title - but they're completely different songs.

My new Sunday blog feature pits them against each other... and you get to vote on the winner.

This week... which is your favourite 'Drive' song?

Who's gonna drive you home tonight?

(From 'The Cars - Greatest Hits'.)

Hey kids - rock 'n' roll!

(From 'Automatic For The People'.)

Whatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there
With open arms and open eyes

(From 'Monuments And Melodies'.)

We should be racing from this murder scene
Like jets that cross the sky
Leaving our trails to fade and die

(From 'Night on Earth'.)

Daddy let me drive

(From 'Drive'.)

Go to sleep, my brothers
I'm alright to drive

You have till Friday to cast your vote - I'll reveal the results next Sunday.

Top Ten Seaside Songs

Following my Return To Reighton Gap post, this seemed apt. You may be going on holiday soon. You may just have come back. Either way, here's ten seaside songs that might get you in the mood / jog your memories. I could easily have made this a Top 20 or 30 but I'm trying to reign myself in and stop boring your speedos off.

10. Led Zeppelin - Down By The Seaside

(From 'Physical Graffiti'.)

The sea air makes messrs. Page and Plant go all mellow. Nice.

9. Queen - Seaside Rendezvous

(From 'A Night At The Opera'.)

It has the opposite affect on Mr. Mercury, sending him quite, quite bonkers. Not that he has very far to travel.

8. The Kooks - Seaside

(From 'Inside In/Inside Out'.)

I like the way they've recorded the acoustic guitar on this track. It sounds like he's busking on the sea front. Without the seagulls stealing coins from his hat.

7. Kirsty MacColl - He's On The Beach

(From 'The Best of Kirsty MacColl'.)

Poor old Kirsty, she's doesn't have much luck with men. This bloke tells her he's going on holiday without her... next thing she knows she's getting a postcard from the seaside. Sydney, Australia.

And he says it's brilliant there
There's something in the air
There's sunshine everywhere
He's on the beach

Was it something she said?

6. Bruce Springsteen - 4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)

(From 'Greetings From Asbury Park N.J.')

Being brought up in Asbury Park, Bruce had a lot of seaside stories to tell on his early records. This one brings a tear to my eye if I'm in the right mood (melancholic).

Every summer when the weather gets hot
They ride that road down from heaven
On their Harleys, they come and they go
And you can see 'em dressed like stars
In all them cheap little seashore bars
Parked making love with their babies
Out on the Kokomo

I've never been to Asbury Park, but for some reason I imagine it to be like the New Jersey equivalent of Blackpool.

5. Rialto - Summer's Over

(From 'Rialto'.)

A song that obviously owes an enormous debt to our number two record this week (no jumping ahead, kids, we'll get there soon enough). It's no worse off for that.

Kamikaze seagull planes fighting over chip shop take-away remains
When you're walking on the cliffs
You can't help thinking of how far down the sea is
And what if it should give...

Quite beautiful.

4. Squeeze - Pulling Mussels From A Shell

(From 'Greatest Hits'.)

I never really understood the innuendo of this song, but it's obviously a gloriously mucky tale of a holiday romance and what goes on behind the chalet. If anyone wants to explain just what Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook mean by "pulling mussels from a shell", you know where the comments box is.

On second thoughts...

3. The Drifters - Under The Boardwalk

(From 'The Very Best of the Drifters'.)

If this song doesn't make you want to go lie on a blanket down by the sea, you're obviously dead from the sunglasses down.

Just be thankful this child of the 80s didn't inflict the Bruce Willis version on you. (One of the first records I ever bought!) Hey, Bruno...!

2. Morrissey - Everyday Is Like Sunday

(From 'Bona Drag: 20th Anniversary Edition'.)

Hands up if you thought this would be number one? Well, yes, it is one of Mozzer's best. And it is wonderfully evocative of those dreary seaside towns where the highlight of the week was sharing some grease tea and celebrating winning a cheap tray on the bingo. But hey, Morrissey - I actually like those tacky resorts. I can think of far better places to bring down your nuclear bombs. Is is really so bad that Every Day Is Like Sunday?

1. Beach Boys - Surfin' USA

(From 'Surfin' Safari/Surfin' USA'.)

I'm sure that seaside holidays are completely different kettles of fish in the USA, but nothing says sun and sand and sea to me more than the Beach Boys and nothing gets me more in the mood for a holiday. I'm waxing down by surfboard as I type...

(No, that's not a Squeeze-esque euphemism, Steve!)



So those were my bucket and spade / sandcastle / ice cream on the beach songs... but what song reminds you of seaside holidays gone by... or gets you in the mood for future ones?