Shipbuilding

Is it worth it?

I listened to this song a great deal when I was young, so when I played it a few days ago, I was taken straight back to my childhood bedroom, in a way that hasn't really happened with other songs I listened to a lot at that time, because I've also listened to them plenty since, so the memories are spread around.

But, Shipbuilding, in 95-96, I listened to as much as anything but Going Underground, but have not listened to it all that much since.

Why did I listen to it so much then? Well, it started, as so many things do for me, with a list (never thought it would come to this).

The Times ran lists around 94 and 95 of the 100 Greatest Songs and Albums of All Time, and they were probably the first such lists I'd ever come across outside the Capital Radio Hall of Fame, coming at the matter from a completely different angle, with Careless Whisper nowhere to be seen. I'd heard of most of the songs on the list, without necessarily having heard them, and they were mainly, I think, hits, but I remember Shipbuilding, which I'd not heard of and was not a hit, was incongruously high.

So I bought The Best of Elvis Costello. I'm not sure what I thought of Shipbuilding initially. It's such a non-pop song. I'm sure I liked Oliver's Army more. 

Coincidentally, there was a little course at school around that time about jazz (some kind of non-curriculum thing) and we watched a film about Chet Baker, so that was an added point of interest. And, what with Our Friends in the North etc, this was when I became interested in British and American recent political history, so the stars were aligned for Shipbuilding.

I heard the Costello version before the Robert Wyatt version and I still prefer it. Suede covered it for Warchild and that was decent, but it's still Costello's I prefer.

The brief, slightly odd, history of it, is that Clive Langer wrote the music, didn't like his own lyrics, gave it to Elvis, he wrote the lyrics, they gave it to Robert Wyatt, he had a small hit with it, Elvis, a year later, put out his own version. So there is not, in the usual sense, an "original" and a "cover".

I listened to it so much and so closely. I'm not sure Costello has ever sung better. He takes such care to do justice to the lyrics. I would come to learn that there are very few protest songs with such empathy and melancholy to them. I'd listen to it and/or sing along to its unusual phrasing, its series of memorable spaced but connected bon mots -  "is it worth it" "it's just a rumour that was spread around town" "well i ask you" "diving for dear life when we should be diving for pearls". I knew every note, every bar, every breath.

And yet I stopped listening to it. I guess there were a few steps. When I moved from cassette to CDs, I bought four Costello albums - My Aim is True, Imperial Bedroom, Blood and Chocolate and Painted from Memory, and definitely switched my close attention to I Want You, primarily, which would get the same note-for-note phrase-for-phrase treatment as Shipbuilding.

But, then, I just became less of a fan of Elvis Costello. I genuinely think it may have been his version of She on 2000's Notting Hill soundtrack, which is so hideous, and exposes all the negatives in his marmite voice. It's funny, I've stuck with Bob Dylan's late career vocal (though it wouldn't be true to say it didn't take several years before I was actually truly one of those weirdos that actually came to love late-Dylan-voice), but I just found Elvis's difficult to deal with. I did not like his duet with Jenny Lewis, 'Carpetbaggers' at all. I have listened to some of his late albums, but, again, never quite with the required enthusiasm.

It's strange. He could easily have been one of my all-time favourites, he's such a brilliant and consistent songwriter, but it just hasn't worked out like that. 

I wonder if it's galling to him that several of his top songs on streaming sites are covers. I also wonder if it bothers him that his biggest hit, his most radio-friendly pop smash, never gets played anymore (for obvious bad-word related reasons).

Anyway, Shipbuilding is still a great song, a singular masterpiece, really. Costello has several truly great songs, and many many excellent albums. In a way, he may well be the closest Britain's had to Dylan, and this is his ... Hurricane? Maybe?

TV shows

Did you see the New York Times' list of the 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century?

https://www.reddit.com/r/blankies/comments/1wq2x65/the_new_york_times_final_list_of_the_100_best_tv/

It's quite boring, as would be expected. I mean, what else are they going to say? Lots of prestige American dramas, culminating in the fair-enough decision not to include The Sopranos because it began in 1999.

I don't watch enough TV to have a very very strong counter-opinion. My favourite TV programme of the 21st century is SPORT! Nothings beats it for drama and comedy.

I have a few times tried to make a list of "greatest tv shows" or whatever, but I'm not really invested enough in the idea of "great TV" to take myself seriously enough for that.

In this NYT list, there are a reasonable number of British shows, though the obvious ones that Americans like, and not much from anywhere else in the world.

It's almost entirely scripted drama and comedy, which is tiresome. I think America has less of a culture than Britain of vast communal watching, where things like Big Brother, Traitors, Strictly etc are truly part of the national conversation, where shows like Match of the Day and Top of the Pops used to be weekly markers across the country.

There are no kids' shows, no news broadcasts.

Anyway, what does it matter?

I'll just offer a few shows which aren't on the list and are great.

Inside Number 9 - I genuinely think Inside Number 9 is one of the greatest TV feats of all time, no messing. 50+ distinct stories, wrapped up in half an hour, at times hilarious, at times deeply moving, at times genuinely frightening. Doing all that with their own distinct but limited acting pallette. I don't think any show has produced as many episodes of TV that live in my memory as Inside Number 9.

Treme - The Wire is Number 2, which is fine. Treme, David Simon's follow-up, was a very different thing. Drifting, almost drama-free, certainly short on bad guys, it was about a city and its people. The acting is universally superb, it makes you fall in love with New Orleans (though also be pretty scared of going there), it is about music, and community, and rebirth, corruption, fight. I once looked it up and it had stunningly low viewing figures, and would certainly have not got to four series if it hasn't been written by the guy that did The Wire, but I loved it as much as any other.

Bluey - I was pretty surprised Bluey wasn't on the list. That really did show up quite how limited the outlook of the voters was.

Colin from Accounts - also a beloved Australian dog show, the third series was just so good, it should have snuck in.

Partridge - I know AP's truly most iconic work is pre-2000, but still, if Americans can't recognise the greatest TV character of all time, that's their problem.

Extras - I'm not saying Extras was a masterpiece but now people hate Gervais, there's a tendency to say the only good thing he did was The Office, but Extras, though not as influential as The Office, was flat-out funnier more often, and did have a pretty interesting perspective, of what happens when a middle-aged unlikeable guy who is in and around famous successful people without being successful himself suddenly becomes famous and successful...

It's a Sin, Pointless, I could go on ... and finally, vinylly...

Vinyl - Vinyl is, I think, the worst TV show, pound for pound, of all time. Martin Scorsese? Mick Jagger? Starring Bobby Cannavale? About the music industry in the 70s? In New York? How can it possibly go wrong? So badly badly wrong ... people thing The Newsroom was a bad show from good stock but by comparison to this, The Newsroom was a masterpiece.

And to be a bit boring, of all the prestige American shows I watched, it's Mad Men that I remember the best, that nailed the ending, that feels like a complete, multi-layered, unfathomable and beautiful masterwork ... but what do i know ...

Mercury

 Next week they'll announce the winner of the 2026 Mercury Prize.

When they announced the shortlist, a couple of months ago, I noticed that I'd already listened to nearly all the albums, which is pretty unusual.

They are:

Artists for War Child – Help(2)

Dave – The Boy Who Played the Harp

Dove Ellis – Blizzard

Florence + The Machine – Everybody Scream

Jade – That's Showbiz Baby!

Knats – A Great Day in Newcastle

Kojey Radical – Don't Look Down

Nia Archives – Emotional Junglist

Olivia Dean – The Art of Loving

Paul McCartney – The Boys of Dungeon Lane

Raye – This Music May Contain Hope

Suede – Antidepressants

I don't have a particular dog in the race - I think, honestly, the one that gave me most pleasure was the Help album, and it would be quite fun to give it to a compilation for the first time, but that's not a strong feeling.

One of the two or three I hadn't listened to before the list came out was the album by Knats, which has a real pizzazz to it, and I think is probably the most striking and singular, so, though I probably won't listen to it much, that would be quite a fun winner too.

Apart from that, the truth is, there's not much anymore that distinguishes this list from what you might see at the Brits or any other mainstream awards, which is not necessarily terrible, and might be a necessary evil to keep the prize financially viable, but most of the artists here don't need much help. Ironically, I really like the Harry Styles album, which has not made the list.

The albums by Dave and Raye were, in my view, and that of quite a few critics, big swings that missed, large, personal albums with some great bits, but just a bit too self-indulgent and ultimately a bit boring. I don't think either of them should win.

I really like Nia Archives - I like this and her last album - if I was to try to describe her sound, there is really nothing better than the album title - Emotional Junglist.

I also think Olivia Dean winning would just be a bit pointless, though that is a very good album. 

There were some good albums that didn't make the list - but, who knows, not everyone enters. 

So, anyway, we'll see. Maybe the most fun choice would be first-time nominee Paul McCartney - get John Lennon spinning in his grave, if nothing else ...

90s films

Thinking long and hard about the films of the 2000s leads as day follows night follows day into thinking about films of the 1990s. Some are calling it the decade in which I went from 11 or 21. Well of course I have thoughts about it.

The 90s in film are less complicated for me than the 2000+s. For me it's mainly Hollywood. And for Hollywood it was mainly Hollywood too.

I know it's a generalisation and one can always choose specifics, but when I think of 80s films, I think of New York - Trading Places, Wall Street, Ghostbusters, Big, Cocktail, Working Girl, Tootsie, The Secret of My Success, even the likes of Raging Bull and After Hours.

The 90s was when I learnt what California, and more, specifically LA, looked like - from Pretty Woman to Terminator 2, Short Cuts, Speed, Swingers, Heat, Boyz n the Hood, Face/Off, Usual Suspects, LA Confidential, Magnolia, Boogie Nights, The Player, The Big Lebowski.

What are 90s films like? In the most general terms. They're slick, they're thrilling. They're non-franchise. Action films, thrillers, mainstream cult films, rapidly advancing technology.

As the decade moved on, I got more and more into films and had more and more access to films. To remember that time when a film's certificate really mattered! We didn't get a video player until 1992 or 93, so that opened up the world. I'd sometimes get my sisters to get things out for me, but mostly I played it safe and got 15s. There were brilliant films on TV all the time too - a recently released film having its first TV showing was a real event. There was Moviedrome and such like. I got into De Niro from a De Niro season on, I guess, Channel 4. I remember watching British films like Hear My Song, Truly Madly Deeply, Close My Eyes, Jack and Sarah in a TV film season.

I didn't go to the cinema much in the first half of the decade - Robin Hood, Batman Forever, a few things but not loads til I had the money and time and could watch what I wanted. The first 18 I saw in the cinema was, I think, Trainspotting, a few months before my 18th.

St Andrews only had one cinema, usually with only one screen in use, but it got good films and we went all the time - will never forget the group trip to Boogie Nights when half the group thought it was going to be a fun disco-themed fiesta. In 1st year, there was a film night in my hall of residence, and I remember watching loads of decent films then too. 

Even though I wasn't watching loads of films in the first half of the decade, I was paying attention - I'd read the reviews in Time Out, often of foreign films, and I paid attention to the Oscars from around 1990 - I think the British press took a real interest in them at that point because DDL, Jeremy Irons and Hopkins won Best Actor in successive years.

Who were the most 90s stars? Michael Douglas? Bruce Willis? Julia Roberts and Sharon Stone? 

And what's the defining film? I reckon it's Pulp Fiction, which really felt like the start of things. It was a film I knew inside out before I'd even seen it.

If I was to pick 10 defining American films of the decade, I'd go with ...

Pretty Woman

Sleepless in Seattle

The Silence of the Lambs

Terminator 2

Jurassic Park

Basic Instinct

Pulp Fiction

Toy Story

Titanic

The Blair Witch Project

... something like that, though there are plenty of other options.

And five British? Maybe

Four Weddings

The Full Monty

Trainspotting

Howards End

Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. 

The Coen Brothers' decade is basically faultless - Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, O Brother Where Art Thou in 2000. Many of the main acclaimed 2000s directors are just get started - Tarantino, Wes and PT Anderson, Nolan, Linklater, Fincher, Todd Haynes and Alexander Payne.

I don't know if it goes down as one of the great decades of film, but it has a lot going for it - there are many many very enjoyable films with their own character, rather than tied to an IP. Many of the most massive films don't have a sequel - that would be unthinkable now.

Going back to De Niro, who I first paid attention to in around 94 - I was led to believe throughout the 90s that he was broadly past his prime, and not making the classics he had back in the day. But, though there are more mediocre films, more films full stop, you've still got GoodFellas, Awakenings, Backdraft, Cape Fear, This Boy's Life, A Bronx Tale, Casino, Heat, Cop Land, Jackie Brown, Wag the Dog, Ronin, Analyze This, Meet the Parents in 2000. Here are several very enjoyable films and a fair few classics. Once you get past 2000, there's barely anything that wasn 't panned or ignored for over a decade. It's pretty extraordinary.

And my favourites ... The Big Lebowki, The Commitments, Grosse Pointe Blank, Short Cuts, Dazed and Confused ... maybe? Something like that ....

But I guess the main point is that "90s film" feels like an actual thing, a somewhat coherent cultural thing in the same way as 70s film but probably not 21st century film.

It is perhaps a noteworthy thing that 13 of the Top 30 in imdb's 250 Top Films of all Time are from the 90s. The most beloved decade of a certain kind of film lover. 

All the films

Making a list of my 100 favourite 21st century films made me think about all the 21st century films I'd seen, and I was able to list around 750, including feature-length documentaries. I counted anything I'd seen all or most of i.e watched to the end, even if I'd picked it up on TV a few minutes in, but didn't include those I'd started but hadn't got through.

I don't know how many more, in total, there are that I can't recall - let's guess 100ish, especially if you include all those music docs I watched late at night. Might be more, might be less.

So my number's going to be good but not staggering, not compared to a real film fiend, who's watching a couple of new films a week, if not more.

Although I tend to only try to watch films I think will be good, it was actually quite gratifying, going through my memories, how many bad or mediocre films I'd found myself watching.

I won't do a big list, but I'd say my least favourite film of the millennium is:

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl - and that's the first one, the one that is meant to be good. But, lured in by the widespread repots that it was a good family fun and that Johnny Depp was doing a great bit, I went to see it at the cinema - at a time when I really was into mainly "quality" dialogue-driven films -  and it was just a whole different form; the dialogue was so bad, the cues were so often missed, the heart was so absent, it probably put me off good clean fun family films for a decade. Johnny Depp's bit is not good, ir's creepy and empoty, and the cast is conspicuously replete with performers who need good co-stars and sympathetic directors, and here they do not have those.

A few other terrible films: The Wedding Date, Pompeii, The Iron Lady, Russell Crowe's Robin Hood. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. In fact, maybe that is the worst film. Just, how dare they call it a film ...

And my least favourite acclaimed film ... probably The Revenant.

Which is a similar accolade, but different from, worst Best Picture winner, which was CODA, but I don't think it was particularly acclaimed, just a pretty random choice.

I also just watched Anora, and did not actually think it was good at all. In its way, even less realistic than Pretty Woman. And much less fun.

Predictable I know, but my favourite director of the century, and yes, indeed, this doesn't include their 20th century stuff, is The Coens, even though yes this includes Intolerable Cruelty and Ladykillers, which I'm not even sure I sat through. Hats off to Scorsese too for keeping on trying to do something different. And, you know, lots of other good directors.

Anyway, have watched a few films in the last few days, so hopefully will get my numbers up to 1000 soonish.

Bobby Dylan's Top 250

Eight years ago, I made a list of my favourite 200 Bob Dylan songs, which was clearly a ridiculous thing to do, so now I'm writing that rong by making a list of my favourite 250 Bob Dylan songs.

This is one of those silly pointless things I'm not expecting anyone to read, it's just the weirdness needing an outlet ...

But I'll write a bit at the top which might (might not) be a worthwhile bit.

In actual fact, the last 18 months have probably been, in my adult life, the period I've listened to the least Dylan. I finally got a little Bobbed out, from listening to Dylan almost exclusively for a month or two at the start of 2025, from the Chalamet film, from reading Clinton Heylin's vast, exhaustive, exhausting double biography, by the end of which which I definitely knew more about both Dylan and Heylin than I wished to.

I think the relative sense of distance might help the evaluation - there have, in any case, been many ways to recontextualise the songs of Dylan in the last few years.

• I saw Dylan in 2019 - the was the last time I saw him live.
• There was an album of new songs, Rough and Rowdy Ways, in 2020.
• There was the concert film, and album, Shadow Kingdom, which brought several old songs to life.
• I went to see the musical Girl from the North Country.
• There was A Complete Unknown, the way Chalamet sang the songs, and the accompanying publicity.
• There were several Bootleg Series releases.
• There was a really excellent book by Ray Padgett in which he interviewed as many old Dylan bandmates as he could from throughout his career.
• There were Heylin's endlessly informative, and opinionated, books.
• There was Dylan's latest book The Philosophy of Modern Song.
• There was getting older - that changes your Dylan perspective.
• There was the Dylan-related podcast, Is it Rolling, Bob, sadly no longer running.

And somewhat linked to that, the last one, and the one I'm going to write about, there was Dylan twitter. By which I don't mean Bob Dylan's twitter - the occasional series of endearing tweets he sent in the run-up to A Complete Unknown, which showed him to be surprisingly attached to and invested in the film. (I should also say that I haven't been reading the recent substack he's been doing, made up of, I think, imaginary letters between famous people, dismissed and infuriating to some and hailed as genius by others).

No, Dylan twitter. In the final year or two I was on the accursed site, as it was starting to descend into the lawless hellscape it has clearly become, you could still, with a bit of effort, curate a decent experience for yourself by homing in on specific areas of interest, and I found "Bob Dylan" to be the most rewarding. 

By which I mean, contrary to what is often said about Dylan fans, -that they are a bunch of reverent, humourless middle-aged rock bore men who treat their ungrateful god as a messiah - I found the community of people on twitter who were really into BD to be the one of the most humane, good-humoured, eclectic, thoughtful pockets I've ever encountered on the internet.

There was no blind reverence. Dylan was the constant butt of the jokes. Experts had lots of different angles and areas of interest - it was a a path to lots of other interesting, non-Dylan-specific context. It was one of the few places in the last couple of decades where I've allowed myself to think "you know, people are alright".

Dylan fans are actually alright, who knew? And, I thought, that actually holds up to real life. Being a Dylan fan is a good sign. Sure, the archetype of the blinkered Dylan fan bore exists, but if you're not one of them, then there's a lot to be said for the character-building nature of this fandom.

Dylan fans - since their fave is, or might be, a thief, a plagiarist, a non-melodist, a misanthrope, a conman, a philanderer, a pennypinch, a non-virtuoso, a man with a voice of sand and glue, to name but a few of his attributes - think a lot about the nature of art, of genius, of accomplishment, of virtue and beauty. He never sings the songs like they are on the album ... but on the other hand - he never sings the songs the same way twice! His voice has changed so often ... yes, isn't that great? 10 voices for the price of one! He doesn't play the setlist I want, but he plays the setlist someone wants, and he plays setlists which make songs you'd not thought that much about your new favourite.

Being a Bob Dylan fans means knowing there are always a few jokes going on and if you're in on one or two of them, that's great.

A jounalist I like and normally agree with wrote a thing a few years ago about how Bob Dylan fans are suckers because he hates us and offers us nothing of himself, and it was so wildlp missing the point of how rewarding the task of being a Bob Dylan fan is that, clearly, lots of people wrote to him and said, in no uncertain terms, no, you're wrong, anf his response was "ha, proving my point" and so it goes on sometimes ...

but, anyway, my current favouite 250 Bob Dylan songs. Here's to a few more ...

1. Isis (Montreal, Rolling Thunder)        (1970s)
2. She's Your Lover Now (take 15)         (1960s)
3. Blind Willie McTell      (1980s)
4. Idiot Wind        (1970s)
5. Mississippi      (2000s)
6. Visions Of Johanna    (1960s)
7. The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll   (1960s)
8. Series of Dreams        (1980s)
9. Like a Rolling Stone   (1960s)
10. Changing Of the Guards        (1970s)
11. Positively 4th Street   (1960s)
12. Girl from the North Country (live, 2019)       (1960s)
13. Po' Boy              (2000s)
14. I Contain Multitudes (2020s)
15. Brownsville Girl           (1980s)
16. Hurricane        (1970s)
17. Shelter From The Storm         (1970s)
18. Solid Rock (live)          (1980s)
19. To Ramona      (1960s)
20. Baby Let Me Follow You Down (Last Waltz) (1960s)
21. I Shall Be Released (Last Waltz)        (1960s)
22. It's Alright, Ma, I'm Only Bleeding     (1960s)
23. Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts        (1970s)
24. Red River Shore           (1990s)
25. Tangled Up In Blue     (1970s)
26. Not Dark Yet   (1990s)
27. Mr Tambourine Man (1960s)
28. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right          (1960s)
29. I Threw It All Away       (1960s)
30. Simple Twist Of Fate (1970s)
31. Ballad of a Thin Man (1960s)
32. Every Grain Of Sand (1980s)
33. One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later)     (1960s)
34. One Too Many Mornings         (1960s)
35. Standing In The Doorway       (1990s)
36. Workingman's Blues #2         (2000s)
37. You Ain't Going Nowhere       (1960s)
38. You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go   (1970s)
39. My Own Version of You           (2020s)
40. Where Are You Tonight? (Journey Through Dark Heat)        (1970s)
41. Dark Eyes        (1980s)
42. The Man In Me              (1970s)
43. Boots Of Spanish Leather     (1960s)
44. Forever Young (Shadow Kingdom version)  (1970s)
45. I Feel a Change Comin' On   (2000s)
46. Long and Wasted Years          (2010s)
47. Love Minus Zero/No Limit     (1960s)
48. Mama You Been On My Mind              (1960s)
49. Ring Them Bells          (1980s)
50. Senor (Tales of Yankee Power)           (1970s)
51. Up to Me          (1970s)
52. When The Ship Comes In      (1960s)
53. Lay Down Your Weary Tune  (1960s)
54. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues              (1960s)
55. Queen Jane Approximately   (1960s)
56. What Good Am I?       (1980s)
57. Jokerman (Letterman)            (1980s)
58. If You See Her, Say Hello        (1970s)
59. I Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You    (2020s)
60. Spanish Harlem Incident       (1960s)
61. It's All Over Now Baby Blue   (1960s)
62. Blowin' in the Wind    (1960s)
63. Can't Wait       (1990s)
64. Highway 61 Revisited             (1960s)
65. Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands         (1960s)
66. Soon after Midnight   (2010s)
67. New Morning (live 2006)        (1970s)
68. As I Went Out One Morning  (1960s)
69. I Want You       (1960s)
70. Most Of The Time        (1980s)
71. Trying to Get to Heaven          (1990s)
72. Tomorrow is a Long Time       (1960s)
73. False Prophet (2020s)
74. Baby Stop Crying        (1970s)
75. Caribbean Wind          (1970s)
76. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall  (1960s)
77. Paths of Victory           (1960s)
78. Masters of War            (1960s)
79. Farewell, Angelina      (1960s)
80. Moonlight        (2000s)
81. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again    (1960s)
82. Romance in Durango (1970s)
83. Subterranean Homesick Blues         (1960s)
84. I Shall Be Free              (1960s)
85. Angelina           (1980s)
86. Just Like a Woman     (1960s)
87. Buckets of Rain           (1970s)
88. Mozambique  (1970s)
89. Nettie Moore  (2000s)
90. My Back Pages             (1960s)
91. Only a Pawn in their Game   (1960s)
92. One More Cup of Coffee        (1970s)
93. Song to Woody             (1960s)
94. Spirit on the Water     (2000s)
95. You're a Big Girl Now (1970s)
96. When The Deal Goes Down (2000s)
97. Chimes Of Freedom (1960s)
98. The Groom's Still Waiting at the Altar            (1980s)
99. Dear Landlord              (1960s)
100. Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance     (1960s)
101. Someone's Got a Hold of My Heart (1980s) & Tight Connection to My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love)              (1980s)
102. It Ain't Me Babe           (1960s)
103. Make You Feel My Love           (1990s)
104. All I Really Want to Do             (1960s)
105. Moonshiner    (1960s)
106. Born in Time   (1990s)
107. Don't Fall Apart on Me Tonight           (1980s)
108. Talkin' World War III Blues     (1960s)
109. Abandoned Love         (1970s)
110. Dignity (1990s)
111. Can You Please Crawl Out your Window     (1960s)
112. Must Be Santa             (2000s)
113. Sugar Baby      (2000s)
114. Percy's Song   (1960s)
115. Fourth Time Around   (1960s)
116. Things Have Changed             (1990s)
117. I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)     (1960s)
118. With God On Our Side            (1960s)
119. Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest         (1960s)
120. Duquesne Whistle     (2010s)
121. Absolutely Sweet Marie         (1960s)
122. I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine            (1960s)
123. Love is Just a Four Letter Word (imagined) (1960s)
124. The Times they are a Changin'           (1960s)
125. Tell Me That It Isn't True          (1960s)
126. Restless Farewell       (1960s)
127. Quinn the Eskimo       (1960s)
128. Tonight I'll be Staying Here With you              (1970s)
129. Precious Angel             (1970s)
130. Desolation Row           (1960s)
131. Life is Hard      (2000s)
132. Pay in Blood    (2010s)
133. She Belongs to Me     (1960s)
134. Highlands        (1990s)
135. Tears of Rage (1960s)
136. Love Sick         (1960s)
137. I'll Keep it With Mine  (1960s)
138. If Not for You   (1970s)
139. Key West (Philosopher Pirate)            (2020s)
140. This Wheel's on Fire  (1960s)
141. I Believe in You             (1970s)
142. Tombstone Blues        (1960s)
143. It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry          (1960s)
144. Knockin' on Heaven's Door   (1970s)
145. Ballad of Hollis Brown            (1960s)
146. Bob Dylan's 115th Dream     (1960s)
147. Bob Dylan's Dream    (1960s)
148. Across the Rubicon   (2020s)
149. Gates of Eden               (1960s)
150. If you Gotta Go, Go Now        (1960s)
151. Motorpsycho Nightmare        (1960s)
152. Sara     (1970s)
153. Where Teardrops Fall              (1980s)
154. Foot of Pride   (1980s)
155. I Shall Be Free No 10 (1960s)
156. John Wesley Harding (1960s)
157. Honest with Me           (2000s)
158. Let Me Die in My Footsteps  (1960s)
159. Corrina Corrina           (1960s)
160. Disease of Conceit    (1980s)
161. Slow Train Coming     (1970s)
162. Cold Irons Bound        (1990s)
163. True Love Tends to Forget      (1970s)
164. Early Roman Kings     (2010s)
165. Goodbye Jimmy Reed             (2020s)
166. All Along the Watchtower      (1960s)
167. Drifter's Escape           (1960s)
168. Goin' to Acapulco       (1970s)
169. Black Diamond Bay   (1970s)
170. Gotta Serve Somebody          (1970s)
171. High Water (for Charley Patton)        (2000s)
172. Most Like you Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine             (1960s)
173. Day of the Locusts     (1970s)
174. No Time To Think         (1970s)
175. North Country Blues (1960s)
176. Roll on John    (2010s)
177. Beyond Here Lies Nothin’      (2000s)
178. Bye and Bye    (2000s)
179. Death is Not the End (1970s)
180. Mixed Up Confusion  (1960s)
181. Cry a While     (2000s)
182. Forgetful Heart            (2000s)
183. Watching the River Flow (Shadow Kingdom version)          (1970s)
184. Meet Me in the Morning          (1970s)
185. Shooting Star (1980s)
186. Temporarily like Achilles        (1960s)
187. When I Paint My Masterpiece            (1970s)
188. Under the Red Sky     (1990s)
189. I Pity the Poor Immigrant        (1960s)
190. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight         (1960s)
191. Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat        (1960s)
192. Man of Constant Sorrow        (1960s)
193. Walls of Red Wings    (1960s)
194. I'm Not There (1960s)
195. Lay Lady Lay   (1960s)
196. On a Night Like This   (1970s)
197. Tweeter and the Monkey Man            (1980s)
198. 'Cross the Green Mountain   (2000s)
199. License to Kill (1980s)
200. Sweetheart Like You  (1980s)
201. I and I  (1980s)
202. Dirge    (1970s)
203. From a Buick 6             (1960s)
204. Is Your Love in Vain?  (1970s)
205. Man in the Long Black Coat (1980s)
206. Murder Most Foul       (2020s)
207. Oh, Sister        (1970s)
208. Maggie's Farm              (1960s)
209. Thunder on the Mountain      (2000s)
210. I'd Have You Anytime (1970s)
211. Lonesome Day Blues              (2000s)
212. Ain't Talkin       (2000s)
213. Rank Strangers to Me              (1990s)
214. Scarlet Town (2010s)
215. Mother of Muses         (2020s)
216. Never Say Goodbye   (1970s)
217. Sign on the Window   (1970s)
218. Marchin' to the City   (1990s)
219. Tempest           (2010s)
220. Rollin' and Tumblin'   (2000s)
221. Dreamin' of You           (1990s)
222. Political World             (1980s)
223. Pretty Saro      (1970s)
224. The Wicked Messenger          (1960s)
225. Pressing On    (1980s)
226. When the Night Comes Falling from the Sky            (1980s)
227. Lenny Bruce   (1980s)
228. Down Along the Cove             (1960s)
229. Summer Days              (2000s)
230. What Was It You Wanted       (1980s)
231. Emotionally Yours      (1980s)
232. If You Ever Go to Houston      (2000s)
233. Million Miles   (1990s)
234. To Be Alone with You (1960s)
235. Winterlude      (1970s)
236. Obviously 5 Believers             (1960s)
237. Black Rider     (2020s)
238. Who Killed Davey Moore        (1960s)
239. You Angel You (1970s)
240. Tell Me Momma           (1960s)
241. Rainy Day Women #12 and #35        (1960s)
242. Down the Highway     (1960s)
243. Pledging My Time        (1960s)
244. He Was a Friend of Mine        (1960s)
245. Oxford Town   (1960s)
246. Dirt Road Blues           (1990s)
247. Silvio   (1990s)
248. It's All Good    (2000s)
249. Hazel   (1970s)
250. All the Tired Horses (1970s)

Nice!

Parton, such sweet sorrow ...

The first time I heard the name Dolly Parton was during an art lesson at my junior school, when Miss Clarke, the flamboyant Irish art teacher who bestrode the large art room like it was a separate fiefdom from the rest of the school, remarked that my drawing of mountains was "a bit like Dolly Parton" and when I looked at her dumbfounded, she explained what she meant, to my eternal mortification, though I remained dumbfounded.

My next memory of the name Dolly Parton was the release of the film Steel Magnolias in 1989, when I remember thinking, when I heard Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Daryl Hannah, Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis (I hadn't even heard of Julia Roberts at that point) that this was surely the greatest cast ever assembled. I suppose the 11-year-old me was a more nuanced creature than I allow myself.

Anyway, Dolly Parton's died. It says something (something everyone is saying) that, after I read the news that Dolly Parton had died while sitting on the sofa downstairs, I went upstairs and my 10-year old daughter was, oblivious to the news, singing 9 to 5 to herself. Just because that was the song a 10 year old girl would be singing to herself in 2026.

My main life association with a Dolly Parton song https://101songs.blogspot.com/2020/03/songs-jolene.html is surreally negative, and certainly not DP or the almighty Jolene's fault, but does slightly contradict my fanciful hypothesis, which I've held for a few years, that Dolly Parton was a protective superhero.

Specifically, my fanciful hypothesis is that Dolly Parton and Debbie Harry are, or have been, America's dual protective superheroes, the main guardians against growing evil.

I first speculated that Debbie Harry was a superhero many years ago, when I heard the (unlikely in reality) story that she'd once escaped from the serial killer Ted Bundy. When I saw someone on twitter describe Dolly Parton as an American hero when it was revealed she'd funded the Moderna covid vaccine, I put two and two together and made one - Dolly Parton and Debbie Harry, Team America.

They were born within months of each other at the end of the War, one in Florida, one in Tennessee. Both had versions of hard childhoods (DH given up for adoption that led her to New Jersey and New York). So one is city, one is country. Both were genre stars (new wave/country), who, in the late 70s, were able to move to the pop mainstream, and had indelible classics.

Both, you may have noticed, were blonde. Blonde as a central part of their identity, moving the concept of American blonde on from the victimhood and tragedy of Marilyn Monroe and the male fantasy of Hitchcock. Somewhere between Monroe and Madonna, but maybe better than both.

Both were boss. Both did not have children, though have been described in maternal terms by their fans. Both were tough as nails. As I remarked before when I read her autobiography, Harry's toughness, her ability to just shrug her shoulders at some really rough and frightening shit, is almost unnerving. Dolly Parton's way was always warmth and humour.

One presented avant-garde, one traditional, one was north, one was south.

Both have been good people. DP stretches beyond "good person" in her active, relentless philanthropy (indeed, I wonder if, when Ethan Hawke described Paul Newman as America's greatest philanthropist in terms of how much he'd raised for good causes relative to his personal wealth, that remains, or was ever true vs Parton). Debbie Harry seems to me a manifestly good person too. You don't hear anything negative, beyond the odd affectionately disgruntled ex-band member. She has always been right right-on, in later years she works regularly for good causes.

Both acted, acted pretty well, in different types of minor classics. From 1980 onwards, DP's fame and place at the centre of cultural life has only grown, whereas DH's has faded a little. But both have played the Glastonbury Legends slot. Both are legends - ego-free ideals of how to be a star and an icon.

Here is a short superhero playlist of all classics:

Heart of Glass

9 to 5

Sunday Girl

Here You Come Again

Rip Her to Shreds

Jolene

Atomic

I Will Always Love You

Picture This

Love is Like a Butterfly

One Way or Another

The Light of a Clear Blue Morning

 

And here is one of the first posts i saw on Bluesky when the news was announced

https://bsky.app/profile/blondieband.bsky.social/post/3mtwmnarn4k2v