Delving blindfold into the laundry basket of titles earmarked for Track of the Week today the hand of fate picked out Hall of Fame by The Script. Sometimes choosing a song is the difficult bit; this time it's what to write. You see, there's not much to say about this single except that it's a straightforward…Read more Hall of Fame
pop
Oh Woman, Oh Man
Inspiration comes from many places, some familiar, others less so. It lurks in bushes where it can't be seen and it hides in plain sight among the ordinary, every day objects of our humdrum lives. We may have passed this way many times before but our blinkered eyes missed the beauty of the city park and gazed past…Read more Oh Woman, Oh Man
Fine Time
A song from 1988 appeared again on the Crotchety Early Warning Station's radar screen a few days ago and it reminded me of the 7" singles I used to have. Although I spent my formative years in the days when sales of singles far outstripped those of albums I only accumulated about a dozen of them.…Read more Fine Time
Brass In Pocket
There's been a deliberate focus on new songs recently on Crotchety Man so I think it's now time to remember an old favourite. Brass In Pocket was the first big hit for The Pretenders in January 1980. Chrissie Hynde never liked the song but the public loved it and she still plays it when she's touring…Read more Brass In Pocket
Laiks
Here's a song for all my Latvian readers. Laiks is a track from the Tavs Stāsts album by the Latvian pop-rock band Sound Poets. Judging by the pictures on the band's Facebook page Sound Poets are huge in Latvia and are building a following elsewhere in Europe, too. Reliable information is hard to come by because almost…Read more Laiks
The Fool On The Hill
"We're going away for a few days", said Mrs Crotchety, "for your birthday". The look of anticipation on my face prompted her to continue. "I'm not telling you where we're going, just that we'll be going on the train", she said, enigmatically. So, for several weeks, I wondered where we would go and what we…Read more The Fool On The Hill
The Curse of Blondie
I think I'm slowly getting the hang of this Internet thing. It seems to have all the information you could ever want (and a lot more besides) but to find what you're looking for you have to know where to look. I've searched for Blondie's eighth album, The Curse of Blondie, on streaming sites in the past…Read more The Curse of Blondie
I Believe in Father Christmas
Christmas songs are always sweet. A few are sugar plum sickly. One yuletide song, though, can be savoured every year with no queasiness at all. It is Greg Lake's I Believe in Father Christmas. Those of you who admired Greg Lake's music will know already, I expect, that he died of cancer on 7th December, so…Read more I Believe in Father Christmas
Elusive Butterfly
It's officially winter here in the northern hemisphere but the other day, although it was chilly outside, there were fluffy white clouds hanging in a clear blue sky over the green green grass of the back garden lawn. Looking out from the cosy living room it could almost have been summer again. Suddenly my peripheral vision…Read more Elusive Butterfly
Sledgehammer
There are at least three well-known songs called Sledgehammer. Top of the Spotify list is one by Fifth Harmony, a five-piece all-female vocal group that came together when the girls entered the X Factor competition individually in 2012. As Fifth Harmony they came third and third is where Crotchety Man places their fairly ordinary pop/dance Sledgehammer. If…Read more Sledgehammer
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