Ryco's three favourite songs of the week 3!

Wunderbar by Tenpole Tudor
From the album Eddie, Old Bob, Dick and Gary



Ah Tenpole, best known for two things, the first being their leader singer's incredibly tight pants and Swords of a thousand Men. While I like Swords, I prefer Wunderbar (Not named after the chocolate made by Cadbury, nor the bra made by playtex) the as it's so bouncy and chantalongable (Which shall be my new favorite made up word of the week). Ed Tudor Pole, the lead singer of Tenpole is best known for his spell hosting the Crystal Maze, a cult British TV series, admittedly his spell wasn't as memorable as Richard O'Brian's, but he was a hard act to follow, just ask anyone who's performed in stage productions of the Rocky Horror Picture show. Ed is also a descendant of Henry the Eighth which is kind of funny really, someone who rose to fame during the Punk era being a descendant of someone who helped found the establishment as we know it. ^.^

Good Boys By Blondie
(From The Curse of Blondie)



Each time Blondie come back with a new album, people say 'They've still got it' like it's some sort of surprise... It's not, they're still as awesome now as they were in the albums released before I was born. It's funny, Deborah Harry doesn't have the best voice and the songs aren't spectacular lyrically, but it all just clicks and works for me. Good Boys has a Giorgio Moroder vibe to it, Moroder even providing a remix for the Album. Brian May is credited as a songwriter because one of the lines is a homage to We will Rock you and Queen threatened to sue... One of the many reasons why the current Queen lineup are thoroughly unlikeable.

Blondie have a new album out next month called Panic of Girls, featuring a cover of Don't Stop by Michael Jackson, which is pretty goshdarned awesome, hopefully the rest of the songs will be of that standard.

Red Dragon Tattoo by Fountains of Wayne.
From Utopia Parkway



I first heard this song in the Stephen King Series, Kingdom Hospital (Based on The Kingdom, by Lars von Trier) where it seemed to be played just before anything bad happened in the modern day, people getting flattened by vans and so on. Adam Schlesinger from the band providing the theme song to the series and Stephen King is meant to be a big fan of this band, and so am I... Otherwise I wouldn't be making this blog post. ^.^ It's your typical song about a young guy, desperately trying to get the attention of a girl by any means possible, something most people who've been a teenage boy can empathise with... Not me though, I spent my teenage years trying to be invisible, but that's another story.

-Ryco.

And I'll form the head...

Well, at long last the election season is over and we finally have a new government, a Liberal Democrat/Conservative government led by Cameron and Clegg and I for one couldn't be happier... In our current circumstances, it's the best outcome we could hope for.
There are many reasons I'm happy to be led by Cameron and Clegg, firstly, it's because they sound like a pop duo like Hall and Oates, Simon and Garfunkel and Pat and Mick... A part of me will always hope that they'll hire Stock, Aitken and Waterman for their first single, which will no doubt chart as highly as the SAW produced first release by the girls from the Sheila's wheels advert did. I also like the way their name has been shortened to people on the internet to Cleggeron, which I can't help but imagine as a twisted conservative form of Lion Voltron with Liberal Democrats for arms... Lets face it, they're the arms as without them, Voltron won't be able to do much other than run around, making noise, kicking things ineffectually with the occasional argument over who forms the head.
Seriously though, this is the best government anyone could have hope for given the circumstances and is considerably better than the alternatives on offer.

The first option was for the Lib Dems to team up with Labour, Plaid Cymru and the SNP, which would destroy both the Labour party and the Liberal democrats in England as it would be seen as stealing an election. I can't believe that it was ever seriously considered by either the Liberal Democrats or Labour really as there is no way the SNP having power to make policy that affects England would end well, it would be like asking a vulture for help crossing the desert. The only way the SNP can get what they want is by creating as much friction as possible between England and Scotland so it's not in their interest to do what's best for the country. The moment that the labour party stopped giving in to the nationalists, they would walk out and Labour and the Lib Dems would be annihilated in the following election, giving the conservatives carte blanche to push through whatever crazy legislation they want for the next 5 years.

The second option would have been to let the conservatives govern alone in minority, which wouldn't have been in the best interests of anyone, it would have led to political paralysis in the end which is the last thing any country needs at this time... And again, there's always the chance of them getting a majority if they were re-elected, saying the other parties were unwilling to help run the country in it's hour of need.

The third, the Lib-Conservative coalition is the best option, the party that won the most votes is in power and the liberal democrats are there to help cut out the crazy. The Toreies know if they try to push through things that will be to the detriment of most of the population it'll never fly, we'll have actual debates to get legislation passed and the New Labour project is dead... At least it should be if there's any sanity left in politics. Hopefully labour will spend their time in the wilderness rediscovering the policies their party was founded on, equality and socialism, and British politics will once again have a left rather than two versions of the right.

I must admit that I get some pleasure from just how upset some labour supporters are about it, claiming that the sky will fall under a Lib Dem/Tory regime while ignoring just how right wing the labour government has been. Honestly, if you're upset because you feel you wasted your vote because you voted for the Lib Dems just to keep the Tories out rather than because of their policies, I feel no sympathy for you at all. I vote green despite them having little chance of getting into power as I feel votes should be used for what you believe in, not to try to screw over people who believe different. People have no right to complain when a party they don't believe in, but voted for, does things they don't believe in. The Lib Dems are a centrist political party, not a sock puppet to be put on the left hand only when it's convenient.

One final thought before I stop ranting, when Cameron takes paternity leave in a few months, Nick Clegg will be Prime minister, a thought that's made all the sweeter by his religious views. See, in America, you can't get elected if you're not a devout Christian, but for a brief time, our PM will be an Aetheist. I'm sure the religious right in this country will be thoroughly mortified... All three of them. For those people, I have one word... Good. ^_^

-Ryco.

Ryco's three favourite songs of the week 2!

You know it was coming, so here it is! More musical ramblings, just whatyou always wanted. It was either this, or Transformers. ^.^

I Feel for You by Prince
From the album Prince

Now, it was only a matter of time before I mentioned something involving Prince as let's face it, he wrote a hell of a lot of songs (Rumoured to be over 1000), a large chunk of which were either awesome, bizarre, or hits when performed by other people, I feel for you is one of the latter. Prince was known for performing and recording songs he'd written for others first and having them duplicate his performance in the studio so there are some rather interesting bootlegs out there, like his version of Martika's Kitchen and Manic Monday.

Most people know the Chaka Khan (I almost typoed that at Chakat Kahn, which is nightmare fuel, really) version with the rapping bit at the beginning by Melle Mel (who is best known for performing White Lines which is often miscredited to Grandmaster Flash despite Flash having nothing to do with the record) and there was also a version by the Pointer Sisters which was never released as a single... Still, I must say that this is my favorite version... His vocals just do it for me far more than Ms. Khan's or the Pointer Sisters, which isn't to say they're bad, he's just far more funky. Admittedly, the song is basically about people who confuse lust with love, but at least he's honest, he doesn't pretend that it's anything other that a physical thing.

Prince and Prince's people are notoriously obsessive with keeping all his work off the internet, so I have no doubt that most of before long the links here will be dead, so enjoy them while you can.

We All Stand Together by Paul McCartney
From the album Give My Regards to Broad Street

Paul McCartney has done some questionable things in his time, Heather Mills, Wings, most of the songs on McCartney II (I'm sure this album is the soundtrack to one of the many levels of hell, Bogey Music... No, just no!) and to some, this song is up there with them... Still, I don't care what people think, I love it, I think it's a decent, if slightly cheesy pop song with a rather charming video... Well, for the most part, I have a random hatred of Rupert the Bear (I'm not a fan of morphic bear characters, but I really hate Rupert.... stupid sickly sweet albino, ugh), and the cats and the owl are creepy as heck, they look like they probably devoured most of the cast after the end of the video.

For some reason, the Headmaster of my highschool decided that this should be played at random assemblies as our school's anthem... He was a stramge, strange man, but charming, so the song fits to him, really.

How will you go? by Crowded House
From the album Woodface

(Not the original version, but it's still pretty good.)

Escape is on your mind again
Escape to a faraway land...

Sometimes I wish I could run away and keep running until I get to where I need to be... This is a good song for those times.

-Ryco

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