And so here we again at our traditional end-of-newsletter farewell.
As the bucket hanging clear to hell descends upon us at the end of yet another
issue’s lifespan, we celebrate the top five AAA songs referencing the words
‘20’ in honour of our anniversary issue! (Excepting the Beach Boys album
‘20/20’ which we couldn’t fit in but is, of course, an honorary member of this
list!)
5) 24 Hours (10cc/Windows In The Jungle, 1983). Hmm, a whole day in
the life of man referencing a whole life in the day of a website (or something
like that…) As discussed at length in review no 86, 10cc’s Eric Stewart nearly
died in a car crash and spent the rest of his band career delving into more
serious topics than the usual 10cc fare. Like many tracks from the superlative
‘Jungles’ album, this song juxtaposes all the great things in life that flashed
by its creator’s eyes with the mundane things that most people spend their
allotted time doing (and no, reading this website isn’t one of them! It’s the
keyhole through to your soul, honest!) Just as the jungle rhythms give way to
city sounds in an all too convincing natural segue, so our lifespan flies out
before us and we falter. Or something like that anyway.
4) Four and 20 (CSNY/ Déjà vu, 1970). OK, so we’re getting a bit
desperate on ‘20’ titles OK? This delightful pocket ballad about an old age
pensioner who started and ending his life with nothing (see review no 34 for
the full story) only makes sense if the narrator is ‘four score and 20’ years
old (ie 100). Whatever his age, this song is Stephen Stills at one of his many
early 70s peaks, sadly cast adrift into the recorded world without those
glorious CSN harmonies until a reunion concert of 1990.
3) 20th Century Man (The Kinks/ Muswell Hillbillies,
1971). Will there really have been as many centuries in the modern (ie anno
domini) calendar as there have been issues of our newsletter next week? Well,
‘yes’ is the simple answer to that. But like all of you who happen to be under
the age of nine while reading this, Ray Davies was born a 20th
century man and what with wars, pollution, pointless bureaucracy, a failed
welfare state, trigger-happy-peacemen and an uncertain future, he ‘doesn’t want
to be here’. Not that the 21st century seems much of a better
prospect so far, but still – judging by the evidence of this depressing but
depressingly oh-so-true song, the elder Davies brother never thought humanity
would last long enough for us to find out.
2) 20 Flight Rock (Paul McCartney/ Choba B CCCP, 1989). The weakest
McCartney album (up until the gormless ‘Chaos and Creation’ at any rate) found
Macca threatening to start the Cold War all over again by recording a series of
lame rock and roll covers especially for the Russian people (this album was one
of the first Western records to be officially sold there after the Berlin Wall
came down and the ‘iron curtain’ was lifted). ’20 Flight Rock’ is a song that
crops up several times on Macca’s CV, mainly because it’s the song that got him
‘into’ the Beatles (so legend has it, Paul’s prowess on the guitar and his
faultless reading of this song’s lyrics got him into the band without question
– although closer to the truth seems to be the fact that Macca could tune a
guitar when Lennon still didn’t know how). This is in fact one of the better
songs on the album, with Eddie Cochran’s lyrics about a lusty teenager
following his girlfriend up 20 flights of stairs and finding himself too tired to
do what he was intending on reaching her room one of the better 1950s rock and
roll/ comedy cross overs (see ‘Summertime Blues’, ‘Fortune Teller’ and the
pay-off line of ‘Sweet Sixteen’ for more examples of this short-lived genre).
1) Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Beatles/ Sgt Pepper’s,
1967). Yes, it was 20 issues ago today that our website was launched (hooray!),
its been going in and out of style, but its guaranteed to raise a smile (even
if it’s a smile of horror), so let me introduce to you the song you’ve known
for 42 years, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Come back Billy Shears, all
is forgiven!
And so farewell friends with this latest message from Philosophy
Phil – ‘It doesn’t matter who you are and where you want to be, the story’s in
the journey and not what’s out at sea!’ Till the next issue, keep rocking!
AAA: THE EMERGENCY SERVICE WHEN YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT
ALBUM TO PLAY
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A NOW COMPLETE List Of Top Five/Top Ten/TOP TWENTY Entries 2008-2019
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This week’s top ten honours the humble motor car. The death trap on wheels, the metaphor for freedom, the put-down of capitalism, a source of...
This week we’re going to have a look at the 10 AAA singles that spent the most weeks at number on the American chart ‘Billboard’ – and it makes for...
Following on from last issue’s study of the American Billboard charts, here’s a look at which AAA albums spent the most weeks on the chart. The...
There are many dying arts in our modern world: incorruptible politicians, faith that things are going to get better and the ability to make decent...
This week we’ve decided to dedicate our top ten to those unsung heroes of music, the session musicians, whose playing often brings AAA artists (and...
Naturally we hold our AAA bands in high esteem in these articles: after all, without their good taste, intelligence and humanity we’d have nothing to...
What do you do when you’ve left a multi-million selling band and yet you still feel the pull of the road and the tours and the playing to audiences...
‘The ATOS Song’ (You’re Not Fit To Live)’ (Mini-Review) Dear readers, we don’t often feature reviews of singles over albums or musicians who aren’t...
In honour of this week’s review of an album released to cash in on a movie soundtrack (only one of these songs actually appears in ‘Easy Rider’...and...
Hic! Everyone raise a glass to the rock stars of the past and to this week’s feature...songs about alcolholic beverages! Yes that’s right, everything...
154) The human singing voice carries with it a vast array of emotions, thoughts that cannot be expressed in any other way except opening the lungs and...
Everyone has a spiritual home, even if they don’t actually live there. Mine is in a windy, rainy city where the weather is always awful but the...
Having a family does funny things to some musicians, as we’ve already seen in this week’s review (surely the only AAA album actually written around...
Some artists just have no idea what their best work really is. One thing that amazes me as a collector is how consistently excellent many of the...
221) Dr Who and the AAA (Five Musical Links) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/01/dr-who-and-five-musical-links-to-alans.html
222) Five Random Recent Purchases http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/01/five-random-recent-purchases-news-views.html
223) AAA Grammy Nominees http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/02/aaa-grammy-nominees-top-twelve-news.html
224) Ten AAA songs that are better heard unedited and in full http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/02/ten-aaa-songs-that-are-better-unedited.html
225) The shortest gaps between AAA albums http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-shortest-gaps-between-aaa-albums.html
226) The longest gaps between AAA albums http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-longest-gaps-between-aaa-albums.html
227) Top ten AAA drummers http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/03/top-ten-aaa-drummers-news-views-and.html
228) Top Ten AAA Singles (In Terms of 'A' and 'B' Sides) http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/top-ten-aaa-singles-and-b-sides-news.html
229) The Stories Behind Six AAA Logos http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/the-stories-behind-six-aaa-logos.html
230) AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!! The Best Ten AAA Screams http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/the-best-aaa-screams-top-ten-news-views.html
231) An AAA Pack Of Horses http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/aaa-songs-about-horses-top-ten-news.html
232) AAA Granamas - Sorry, Anagrams! http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/aaa-anagrams-news-views-and-music-issue.html
233) AAA Surnames and Their Meanings http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/aaa-surnames-and-their-meanings-news.html
234) 20 Erroneous AAA Album Titles http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/twenty-erroneous-aaa-album-titles-news.html
235) The Best AAA Orchestral Arrangements http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/fifteen-great-aaa-string-parts-news.html
236) Top 30 Hilariously Misheard Album Titles/Lyrics http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/top-thirty-hilariously-misheard-aaa.html
237) Ten controversial AAA sackings - and whether they were right http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/ten-controversial-aaa-sackings-news.html
238) A Critique On Critiquing - In Response To Brian Wilson http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/a-critique-on-critiquing-in-response-to.html
239) The Ten MusicianS Who've Played On The Most AAA Albums http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/the-ten-musicians-whove-played-on-most.html
240) Thoughts on #CameronMustGo http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/thoughts-on-cameronmustgo.html
241) Random Recent Purchases (Kinks/Grateful Dead/Nils Lofgren/Rolling Stones/Hollies) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/six-random-recent-purchases-kinksg.html
242) AAA Christmas Number Ones http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/aaa-christmas-number-ones.html
243) AAA Review Of The Year 2014 (Top Releases/Re-issues/Documentaries/DVDs/Books/Songs/ Articles plus worst releases of the year) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/aaa-review-of-year-2014.html
244) Me/CFS Awareness Week 2015 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/mecfs-awareness-week-at-alans-album.html
245) Why The Tory 2015 Victory Seems A Little...Suspicious http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/why-tory-victory-seems-deeply.html
246) A Plea For Peace and Tolerance After The Attacks on Paris - and Syria http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/a-plea-for-peace-and-toleration.html
247) AAA Review Of The Year 2015 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/the-aaa-review-of-year-2015.html
248) The Fifty Most Read AAA Articles (as of December 31st 2015) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-fifty-most-read-aaa-posts-2008-2015.html
249) The Revised AAA Crossword! http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2016_07_10_archive.html
251) Half-A-Dozen Berries Plus One (An AAA Tribute To Chuck Berry) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/an-aaa-covers-tribute-to-chuck-berry.html
254) Guest Post: ‘Supertramp – Some Things Never Change’ by Kenny Brown https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2018/06/guest-review-supertramp-some-things.html
255) AAA Review Of The Year 2018 https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-aaa-review-of-year-2018.html
256) AAA Review Of The Year 2019 plus Review Of The Decade 2010-2019 https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-alans-album-archives-review-of-year.html
257) Tiermaker https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2019/06/alans-album-archives-on-tiermaker.html
258) #Coronastock https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2020/04/coronastock.html
259) #Coronadocstock https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2020/05/coronadocstock.html
