Voting is now open for Pun Fun 3. Readers were challenged to insert a musical instrument related pun into a popular song title.
And what a musical melange they have come up with between them. The list of instruments reads like the sleeve notes for a dreadful 1970s jazz fusion album or a one-off collaboration between the Mahavishnu, Penguin Cafe and Electric Light Orchestras.
Thanks to everyone who submitted an entry and a very warm welcome to Mark who has been a member of the voting panel previously but has joined the ranks of competitors for the first time.
I mentioned last time out that if the number of entries increased I might ask you all to select your top five rather than just your top three as has been the case to date so you can spread the love a bit wider. Let's give that a go. If it leaves you paralysed by indecision we can go back to the top three next time.
Voting is open to all readers not just those of you who entered. Let me know your top five in order of preference. I'll award 7 points for your first choice, 5 for second and then 3, 2 and 1 for the rest.
You can either submit your votes in the comments section below or by email to leggies27@hotmail.co.uk if you would rather preserve the sanctity of the secret ballot.
The deadline is next Sunday (25 January) and we will announce the results a week today.
Here are the contenders, listed alphabetically by artist.
While My Sitar Gently Weeps - The Beatles
Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into Keytar - Billy Ocean
Hanging On The Xylophone - Blondie
Cello I Love You - The Doors
Trumpet Up - Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Return to Fender - Elvis Presley
Rowche Drum Bell - The Fall
How Can You Mend A Broken Harp - Al Green
That Drummer Feeling - Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers
Whistle Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division
Timpani, I'm Not Your Daddy - Kid Creole & The Coconuts
Mindless Violins - Newtown Neurotics
Man on Bassoon - REM
Get Hofner My Cloud - The Rolling Stones
Not Too Bassoon - Throwing Muses
Maybe when this is all over we can keep the band together and take the show on the road.
Before we get into today's post, a quick reminder for anyone planning to submit an entry for Pun Fun 3 who has not yet done so. The deadline is this Sunday (18 January). All the details are in last Monday's post.
We now return to our scheduled programme.
This blog turns 17 tomorrow. I didn't want to wait until then to mention it as it would just disappear beneath Rol's Saturday Snapshots, Charity Chic's Saturday Shuffle, Swiss Adam's Oblique Saturdays etc. I need a bit of attention on my blog birthday and this is the only hope of getting any.
Here are some more 17ers with a song whose message is sadly at least as relevant today as when it was first recorded 45 years ago (and one that hopefully would have warned Liesl off Rolf had it been around back in 1938).
Confession time. While Ernie Goggins is of course my real name I have invented a nom de plume which I use on things like passports and legal documents in order to avoid being harassed by obsessive fans while I go about my day to day life.
Inevitably there are other people with same name. One released a few unsuccessful singles in the 1970s, one is currently a breakout star in American college football and another one sells used trucks in south-east England.
It is the latter who inspired this post. That and finding a compilation CD of the great Cuban stalwarts Los Van Van in a local charity shop in the weekend. The CD is called "La Colección Cubana" and dates from 1998. These tracks were originally released in 1984 and 1986 respectively.
After a break for the festive season we are back with a third edition of Pun Fun, the exciting feature where I give you a theme and you adapt the title of a well-known song to reflect that theme.
Having enjoyed a bumper crop of fruit and vegetable puns last time out I have selected a theme with a more obvious link to the blog (and those of a fair number of participants):
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
The rules are the same as last time. You each have one entry only, to be sent to leggies27@hotmail.co.uk by Sunday 18 January. Voting will start next Monday.
I don't suppose you need help identifying musical instruments but just in case you do the Institute of Musical Instrument Technology lists loads on its website, where you can also listen to clips of many of them.
You might be inspired to finds puns for the zaqq (Maltese bagpipe), the torupill (Estonian bagpipe) or even the mittlealtersackpfeife (German medieval bagpipe). Or you may prefer just to stick with the old joanna.
In Wednesday's post on the music of Guatemala I observed that some of the countries on our ongoing tour of the Americas may no longer exist by the time we get to them if Mr Trump has his way.
In response to this Walter commented that "we should post music from Greenland while it still belongs to Denmark". He followed this up with a series of direct messages to me in which he stated that if I did not do so voluntarily all options are on the table including military intervention to take direct control of the blog.
Some might say that having Walter in charge of the content here might be an improvement and I would not necessarily disagree. But I value my independence and world peace so here is some music from Greenland. It may be the start of a slippery slope but that is a risk I'm willing to take.
In chronological order: the grand old man of Greenland music Rasmus Lyberth with a track from his 2019 album "Inuunerup Oqarfigaanga"; some hip-hop from 1996 courtesy of Nuuk Posse and their classic album "Kaataq"; Nive & The Deer Children and their 2016 album "Feet First" on which Howe Gelb and John Parish have production credits; and bringing us bang up to date Varna GL whose latest album "Sila" was released just three weeks ago.
For the avoidance of doubt I should make it clear that all that stuff about Walter's expansionist tendencies was obviously nonsense. In real life he's one of the nicest men you could hope to meet and not in the least bit orange.
On an unrelated matter I got my first gig of the year under my belt on Wednesday - four acts on the bill at the Shacklewell Arms raising funds for WarChild. Its not a night that will live long in the memory but they were all perfectly pleasant.
For me the pick of the bunch was probably Alice Costelloe whose debut album "Move On With The Year" comes out on 6 February. Here she is with her brand new video. Mister F preferred Suki Emmanuelle so I've added the only video of hers I could find in the interests of balance.
After a short break we are back behind the wheel and making our way around continental America. I thought about bringing the Venezuelan leg forward in case it doesn't exist by the time we get to the letter V but in the end decided to stick with alphabetical order.
So this time out we are in Guatemala, which like many other countries in the region has suffered from US foreign policy and corporate greed. American interference throughout most of the 20th century contributed to a regular series of civil wars. Fortunately things have been relatively stable since a peace deal in 1996, with just old-fashioned corruption to worry about these days.
Guatemala is one of a number of countries for which I have struggled to find music online. While the Wikipedia entry for the music of Guatemala lists many names, a lot of them do not seem to be available though the usual channels. So I make no claims that what follows is representative, its just stuff I found and liked.
We will start with a couple of traditional(ish) acts. Jursino Cayetano is a Garifuna musician, a people of mixed African and Amerindian ancestry who have a minority presence in several countries in Central America. This track comes from the same compilation that we featured when we were back in Belize on the second leg of our journey.
The San Lucas Band were a shoo-in for the post when I read the blurb for their album "La Voz de las Cumbres": "The first reissue of cult 1974 recordings of a Mayan brass band playing funeral dirges and popular songs in its distinctive extended harmonic and rhythmic style". I have nothing to add.
Next we have a couple of bands featured on a series of six track EPs titled "Sonidos Perdidos de Guatemala 1969 - 1989". There are four volumes - the link is to the first one - and they are a sort of companion piece to the "Sonidos Perdidos de Centroamérica" compilation that we featured when we were in El Salvador (and will no doubt do so again). Like that album, they were released by Tujaal Sounds and are available on a name your own price basis.
Apple Pie were formed in 1967 by the classic line-up of Gentry Ordoñez, Rico Molina, Wicho Zelaya, and Tito Henkle. The track below was first released as a single in 1970. Of Mino I can find out nothing at all.
Probably the best known internationally of the artists being featured today is Gaby Moreno, who won a Grammy for the best Latin Pop album in 2024 and was named as one of the BBC's 100 Women of the Year the same year. This track from her 2012 album "Postales" is a cover of an old Cuban standard that has also been covered by the likes of Bing Crosby, Cliff Richard, Mari Wilson, Cake and Dennis Brown. I feel a Single Song Sunday coming on.
Sticking with the distaff side of the Guatemalan scene we next bring you Di WAV (Daniela Carpio to her Mum and Dad) and her distinctive brand of indie pop. The EP from which this track comes, "Masoquista", was the 18th most streamed Guatemalan record on Spotify in 2019, so you really have no excuse not to have heard of it before now.
Our penultimate act hail from the city of San Marcos in the west of the country. The Crystal Stones describe their music as a fusion of Rock-Pop, Noise Rock, Post Rock and Rock-Funk, or maybe just Rock for short. Today's track comes from their 2021 album "The Love Club".
We finish as always with the MAR slot, filled admirably on this occasion by La Dubvolution with a track from their 2011 album "3 Es Sonsuelto En Souldub". Its one of the better MAR entries of the series to date and is well worth a listen.
Last Friday's post included a video by Alela Diane on which quite of few of you commented favourably and expressed your intention to explore her back catalogue. I'm here to help with the exploration. We start with a track apiece from "To Be Still" (2009) and "Cusp" (2018) before going a bit off piste with the third selection.
In 2013 the venerable Oi! merchants Hard Skin released an album called "On The Balls" and a companion album "Why Do Birds Suddenly Appear" which had the same songs but with the lead vocals handled by assorted female guests. Some were not unexpected - Beki Bondage for example - others like Alela and Joanna Newsom definitely were. Anyway, its a jolly tune but perhaps not for those of you with delicate ears.
Links stay up for a month or so. If you are an artist or copyright holder and want me to remove the link, or if you want to get in touch for any other reason, e-mail me on leggies27@hotmail.co.uk.
