Musical 'F*** my Hat, I didn't know that!'

[DJ Bob Hoskins]

Come off it. Next you'll be telling us that The Sultans of Ping FC aren't even a real football team.

[buzby]

Absolutely. She ensured they were invited to contribute to the Private Dancer album after they enlisted her to cover "Ball Of Confusion" on the first B.E.F. album.

Turner was only the second choice for Ball Of Confusion - it was originally going to be James Brown, but the day before they were due to fly out to Atlanta to record it with him, his lawyer phoned and said he wanted 100% of the royalties on the album, not just on the track he was singing on, so the B.E.F. pulled out. The financial contorller of Virgin was due to fly out to LA and was a friend of Turner, and said if they thought she would be a suitable alternative he would ask her.

The covers of Let's Stay Together and Bowie's 1984 were recorded with the B.E.F. at Abbey Road as a standalone session well in advance of the rest of the album, and the tracks were subsequently included on it.

[daf]

Don't think we've had this one yet . . .

You know that guitar solo in 'I want to Break Free' by Queen, yeah?



The one played by Brian May on his red fireplace guitar, right?

. . . WRONG!

It's actually a keyboard solo played by Fred Mandel on a Roland Jupiter-8

"The solo was done in one take, apart from the last note that goes down a whole octave where I had to reset my Jupiter 8 (it was set up for guitar lines because when I'm playing synthesizer like that, I'm thinking with my guitar brain). Credit to Mack's incredible engineering skills that he was able to catch that one note with the technology available at the time. The rest was impromptu and the reality is, I've never played that solo again as it just came out of my head. I had no idea until afterwards that there was a precedence of nobody ever having played a Queen solo except Brian. I would never do anything to interfere with my relationship with Brian, but I believe he thinks it's a good solo as part of the tune... and he's still doing a great job of playing it live on guitar! The final note is that we're still friends!"

[famethrowa]

]

The one played by Brian May on his red fireplace guitar, right?

. . . WRONG!

It's actually a keyboard solo played by Fred Mandel on a Roland Jupiter-8

As a keyboard player on stage, I've had to fight various guitarists for this solo (also the synth line in Jet, and the chords in Let's Stick Together etc etc). It's actually very simple note-wise, the same lick in 3 different places, but the pitch bender gets a good workout. Fred Mandel also was in Elton's band and played on The Wall, he got around!

[buzby]

Don't think we've had this one yet . . .

You know that guitar solo in 'I want to Break Free' by Queen, yeah?

The one played by Brian May on his red fireplace guitar, right?

. . . WRONG!

It's actually a keyboard solo played by Fred Mandel on a Roland Jupiter-8

You are just proving nobody reads my posts in the TOTP threads....

The I Want To Break Free video was prime 'harrumph' material for my dad. The synth solo was played by Fred Mandel on a Jupiter 8 (using it's distinctive wide-range pitch bender to replicate May's guitar style)

[daf]

Apologies, buzby!

I thought it might have been a bit old news anyway *, but it just happened to come up in another thread today as a 'FMH' moment - so thought I'd pop it in here to pickle it for posterity.

- - - - - - - - - - -
* (there seems to be at least one Queen documentary shown on Sky or Channel 5 every week!)

[famethrowa]

After nearly 40 years, I found out that the first line of the second verse of Down Under by Men At Work says "buying bread from a man in Brussels". I never knew what it was before and just assumed the tall muscled man in Belgium just randomly handed the singer a Vegemite sandwich he had in his pocket.

[Jockice]

After nearly 40 years, I found out that the first line of the second verse of Down Under by Men At Work says "buying bread from a man in Brussels". I never knew what it was before and just assumed the tall muscled man in Belgium just randomly handed the singer a Vegemite sandwich he had in his pocket.

I used to think it was 'he just smiled and gave me a bit of my sandwich.' Which begged the question as to why he had handed it over to a stranger in the first place.

[Famous Mortimer]

After nearly 40 years, I found out that the first line of the second verse of Down Under by Men At Work says "buying bread from a man in Brussels". I never knew what it was before and just assumed the tall muscled man in Belgium just randomly handed the singer a Vegemite sandwich he had in his pocket.

Bloody hell!

[Kankurette]

Skin from Skunk Anansie is called that because she was nicknamed 'Skinny' as a child, not because she's a slaphead.

[jamiefairlie]

Skin from Skunk Anansie is called that because she was nicknamed 'Skinny' as a child, not because she's a slaphead.

I suspect "Sting" levels of self-mythology there.

[famethrowa]

There's a Joe Dolce song on the Terminator soundtrack.

[DrGreggles]

There's a Joe Dolce song on the Terminator soundtrack.

Hasta La Vista Ya Face?
Yeah, it's a banger.

[Icehaven]

Charlotte Richie was in spectacularly naff classical girl-group All Angels.

[Kankurette]

I suspect "Sting" levels of self-mythology there.

I was hoping it was because she was a slaphead.

[phantom_power]

Apparently the lyrics for Knives Out by Radiohead were inspired (or nicked) from an episode of Silent Witness:

https://www.reddit.com/r/radiohead/comments/oyk6lt/til_knives_out_lyrics_are_taken_from_a_scene_in/

[Johnboy]

Sultans of Ping is a play on Sultans of Swing.

ffs

[popcorn]

Apparently the lyrics for Knives Out by Radiohead were inspired (or nicked) from an episode of Silent Witness:

https://www.reddit.com/r/radiohead/comments/oyk6lt/til_knives_out_lyrics_are_taken_from_a_scene_in/

that is absolutely fucking brilliant.

[phantom_power]

I wonder if all his lyrics can be traced back to whatever shit he was watching at the time

[popcorn]

I wonder if all his lyrics can be traced back to whatever shit he was watching at the time

or reading

https://www.reddit.com/r/radiohead/comments/6gopzp/pulkpull_revolving_doors_origin_a_childrens/

[phantom_power]

The theme tune to Golden Girls wasn't written for the show but was a hit in 1978 for Andrew Gold

[The Culture Bunker]

The theme tune to Golden Girls wasn't written for the show but was a hit in 1978 for Andrew Gold

Freddie Mercury helped out on backing vocals on his 'Never Let Her Slip Away' - a song that whenever I hear the first line, I want to add in "Ding dong! Hong Kong! Hello!" Vic and Bob style, tiresome idiot that I am.

[Better Midlands]

The theme tune to Golden Girls wasn't written for the show but was a hit in 1978 for Andrew Gold

That's a good one, I used to love that theme tune.
Andrew Gold turned out some decent stuff NLHSA, Building A Bridge To Your Heart, Spooky Scary Skeletons.

[phantom_power]

I only know because I was reading an old issue of Smash Hits from 1978 and it had the lyrics

Also, early Smash Hits was 90% lyrics with a couple of small band articles, some generic single/album roundups and a gossip page. I am working my way through them chronologically so not sure when that ratio flipped

[JesusAndYourBush]

The theme tune to Golden Girls wasn't written for the show but was a hit in 1978 for Andrew Gold

It was also on the end of the Wearside Jack tape, preceded by something like "Hope you like the little tune at the end."

[Echo Valley 2-6809]

That's a good one, I used to love that theme tune.
Andrew Gold turned out some decent stuff NLHSA, Building A Bridge To Your Heart, Spooky Scary Skeletons.

One of my unfashionable musical heroes. Wrote some great pop songs, occasionally toured a Byrds tribute band, and as a multi-instrumentalist recorded a great 1960s/psychedelia pastiche album as The Fraternal Order of the All, titled 'Greetings from Planet Love'. It's been mentioned here before.

He also did 12 episodes of an entertainingly creative one-man podcast in 2005 - all here: https://soundcloud.com/andrewgoldmusic/sets/the-love-hour-podcasts

Freddie Mercury helped out on backing vocals on his 'Never Let Her Slip Away'

Almost certainly not true, unfortunately - despite what Wikipedia might say.

[The Culture Bunker]

Almost certainly not true, unfortunately - despite what Wikipedia might say.

I've a strong suspicion I read that in an obituary to Gold, but chances are the hack who wrote it lifted it from Wiki. Oh well.

[amateur]

Don't think we've had this one yet . . .

You know that guitar solo in 'I want to Break Free' by Queen, yeah?

The one played by Brian May on his red fireplace guitar, right?

. . . WRONG!

It's actually a keyboard solo played by Fred Mandel on a Roland Jupiter-8

This fact - and indeed the song - was just on 6 Music.

[SpiderChrist]

This fact - and indeed the song - was just on 6 Music.

It was. "The People's Playlist", right? Well "The People" can go fuck a farm animal if that's the sort of absolute cunting shite they want to hear.

[amateur]