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Crooning with the candidates

What do Jay-Z, Yo-Yo Ma, Bob Dylan and Sheryl Crow have in common?

They may yet be the core elements of an inaugural quartet.

An Inconvenient Truth, in song

La Scala's audience has seen it all. The premiere of Puccini's Madame Butterfly, of Verdi's Otello and now...of Gore's An Inconvenient Truth.

Arias about melting icecaps and growing carbon footprints will soon ring around the hallowed halls of Italy's famous opera house.

The AP reports that Italian Giorgio Battistelli will compose the score for the 2011 season. No word yet on whether Gore will fit the accolade of chief soloist between his Oscar and Nobel prize.

Alice Fishburn

Check out Red Box for...

...Ed Balls, live at the Albert Hall.

What do we think Yvette Cooper's whispering to him during this somewhat alarming serenade?

'Stop, please stop' or 'I'm going to need another glass of wine if this continues...'

Other suggestions welcome.

Alice Fishburn

Song of the day for T5 sufferers

The Today Programme highlighted this Monty Python gem this morning.

Here it is in all its glorious relevancy.

Why Neil Aspinall was a more important figure than he seems

Beatles fans (I am one) will have been sad this morning to hear the news of the death of Neil Aspinall. This is not just because he was a constant in their story (he's seen in the picture above standing in for George Harrison in rehearsal for the Ed Sullivan Show), but because of the important role he has played in preserving their legacy.

Contrast Apinall's handling of the Beatles after their break up with those managing the affairs of Elvis Presley after his heyday. Aspinall succeeded in feeding the appetite for more Beatles material while avoiding cheapening their work or undermining their reputation.

He was pivotal in ensuring that the Beatles' popularity was parlayed into a lasting status as icons.

In years to come I think his work will be seen as the perfect example of how to handle the legacy of popular cultural heroes, making him a more important figure than he now seems.

Here is your Neil Aspinall reader

The Times: Neil Aspinall: The obituary

Hunter Davies in The Guardian: Beatles fixer and friend takes secrets to the grave

Allan Kozinn in The New York Times: Neil Aspinall. Beatles' Aide, dies at 66

Allan Kozinn in The New York Times: Magical Mystery Tour Ends for Apple Corps Executive

Parmy Olson in Forbes: Aspinall No Longer With The Beatles

The Independent: Neil Aspinall: Beatle's friend and road manager who became the boss of Apple

And finally, the excellent video for the (only partially successful) song Free as a Bird, issued as part of the Beatles Anthology

Can't buy me love: The McCartney-Mills judgement

The McCartney Mills judgment is out now and it is worth reading in full if you are remotely interested in it. Even one colleague who doesn't much care for either party to the case told me they found it compelling.

How shall I put it? The judge did not find Heather very convincing.

I do have one question, though. Was it sensible to publish the full addresses of their various homes? Doesn't this threaten both their security and their privacy?

It is worth recalling what happened to John Lennon when autograph hunters began gathering outside his apartment.

Music to Listen to - Pete Atkin and Clive James

Did you know that the author and TV presenter Clive James writes song lyrics?

I do because I've been listening to them for years, ever since I heard the man who sings them - Pete Atkin - perform for the first time.

Today Atkin and James release a new CD, entitled Midnight Voices. It consists of new arrangements of some of their finest songs. I recommend it highly - it's literate, tuneful and moody. I am addicted.

Since it is hard to categorise, you may be better off sampling the music than trying to capture its spirit from reading my prose. Or even John Bungey's prose.

So go to the Pete Atkin website (the creation of appreciative fans), scroll down and on the left hand column is a list entitled "Listen to". The fifth song on that list - Touch has a Memory - is the opening song on the album.

Why should Heather Mills get £24 million?

Please accept that what I am about to write I do as someone who is a. A big fan of Paul McCartney and b. Entirely ignorant of divorce law.

But I just have to ask - why does Heather Mills get £24 million for being married to McCartney for four years?

Did she play a role in making the money? No, he earned his fortune before he met her.

Did she sacrifice her earnings or earning power while standin' by her man? No, she is certainly more marketable now than before she met McCartney. And any deterioration that has taken place in the last year has been as a result of her behaviour since the divorce.

Does she need £600,000 a year? No, nobody needs £600,000 a year. There might have been a case of her having become accustomed to it during their marriage, except for this - she was only married to him for a very short time.

Isn't it for the child? There is a separate sum - £35,000 plus nanny and school fees - for the child.

Far from mouthing off about the judge, Ms Mills should have been grateful that he upped the sum from Sir Paul's already very generous opening offer.

Perhaps you can come up with one good reason why she deserves the money.

Or maybe I should just retire and marry a Beatle.

UPDATE: Can't buy me love: The McCartney-Mills judgement

A day in the life: What the lives of the Beatles tell us about their art

I should have known that teasing Oliver Kamm about reading a book was a dangerous thing to do.

In an earlier post I urged readers to enjoy Ian MacDonald's Revolution in the Head, a book about the music of the Beatles. Incautiously I added: "Even you Oliver Kamm".

One of my reasons for encouraging the purchase of the Beatles book was that MacDonald argues - I think convincingly - that the politics and culture of the era, the views of the participants and their personal experiences shaped their music. And that it can't be properly understood or appreciated without it.

I knew Oliver - who strongly disagrees with me about the importance of personal experience - would not have read this book because popular music is not his bag. Hence the tease.

It turns out - how could I think it wouldn't have done - that while Oliver has not read Revolution in the Head he is, nevertheless, familiar with MacDonald's argument. Why? Because he has read MacDonald's book on Dmitri Shostakovich. And he regards it as unconvincing.

Oliver finishes his posting with this:

We can't gain direct knowledge of an artist's intentions, and even if we could then it still wouldn't necessarily be a reliable guide to the art. Art is independent of politics; we can make sense of a work of art only in its own terms, and not by inferring from it the intentions of the composer, author or artist.

These points have force. Few bodies of work have been as carefully examined as the songs of the Beatles. And few artists have given as many interviews about their work. Yet in many cases their intentions when writing a song remain obscure and the songs are enjoyed and understood without explanation.

Nevertheless I think Oliver, while having a good point, is being too dogmatic.

We can (and must be able to) make sense of a work of art in its own terms. Yes. We can make sense of a work of art only in its own terms. No.

Learning the context in which a work was completed helps both understanding and appreciation.

Using the - admittedly in Oliver's eyes lowbrow but also accessible - example of the Beatles, it is clear that, for instance, realising that Tomorrow Never Knows is the first example of an LSD influenced Beatles song aids understanding. And knowing that Sexy Sadie is an attack on the Maharishi aids appreciation.

There are countless other examples in Revolution in the Head.

I simply can't completely agree with the suggestion that art and politics are completely independent or that a composer's intentions are entirely irrelevant.

More than a feeling that Mike Huckabee's not happy

Some bad news for Mike Huckabee, the music-lovin' candidate who brandishes his guitar every opportunity he gets.

One of his favourite bands is not returning the love.

Huckabee often kickstarts events with the Boston song 'More than a feeling.' This all ended last week when Tom Scholz, the band's founder, wrote to Huckabee asking him to turn down the volume. 

By using my song and my band's name Boston, you have taken something of mine and used it to promote ideas to which I am opposed. In other words, I think I've been ripped off, dude.

Adding insult to injury, Scholz proclaimed that he supports Obama. Way harsh, man. Way harsh.

Alice Fishburn

Sexy Sadie? Sexy Maharishi morelike...

The death of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was reported this morning. The BBC described him as having influenced a number of Beatles's songs, including Sexy Sadie.

This is to understate matters.

The Maharishi didn't inspire Sexy Sadie. He was its subject. The song, the last Lennon wrote in India before packing his bags and heading home, was originally called Maharishi, but fears of legal action persuaded Lennon to change the words.

So if you listen to Sexy Sadie, inserting the word Maharishi whenever the title appears, you can discover what Lennon thought of his spiritual guru in the end.

What happened to sour the relationship?

Lennon came to believe that the Maharishi had attempted to seduce Mia Farrow, who was one of the party staying with him and the other Beatles. But was this true? Neither Paul McCartney nor George Harrison believe it was. Cynthia Lennon believed it was a rumour spread by the eccentric and jealous Lennon friend - Magic Alex.

The truth is that a bust up between the Maharishi and the Beatles was inevitable.

Lennon was too cynical, McCartney too wary and Ringo too grounded to have stuck with the Maharishi for all that long.

The only one still with the programme once the sixties had passed was George Harrison. Extraordinarily he even appeared at a concert for the Natural Law Party with its idea that the problems of society could be solved by getting everyone to begin Yogic Flying.

Coldplay's next single: The Economist?

The news of Coldplay's dispute with EMI shouldn't come as much of a surprise, nor has it got anything to do with it being taken over by Guy Hands.

I recall writing a column for The Times more than 18 months ago about Chris Martin's relationship with his record company:

Last week the lead singer of Coldplay announced: "I think shareholders are the great evil of this modern world."

Martin was commenting after EMI had given warning that its profits would be lower because the band took longer than expected to record their latest album. "I don't really care about EMI," he said, graciously.

And the explanation for Martin's comments didn't lie in the obvious places - not in mismanagement of talent by EMI, not in Chris Martin being a great idiot.

It lay then, as it lies now, in simple economics.

There was a time when performers made their money from record sales. Now, as a recent paper from Princeton University economists demonstrates, they make it from touring.

Recording artists have once more become travelling troubadours.

This isn't an artistic dispute, it's all about money.

Rockin' through Christmas - Day 10

I'll be posting one of my top ten rock songs each day over Christmas. Have a listen and send me yours.

Van Morrison - Caravan

And here's Day 1...(Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run)

And Day 2 ... (The Who - Pinball Wizard) 

And Day 3...(George Harrison/Paul Simon - Here Comes The Sun/Homeward Bound)

And Day 4...(The Beatles - In My Life)

And Day 5...(Southside Johnny with Bruce Springsteen - I Don't Want To Go Home)

And Day 6...(The Rolling Stones - Angie)

And Day 7...(Eric Clapton - Layla)

And Day 8...(The Beatles - For No One)

And Day 9...(Nils Lofgren - Shine Silently)

Rockin' through Christmas - Day 9

I'll be posting one of my top ten rock songs each day over Christmas. Have a listen and send me yours.

Nils Lofgren - Shine Silently

And here's Day 1...(Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run)

And Day 2 ... (The Who - Pinball Wizard) 

And Day 3...(George Harrison/Paul Simon - Here Comes The Sun/Homeward Bound)

And Day 4...(The Beatles - In My Life)

And Day 5...(Southside Johnny with Bruce Springsteen - I Don't Want To Go Home)

And Day 6...(The Rolling Stones - Angie)

And Day 7...(Eric Clapton - Layla)

And Day 8...(The Beatles - For No One)

Rockin' through Christmas - Day 8

I'll be posting one of my top ten rock songs each day over Christmas. Have a listen and send me yours.

The Beatles - For No One

And here's Day 1...(Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run)

And Day 2 ... (The Who - Pinball Wizard) 

And Day 3...(George Harrison/Paul Simon - Here Comes The Sun/Homeward Bound)

And Day 4...(The Beatles - In My Life)

And Day 5...(Southside Johnny with Bruce Springsteen - I Don't Want To Go Home)

And Day 6...(The Rolling Stones - Angie)

And Day 7...(Eric Clapton - Layla)

Rockin' through Christmas - Day 7

I'll be posting one of my top ten rock songs each day over Christmas. Have a listen and send me yours.

Eric Clapton - Layla

And here's Day 1...(Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run)

And Day 2 ... (The Who - Pinball Wizard) 

And Day 3...(George Harrison/Paul Simon - Here Comes The Sun/Homeward Bound)

And Day 4...(The Beatles - In My Life)

And Day 5...(Southside Johnny with Bruce Springsteen - I Don't Want To Go Home)

And Day 6...(The Rolling Stones - Angie)

Rockin' through Christmas - Day 6

I'll be posting one of my top ten rock songs each day over Christmas. Have a listen and send me yours.

The Rolling Stones - Angie

And here's Day 1...(Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run)

And Day 2 ... (The Who - Pinball Wizard) 

And Day 3...(George Harrison/Paul Simon - Here Comes The Sun/Homeward Bound)

And Day 4...(The Beatles - In My Life)

And Day 5...(Southside Johnny with Bruce Springsteen - I Don't Want To Go Home)

Rockin' through Christmas - Day 5

I'll be posting one of my top ten rock songs each day over Christmas. Have a listen and send me yours.

Southside Johnny with Bruce Springsteen - I Don't Want To Go Home

And here's Day 1... (Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run)

And Day 2 ...( The Who - Pinball Wizard)

And Day 3... (George Harrison/Paul Simon - Here Comes The Sun/Homeward Bound)

And Day 4 (The Beatles - In My Life)

Rockin' through Christmas - Day 4

I'll be posting one of my top ten rock songs each day over Christmas. Have a listen and send me yours.

And here's Day 1...

And Day 2 ...

And Day 3

Rockin' through Christmas - Day 3

I'll be posting one of my top ten rock songs each day over Christmas. Have a listen and send me yours.

And here's Day 1...

And Day 2

Rockin' through Christmas - Day 2

I'll be posting one of my top ten rock songs each day over Christmas. Have a listen and send me yours.

And here's Day 1

Rockin' through Christmas - Day 1

I'll be posting one of my top ten rock songs each day over Christmas. Have a listen and send me yours.

One that Andrew missed...

Andrew Sullivan did a great job with his terrible 1980s pop videos. But I fear that he left one of the strongest contenders off his list. Stick with it, it gets "better" and "better":

Back to the 80s...

It's always worth checking out Andrew Sullivan's pathbreaking blog. But this week, his hilarious 80s music video contest makes it a must-read.

Go now and vote for the best, worst and best-worst performances of the decade that fashion forgot.

Alice Fishburn

Would Bon Jovi give Jersey a bad name?

Bon Jovi has just revealed his latest ambition. No, not another hit song or best-selling album. Instead, he's gunning for the governorship of New Jersey. Well, you got to keep the faith.

The rocking resident has reportedly hired the PR behind David Dinkins, the infamous New York City mayor. And despite moving to Manhattan, he's deliberately keeping resident status in the Garden State.

Bon Jovi may think he needs little more than a prayer to win this. But we've come up with a competitor who would wipe the floor with him...Bruce Springsteen, voice of New Jersey itself.

And after all, he was born to run.

Alice Fishburn

Top five singing politicians

The French Foreign Secretary and his German counterpart are to record a rhythm and blues song together to promote cultural integration.

They are not alone.

Hillary sings the national anthem:

Giscard D'Estang plays the accordian:

John Redwood not singing the Welsh national anthem:

Ken Livingstone performs a song on stage with Blur:

The President of Korea bursts into song:

I'm in heaven

Hearing on the radio yesterday Dexy's Midnight Runners singing Van Morrison's tribute to the soul singer Jackie Wilson - the fabulous song Jackie Wilson Said - reminded me of my favourite editing error of all time.

So here it is, the appearance of Dexy's on Top of the Pops dancing in front of a picture of the great African American singer.

Unfortunately, the producers have instead put up a huge picture of the 22 stone Scottish darts player Jocky Wilson.

When I see Hillary Clinton, I hear....

Favourite song selection can say it all for a political candidate.

Barack Obama recently announced that he enjoys 'Crazy in Love' by Beyonce. Reading: I'm with it enough to appeal to today's youth.

John Edwards has previously picked 'Small Town' by John Mellencamp. Reading: I'm a milltown boy made good - just one of the people.

And who can forget John Kerry's 2004 selection? 'No Surrender' by Bruce Springsteen. Oops.

But what about the rest of our '08 crew? Which melody best sums up Hillary Clinton? Or Mitt Romney? Send in your suggestions.

Alice Fishburn

A particularly charming political anthem from Hamas

Here's a political anthem I missed - Hamas, Hamas, Hamas the apple of my eye.

You can listen to it and even watch the video here. But I'll give you the lyrics so you can sing along, particularly to the catchy chorus "in black bags, chunks of flesh of Jews"

    They destroyed the Merkava [tank]

    The apple of my eye - Hamas (repeated eight times)

    A bombing every minute

    Soldiers are afraid

    A bombing every minute

    Soldiers are afraid

    In black bags

    Chunks of flesh of Jews (repeated five times)

    In retaliation for Yassin we want Sharon's head

    We want Sharon's head

    We want Sharon's head!

    Hamas, Hamas, Hamas the apple of my eye - Hamas

    They destroyed the Merkava [tank]

    The apple of my eye - Hamas (repeated five times)

    The apple of my eye -Hamas

    The apple of my eye - Hamas

Catchy, huh?

Oddly this is dedicated to the Arab and Palestinian community in Sweden who I imagine were touched.

For other political anthems go here.

Top Ten Political Campaign Songs

There are no end of campaign songs. Rousing and fun (the Jamaican People's National Party), mildly ridiculous (Sarko oh oh) or even kind of cool (Chavez regrettably).

Here's my top ten list with links to the music.

1) John F. Kennedy (United States):

2) Jamaican Labour Party (Jamaica)

3) Jamaican People's National Party (Jamaica)

4) Timothy Leary (United States): Come Together by The Beatles (commissioned for his run as Governor of California)

5) Michael Dukakis (United States): America by Neil Diamond

6) Hugo Chavez (Venezuela): UHH AHH Chavez no se va! by Grupo Madera

7) Nicolas Sarkozy (France): Allez Sarko (Sarko ohoh!)

8) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Iran): Yare Dabestani

9) Nationalist People's Coalition of the Philippines... (The Philippines)

10) Australian Labour Party (Australia): The 1972 Gough Whitlam campaign - It's Time.

Read Matthew Parris's Week...

More on the Brian Wilson Prize...

Check out this Ed Byrne riff on Alanis Morrisette. How should one define ironic again?

(Hat Tip: Martin Samuel)

Top 5 confusing song lyrics

Earlier this week I explained my concerns about the Beach Boys. Does Brian Wilson wish that the only girls he meets, wherever he is, are natives of California? Or does he wish that all the girls he meets would relocate to California?

The more I think about it the more common and puzzling the problem seems. So I am opening up the Brian Wilson Prize to all comers. I am looking for ambiguous song lyrics.

Here are my current top five:

1. "But I know what I am and I'm glad I'm a man and so is Lola" (The Kinks). As an astute Comment Central reader has noticed, Ray Davies isn't entirely clear here. Is Lola a man? Or simply glad that the song's narrator is a man?

2. "No woman, no cry" (Bob Marley). Marley may be saying no to the woman, don't cry. Or does he mean that if he didn't have a woman he wouldn't cry?

3. We don't need no education (Pink Floyd). Do they mean they don't need an education (which appears to be the thrust of the rest of the song)? Or, as this line suggests, that they don't not need one? The confusion is similar to that besetting Mick Jagger and Keith Richards when they report that "(I can't get no) satisfaction" (Rolling Stones)

4. "I hope the Russians love their children too" (Sting). The composer clearly wishes us to get rid of our nuclear weapons. If we did it wouldn't matter whether the Russians loved their children, only if they loved ours. And if we kept our weapons, but the Russians got rid of theirs, it still wouldn't matter if the Russians loved their children. It would only matter if we loved their children. So (unless Sting was broadening out to cover general child welfare all of a sudden) the only circumstances in which it matters if the Russians loved their children would be if there was mutually assured destruction. Which the song is against.

and then there is the classic...

5. "I wish they all could be California girls" (Beach Boys)

I look forward to your contributions.

Just where does Brian Wilson like his women from?

I went to see Beach Boy Brian Wilson last night at the Royal Festival Hall and agree with Pete Paphides, who gave it four stars and wondered, as I do, whether we might have been present at the unveiling of a pop music masterpiece from a very unlikely source.

But I was also wondering about something else. California Girls. I need some help with the meaning of the Beach Boys song California Girls (you can watch a performance below).

Does Mr Wilson wish that everywhere he goes he only encounters girls from California or does he wish that when he is in California he encounters all the girls he has seen elsewhere in the United States?

"I wish they all could be California girls" is an imprecise formulation.

Is there a Comment Central reader able to provide illumination?

It's like ra-a-ain, on your wedding day...

According to Wikipedia itself, its article on Irony "appears to contradict itself".

As Alanis Morissette once sang: isn't it ironic, don't you think?

Oh, and here's the video so, like me, you can get the damn song stuck in your head as well.

Murad Ahmed

The profane and provocative Tony Wilson

The funeral of the simultaneously dreadful and magnificent Tony Wilson, of Factory Records, was held today.

Wilson's comments on politics were so profane it was virtually impossible to find a single complete quote from this Spiked interview in 2001 that didn't require asterisks. But I enjoyed this story:

Wilson had a narrow escape when it came to John Smith. He wrote an article for the Manchester Evening News in 1994, which, he says, 'was basically a plea for somebody to kill that dick John Smith' - then jetted off to America for a conference, switched on CNN and heard that Smith had died of a heart attack. 'I nearly had one myself, there on the spot', says Wilson, 'but luckily the Evening News managed to pull the article in time. The last thing I needed was to be blamed for the death of John Smith'.

I also enjoyed his reason for supporting Tony Blair and new Labour:

Left-wing Labour MPs, some of whom were friends of mine, they were f***ing tossers all of them. They kept Thatcher in power. She did a great job of staying in power by herself, but she was assisted by left-wing Labour MPs all the way, who were so into their own f***ing inner-party politics that they didn't know how to relate to potential voters.'

And as for Labour leaders...'No one was ever going to elect Michael Foot or Neil f***ing hunchback Kinnock, or - though no one admits it now because he's dead and has become a "great politician" as they all do when they die - the awful John Smith.

He concluded:

We mustn't forget how important it is to trounce the Tories

The rest of it is fun too.

Uh?

This is bizarre and funny in equal measure. Why did they make this? Who are the band? Who is supposed to be influenced by it? There are so many questions and so few answers.

How do I turn off this racket?

Why did Elton John become a rock star instead of a professor of IT or media studies? Here are his sagacious comments in this morning's Sun:

Hopefully the next movement in music will tear down the internet.

Let’s get out in the streets and march and protest instead of sitting at home and blogging.

I do think it would be an incredible experiment to shut down the whole internet for five years and see what sort of art is produced over that span.

Yeah, great idea. Hold on a minute while I find the off switch and then we can all return to our attics and begin turning out works of art like Crococile Rock.

Jihad - the musical

This is un-Islamic in so many ways.

Murad Ahmed

(Hat Tip: Hugo Rifkind)

UPDATE: If, like me, you're into tasteless musical comedy, you can see Jihad - the musical at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Urban poetry for the politically incorrect

While I’m on the subject of political incorrectness, a colleague told me over lunch that she likes to perform Mel Brooks’s Nazi rap for a friend to cheer him up every once in a while. If you’ve never seen it before, watch it below.

This reminded me of the time I met a very old childhood friend of mine for the first time in years. Without prompting, he started performing a jihadist rap (much like this one). If you’ve ever seen anyone spontaneously rap, you’ll know the first few seconds are amusing, but once someone moves onto the third verse it starts to get a little uncomfortable. Listening to a full jihadi rap made me want to blow myself up.

Only kidding.

Murad Ahmed

We Didn't Start The Fire competition

It is time, indeed long past time, to update Billy Joel's classic song We Didn't Start The Fire.

I have no idea why anyone accused Mr Joel and his friends of starting a fire and am willing to accept his protestations that he is not guilty. He is, I am sure, an Innocent Man.

But I don't think we can allow this song to end in 1989 with Tiananmen Square.

A Comment Central prize to the best update adding names and events from the past 18 years.

To help you here are the lyrics so far:

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnny Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio

Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, Television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

Rosenbergs, H Bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, The King And I, and The Catcher In The Rye

Eisenhower, Vaccine, England's got a new queen
Maciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc

Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dancron
Dien Bien Phu Falls, Rock Around the Clock

Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland

Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev
Princess Grace, Peyton Place, Trouble in the Suez

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, Bridge On The River Kwai

Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkwether, Homicide, Children of Thalidomide
Buddy Holly, Ben Hur, Space Monkey, Mafia
Hula Hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go

U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Hemingway, Eichman, Stranger in a Strange Land
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion

Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatlemania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson

Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British Politician sex
J.F.K. blown away, what else do I have to say

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, Terror on the airline
Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan

Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide
Foreign debts, homeless Vets, AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz
Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law
Rock and Roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Wikipedia helpfully provides a guide to the events and people named in We Didn't Start the Fire

And here is Mr Joel singing the pre-Comment Central version:

If you are too shy to post your lyrics here, you can send them to me on commentcentral@thetimes.co.uk.

The Arctic Monkeys strategy

In her column this morning Mary Ann Sieghart notes that Gordon Brown's political strategy will follow the title of the first Arctic Monkeys album -  Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not:

Too Scottish? He blurs his burr. Too serious? He tries to smile. Anti-reform? He praises city academies and hospital autonomy. Too factional? He invites Jeremy Heywood, Tony Blair’s former principal private secretary, to join him in No 10. Too tribal? He coopts some Liberal Democrats into his government.

So what might be to come this week from Gordon Brown's Arctic Monkey' s strategy?

Here are some possibilities:

Andrew Adonis to stay an Education Minister. I should think that's a given.

Charles Clarke in the Cabinet. That's a given too.

John Hutton to stay. Yep.

Alan Milburn in the Cabinet. Bit more of a stretch, but possible.

Charlie Falconer? Stephen Byers? Frank Field? Whoever. Modernising names will turn up running committees and commissions.

Outreach to Blair and his advisers. Jobs or mere courtesies.

At least one big Tory name approached to do some Tsar-like stuff.

Announces referendum on Europe.

Lots more city academies.

Any more ideas anyone?

A short lesson on rock music management

This is great fun.

Do you by any chance remember The Turtles? The sixties rock group that produced Happy Together?

Whether you do or not (I do, but only barely), you'll enjoy this hilarious short video (with a great punchline at the end) in which two member rehearse their history.

As The Underwire correctly observes, it's like Spi