Who knew I had a celebrity for a neighbour? Certainly not me. Well yesterday as I was taking Ruby on her afternoon walk I saw Martin cleaning his car, and as usual he was filming what he was doing. Well I have seen him filming and talking to his camera before.
Yesterday curiosity got the better of me and I asked him if he had a YouTube channel…… Yes he does and it is really brilliant. The funniest thing was he was wearing a hoody bearing the name of his vlog. Yes emblazoned across his chest are the words Obsessive Car Detailer. Here is one of his posts.
I love the intro to each video very atmosphereic.
Well Martin is a gentleman with more than one string to his bow and more than two vehicles to his drive…..yes he’s not all about being an Obsessive Car Detailer he is also a delightful children’s book author. Martin has written four books delicated to his Grandchildren, Finley,Lily and Susie.
You can buy Martin Harman books at Amazon in Kindle or hardback, the covers have been updated since these copies above.
Right now I can definitely recommend the books I am reading them at the moment.
Most of us have a Nanny and Grandad, but do we really know what they get up to when they go out by themselves? Some are more adventurous than others! The question is, how long can they stay out of trouble? There is only one way to find out.
Sunday is upon us again and it time Jim Adams to host Song Lyric Sunday. Today July 25 the prompt is – Automobile, Car, Jalopy, Vehicle suggested by Melanie B Cee of sparksfromacombustiblemind.
So I thought what shall I choose there are so many great tunes out there. I was taken back to 1979. We had escaped from Exmouth in Devon, we had not quite made it back home to London but we were back in the hub. Life with two out of what would end up as three boys was not so hard. I always had my music. Gary Newman , part of the new wave was right up my street. I didn’t drive in those days, I had to walk everywhere! This song was actually released on our eighth wedding anniversary!
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“Cars” is the debut solo single by English musician Gary Numan. It was released on 21 August 1979 and is from his debut studio album, The Pleasure Principle. The song reached the top of the charts in several countries, and today is considered a new wave staple.
The song was the first release credited solely to Gary Numan after he dropped the band name Tubeway Army, under which name he had released four singles and two LPs, including the number one UK hit “Are ‘Friends’ Electric?“, and its parent album, Replicas. Musically, the new song was somewhat lighter and more pop-oriented than its predecessors, Numan later conceding that he had chart success in mind: “This was the first time I had written a song with the intention of ‘maybe it could be a hit single’; I was writing this before ‘Are “Friends” Electric?’ happened.” He has since described “Cars” as “a pretty average song”.
In the UK charts, it reached number 1 in 1979, and in 1980 hit number 1 in Canada two weeks running on the RPM national singles chart (29 weeks in the top 100). It was his only single tochart there. It rose to #4 on the US Cash Box Top 100 and #9 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Though Numan had a string of hits in the UK, “Cars” was his only song in the American Pop charts.
Here in my car I feel safest of all I can lock all my doors It’s the only way to live in carsHere in my car I can only receive I can listen to you It keeps me stable for days in carsHere in my car Where the image breaks down Will you visit me please If I open my door in carsHere in my car I know I’ve started to think About leaving tonight Although nothing seems right in carsSource: Musixmatch.
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Jalopy was a harder until in the back of my mind I remembered this Connie Frances song Hollywood. I was very young but I had older brothers and sisters and music was always playing in our house.
Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero (born December 12, 1937), known professionally as Connie Francis, is an American pop singer, former actress, and top-charting female vocalist of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Although her chart success waned in the second half of the 1960s, Francis remained a top concert draw. Information from Wikipedia
Whose jalopy is covered with junk But don’t have any money for lunch? It’s Hollywood, it’s HollywoodWho’s the local star With the big, fine car? It’s HollywoodWho wears the shady glasses after dark? Who tries to talk the little girlie’s into parking? It’s Hollywood, HollywoodWho’s the local yokel with The horn rimmed bifocals? It’s Hollywood Go, go, goWho else would hold a cigarette like that? Who else would wear a little Frenchy’s hat? No one but Hollywood, HollywoodWho thinks he’s been around But ain’t never been out of town? It’s HollywoodI’ll give you just one little guess At who old Hollywood’s trying to impress You’re right, it’s Hollywood, HollywoodWho’s that farmer Who think he’s a charmer? It’s HollywoodYeah, it’s Hollywood all right Here Hollywood, here’s a quarter Go buy yourself some, ah, continental pants Ascot, cigarette holder etc, etcSource: MusixmatchSongwriters: John D. Loudermilk.
*****
In the same year as the Gary Newman Track I heard Automobile by John Prime. It really could not of been any more different. The album Pink Cadillac blew my mind ..
John Edward Prine (October 10, 1946 – April 7, 2020) was an American country folk singer-songwriter. He was active as a composer, recording artist, live performer, and occasional actor from the early 1970s until his death, and was known for an often humorous style of original music that has elements of protest and social commentary.
Born and raised in Maywood, Illinois, Prine learned to play the guitar at the age of 14. He attended classes at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music. After serving in West Germany with the U.S. Army, he returned to Chicago in the late 1960s, where he worked as a mailman, writing and singing songs first as a hobby, and then becoming a club performer.
A member of Chicago’s folk revival, Prine credited film critic Roger Ebert and singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson with discovering him, resulting in the production of Prine’s eponymous debut album with Atlantic Records in 1971. The acclaim earned by this LP led Prine to focus on his musical career, and he recorded three more albums for Atlantic. He then signed with Asylum Records, where he recorded an additional three albums. In 1981, he co-founded Oh Boy Records, an independent record label with which he would release most of his subsequent albums.
Widely cited as one of the most influential songwriters of his generation, Prine was known for humorous lyrics about love, life, and current events, as well as serious songs with social commentary and songs that recollect melancholy tales from his life. In 2020, he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Information from Wikipedia
February morning my car won’t start today I turned the key at 8: 03 And the battery passed away Inside a’ my automobileI want my automobile I want my automobile I want to drive it All around this worldBride’s gettin’ married in the springtime Widow’s gettin’ married in the fall I got married in high school Or I wouldn’t of got married at allI’d be drivin’ my automobile Be drivin’ my automobile Be drivin’ my automobile I wanna drive it all around this worldEverybody said to the new groom Groom, what ya gonna be I said, I’m gonna be a symphony Just as soon as I find a keyTo my automobile I want my automobile I want my automobile All around this worldLet’s take a rideColumbus sailed the ocean Moses parted the sea Dolores left me yesterday Well, I think she took the keyTo my automobile I want my automobile I want my automobile Wanna drive it all around this worldNow, I held a little bitty baby I held a woman all night Whenever I get the hiccups I hold my breath ’til my head gets lightThen, I drive my automobile Yeah, I drive my automobile I drive my automobile I’m want to drive it all around this worldFebruary morning, my car won’t start today Yeah, I turned the key at 8: 03 And the battery passed away Inside a’ my automobileI’m drivin’ my automobile Wanna my automobile Wanna drive it all around this world Go onIt is a beautiful day for a ride Hey, get your head down I can’t see anything Someone give me a cigarette I don’t want to take my hands off the wheelWe ought to take the air filter off this sucker So we can see what it will really do Uh oh, it looks to me like a hospital zone Everybody get quiet, shhDon’t wake the dead up We’re almost out, hang on, uh, oh here we go Well, you can just hold it until we get to the next townSource: Musixmatch.
Finally as I go here is Tracy Chapman with Fast Car for no other reason than I love it soooo much.
Since then, Chapman has experienced further success with six more studio albums, which include her multi-platinum fourth album, New Beginning, for which she won a fourth Grammy Award, for Best Rock Song, for its lead single “Give Me One Reason”. Chapman’s most recent album is Our Bright Future, released in 2008.
According to Metro Weekly critic Chris Gerard, “Fast Car” tells a grittily realistic story of a working poor woman trying to escape the cycle of poverty, set to folk rock music.The song’s arrangement was described by Orlando Sentinel writer Thom Duffy as “subtle folk-rock”,while Billboard magazine’s Gary Trust deemed the record a “folk/pop” song.Dave Marsh said it was perhaps an “optimistic folk-rock narrative”, whose characters are in a homeless shelter. Information from Wikipedia
Proclaimers : The Proclaimers are a Scottish band composed of identical twin brothers Charlie and Craig Reid. They are best known for the songs “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)“, Their song I’m gonna be, provides our travel theme by walking 500miles.
Adam and the Ants : Adam and the Ants were a British rock band active during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The original group, which lasted from 1977 to 1982, became notable as a cult band during the transition from the … Wikipedia They take us back to the days of stage coach travel.
W.H. Auden: Wystan Hugh Auden (/ˈwɪstənˈhjuːˈɔːdən/;[1] 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973), who published as W. H. Auden, was an Anglo-American poet,[2][3] born in England, later an American citizen, regarded by many critics as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century.[4] His work is noted for its stylistic and technical achievements, its engagement with moral and political issues, and its variety of tone, form and content.[5][6] The central themes of his poetry are love, politics and citizenship, religion and morals, and the relationship between unique human beings and the anonymous, impersonal world of nature. Wikipedia This video “This is the night mail” takes to the wonderful era of the steam train
Magical Mystery Tour :
This article is about the Beatles’ EP and LP. For the song, see Magical Mystery Tour (song). For the film, see Magical Mystery Tour (film). Magical Mystery Tour is a double EP and LP by the English rock group the Beatles, produced by George Martin, both including the six-song soundtrack to the 1967 film of the same name. The material was released in the United Kingdom on 8 December 1967 as a six-track double EP on the Parlophone label; in the United States the record, released on 27 November 1967, was an eleven-track LP compiled by Capitol Records, adding the band’s 1967 single releases. It takes us to then next type of travel , the bus.
my white bicycle Nazarath :Nazareth are a Scottish hard rockband, founded in 1968, that had several hits in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s. Their track brings us to the bicycle!
Trains and boats and planes Dionne Warwick : Burt F. Bacharach (/ˈbækəræk/bak-ə-rak; born May 12, 1928) is an American singer–songwriter, composer, record producer and pianist. A six-time Grammy Award winner[1] and three-time Academy Award winner,[2] he is known for his popular hit songs and compositions from the late 1950s through the 1980s, many with lyrics written by Hal David as part of the duoBacharach and David. WellBurt Bacharach wrote the song but Dionne Warwick sang this version mentioning all or well most of our modes of travel,
Road to Hell Chris Rea : Chris Rea (/ˈriːə/ree-ə; born Christopher Anton Rea, 4 March 1951)[1] is an English singer-songwriter, recognisable for his distinctive, husky voice and slide guitar playing.[2] The British Hit Singles & Albums stated that Rea was “one of the most popular UK singer-songwriters of the late 1980s. He was already a major European star by the time he finally cracked the UK Top 10 with his 18th chart entry; ‘The Road to Hell which brings us singularly to the car.
Chaiyya Chaiyya : “Chaiyya Chaiyya” (English: [walk] in shade) is an Indian song from the 1998 Hindi film Dil Se.. directed by Mani Ratnam. The song was composed by A.R. Rahman, written by Gulzar, and sung by Sukhwinder Singh and Sapna Awasthi. It quickly became popular upon release and its music video gained the same status, partly because it was filmed on a moving train. The Urduversion of the song is called “Chaiyya Chaiyya”, while the Tamil version is called “Thaiyya Thaiyya”. This is not only about travelling on a train it is the most wonderful song and video , it always lifts my mood!
Led Zeppelin Stairway to heaven : “Stairway to Heaven” is a song by the English rock band Led Zeppelin, released in late 1971. It was composed by guitaristJimmy Page and vocalist Robert Plant for the band’s untitled fourth studio album (often referred to as Led Zeppelin IV). It is often referred to as one of the greatest rock songs of all time.[2][3][4] Wikipedia The travel is really in the groups name Zeppelin but they are on a stairway going to heaven.
Gerry and the Pacemakers : “Ferry Cross the Mersey” (sometimes written Ferry ‘Cross the Mersey) is a song written by Gerry Marsden. It was first recorded by his band Gerry and the Pacemakers and released in late 1964 in the UK and in 1965 in the United States. It was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic, reaching number six in the United States[2] and number eight in the UK.[3] The song is from thefilm with the same name and was released on its soundtrack album. In the mid-1990s a musical theatre production also titledFerry Cross the Mersey related Gerry Marsden’s Merseybeat days; it premiered in Liverpool and played in the UK, Australia, and Canada. This beautiful song takes to the water travel and the Ferry. This too is one of my most favourite songs.
And now my last but one video a travelling show ! and who else but a remastered and remade Cher!!!!
Elton John: Sir Elton Hercules John CBE is an English singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor. He has worked with lyricist Bernie Taupin as his songwriter partner since 1967; they have collaborated on more than 30 albums to date. Wikipedia The song “Passengers ” refers to those who travel.
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