Easter track smackdown: Round seven - Sugar Ray Dinke

Good morning, as we pick up our Easter weekend entertainment of shaking online music services to see if they're actually any good. Yesterday, we discovered that it's easier than you might think to find Bernard Cribbins online, and - to our surprise - that there was a Charlottes greatest hits compilation. It also looks like Amazon and iTunes are better places to find slightly obscure music than Spotify or we7.

At this half-way point, we're losing Sweeping The Nation and The Internet As A Whole from the leader board, because it's a lot of typing.

Back to the tussle, then, and let's start today by seeing who can supply us with a digital copy of Cabrini Green, Sugar Ray Dinke's cry of despair at his neighbourhood. "Just don't drive a car or a bus down the street called The Vision" warns Sugar Ray, "if you do drive through, you've made a very bad decision." The risk, he says, is that you might get hit by an egg or a jar, although the song is also a tribute to his friend who got shot in the same place. Given that, you might consider needing to ask the dry cleaner to get a bit of yolk off your shirt is less of a worry.

So: one of the great lost socially aware raps of our time. But will it be available to pump directly into your iPods?

Spotify:
Spotify doesn't have Sugar Ray Dinke - although at least it doesn't insult us by suggesting we wanted Sugar Ray instead. A search on the song title brings up someone called Sir Smurf Lil' doing a track called Caprini Green, which isn't right at all. Zero.

Last FM:
Well, a couple of scrobbles show that, somewhere deep in its user matrix, Last FM has heard of the song, but it's the only evidence it has that Sugar Ray Dinke ever existed. It does try to offer us a track by Philip Glass of the same name, but Glass neglects to warn of flying missiles, so I suspect he's working from an older guide book to Chicago. Zero.

iTunes:
Apple has digitised a wide range of songs about Cabrini Green, including tracks by Glass, Mask and Dirty Sole. None are by our man, though, so zero for iTunes, too.

we7:
This is proving to be a difficult demand. We7 offers up Dirty Sole again, but that's not going to satisfy us. I'm tempted to dock them a point for an advert which keeps proclaiming that "Pink's back" for an album which came out last October, too. But for now, the ghost of Arthur Ellis won't let me.

YouTube:
Now, here's a surprise - if we'd done this over Christmas, YouTube would have failed as all its competing services have failed. But just over a month ago, someone uploaded this:



All five minutes, fifty-five seconds of the song. Ten points to YouTube, and an awkward pause from the Chicago Tourist Board.

Amazon:
Our earlier search for Bernard Cribbins has turned Amazon's head, and it's now hoping that we might want to buy a record by The Wurzels. Cool it, Amazon, we're looking for some rap.

Asked for Sugar Ray Dinke, the best they can do is offer a range of best selling tracks, including Taylor Swift. Missing the point a little. Perhaps we'll have a listen to some Wurzels instead. Zero.

Imeem:
Bloody hell, imeem can surprise you. I was already composing a putdown as I stuck Sugar Ray Dinke into the search box, when up comes the song. Only the Outro, though, so it's eight points.

eMusic:
If you ignore the stupid suggestions for artists, you can't help but be impressed by the range of albums and songs that eMusic offers up. All wrong, mind, but at least there's somethings to choose from. Zero points.

After that exciting round, here's how the placings are looking:

Amazon - 44
iTunes - 34
YouTube - 29
LastFM - 22
Imeem - 20
eMusic - 19
Spotify - 09
We7 - 09

We'll be back this afternoon with the next search - another actor doing some singing on the side; but it's not Billy Bob Thornton. In fact, it's a dead guy, playing off the character he hated to create something truly poignant. Genuinely, not Billy Bob Thornton.