Some seconds with Kennedy: The Inspiral Carpets

We started this dip into Kennedy-related pop with a track from a great 90s indie band from Northern England. What could be more apt that winding it down with a track from a great 90s indie band from Northern England?

It's what Kennedy would have wanted. Not as much as a car with a roof, maybe, but I'm sure he would have wanted this.



[Buy Saturn 5]

Some seconds with Kennedy: Luke Powers

But, hey, what if today isn't the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's death, but in fact the half-century of the greatest hoax in modern times? Luke Powers claims that he's bumped into JFK, and he's alive and well:



Powers joins in the YouTube comments on that video, winningly defending timeline errors as being down to JFK getting a bit old and forgetful as he described what really happened.

[Part of Some seconds with Kennedy]

Some seconds with Kennedy: Tori Amos

Murders aren't just about the person killed. There's also survivors, and bereaved. Can you imagine what it's like to have your husband killed next to you; and then to be followed the rest of your life by that incident?

Tori Amos tried:



[Buy: Jackie's Strength]

(You can also buy a karaoke version for a party that'll really go with a swing.)

[Part of Some seconds with Kennedy]

Some seconds with Kennedy: Saxon

Yes, you can pull together reporter's viewpoints. You can wonder about how fate could be so cruel as to kill a man who was so pure (*cough*). But if you want to tell the story from the killer's point of view - well, for that, you need something heavier.



[Buy: Dallas 1PM]

[Part of Some seconds with Kennedy]

Some seconds with Kennedy: Marvin Gaye

It's depressing that American politics has been so distorted by people with guns you can write a song gathering them together, and not even have enough space in the title to mention all the deaths you're mourning.

It was the killing of Bobby that prompted the writing of this track, but he doesn't even get a look in until the fourth verse:



Although Marvin Gaye does the definitive version, the original was a Dion b-side (because nothing honours a dead hero like giving him a b-side to Daddy Rollin').

[Buy: Marvin Gaye's version
Dion's version

[Part of

Some seconds with Kennedy: Steinski's Mass Media

Sure, anyone can write a song about Kennedy. But using actual reportage to recreate the murder of Kennedy - and his killer? That's pro work, that is. Steinski pulled it off, and then gave the track away for free on an NME covermount.

Class.

Also: this is a homemade video which lifts the format above its usual level.



[Buy: The Motorcade Sped On]

[Part of Some seconds with Kennedy]

Some seconds with Kennedy: The Human League

Astonishingly, someone on SongMeanings insists that this is:

ALL ABOUT THE DEATH OF JOHN LENNON.

No, no it isn't. This, Phil, is what you get when you hope people will be able to work out the meaning of the lyrics without adding "in Dallas" to the lyrics every third line.



[Buy: Seconds]

[Part of Some Seconds With Kennedy]

Some seconds with Kennedy: The Wedding Present

You have to wonder: if Zapruder hadn't been there with his camera, would Kennedy's assasination still hold quite the fascination it does today?

Anyway, the shot that was heard around the world has been reverberating through music ever since, and today, let us enjoy our breakfasts accompanied by some cheery songs about a man having his head smashed open by a bullet, shall we?

Kennedy gave The Wedding Present their first bona fide hit.



It's also been covered by Kerbdog

[Buy: Kennedy by the Wedding Present]

More Kennedy-related songs:
Human League - Seconds
Steinski's Mass Media - The Motorcade Sped On
Dion/Marvin Gaye - Abraham, Martin & John
Saxon - Dallas, 1PM
Tori Amos - Jackie's Strength
Luke Powers - I Saw John Kennedy
Inspiral Carpets - Saturn 5

Sandi Thom, it's been too long

Thanks to David E for bringing Sandi Thom's interview in today's Metro to our attention.

When the question about those webcasts comes up, Sandi doesn't blink:

Some people have said the stories about your webcasts are overhyped. What do you make of that?

I just try to remember the good times. When we were doing those webcasts we were all staying in the same house. I don’t pay attention to the mean things people have said, I just think of the fun we had doing it.

Well, yes, you probably did have fun doing it, and you might not want to think about the "mean" things people said - which, of course, boiled down to the supposed DIY webcasts being actually part of a PR blitz; that the spikes of interest came after the stories circulated to the press about the supposed popularity of the shows; that she'd already signed a publishing deal before being "discovered" singing into a webcam from her basement, and so on. "We had fun, people are mean" is hardly much of a defence of the Thom camp's position.

Sandi also makes clear her position on Scottish politics:

Scotland should be its own country in the European Union. We’re not going to tow Scotland away in a tugboat; I just think Scotland should be more independent than it is now. I think it’ll happen one day. I’m very proud of being Scottish.

We're delighted to have the big question on Scottish independence clarified - we had always assumed that should Scotland secede, there'd be men with chisels along the north edge of Cumbria and Northumberland chip, chip, chipping away while the tugs were steaming.

Mind you, of course Sandi's not going to be tugging Scotland off anywhere. As she's just revealed, she loves the country so much, she's made her home in, erm, Brighton.

And who would Sandi talk to if she could speak to anyone who had passed over to the other side?

JFK. I’d want to know who shot him. He may not know but I’m sure he’d have a better suspicion than we would. I’m not convinced it was Lee Harvey Oswald.

Clearly JFK's instincts on his assassination should be trusted. Although they weren't so sharp that he put the car's roof up when he went to Dallas, were they?

Car for Miss Tunstall

Back when The Simpsons was funny, rather than amusing, there was one where the family arrived at an airport on an all-expenses paid trip and, in seeing the limo driver holding a card with "Simpsons" on it, say "Look! That man has the same name as us..." before heading off to get a taxi.

There can be few of us who haven't at some point struggled through customs and thought, on seeing a bloke with a comfy car holding up a big sign saying "Graham Bullock", "if I said I was Mr. Bullock, how would he know I wasn't..."

This is pretty much what happened to KT Tunstall, although she was cast the unfortunate Mr. Bullock, emerging from the airport to discover someone claiming to be her had pinched the car.

The 3AM Girls rather exercised about this, claiming KT was:

stranded at New York's JFK airport

It's surely a little difficult for a grown-up to be "stranded" at a major transport hub in a country where they speak the language, isn't it?