Lexie's Chain: The Hundred and Sixty First Chain

Hello pals! Welcome to week 161 of #lexieschain. Last week da winner was Stella wiv Ceremony by New Order. Lets see wot we gots dis week:

@WOtterface
OK, easy peasy to link this week, loads of great bands from Manchester to choose from...but no! It's too hard to choose just one great band from Manchester, so we're going with something personal to do with Manchester. Mom and Dad saw Arcade Fire at the Manchester Apollo some years ago and said it was one of the best gigs they'd ever been to. They were also blown away by the support act, this young man - Patrick Wolf with The Magic Position.

@claptonterrier
Hello Miss Lexie…getting my entry in early this week…..last week Miss Stella chose a song by New Order called ceremony……New order were famously a part of the small stable of artists signed to Factory Records in Manchester….so this week our link is to the Rolling Stones song "Factory Girl".

@freddie_bt

Ceremony a great song. tho we thinks of it as Joy Division as it wuz written by Ian Curtis, Dad's favwite singer n 18/05/80 is one date he never forgets. Lots of possible linkys fer us some of em depwessin given da hints at suicide in many of Curtis' lyrics. Ceremony itself is ambiguous possibly about his disintegratin marriage or his own funeral or both. Anyways we's steerin clear of dese themes, Ian Curtis wuz literary n da last song Dad saw Joy Division perform live wuz "Atrocity Exhibition" named after a JG Ballard story. After Joy Dvision Dad's favwite band wuz The Comsat Angels who were named after a JG Ballard story. Dey wuz a fine band, Mark Kermode da BBC film critic says "they were the band Joy Division should have been". Dad saw dem a lot n knew dem kwite well, speshully Mic da drummer. Sadly dey never had da success dey shud av. Da sound wuz dark not unlike Joy Division's n wiv bleak lyrics, dey wuz fwom Sheffield. Dere are many gud songs such as "Monkey Pilot", "Independence Day n our linky "Be Brave".

@skye613
Congrats to Stella! Great link from New Order which was formed from Joy Division after Ian Curtis committed suicide. Both bands hailed from Manchester which has/had a huge musical scene. Among the influential groups that got their start there are The Smiths, Oasis, Herman's Hermits , The Chemical Brothers and Simply Red. Ahhh to be able to! " Holding Back The Years ".

@kelsoterrier
Looking at the lyrics & analysis of Ceremony there seems to be some debate about whether it's a song about a funeral or a wedding ceremony. We know that Ian Curtis committed suicide not long after the song was penned and that it was New Order's first release after the suicide and the changing of the band's name from Joy Division. What is for certain though is that the songwriter has put their heart and soul into what is a very poignant song. For this reason my link this week is Heart of Soul by The Cult. Lyrics from this song include "You got to bleed a little while you sing, Lest the words don't mean nothing" and I think this is very true and apt! Oh... and Heart of Soul was on the album entitled Ceremony!

@terenceterrier
Last week winnin linky woz Ceremony by New Order. hmm. Dis got me stumped so had to resort to research. I finds dey liked using da ol synthesizer so my linky will be da well nown toon wi one dese - da Dr Who feem toon.

@bunnersandharvs
Well dun to you Stella fur dat great songy Ceremony by New Order. So dis got us thinking about things dat is in a new order means you has a new day which sumtimes means is a Brand New Me so dat is our linky, simple but true. Brand New Me by Alicia Keys.

@borderpup
To link from Ceremony by Noo Order we decided to go for somefing more upbeat (tho New Order's always good if you fancy a wallow). So, where could we go? Hmm, well a wedding is a ceremony, and so we went for Elton John wiv 'Kiss the Bride'. Can't get much more upbeat than that!

@djladylexie
Course, we all dus know that before being known as New Order, the band was Joy Division. I dus be followin a slightly macabre chain for ma song. Ma linky dus be Never Tear Us Apart by INXS where Mike Hutchence sings of how love WON'T tear them apart in complete juxtaposition to da most fabulous Joy Division song ever Love WILL Tear Us Apart sung by Ian Curtis. Boaf these great artists tragically died frew hanging themselves – one for pain, one (alledgedly) for pleasure. Showin how love can be the start and end of everyfink.

An da winner ... as chosen by  .... @smcheetham (Stella)  ...... dus be .............. @kelsoterrier wiv Heart of Soul by The Cult! Yay well done ma pal. So dat mean you dus be choosin next week Kelso.

Ere wot Stella said: Well this judging business is very tricky so many thoughtful links and so much to do with my home town Manchester. Trying to decide whether to chose my favourite link or the song I like best because that's not always the same thing.  After much thought I have gone with Linky number 5 because that is  about passion in music and that is something all of the Lexie's chain gang must have to play the game every week.  So I declare the winner to be Linky number 5 Heart of Soul by The Cult. 

So it's over to you. Email me: lexie at toxicpenguin dot com or DM me on twitter (@dogstoyevsky) wiv your link suggestion followin on from dis one! You has until noon (GMT) 23rd February 2014 (gets it to me by 2pm UK time if poss). Oh sometimes I dus accidentally delete em! Heehee. So good idea to type DO NOT DELETE in the title and dussnt forget to send a linky to da video from You Tube!

Lexie's Chain dus be inspired by da pawsome Radcliffe & Maconie Show wot you can has a listen to on dere website. Follow me @dogstoyevsky or #lexieschain on Twitter to join da fun. Remember anyfink goes! Rock, classical, opera, ballads, punk, reggae - is up to you! Fanx for playin!

Lexie's Chain: The Hundred and Sixtieth Chain

Hello pals! Welcome to week 160 of #lexieschain. Last week da winner was Wyn wiv Run Boy Run by Woodkid. Lets see wot we gots dis week:

@djladylexie
I never heard this before. I likes it. I looked at the lyrics and dey saying run until you are man an can deal wiv fings betta. Started me finkin bowt what does it mean to be a man or a woman. Is impossible for a man to know a woman's world and vice versa. Tryin to keep wiv da feme about maturin and understanding life from uvva points of view, I am goin wiv Kate Bush Running Up That Hill a song about trying to work out the differences between a man and a woman.

@maggietkat
Wow! great song! I decided to go for the "run" theme. This happens to be the 50th year of the Beatles Invasion in the States. Their first TV performance was Feb 9, 1964 on the Ed Sullivan Show. Mom remembers flipping the channel and getting in trouble with her mom for watching those long hairs! Anyway, in honor of the Beatles in America, my choice is "Run for your Life" covered by the Cowboy Junkies.  (LEXIE: sorry ma pal I cuddnt get the video to work hope this is right one)

@skye613
Well done Wynters! Was all over the place with this tune but whiling watching the vid I had a thought. Vids are pictures & " Every Picture Tells a Story" . My fave from that great Rod Stewart album. " Mandolin Wind" Cheers all! 

@diamondbertie
Last week @WOtterface chose the winning link with Run Boy Run by Woodkid, this motivated her with her running with that theme in mind I choose the main theme of Chariots of Fire this has lot of "bounce".

@terenceterrier
Last week da winnin linky woz “Run Boy Run” by Woodkid. Da linky wot immediately wizzed into my head woz “Run Rabbit Run” by Flanagan and Allen. Waddya mean da linky not cleva enuff? Wabbits run in woods.

@smcheetham
Well its a bit of a convoluted link from me this week. Woodkid is a complete renaissance man from reading about him. I love the classical music he uses in Iron. He is also associated with films one of which is Sofia Coppola's film Marie Antoinette. One of the thing Coppola does in that film is to use music in an interesting way and uses her favourite music rather than music from the 18th century one of the songs that features in the film is Ceremony by New order so that's my link from Woodkid via film to 1980s Manchester. good luck everyone and have a good week.

@freddie_bt
Well dun to Wynters Otterface fer a fab win wiv a song n an artist we hadn't heard befaw. We av bin on da Trans Europe Express dis week doin a musical tour of Europe in search of possibul linkys disembarkin in Germany, Holland n sevwal towns in France. Finally we got bak to Britain n fawt about da Wood part of Woodkid's name n da video wiv da boy runnin n in a moment of inspiration or maybe desperation we fawt of a song dat we luvs by "Still Corners" called "Into the Trees" which has an ethereal feel, luvly St Etienne like singing, fab guitars n a dreamy home movie colours video. 

@bunnersandharvs
Well dun to you Wotter fur da winning linky last week. We hasn't eva hur of datt songy nor da groop eider but we did think about you & your ma running rownd. Mum used to run too but now she dus feeel more like a fatty mcbutter pantz which made hur think of da moovie 'Run Fat Boy Run' so we going wid a songy frum dat moovie called 'Something Kinda Oooooh by Girls Aloud cos we thort you and Mum could get your running paws on listening to dis tooooooh.

@claptonterrier
Hi Miss Lexie…last week Miss Wyn chose a song by an artist we had never heard before called Woodkid…we looked him up on the internet and we saw he is from a city in France called Lyon….guess what? I shall be driving through Lyon next weekend when I go to France for my holiday…..I looked up a bit about music in Lyon on the internet too and there is a music venue there called Le Bec du Jazz….that made me thing of the artist called Beck…so my link this week is Beck and Devil’s Haircut….

@thisbear
The last linky was "Run Boy Run" by Woodkid. Good advice, especially when monsters are popping out of the ground but according to Martha Reeves & the Vandellas there is "Nowhere To Run" to, baby and you really need a nice new car instead ...

An da winner ... as chosen by  .... @WOtterface ...... dus be .............. @smcheetham (Stella) wiv Ceremony by New Order! Yay well done ma pal. So dat mean you dus be choosin next week Stella.

Ere wot Wyn said: Well, the three of us (me, Mom and Dad) have had a massive "discussion" about which song to choose which culminated in smashed crockery and me packing my suitcase with bonios and threatening to leave...only kidding, it was very hard though!

So, we whittled it down to four, I'll explain the runners up first. 

Track 1 - Kate Bush. Mom just loves her so this was a hot favourite. However, Mom likes to sing Wuthering Heights and doesn't quite have the vocal range to match Kate, so to save our ears we had to say no. 

Track 8 - *whispers* Don't tell anyone as Mom has a reputation to maintain, but Girls Aloud are her guilty pleasure and some of their stuff does feature on her running playlist. However, this isn't one of her favourite tracks of theirs, now if you'd gone for Biology it would have been an easy win. 

Track 9 - When Mom and Dad first met (when dinosaurs roamed the Earth) this was a track that was played in the club they used to go to, so it has happy memories attached and Beck's new stuff is great too, however...

Track 6 - Despite the complicated link making her go cross eyed, Mom can't resist a bit of New Order and hadn't heard this one before. So she wanted to say thanks for introducing her to a new one! Track 6 is the winner!

Thanks everyone for making it a really hard choice for my first ever win, there wasn't a bad track to choose from!

So it's over to you. Email me: lexie at toxicpenguin dot com or DM me on twitter (@dogstoyevsky) wiv your link suggestion followin on from dis one! You has until noon (GMT) 16th February 2014 (gets it to me by 2pm UK time if poss). Oh sometimes I dus accidentally delete em! Heehee. So good idea to type DO NOT DELETE in the title and dussnt forget to send a linky to da video from You Tube!

Lexie's Chain dus be inspired by da pawsome Radcliffe & Maconie Show wot you can has a listen to on dere website. Follow me @dogstoyevsky or #lexieschain on Twitter to join da fun. Remember anyfink goes! Rock, classical, opera, ballads, punk, reggae - is up to you! Fanx for playin!

Lexie's Chain: The Hundred and Fifty Ninth Chain

Hello pals! Welcome to week 159 of #lexieschain. Last week da winner was Freddie wiv Ce n'est pas bon by Amadou et Mariam.Lets see wot we gots dis week:

@maggietkat
Well done Freddie! I am getting an education in world music. My chain is political activist guitarist as exemplified by the recently deceased folk artist Peter Seeger. Pete was very active in humanitarian protests throughout his long life. I have chosen a version of "this land is your land" which would have the pinacle of his life, playing at the Lincoln Memorial on the Mall for President Obama's inaguration, a black president within his lifetime.

@skye613
Thank you Freddie for introducing us to such wonderful music. Amadou et Mariam are a married couple who preform together. My take from the link this week is couples who performed together. And wouldn't it be a great marriage! David Bowie & Anne Lennox " Under Pressure".

@claptonterrier
Hi Miss Lexie….Mr Freddie chose a song by the wonderful Amadou and Mariam….they are from Mali and had a wonderful record called Dimanche à Bamako which I think means Sunday in Bamako, the capital city of Mali. That made me think about our own fair capital city…London….but also about the capital city of Jamaica…which is where (Bob) Marley was from ! See what I did there…and his most famous song about Kingston, Jamaica…is called Trenchtown Rock….so that is my link this week….

@diamondbertie
@freddie_bt won last week with Ce n'est pas bon by Amadou et Mariam, a song with a political message. My choice is Pete Seeger singing Where Have All The Flowers Gone.
This song was inspired by a passage from Mikhail Sholokhov's And Quiet Flows The Don.
In July 1956 Pete Seeger with 9 others were sited for Communist and Un American activities. A demonstration of the power of music to change the world.

@smcheetham
Good win for that Freddie again last week. With his choice of Amadou et Mariam. They have been closely associated with that multifaceted chap Damon Albarn and I saw them supporting Blur at Hyde Park a few years ago they were fab so am using that to link to the Blur song that went down a storm on that day and that's Tender a song about break ups. Have a great week everyone.

@terenceterrier
OWKAY. Last week has a linky wiv two French singers singing in French. So why desert a winnin comynashun for a linky I say ? I gives you “Je T’Aime” by Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg . Pawleaze note dat for those of yoo wiv a sensitive dispozishun I haz given yoo da U rated video vershun and not any of da ones wiv bare bits wot accompany dis song.

@bunnersandharvs
I got to say a big well dun to dat Freddie fur his linky. I had neva hurd of Amadou et Mariam or da songy Ce n'est pas Bon.....whosh but we dus think it was a great songy. So whur dus we go wid dis? Well, we thinking da only way we can settle anything is throo peace and a few noms but wot better person dan George Harrison's songy 'Give Me Love - Give Me Peace On Earth' to help us get der!

@WOtterface
We've gone with the French link this week and we've chosen Run Boy Run by Woodkid aka Yoann Lemoine from Lyon. Mom is obsessed with this and his other track, Iron. She loves this one in particular as she finds it very motivating to run to. I find a tennis ball very motivating for running. She also loves that his musical genre is described as "Baroque Pop".

@wonderwinger
The singers of last week's winning linky: Amadou et Mariam came from Mali. The capital of Mali is Timbuctoo so my linky shall be the Bert Kalmar & Harry Ruby song as sung by Groucho Marx- Timbuctoo (Lexie Ed: Can't find this anywhere!! So similar one used - sorry!)

@thisbear
So, the last link was "Ce n'est pas bon" by Amadou et Mariam. Amadou & Mariam are a married couple who make music together. There have been a few couples who have done the same - Sonny & Cher, Ike & Tina Turner & more recently Beyonce & her man Jay Z. However one of the longest happy musical partnerships has always tried to downplay the fact that they may also be a couple away from music. Gillian Welch & David Rawlings have been making music together since 1996 - sometimes under Gillian's name & sometimes as part of the Dave Rawlings Machine. Here they are performing the deceptively jolly sounding Caleb Mayer.

@djladylexie
Ce n'est pas bon. Well let's see for fun we finked to put it into translater and in english the literal translation is 'this is not good' Owever because da french does reverse fings in their speaks it really means is this not good? Which means it is good! Hahaaa **goes for lie down**. Anyhooooo we decided to stick wiv les francais et la bonne vie. So we goes wivh Edith Piaf and Le vie en rose – life is in the pink!

An da winner ... as chosen by  .... @freddie_bt ...... dus be .............. @WOtterface wiv Run Boy Run from Woodkid! Yay well done ma pal. An one I never eard before too! So dat mean you dus be choosin next week Wyn.

Ere wot Freddie said: So difficult to choose this week, I weally wanted to go for Pete Seeger fer obvious reasons but wiv two linkys fer im I cudn't pick one over da other. I weally liked Linky 6, somewehere we av da 45 of Je T'Aime n duz weally like Serge Gainsbourg. Linky 11 made us larf while addidn to our confusion wiv French. Our winner tho is Linky 8, a new singer fer us n we always likes to hear music we've never heard, gweat video too.

 

So it's over to you. Email me: lexie at toxicpenguin dot com or DM me on twitter (@dogstoyevsky) wiv your link suggestion followin on from dis one! You has until noon (GMT) 9th February 2014 (gets it to me by 2pm UK time if poss). Oh sometimes I dus accidentally delete em! Heehee. So good idea to type DO NOT DELETE in the title and dussnt forget to send a linky to da video from You Tube!

Lexie's Chain dus be inspired by da pawsome Radcliffe & Maconie Show wot you can has a listen to on dere website. Follow me @dogstoyevsky or #lexieschain on Twitter to join da fun. Remember anyfink goes! Rock, classical, opera, ballads, punk, reggae - is up to you! Fanx for playin!