Fog matters to you and me, but it can't touch Sherlock Holmes
This song has been covered a couple times by other minor indie rock groups, but the original by 80s new wave group Sparks is still the best. Loads of YouTube videos use this song mostly showing stills and video clips of Cumberbatch. Pass on all of those. I'm going with this well done video showing good ol' stalwart Holmes actor Basil Rathbone in a series of scenes from his movies.
Enjoy!
Spend the night with Sherlock Holmes
Hold me tight like Sherlock Holmes
Just pretend I'm Sherlock Holmes
There's a body on the railings
That I can't identify
And I'd like to reassure you but
I'm not that kind of guy
This is a moody tune evocative of walking down those mean streets. The lyrics are nicely metaphoric in the mid section which is also fitting for Marlowe's creator. "Raymond Chandler Evening" was originally recorded by Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians for their sixth album Element of Light back in 1985. I was surprised to see that he's still performing all over the world as a solo act. This is a favorite song of his and you'll find several uploaded videos of him performing it in places like upstate New York, Ashville, NC and even Valencia, Spain. But I didn't like the visual or musical quality of any of them. So here's the music (a re-recorded version for a Hitchcock "Best of" box set) with no video, just a static picture of the I Wanna Go Backwards album cover. Imagine on your own a fog shrouded Los Angeles street, a lonely man smoking a cigarette while contemplating the autumn weather and his lost love.
It's a Raymond Chandlerevening
And the pavements are all wet
And I'm lurking in the shadows
'Cause it hasn't happened yet
I got this thing forNancy Drew Her hair is blond, her eyes are blue
Time to rejoin the 21st century. I love when someone takes a modern pop tune and juxtaposes it with good old-fashioned movies in glorious black and white. What better choice to illustrate this guitar infused anthem to the queen of girl sleuths than a series of clips from the Bonita Granville movies? And don't forget Frankie Thomas as Ted (not Ned) Nickerson. (Guess the screenwriters didn't like that alliteration.)
One time these criminals with their guns
They thought it would be fun
To try to kill myNancy Drew I jumped out and saved her life
Then asked her to be my wife
She said, "No, I'll never marry you!"
Written by Brian Lee Pittman, Matthew Arnold Thiessen, Matthew Ryan Hoopes, Stephen Cushman
Infiltrate, investigate, interrogate until you get a clue
Ingratiate, inebriate, infatuate your next ingénue
How about a spy tune, gang! Or...uh...well...a spy tune with a mess of detectives in the lyrics.
Joey Deluxe is the pseudonymous alter ego for sound and music editor Joey Merholz when he's donning his composer hat. He's only written two original tunes for movie soundtracks which he also performed. "Undercover" appeared for the first time in --of all things-- the otherwise forgettable 1998 remake of Godzilla. Joey's really working his Lou Reed/Leonard Cohen baritone in this pastiche of a 1960s spy theme.
I'll forgive him for not knowing the difference between spies and detectives. And for adding a private eye writer's name in the lyrics just for the hell of it. I just like the overall spy vibe and the jazzy melody with that blaring horn section and that mean Hammond organ heard faintly in the musical break. It's probably all digital music made with a Mac and software. But who cares? Sounds like a jazz combo in some dive lounge off the old Vegas strip. I love it!
I found a video using this tune and made by someone who seems to be madly in love with Ilya Kuryakin from The Man from U.N.C.L.E. So enjoy these bits from that old TV show featuring David McCallum, several shapely spy gals, some villainous baddies, and -- every now and then -- Robert Vaughn. All in 1960s living color!
Sam Spade, James Bond, Philip Marlowe, secret agent lover Now, you're Mickey Spillane and you're goin' undercover Undercover It's a covert operation, in and out, and get yourself out of there
You can get bugged, tapped, wired, and end up caught in her snare
Few are those who can resist the lure of wealth and sex
So wrap it up in your trench coat, baby, and pray it protects
Check my reputation
Check my pose
First you ought to check my fee
An all out tribute to Dashiell Hammett's nameless private eye. Amazing video for this rockin' bluesy tune. Gallagher was an Irish musician who died in 1995. I'd never heard of him until I found this tune. This song comes from his penultimate album Defender released in 1987.
So who are they gonna get
When the trouble's gotta stop?
Here's my card
I'm the Continental Op
Whodunit? Who stole my baby? Everyone in the room looks shady ...It's a bedside mystery!
Ah, the disco era! Platforms shoes, bell bottom pants, pooka shell necklaces, the "Dry Look", feathered hair, sequins and mirror balls. And all that wild and crazy music. Remember Tavares? Well, frankly neither do I. But this is another fun tune. I can't imagine this filled up the dance floor if it ever was played in the discos of days gone by, but I'd be among those laughing and smiling had I heard it.
This may be the prizewinner for a pop tune mentioning fictional detectives and not only from books. Toward the end there is a long list of TV show detectives: Baretta, McCloud, Kojak, and Ironside. And just before the fade out you'll hear: "Tell Dirty Harry we're supposed to get married."
Hey, where's the phone to call Sherlock Holmes
[Somebody took my baby]
I've been framed by what's-his-name
And he's gettin' away Charlie Chan, see if you can
Help me find those two, won't you?
Where were you on the night of the 12th?
[I was by myself]
She went dancin' in the dark,
Somebody stole her heart Ellery Queen, if you're so keen
Won't you help me find my sweet thing? (Yeah, yeah)
"I love her but she loves Agatha Christie." She sure does, me lad.
What a great song! A girl obsessed with Agatha Christie's work and the narrator of the tune is head over heels in love with her. He can't even make her a meal without her suspecting that he's added a special ingredient. Poor guy. Allusions include Peter Falk as Columbo, Miss Scarlet from the Clue® board game, and anything having to do with the works of Agatha Christie and the entire genre of traditional English detective novel.
I'd never heard of The Lucksmiths, an Australian indie rock group based in Melbourne, until I uncovered this song. I'm sure their other music is just as witty and fun.
We took a cliche cliff top walk
I made the mistake of mentioning Peter Falk
She says American TV has killed the murder mystery
'Cause the killer is always caught by 10:23
A new feature every Saturday for a couple of weeks, gang. I'm calling this "Covering Their Tracks" since it has a perfect dual meaning for both music and mystery fiction. I've become obsessed lately with random allusions to fictional detectives in pop and rock music. Over at Patti Abbot's blog I heard yet another rock tune that arbitrarily inserts a Sherlock Holmes reference and it reminded me that a couple of months ago I attempted to get the Tuesday Night Bloggers to do a salute to Golden Age mystery writers and their characters in pop music lyrics. Didn't go over well with the one person I approached so I didn't even ask anyone else. Now I'm doing it myself.
Travelling way back to 1957 (there will be many modern tunes a-comin' my friends, don't worry) we have this allusion loaded tune. The melody is simplistic, jaunty, a bit too repetitive but the lyrics make it my first choice. So I had to start with this one.
Originally written by Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller for The Coasters "Searchin" was later covered by The Hollies, Neil Sedaka, The [Silver] Beatles (in the Peter Best days), Spencer Davis Group and The Grateful Dead (my least favorite) among many others. Musically the arrangement I like the best is the Spencer Davis Group cover but they cut all the lyrics about the detectives -- sacrilege! The Silver Beatles cover mixes up the lyrics something awful and they cut out Boston Blackie and add Peter Gunn instead. So I'm going with the true original. Here's The Coasters appearing on Dick Clark's short-lived second TV show "Saturday Night" from the episode aired March 19, 1960.
SEARCHIN'
Below are the lyrics with the list of detectives. For all you young'uns out there Boston Blackie was a safecracker and thief turned detective created by writer Jack Boyle. The first story appeared in the July 1914 issue of The American Magazine. The Boston Blackie stories were adapted for both silent and talking movies, radio and TV from 1919 through the late 1950s. That's a long life for a detective and now of course he's almost entirely forgotten.
Yeah well, Sherlock Holmes and Sam Spade They got nothing, child, on me Sergeant Friday, Charlie Chan and Boston Blackie No matter where she hides Man, she's gonna hear me comin' I'm gonna walk right down that street Like Bulldog Drummond
Cause I've been searchin' Woah Lord now, searchin' For goodness, searchin' every way which way, oh yay I'm like a Northwest Mountie You know I'll bring her in someday
