Back on the old site a couple of years ago I started a thread seeking to find a song for each of the fifty American states. It’s taken a while but here’s the opportunity to do the same for the counties of England (other parts of the UK may follow). Just post a song that somehow represents your chosen county.

As someone Staffordshire born and raised and still a resident, here’s Bill Pritchard with “Trentham” – site of the scenic gardens on the outskirts of Stoke on Trent. The song mentions various other areas of the city – I have a friend in Sneyd Green, drive up Milton Road to work and occasionally take a coffee at the Staffs Wildlife Trust centre on Westport Lake. I have no idea where the video was filmed but it’s at least sixty miles away from the eponymous gardens. But anyway….Trentham represents Staffordshire. What about your county?

List of counties in the comments below.

It’s become the norm in recent years that I compile a charitable general knowledge quiz for teams of local professionals – accountants/solicitors/etc.

It’s now traditional that during the “pie and peas” interval there is a “just for fun” lyrics round that normally consists of opening lines to popular hit singles. The difficulty I’m having is in having lyrics from the last fifteen years that are memorable – basically, my musical taste has veered to what would once have been the folk and country sections of my local HMV and there is little or no point in asking about The Unthanks, Tom Russell – or even Robert Plant and Alison Krauss.

And so I seek some help from The Massive – what are the opening lines from the twenty-first century that people will either know or feel they ought to have known when the answers are revealed. I’ve used Alicia Keyes’ “Empire State of Mind” and Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” in previous years to give an idea of the level of recognition that I need (we need to keep the teams in a good mood to spend more on the raffle tickets).

All contributions greatly appreciated.

There was a little debate on here a couple of weeks ago about the lasting impact of Fleet Foxes.

As someone who continues to play both of their albums and the Sun Giant EP on a regular basis, I was delighted to see this pop up on their Facebook page today. Am unsure if it presages any new music but it would be wonderful to think that it did.

https://soundcloud.com/robin-pecknold/out-of-sight-out-of-mind-the-five-keys

I love the Fleet Foxes song and also enjoy the time-motion video. Having a fancy to watch it this miserable afternoon I googled “White Winter Hymnal”. This was the first video offered. I know nothing of Pentatonix but find their rendition and video absolutely mesmerising – as I found the song the first time I heard it played by Simon Mayo.

I don’t think I’ve ever shared a song on this site before for the sheer joy of sharing but here you are. Hope people enjoy it as much as I do.

I’m sure that it’s been done before but in honour of Monday morning’s eclipse/”Blood Moon”, what are your favourite lunar tunes?

Warning – contains rare footage of Sir Van smiling and generally enjoying himself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO5sWKIFWxk

My little nephew, aged six, is a bright little lad who’s always full of questions. And whilst singing along to The Boxer I realised that he was sure to ask me what a “whore” was and what a “come on” from them entailed – questions I would much prefer to leave to my brother and sister in law.

And so the much more child-friendly come on from the horse. I trust that he will be singing that lyric for many years to come.

Any more bowdlerised lyrics you’d care to share?

Mousy’s recent thread about WHERE songs were written brought up some interesting tracks and brought to mind a great forgotten single from Pulp’s “Different Class”. I love the opening line “I wrote this song two hours before we met” – as cynical as The Beautiful South’s “Song For Whoever” in the way it’s so open about the fact it wasn’t written about anyone in particular but could be written about anybody.

Which brings me to the question- what other songs tell you WHEN they were written?

This came up on “shuffle” earlier today. Just reminded me what a great song it is and what a great band The Band were. That’s all. Enjoy it.