There’s an awful lot of songs in the world, but here’s seven of them with the number seven in their title. And why? Well, just because. And no, you won’t find ‘Seven Wonders’ by Fleetwood Mac on the list. So crawl back under the rock from whence you came Mr easy listener.
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| Sorry lads! The job's already taken. |
When Dexys Midnight Runners went ‘Searching for the Young Soul Rebels’ way back in 1978, they recorded a song by soul sensation Chuck Wood called ‘Seven Days Is Too Long’. What seven days is too long for is anybody’s guess, but it’s doubtful if it’s the time inbetween cups of tea.
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| Which one is Echo? |
If you can name me the ‘Seven Seas’ I’ll give you seven pence. It’s doubtful if any of the mournful members of Echo and the Bunnymen could name more than five oceans at a push, but it didn’t stop the Scouse scallys from singing a dirge about seven stretches of salty water. With lyrics such as, “Hear the cavemen singing, good news they’re bringing,” it’s not the Bunnymen’s finest hour, but it’s a good tune to swim too if you’re that way inclined.
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| Who came first - Hendrix or Lee? |
‘Seven and Seven’ is of course 14, but the song by the band Love is an atom bomb explosion from the plastic fantastic heart of the hippy era. With lyrics by the ever venomous Arthur Lee such as, “In my lonely room I’d sit, my mind in an ice cream cone,” and the sweetly sentimental, “If I don't start cryin' it's because that I have got no eyes. My father's in the fireplace and my dog lies hypnotized,” the song is a rare treat from start to finish. As the man himself said, “Oop-ip-ip oop-ip-ip, yeah!”
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| That's the way Eddie my son! |
When Iron Maiden were at the peak of their powers in the heady hair metal days of the 1980s, they released that much feared and often dreaded rock artifact - the concept album. ‘Seventh Son of a Seventh Son’ was the mighty Maiden’s seventh album. In ancient folklore the seventh son of the seventh son was though to have special powers and vulnerable to the influence of Satan. Such raw subject material was tailor made for Bruce DIckinson and the boys to go to town on, and they did, with extra cheese on top. The title song off the album is not one of their best but it still rocks in its own peculiar way.
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| There's a rude boy riot going on! |
Desmond Dekker’s rocksteady classic is so relaxed and happy it makes the setting of a big fat lazy summer’s sun seem amphetamine fuelled. It’s he national anthem of have a go rude boys and beer bellied Ben Sherman clad bad dancers everywhere. As Desmond rightly croons in his dual ode to James Bond and Jamaica, “Dem a loot, dem a shoot, dem a wail A Shanty Town.” Indeedy they do do don’t they Des!
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| It's symbolic doncha know! |
Once upon a time there was a multi-millionaire pop star called Prince who changed his name to a symbol in a protest against corporate slavery. The petulant yet talented midget soon got bored of being a symbol and became Prince again, but not before he had released a badly though out album, which we now refer to as the Love Symbol album. On that album was a track called ‘Seven’ and it’s probably the best song on the record, but that’s not really saying much.
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| Here comes Freddy! |
In the Queen musical We Will Rock You, the Seven Seas of Rhye is a place where the Bohemians are taken after they are brainstormed by Khashoggi. Having never been unlucky enough to sit through Ben Elton’s masterpiece I don’t actually know what that means. I just lifted it from Wikipedia you see, but I do know that even by Queen’s notoriously low standards the song Seven Seas of Rhye is quite a good one. When a camp man with a terrible moustache and hypnotically spasmodic movements yells, “Fear me you lords and lady preachers, I descend upon your earth from the skies, I command your very souls you unbelievers, Bring before me what is mine, The seven seas of Rhye,” you better believe it brothers and sisters, and then run as far away from him as humanly possible.
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