A round-up of today's other stories in brief
The filth and the funny
DUBLIN BAND Aslan are celebrating their 30th anniversary with a forthcoming album, Nudie Books and Frenchies (a cheeky nod to their teenage years, say the band – we look forward to seeing the album cover). It struck us that popular music has been littered with risqué album titles for some time. Here are some of the best/obvious/rudest.
Loretta Lynn Don't Come Home a Drinkin' With Lovin' On Your Mind(1967)
A tame title by today’s standards, but Lynn’s proto-feminist title track tackled the thorny issue of spousal rape.
The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers(1971)
As if to copperfasten the precise meaning of the title, the original album cover of a jeans-clad crotch came with a working zip. Ouch!
Brian Eno Here Come The Warm Jets(1974)
Shock horror – egghead art rocker titles his debut album about wee.
Ian Dury New Boots and Panties!!(1977)
So excited was New Wave singer Dury that he couldn’t resist adding not one but two exclamation marks. Warning: the intro to the album track Plaistow Patricia is very rude.
The Circle Jerks Group Sex(1980)
While the Los Angels punk scene had faster and angrier bands, the Circle Jerks managed to encapsulate frat-boy frustrations better than most.
Soft Cell Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret(1981)
Songs of and about Soho strip clubs, dodgy bars and clip joints – sleazy does it courtesy of Marc Almond and Dave Ball.
The Cure Pornography(1982)
Cue sulky pre-Internet goth teens and their cries of: “You’re ruining my life, mammy!!”
Mudhoney Superfuzz Bigmuff(1988)
The album is actually named after the band’s guitarist’s favourite wah-wah pedal – but why ever let that get in the way of a good snigger?
Digital Underground Sex Packets(1990)
Eek – a concept album about virtual reality sex.
Snoop Doggy Dogg Doggystyle(1993)
There’s rude and there’s just plain dirty, and for the latter, Snoop Dogg is your main man. In a phrase? Squelchy hip-hop.
Skunk Anansie Post Orgasmic Chill(1999)
Yes, we’ve all been there, haven’t we?
Red Hot Chili Peppers Californication(1999)
A pun, no less, from the hot-blooded American band who had visited the risqué album titles zone before with 1989’s Blood Sugar Sex Magik.
Paul McCartney Kisses On The Bottom(2012)
From the man who wrote Yesterday? ’Fraid so.
TONY CLAYTON-LEA
The plaque that rose from the dead
YESTERDAY, The Irish Timesreported that Bram Stoker's birthplace in Fairview, Dublin, is for sale. The house bears no plaque identifying its significance, but another former Stoker home has recently had its commemorative plaque reinstated, after a mysterious absence of more than three years.
Just over a week ago, Dr Albert Power received a text, informing him that the plaque had reappeared on the façade of number 30 Kildare Street. “I assumed it had been destroyed and would never appear again. I felt a thrill to learn, not only that the Bram Stoker plaque had been reinstated, but that it was the same plaque as had been removed,” Power says.
The plaque, pictured above, was erected by Dublin and East Tourism, at the urging of Leslie Shepard and John Leahy of the Bram Stoker Society, and unveiled on July 27th, 1983. Power was present at the unveiling, and has been a member of the society since its founding in 1980, when “there was scant awareness in this country that Bram Stoker wrote Dracula, that he was Irish, and had lived in Dublin”.
In 2006, the building at 30 Kildare Street was put up for sale – the auctioneer’s ad in The Irish Times drew attention to the building’s status as the “former home of Bram Stoker”. The new owners, Shelbourne Development, refurbished the building. In 2008, when new tenants – the Hospital Group, a cosmetic surgery clinic – moved in, the plaque was gone. Despite this, tourists continued to call in asking about Stoker, and the Ghost Bus tour frequently stopped.
Power sought explanations from the building’s owners and Dublin City Council and received no satisfactory responses. He had given up hope, when, sometime on January 14th or 15th, the plaque rose from the dead, in time for the 100th anniversary of Stoker’s death, this April.
The building's owners, Shelbourne Development, made no official response to The Irish Times, but it is understood that the plaque was found in the building and then re-hung. The sitting tenant, the Hospital Group, says: "We're delighted the plaque is back in place and, as our doctors regularly draw blood, and we help our patients with the search for eternal youth, we think Bram Stoker might like the association too. "
KARL WHITNEY
