ASKMOJO
Who put songs in brackets?
Let us answer your rock-related questions and resolve musical argument.
Up the brackets!: (clockwise from above left) Radiohead’s Thom Yorke dreams on; going for gold: Rod Stewart with his disc for 1975’s
Atlantic Crossing
LP; Sex Pistols’
The Great Rock ’N’ Roll Swindle
; Arthur Brown makes an entrance in ’97.
Getty (3)
As you do, me and some friends got talking about song titles with brackets and came up with The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy), (We’re Gonna) Rock Around The Clock and The Stranglers’ (Get A) Grip (On Yourself). What are the best examples of the category?
Gordon Lawrence, via e-mail
MOJO
says: You can’t move for single bracketed titles, though we have a soft spot for barmy non sequiturs such as Zager & Evans’ In The Year 2525 (Exordium & Terminus) and Let’s Not Shit Ourselves (To Love And Be Loved) by Bright Eyes. But those who went further included the double-bracketed likes of the Beastie Boys’ (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party), Blondie’s (Can I) Find The Right Words (To Say) and The Members’ (Holiday In [Tribute To Jimi (Pretentious… Moi?)]) Tanga-Nika, not forgetting how, on its parent album’s label, Bowie’s song is called Aladdin Sane (1913-1938197?) (R.H.M.S. ‘‘Ellinis’’).