Arctic Monkeys – "D Is for Dangerous" (2007)

D is for delightful

And try and keep your trousers on

Sue Grafton, the author of the very popular series of crime novels featuring female private eye Kinsey Millhone, died from cancer on December 28.  She was 77.

Sue Grafton

Grafton’s first novel – which was published in 1982 – was titled A Is for Alibi.  She followed it up with B Is for Burglar, C Is for Corpse, and so on.

I discovered Grafton’s books in 1993.  The first one I read was F Is for Fugitive.  Ten days after I finished it, I read A Is for Alibi, and since then I’ve read her books in chronological – and alphabetical – order.

I’m currently reading Y Is for Yesterday, which was published last year and is the final Kinsey Millhone novel.  Grafton was planning to title the next – and final – book in the series Z Is for Zero, but her illness prevented her from even beginning  to write that book.

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The first dozen or so of Grafton’s “alphabet” novels were well-plotted and well-written, and they made good beach books or airport books.  But I wouldn’t have put them in the same class with books by my favorite contemporary crime authors (such as George Pelecanos, Michael Connelly, John Sandford, Ian Rankin, and Elizabeth George).

But at some point Grafton really picked up her game.  Her last several books are twice as long as her early novels were, and that additional length is indicative of the additional depth and complexity of those later books, which are really first-rate.

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It’s quite an accomplishment to write 25 novels that are worthy of being read.  

But the best thing Sue Grafton ever wrote was the dedication of her penultimate novel, X, which I happened to be reading when she died:

This book is dedicated to my children. Caring, hardworking, responsible; my pride and joy always.

I don't think I could improve on that. (Actually, I don’t think anyone can improve on that.)  

Can any of you parents out there think of three virtues that would make you prouder of your children than the three Grafton chose to mention – caring, hardworking, and responsible?

I'm pleased to say that I believe those adjectives apply to each of my four children, who are certainly my pride and joy always.  

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“D Is for Dangerous” was released in 2007 on the Arctic Monkeys’ second studio album, Favourite Worst Nightmare (which is a phrase from “D Is for Dangerous”).

The lyrics to that song include “D is for delightful,” and “D is for desperately trying to stimulate what it was that was alright three quarters of an hour ago,” but do not include the song’s title.

By the way, Grafton “D” title was “D Is for Deadbeat.”

Here’s “D Is for Dangerous”:

Click below to buy the song from Amazon:

Arctic Monkeys -- "Fake Tales of San Francisco" (2006)

He talks of San Francisco

He's from Hunter's Bar

I don't quite know the distance

But I'm sure that's far

The Arctic Monkeys are an indie group from Sheffield, a city in northern England that was known for its steel factories until foreign competition resulted in most of those factories closing many years ago.

This song doesn't really have anything to do with San Francisco.  It's about a band that claims to have performed in San Francisco and New York City, but which in reality hasn't strayed very far from Hunter's Bar or Rotherham, which are Sheffield neighborhoods.

Hunter's Bar, named for an old toll-road barrier, is a long way from San Francisco (as is noted in the lines quoted above).  In fact, it's over 5200 miles as the crow flies.  

An English friend of mine told me about the Arctic Monkeys when they burst on the scene in 2006.  The group's first album, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, became the fastest-selling debut album in UK history when it was released in 2006.

The album's title is a quote from Alan Sillitoe's 1958 "angry young man" novel, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, which was made into a celebrated movie starring Albert Finney in 1960.  Here's the trailer for the movie:

I have the album, but this is the only song on it that I really warmed to.  The song shifts into high gear at the 1:40 mark, and then goes into overdrive about 30 seconds later.  (A very heavy bass line kicks in at that point, and that -- to paraphrase Robert Frost -- makes all the difference.)

I love this verse, which makes it clear that the band that is the subject of the song are not only a bunch of phonies, but crappy musicians as well:

And as the microphone squeaks

A young girl's telephone beeps

Yeah, she's dashing for the exit

She's running to the streets outside

"Oh, you've saved me," she screams down the line

"The band were f*cking wank

And I'm not having a nice time!"

Saved by the bell -- or by a ringtone . . .

Here's "Fake Tales of San Francisco":

Click here to buy the song from Amazon: