Naturalist Chris Packham has made a habit of slipping song titles into the scripts of shows he presents on the BBC. It started in 2009 when he snuck the names of various songs by The Smiths into an episode of Springwatch, then a year later he followed it up on the same show with tracks by The Cure. Manic Street Preachers, Madness, David Bowie and Eddie And The Hot Rods are other artists who’ve found their song titles sharing screen time with such natural marvels as pink-footed geese, a blond badger and a hare taking on a marsh harrier. But arguably Chris’s greatest achievement was cramming the names of 70 songs by The Clash into the 2013 series of Springwatch.
The Clash and a show highlighting the charms of the year’s most nascent season are instantly at odds. The West London four-piece came straight out of the traps singing about ‘Sten guns in Knightsbridge’ on their debut single White Riot and rarely strayed from urban concerns. London’s Burning, Guns Of Brixton and Ghetto Defendant weren’t remotely interested in Britain’s disappearing hedgerows. The song Four Horsemen wasn’t about animal husbandry. So full credit to punk-stalwart Packham for bridging the divide between town and country, and squeezing such improbable Clash titles as Lost In The Supermarket, Clash City Rockers and Julie’s Been Working For The Drug Squad into a programme about kestrels and cormorants.
Having shown he can drop song titles as frequently as a female rabbit drops kittens (Springwatch Fact: that’s the correct term for a baby rabbit), now Chris has to take things to the next level. In a future series he needs to crowbar in mentions of some of rock and pop’s most unwieldy titles.
The Flaming Lips song My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion (The Inner Life As Blazing Shield Of Defiance And Optimism As Celestial Spear Of Action) should be a cinch because it even mentions the season of leaves crunching underfoot. Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together In A Cave And Grooving With A Pict by Pink Floyd actually has the advantage of referencing wildlife, as does Sufjan Stevens’ catchily-titled 2005 ditty The Black Hawk War, Or, How To Demolish An Entire Civilization And Still Feel Good About Yourself In The Morning, Or, We Apologize For The Inconvenience But You’re Going To Have To Leave Now, Or, I Have Fought The Big Knives And Will Continue To Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands.
As The Clash themselves might have asked, should Chris stay in his comfort zone or should he go for it? We can but hope.
