Vip and Zim?

As the adverts always have it - NEW! IMPROVED! VIM!

And, no doubt, ZIP A DEE DOO-DAH! too






So, Vim is a concept that can mean many things to many people.

Over on the Mothership, some people seem to have objected to the idea that up tempo songs automatically means vimminess, but I don't know about that, one woman's Vim is another woman's Cillit Bang. Personally, a toe-tapping quality switches on my vim supply, even when I am stone-cold sober and chemically unaltered.

So, I've taken Vim to mean either songs that make me want to get up and dance like a lunatic or songs where the performer is clearly calling on reserves of internal Vim denied to the less energetic. Maybe Dr John is the exception here, not exactly a Hi NRG 180 BPM performance and laid back he might be but there is a twinkle in that Louisiana drawl that hints at some secret inner zip.

Sophie B Hawkins is a woman with enough Vim to clean the nation's bathrooms and is, to use a quote from DarceysDad, "a force of nature". Vimmed to the max, I'd say, as is the irrepressible Tina Turner, supported by a cast of musicians only slightly smaller than Napoleon's Grand Armée that invaded Russia in 1812 but, apparently not Ike, who was banned from the studio by Phil Spector.

Sophie B Hawkins - Damn, I wish I was your lover

Ike and Tina Turner - River Deep, Mountain High

The Ronettes - Da Do Ron Ron

Daft Punk - One more time

Pet Shop Boys - Always on my mind

Dr John - Accentuate the positive

Johnny Winter - Slippin' and Slidin'

Steely Dan - Bodhisattva

Fairport Convention - Come all ye

Michelle Shocked - If love was a train

Bananarama - Venus

Kylie - Better the devil you know

Laura Nyro and Labelle - Jimmy Mack

The Pipettes - Pull Shapes

Cher - If I could turn back time