I just want to reiterate that Mat Kearney was truly amazing in person. I’ve never been so impressed with a dude playing a guitar and rapping. It’s interesting you think he sounds like Coldplay because I don’t really see it nor do I like Coldplay, although if I heard this music today I wouldn’t like it as much as I did when I first heard it. OK I’ll shut up now and on with the reveal.
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FWIW I enjoyed the anecdote and while I didn’t like the parts that sounded coldplayesque, I really liked the way he strung different elements together. Being a Walrus host is hard because you know you gotta put stuff last that others might have put on the podium, so I really feel Goatnitski’s pain, but I’m glad you submitted this.
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I did go and listen to some Mute Math earlier, I don’t think it would have helped much I’m afraid.
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Yeah I had a hard time listening to them, just not my thing anymore. Thanks for looking into them though!
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In ninth place with two points
England Dan & John Ford Coley - I’d Really Love To See You Tonight
For some reason I always used to think the lyrics to this song were “I’m not talkin’ bout the linen, and I don’t want to change your life… etc” I have no idea why but that made sense to me. I admitted this for humorous effect at a party which my friend was more than happy to laugh her ass off at my stupidity, until it turned out she thought he was saying “I’m not talkin’ about millennium …” Which someone makes even less sense.
Thank god, I was worried this story was going to be about listening along with a now dead relative or something and I’d feel even worse. Dunno why. Anyway, first things first, the line is “I’m not talkin’ ‘bout movin’ in”, which I didn’t catch at all until seeing the youtube lyrics. Of the two alternative explanations then yours seems far closer to the sound. Secondly that’s a enjoyably amusing anecdote.
Sadly I’m not judging the story, though, and this slice of softer than soft rock didn’t do great things for me. I dunno if this is one of those songs that was a smash hit in the US but didn’t do that well in the UK, I think I’ve heard it before, but am not certain. It’s pleasant and mildly catchy, but I get the feeling I could listen a hundred times and still not quite be able to remember it.
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jfc…I gave it 5 seconds of listening at various points and am now convinced it is the soundtrack that will play as the robots become sentient and take over.
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Ok. Now I’m glad that 's not available in my geographical area.
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Duker, imo.
edit: also I’m kinda into it. No kink shaming!
Haha, I did like this other ED&JFC song when it came out, but that one is not me!
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Oh now I know why I couldn’t remember - it’s not the song telling a story, it’s the story
associated with the song.
I was right though in that I already shot my wad on the NWA song hotel sex story. (Another song which that unnamed subpar walrus who was clearly out of his musical depth didn’t “get”.) I struggled to think of another song with a story attached.
Yeah you’d need to have a soft spot for Yacht Rock to get into this song. It’s nothing special but it’s nostalgic if you grew up with it.
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In eight place with three points
Pink Floyd - The Great Gig In The Sky
I couldn’t think of any song/anecdote/story combo that I ever tell, but I was fairly intent on having Dark Side of the Moon play when I lost my virginity, so here’s something from that and there’s your story.
It may seem short and almost an anti-story, but there’s mystery here—on the third or so reading I realised that our submitter leaves it curiously unstated as to whether they suceeded in their quest. One for the scholars to puzzle over.
Anyway, the song. I have always felt a little guilty about how I just don’t get Pink Floyd. Admittedly I don’t know a lot of their music very well, just the couple of albums my Dad had when I was a kid. But given I always found them a bit boring I’ve obviously never bothered to investigate further, and what else I have heard here and there also didn’t push me to. I always meant to listen to the really early stuff but have never quite got round to it.
Like Queen I’m sure this speaks of a great lack in my soul, and these guys have an even better general reputation I’d say. Sorry, and, for the record DSotM was one of the albums my Dad had, so I have heard this track quite a bit. I dunno, listening now I even quite liked it up until the woman starts singing, it’s just afterwards all those Sunday afternoons doing homework whilst this played in the front room came flooding back once again. Fuck, Antiques Roadshow will be on in a bit. I can’t take it.1
1 One for SwankyWilder or jalfrezi. Though maybe they liked Antiques Roadshow. It’s still going, I think.
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That must be microbet.
I feel like that story is too short for micro, but yeah maybe.
edit: not too short maybe, but it doesn’t feel like a micro story.
Wait, you liked it “until the woman starts singing”? lol
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I good friend of mine and former roommate is a huge PF fan and dragged me along to a live tribute show. I got goosebumps when the woman started singing, and still do now listening to the album version.
I feel like I should be right into PF as well, but they are just a band I never kept coming back for.
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I think our musical brains are almost completely diametrically opposed, but on this we agree.
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She improvised that and didn’t even get a credit for songwriting until the remastered releases decades later, when PF righted their wrong. Bastards.
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I liked neither Pink Floyd(being a bit of a year zero punk) nor Antiques Road Show, but by Christ Sundays were dull when I was a kid. Talking of Christ is Songs of Praise still polluting TV?
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You know Johnny and Sid were huge Syd fans really. They even waited outside his Chelsea flat, intent on getting him to produce them lol.
The Damned also tried, but “got the drummer instead” according to Sensible.
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In seventh place with four points
The Tragically Hip - She Didn’t Know
I’m an introvert and tend not to interact with strangers if at all avoidable. I’m the guy that will walk up and down every aisle in a store looking for something instead of just asking somebody. I spent my share of time in record stores over the years and there is only one time I ever walked up to the counter and demanded to know what song was playing. It was at the Tower Records in New York in the fall of 1989. I bought the cassette and became a life-long fan.
Secondary anecdote: In April of 1991 I was driving randomly around the South and was somewhere near Paducah in western Kentucky. I called to check in with the parents in Northern Virginia. My brother was visiting from Richmond and told me that this band was playing the following night at a D.C. club called the Bayou. I got up the next morning and drove 800 miles straight to the club to see that show. Somehow we ended up backstage after the show and I got to tell a couple of the guys about my epic journey. They were suitably impressed. Genuinely nice guys. RIP Gord Downie.
I can relate to the first anecdote, I always found record shops intimidating places as a younger person and more than once found myself loitering near the stereo trying to see what might be playing without having to ask. The one time I can ever remember asking was when I’d had no choice but to approach the counter as I was buying some stuff. The voice in my head finally got insistent enough to make me speak, only to find out from a bemused salesperson that I’d literally just bought it (Futureworld by Trans Am).
But the song. If a previous entry that can only be described as indie rock got marked down as it reminded me of Coldplay, this one experienced a happier fate by reminding me of early-ish REM. If The Velvet Undergound fried my musical brain early on, then they only got the chance to do so because REM covered them several times and I’d run out of REM albums to buy. I love REM.1
I can’t just talk about REM, though, that would be unfair to a nicely solid, propulsive song that I always enjoyed listening to. Apparently it’s inspired by a tragic true story about a girl being accidentally shot by her brother whilst they played with their father’s gun, but as I never pay attention to lyrics I didn’t let that get in the way!
1 And out of that love ignore everything they did post The Great Beyond
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