That damn bear

January 10, 2011 11:57 AM

It's been a year, so I'm reposting. Please help me find my bloody teddy bear.

So I posted this question over a year ago. Since then, I've googled for the answer about every other week. I've posted the question on other websites, including allexperts.com, to every forum I thought might be appropriate. Still nothing. I've naively believed that if I just wait long enough, Google will show me the way. It's not happening.

So, anybody want to take a stab at it? Please note that the song really, really has to mention a teddy bear or a toy bear. Just the mention of blood on any kind of floor is not sufficient. I need blood, and I need a bear.

posted by Evangeline to media & arts (18 answers total)

It seems far more likely that your friend has misremembered the song than that nobody can think of it, doesn't it?

Of course, it could have been something from a local performer's unreleased (or released only locally) record, which might explain why nobody outside of wherever your friend lives has ever heard the song.

Also, one can sing "My Bloody Teddy Bear" to the tune of "My Funny Valentine"
posted by Sidhedevil at 12:02 PM on January 10, 2011

A friend has been looking for years for a song he heard in the late 1970's or early 80's.

I'm actually beginning to think he made this whole thing up just to screw with me.

Why are you googling this about every other week?
posted by arnicae at 12:04 PM on January 10, 2011

Why are you googling this about every other week?

Because I can't admit defeat.

It seems far more likely that your friend has misremembered the song than that nobody can think of it, doesn't it?

Nope. Take a look at this question. That's another song he was looking for. I posted it in January and nobody could find an answer. Finally, long after I'd given up, someone posted the answer in June.

Also, he has a damn good memory.
posted by Evangeline at 12:08 PM on January 10, 2011

I think your friend is either conflating more than one song, is terribly misremembering one song, the song is from an obscure or a local band that included friends of his relatives so that's why he only heard it once, or that he made it up to screw with you as you yourself expressed as a possibility.

Have you checked in with him? Has he asked anybody he remembers being with when it was playing? How does your friend feel about finding the song a year later?

It is, of course, possible that this song exists out there somewhere, but I think after a year of searching, it's probably time to let this one go.
posted by zizzle at 12:09 PM on January 10, 2011

Again, see the question I linked to in my comment. Googling gave me nothing. I finally got an answer when a Mefite happened to remember the song from a mix tape.

So that's what I'm kind of hoping for here.
posted by Evangeline at 12:14 PM on January 10, 2011

I'm actually beginning to think he made this whole thing up just to screw with me.

That was a joke. He's not the kind of person who would do that.

I'm wondering why reposting this question has seemed to make people a little testy. It's not a slight on the musical knowledge or googling power of the Metafilter community, you know. I'm sure new members have joined Mefi since last year. It's possible that one of them might just know the answer.
posted by Evangeline at 12:22 PM on January 10, 2011 [4 favorites]

Is it possible that a local sandwich place was playing original songs by local artists? Not uncommon if you want to avoid ASCAP, etc.. Does he recall the name of the place?

Magic teddy bear sounds like a sort of indie folkie motif, more than an actual folk song.
posted by Ideefixe at 12:29 PM on January 10, 2011

I am wondering why suggesting that your friend might be misremembering is making you testy, Evangeline. People misremember things, even people with excellent memories.

Also, saying "I think your friend is probably misremembering" isn't actually testy.

Note, too, that both I and Ideefixe have suggested that, if he is remembering correctly, he might be remembering a song that was produced by a local artist and thus never saw wide release. Since "ask everyone on the Internet" doesn't seem to be an effective strategy, perhaps "ask the singer/songwriter community local to wherever the friend remembers hearing the song" might be a more effective strategy?

I know that I hear lots of songs by my Largely Mythological Husband's friends that are well-known within our local community, but which are unknown outside of it.
posted by Sidhedevil at 12:34 PM on January 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

Here are his answers to some of your burning questions:

I think your friend is either conflating more than one song...

(POSSIBLE, but seriously doubt. The circumstances of my hearing it were very specific, and my search for it began immediately thereafter.)

... is terribly misremembering one song...

(Again, POSSIBLE. But WHAT???)

the song is from an obscure [band]

(OBVIOUSLY)

or a local band that included friends of his relatives so that's why he only heard it once

(NO. ABSOLUTELY NOT.)

or that he made it up to screw with you as you yourself expressed as a possibility.

(NO. ABSOLUTELY NOT.)
posted by Evangeline at 12:36 PM on January 10, 2011

I am wondering why suggesting that your friend might be misremembering is making you testy, Evangeline. People misremember things, even people with excellent memories.

I'm frustrated that people assume he's misremembering something, when I've already given an example of a question about another song that was answered months after I posted it, by someone who just happened to remember the song, not by someone who googled it. So why is it so hard to believe the same might occur here?

And also, asking "why are you Googling it every week" is not an answer to the question.
posted by Evangeline at 12:39 PM on January 10, 2011

Is it possible that a local sandwich place was playing original songs by local artists? Not uncommon if you want to avoid ASCAP, etc.. Does he recall the name of the place?

Possible but unlikely. This was in Montgomery, AL in the late 70's, early 80's. Not a big indie music scene - maybe none at all.
posted by Evangeline at 12:44 PM on January 10, 2011

This is a total longshot, based on trying to figure out if your friend could have misheard similar-sounding lyrics. This song doesn't have a girl or a castle or magic, but this part stuck out at me:

And so I met
That bear once more
Now he's a rug
On my bedroom floor!

Is it possible that "rug on my bedroom floor" could have been misremembered by your friend as "blood on a hardwood floor"?
posted by amyms at 12:48 PM on January 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

I'm frustrated that people assume he's misremembering something, when I've already given an example of a question about another song that was answered months after I posted it, by someone who just happened to remember the song, not by someone who googled it. So why is it so hard to believe the same might occur here?

yes, it might happen again, orrr, it might just be that he did misremember it. NO matter how good his memory is, memory is a notoriously fickle thing even for the best of us. Given this, and given your extensive search over the past year, the question is easily turned around to: So why is it so hard to believe your friend misremembered? It really isn't a slight on him, but you gotta admit the longer you look without answers the less likely there are answers.

That being said, good luck, the question seems to have become a minor obsession and I hope it gets exorcised one way or the other.
posted by edgeways at 12:51 PM on January 10, 2011

[folks - you need to accept your free advice and move on, please do not argue or overmoderate. Thank you.]
posted by jessamyn at 1:20 PM on January 10, 2011 [9 favorites]

This woman remembers a story with "red hot teddy bear blood" but can't recall anything else, I wonder if you could contact her via the site owners to trade ideas?
posted by kate blank at 5:11 PM on January 10, 2011

This song has some of the same elements - royalty, a bear, blood. It's not really a story about a princess getting presents, but it is a story.

http://www.lyricsvip.com/Wolfe-Tones/The-Teddy-Bear%27s-Head-Lyrics.html

Perhaps he heard a cover of it that was sung by a woman?

Sounds like a really creepy song.
posted by christinetheslp at 7:28 PM on January 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

Your friend should sing what he remembers of the song or the melody of the song and link it here, that might help.
posted by Ashley801 at 1:02 PM on January 11, 2011

i googled and, is this it?
posted by marienbad at 8:34 AM on January 12, 2011