New Wave Mystery Song

November 4, 2007 7:04 PM

I belong to a New Wave forum in which someone asked for help IDing this song (YouTube). Four years later, after exhaustive searching, it's still a mystery.

This has become somewhat of a holy grail for the New Wave Outpost community, so I thought I would throw it out here. The entire saga can be found here. It's been tentatively called Stay (The Second Time Around), although there's no proof that's the name of the song. It was recorded off of a German radio station in '84 or '86.

It's unlikely that it's someone mainstream, given the breadth of knowledge of the forum members, and a number of obscure possibilities have been ruled out including the following artists: Modern Vision, Romance at Eleven, Aldo Nova, The Blue Nile, Grace Pool, Lions and Ghosts, Stone Fury, Andre Cymone, Cham CM, Ghost, The Controllers, Canton, The Tiny, Skope, Tonio K, Tiger Lou, The Dream Team, Sa-ra, Aebersold, Jacobites, Saturn V, Quadrajets, Solveig Slettahjell, Drop Nineteens, Andres Calamaro, First Affair, Ian Lodge, Marx & Spencer, Dan Byrd, Lost Patrol, Ken Roland, Curious Figures, Jeb Million, Shalamar,Blue Cheer, Rickie Lee Jones, Morten Harket, Dollar, Mike Cannon, Manteca, The Saints, The Dream Team, Fire Fly, Melvin James, and Jet.

Does this sound familiar to any Mefites?

posted by kimdog to society & culture (25 comments total)

I can't say I know what the song is, but it kind of sounds like Comsat Angels.

I do think it's funny Blue Cheer is in the eliminated list!
posted by apetpsychic at 8:19 PM on November 4, 2007

I do think it sounds incredibly familiar, which would mean European rather than American. l would bet almost anything that it's a German band - there were a lot of German one-hit-wonder bands in the mid 80:s.

I scoured my "Tracks" (Swedish top 10 list) recordings from those years without running into it. I found some forgotten gems, for sure (+1!), but nothing that even sounded like it. The voice is pretty distinctive, you would think that someone would recognize it...

Is there a German radio personality/DJ that was big in the 1980:s? If so, contacting him/her might net some leads. If I was really invested in it, I might beg Kaj Kindvall (the host of Tracks since its start in 1984) to listen to it and see if he recognized it.
posted by gemmy at 9:24 PM on November 4, 2007

I can't help identify the song either, but someone in the thread you linked suggested that the song was being played back at too slow a speed, and I agree. Just a 5-7% speed increase makes the clip sound a lot more natural—the vocalist doesn't sound quite as distinctive, but maybe it'll be more likely to jog someone's memory.

I don't know, though. Eventually you might just have to come to terms with the fact that you've STUMPED THE INTERWEB.
posted by aparrish at 11:46 PM on November 4, 2007

Sounds like Alphaville to me, but the speed thing is definitely having an impact.
posted by DrtyBlvd at 12:47 AM on November 5, 2007

OK, I'd like to help out with this...what's an easy way to speed up the mp3?
posted by taumeson at 5:19 AM on November 5, 2007

I just sped the song up, but I don't have space to post it. Email me if you'd like me to send it to you so that you can post it.
posted by umbú at 6:19 AM on November 5, 2007

Thanks so much everyone. Stumped the Interweb? Not possible! We just need to find the right tube.
posted by kimdog at 6:52 AM on November 5, 2007

Gemmy, someone on the forum took your advice and e-mailed Kaj Kindvall... I'll let you know if we get a response.
posted by kimdog at 6:54 AM on November 5, 2007

Cool, kimdog, hope that pans out! ;)
posted by gemmy at 8:42 AM on November 5, 2007

From the nwoutpost.com link in the OP:

Hi All, here is what Kaj Kindvall's response and what he has suggested:

Hi,

wish I could help you, but the song does not ring a bell. I scanned a
few lists from those days and I have only one suggestion - the trouble is I haven't heard the song and I don't have access to it.

It's called "Second Time" by Norwegian band Blind Date, released in
1984 on the album (LP, no CD I think) "Dangers Of Love." Label: Epic EPC25712.

As I said, it's a long shot.

I hope you will identify it in the end!

Regards
Kaj Kindvall
posted by taumeson at 11:52 AM on November 5, 2007

OK, I've emailed the seller of this auction:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BLIND-DATE-dangers-of-love-84-DUTCH-LP-ORIG-POP-ROCK_W0QQitemZ160140087071QQihZ006QQcategoryZ1593QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

to see if they can listen to the "Second Time" song and let us know if it's the same one. Let's see what happens.
posted by taumeson at 11:59 AM on November 5, 2007

How long is the mp3? According to discogs.com "Second Time" is 3:32 long. Does that match up?
posted by apetpsychic at 12:18 PM on November 5, 2007

apetpsychic... unfortunately, the song was not recorded in it's entirety so the actual length is also unkown. The clip on YouTube is about 1:24.
posted by kimdog at 12:50 PM on November 5, 2007

umbú sent me the sped-up version of the song, which I agree sounds a little more natural, albeit still a little weird. It doesn't jog my memory any more, though.

Cool that Kaj Kindvall wrote back! Hopefully it's a good lead. Let us know how it goes.
posted by gemmy at 2:50 PM on November 5, 2007

Oh well, the Blind Date lead was checked out and it's not the same song. Yet another disappointment.
posted by kimdog at 12:33 PM on November 6, 2007

Awww, that's too bad. Now I'm gonna have to think more about this, it's gonna drive me crazy! ;)
posted by gemmy at 1:23 PM on November 6, 2007

Is it Dagaband?
posted by crosten at 6:16 PM on November 6, 2007

Not Dagaband, for sure. Someone has the MP3 to prove it.
posted by kimdog at 6:30 AM on November 7, 2007

There's a massive list of people who have been ruled out -- I bet you it's one of them, but the person ruling them out didn't recognize that it's the slowed down version or they were just sloppy.
posted by taumeson at 6:23 AM on November 12, 2007

Holy cow, there's finally been a positive ID in the original forum! It's a song called "Heartbeat" by White & Torch. There's even been a confirmation by Roy White via MySpace.
posted by kimdog at 8:53 AM on November 12, 2007

Thank God, I was sick of thinking about this.
posted by thebrokedown at 11:50 AM on November 12, 2007

Sweet!! I've been driving myself crazy thinking about it! Thanks for the update, kimdog!
posted by gemmy at 5:22 PM on November 12, 2007

You won't believe this but White & Torch turned out to be a false alarm. Roy White some how mistunderstood the e-mail, and never listened to the song. When he did, he actually confirmed that this is NOT one of their songs.

So, the saga continues.
posted by kimdog at 9:00 AM on November 13, 2007

Oh, my :(
posted by thebrokedown at 10:51 AM on November 13, 2007

Oh noes!!! I was just getting ready to try to find that song, too. I'll have to think some more about it now, I guess....
posted by gemmy at 6:17 PM on November 13, 2007