Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with music and song

Please find this song for us.

multivalent — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:32:56 -0800

Findthatsongfilter: Lyrics containing "die together"...we think! My girlfriend is looking for a song that was released around a year ago and got some radio play. Have googled the lyrics so the phrasing may not be exact. Song was indie ish lyrical and ballady. Male singer. Sorry this is all so vague; this question is as much wanting to know the song as to demonstrate the power of the hive mind to the unconverted.

Thanks for your help.

Who makes the station-specific versions of radio songs?

Zephyrial — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:01:33 -0800

Who is responsible for recording / editing those customized versions of pop radio songs that include the radio station's or city's name? You know when a song on the radio has been edited to change some lyric to include "KISS 107" or the name of your city (the most recent example that comes to mind is I heard Kesha - Tick Tock on the radio and the lyric "DJ blow my speakers up" was replaced with "New York City blow it up")? Who is responsible for those?

Does the singer record a bunch of different versions with sponsor-station names in the studio? Are they recorded when the singer records those "Hi this is [name] and you're listening to [station]!" messages? Or do stations hire sound-alike singers to dub over certain key moments with their name / location?

I don't know if anyone will have any insight into this, but it's something I've always been really curious about.

Can anyone identify this song?

marimeko — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 09:17:09 -0800

Can anyone identify this song? The last time I head the track in question was in 2001.

The intro (keyboard/guitar/strings possibly wind sound effect) builds up to a male voice saying "it's a beautiful day" (several times, slowly, almost whispering).

The artist has a slight Brooklyn accent and doesn't ever actually sing.

It's not any of the songs or albums that comes up in google for "Beautiful Day".

The words "telephone" or "pop" might be in the name of the track, band or album.

I would describe the music as pop, hip hop, electronica.

Thank you!

Classical composers who sang instead of played instruments?

mediareport — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:56:33 -0800

Are there well-known classical composers who aren't trained on a particular instrument? An acquaintance is a young singer who's interested in composition (mostly for voice), but in talking to him I get the sense that he feels a little inadequate compared to his fellow students who are accomplished on at least one instrument like piano or violin. Can you give me examples of classical composers whose work is respected but who weren't primarily instrumental players? Modern or otherwise. Thanks!

Songs about redemption other than "Redemption Song?"

the_bone — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:37:25 -0800

I'd love suggestions for a song about redemption that isn't Marley's "Redemption Song." I was just asked to sing at a benefit dinner my friend is organizing this Saturday... it's for a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that provides housing and reentry support to women who were formally incarcerated. She requested that I sing a song about "redemption" and I immediately thought of "Redemption Song," but realized while practicing that the opening lyrics make it a potentially problematic song for a white guy to sing. (Specifically: Old pirates, yes, they rob I/Sold I to the merchant ships/Minutes after they took I/From the bottomless pit.) Even though I think it works on a metaphorical level I'm worried that my singing those lyrics would come off as insensitive and douchey. Plus, I don't want people to give the friend who asked me to sing any grief over it.

So, my question is twofold:

1. Am I overthinking this? My main objective here is to be sensitive, but I wouldn't mind being convinced that singing Marley's song is fine (mostly because it's fucking gorgeous and fits my voice ridiculously well).

2. Assuming that I go with my instinct and find another song, any ideas? It can be religious or not, although I'd prefer that songs with religious/spiritual overtones be appropriate for an interfaith sort of event. I'll be accompanying myself on either guitar or piano so it ideally wouldn't be something too difficult to play. It can be vocally challenging though. Range doesn't really matter; I'm a tenor with a wide range and an excellent falsetto, and would transpose whatever song I pick into a suitable range anyway. (To give you idea of range: I was practicing "Redemption Song" up a step, in A, and it worked nicely.) An "outside the box" suggestion would be ideal.

Thanks!

Who'd you rather be; The Beatles or The Rolling Stones?

Lorc — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 06:50:03 -0800

The song Gimme Sympathy by Metric has a line: "After all of this is gone, who'd you rather be; the Beatles or the Rolling Stones." What would you interpret that to mean? What characteristic of those bands is being contrasted here? Googling suggests that there was some Beatles/Stones dichotomy, but I'm not 100% clear on how it relates to that lyric.

I've sussed that the later lyric "play me something like Here Comes The Sun" is a reference to that Beatles song, so are The Beatles the "right" choice? Maybe?

Sorry for overthinking a plate of beans, but you know how when one line of a song sticks in your mind?

Full lyrics for the song are in the linked vid's description.

What is this song?

Holygrail2 — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 18:41:00 -0800

This has vexed me for more than half of my life. What song is this? I recorded the final snippet of this song from a Comedy Central rerun of (I think) SNL in 1993. I've been randomly singing it every now and then for the last 16 years but I still have no idea what the song is and who the singer is.

Luckily, thanks to modern technology, I can put VHS tapes on my computer and put the video up on YouTube (yay!). Any music buffs know the answer? I think it's an early 80s SNL episode...

Name that vaguely show-tuney tune

miriam — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:53:40 -0800

What song plays over the closing credits in the last episode of The Simpsons? It's season 21, episode 6, "Pranks and Greens," guest-starring Jonah Hill. The song starts around 20:47 here. We thought maybe it was Holst, Vaughan Williams, or Gilbert & Sullivan, but can't identify it. I don't see any mention of it in the closing credits or in the googles.

Others like St. James Infirmary?

Baby_Balrog — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:53:25 -0800

My band does a great cover of St. James Infirmary Blues. What else should we do that's in the same vein? Here's a bozillion .mp3s of St. James so you can get a feel for it. It looks like it's been categorized under pre-war blues. It sounds great - we do it as a three-piece... guitar, banjo, fiddle with three-part vocal harmonies. It plays well on the fiddle - what other tunes capture this kind of dark, painful sound in a blues way that translates well to string band?

I want to watch this video again.

inging — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:11:58 -0800

ForgottenSongTitleAndArtistFilter: the song: bouncy and loud, sung by a solo female. The lyrics equate love with physical abuse. (Like being hit with love, or our hearts beating one another, something like that. It reminds me of the Cardigans "And then You Kissed Me.") the video: a mostly white backdrop, and said female vocalist cavorting around, dancing and shadowboxing. Possibly things are on fire? There is a bed, and pillows, and maybe even streamers. That's all I have. Please help.

Specific song with whistling in it?

crios — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:27:48 -0800

I'm looking for a specific song with whistling in it. I heard it in a bar so I couldn't catch the lyrics but the song had a singing chorus and then a whistling chorus that it started and ended with (I think). It had had an upbeat tempo and seemed to only consist of drums, a bass line and vocals (as well as the whistling). The singing seemed to be in a monotone style except for the singing chorus. Any ideas?

Mumble-mumble-whaty-what?

jordanlewis — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:10:55 -0800

[SongFilter] What the heck is this song playing on my local college radio station? It's been playing on WHPK Chicago for a good 15-20 minutes, and it hasn't significantly varied from sounding like this, except for the removal of a monotonous and steady busy-signal kind of sound.

It's driving me mad! Can you hear what he's saying? (We're marching toward the present? Looking for some pasture?) What is this song?

What ever happened to Mike Jackson's nose?

kitty teeth — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 07:37:31 -0800

Help identify this song! My boyfriend downloaded this song sometime in the 1990s. We've tried googling the lyrics, but nothing turns up. Does anyone know anything about this little ditty?

Identify this Latin (Cuban?) Song Performance

matildaben — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:49:08 -0800

I heard a song playing on the sound system in a restaurant that I would like to track down if I can identify it. It was sung in Spanish, in a Cuban musical style (similar to the more ballad-like tracks on many of the Buena Vista Social Club artists' records). The vocalist was most likely male, singing in that kind of 1930's/40's croony sound with a high tenor with lots of vibrato, or possibly a woman with a lower voice. What was distinctive about the track is that it prominently featured a cello, which is not something I'm used to hearing in Latin music. I do not know if it was actually an old song or a modern pastiche, and I didn't get any lyrics.

Do you recognize this folk song?

argybarg — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 12:49:54 -0800

A friend and fellow music teacher taught me this song, telling me it was "in the folk tradition." But I can't find anything out about it and he can't tell me anything more. Do you recognize it? Here is a recording of my friend singing the first verse (at a good pitch for kids).

And here are the lyrics:

In the valley watching cattle
There I heard the sounds of battle
And I found a four-leaf clover
Hiding in the yellow grass

And I found a four-leaf clover
Hiding in the yellow grass

Tell me, tell me, four-leaf clover
If the war will soon be over
Then I'll run to meet my father
Riding over the mountain pass

Then I'll run to meet my father
Riding over the mountain pass

Pigeon, pigeon by the fountain
Fly across the snowy mountain
Take this ribbon to my father
Tell him that it comes from me

Take this ribbon to my father
Tell him that it comes from me

Father, father, brave and clever
Drive the foe across the river
Turn around and come back quickly
Then so happy we shall be

Turn about and come back quickly
Then so happy we shall be

Google gives me a grand total of one response, this pdf of a handmade score.

Any help?

Thai-to-English Translation Sought for Butthole Surfers Fan

not_on_display — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 15:27:52 -0800

Do you speak Thai? Can you translate this song into English?* This mp3 link is performed by the original artist, who remains unknown, and was infamously plundered by the Butthole Surfers in 1987 to create the track "Kuntz" on the album Locust Abortion Technician. Purpose: I would like to do an English-version cover of the original song. Plus, it's a good li'l mystery -- an unknown artist, and the only lyrics translated so far are vaguely about the "itch" that "won't go away....the itch never leaves."*

* [.mp3 file and quote via WFMU's Beware of the Blog]

Track ID needed (late 80s/90s popular music) - Reward!

groovinkim — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 22:40:58 -0800

Track ID needed (late 80s/90s popular music) - Reward for the finder! I'll snail-mail a custom made present to anyone who finds this song.

Here's what I know about the song I'm trying to find.

- It was made in 1996 or earlier, and probably in the 90s.
- It's not by a "grunge-y" band
- It's made by a person/band that was relatively popular and well known, but the song itself is on the obscure side because it contains too much profanity/obscenity to receive radio play.
- It wasn't a hidden track on the album, just a normal track along with the rest
- It's intended to be sex-oriented and not relationship/love-oriented
- He doesn't remember it having featured prominently in any movies

Not much to go on :/

(For the curious, a friend who I'm flirting with said that there was a song a friend in high school played him when he was around 14-15 and if a woman ever sang him this song, he'd make out with them on the spot. It's not even a song that he particularly likes, he hasn't heard it in 10 years, and he doesn't own the album. But I've decided to make it a needle in a haystack personal mission.)

Name that song

DieHipsterDie — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 12:24:26 -0800

Name that song filter Have this on one of my old college DJ tapes. Early to mid 90s.

"Some how I've been here
This all seems too familiar now
New friends with old words say to me
It's wild how you have changed again.

The more things around me change
The less I feel we stay the same
I remember something I would tell you but I can't"

Thanks!

Two Songs, One Girl?

holdkris99 — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 02:17:31 -0800

So Something by The Beatles (Harrison not Lennon/McCartney), Layla and Wonderful Tonight both by Clapton in one form or another were all written about Pattie Boyd. Are there other examples of a person being the subject of more than one song by more than one artist? I am specifically interested in love songs, not songs about Princess Di or tributes to dead celebs and the like, but genuine love songs.

What is the best love song you've ever heard?

jjg — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 12:58:24 -0800

What is the best love song you've ever heard? Not sticky-sweet or sappy, but genuinely romantic. Any genre will do.

Is this a Jimi Hendrix song, and if so, which one?

XiBe — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:24:17 -0800

Is this a Jimi Hendrix song, and if so, which one? This audio file is a mp3 export of the module titled "Electric Church" (download link) by musician HitHansen.

This musician is known to sampling guitars from records, even tracking covers (such as "Experienced(x)" (dl), which covers Hendrix's "In From The Storm").

Thing is, while Electric Church obviously seems to be a cover (the synth "chorus" reminds me of...something), and a Hendrix one at that (the title being the clue here), I can't put my finger on which one. Listening to a hefty part of Jimi's discography on Deezer didn't help thus far.

Hive mind, will you?

Thank you.

Trying to ID an obscure laughter song

crapmatic — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:23:33 -0800

What is the "laughter song" in this Spongebob video at 1:40 - 1:49? This is part of the original episode, not added by the YT user. I have heard this tune frequently over the past 25 years in various network programs for anything considered "funny", usually in bloopers and slapstick, and have never been able to identify it.

Name that busk

disillusioned — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 08:55:49 -0800

While in Paris, I stumbled upon a group playing quite an impressive strings arrangement, in a Metro station. What song is this?

Baby making music

jadepearl — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 08:30:04 -0800

songfilter: I heard the fragment of a song years ago and it is a long shot. Hope me! I heard this song years ago like circa 1999-2000 in the bay area and thought it was by Janis Joplin but no dice on the phrase lyric, "I just want to make sweet love to you" Style is similar to R&B Blues of Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings and Joplin's Move on Over.

I am horrible in tracking down music and hope that the powers of the green are strong enough to provide artist and song.

Lookout! Lookout! Lookout! Lookout!

Drasher — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 21:53:27 -0800

60s song filter: We are trying to find the song from the 60s (?) that is about a car/motorcycle crash. The song has singing and a narrative part if memory serves. At one point the girl screams: "Lookout! Lookout! Lookout! Lookout!"