Music Meme: Bonus Question

[cjlasky7]

Note: this is NOT part of the "30 Days of Music" challenge I'm currently taking with beer_good_foamy and wendalah1. This is my own bonus question, because I think it's too potentially funny to resist:

Name a song you love that nobody else you know thinks is cool.

"Weird" is not acceptable. It has to be a popular tune that has lost its coolness.... except in your loving eyes. Kind of like:

https://youtu.be/zKQfxi8V5FA

Pretentious. Bombastic. Silly. Melodramatic.

I loved it as a kid. I still do.

Comments

[beer_good_foamy]

Hey, I think that song is pretty cool. I mean, how can you not love a song where they deliberately set up the whole song to rhyme on "five" and then run out of rhymes with three verses to go and still release it?

Speaking of weird sci-fi dystopia one-hit-wonders, I always liked this song, wigs and melodrama and all. At the last big pop trivia night I was at in the before-fore times, I was the only one apart from the quizmaster who even remembered it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL8AgEzg5fI

[cjlasky7]

You mean... I'm not alone?

Tom Breihan, in his column "The Number Ones", summed up his feelings with a succinct "it's also a pretty annoying song."

Dave Barry's hatred of it is legendary. In his novel, Tricky Business, a band used it as a 'revenge song'--a song used to punish an audience when their requests piss off the band. (Not that I advocate revenge, but to be fair, this audience did request "Ballad of the Green Berets." Twice.)

Oh, a correction: I didn't give you the full song title:

In the Year 2525 (Exordium and Terminus)

The sixties, man.

[beer_good_foamy]

Some audiences do deserve it. I once read a piece on Uncle Tupelo, about how at one of their first gigs they were heckled by a good ol' boy in the audience who thought they knew nothing about country music and finally yelled that he'd give them ten dollars for every Hank Williams song they could play. So they played a full set of Hank's entire singles catalogue and the guy did pay up.

[cjlasky7]

Great story!

But, you know, that's not revenge. Mr. Country probably enjoyed all that Hank. That's winning a bet and Getting Paid. Revenge would be feeding Mr. Country a steady diet of Manilow.

[beer_good_foamy]

The best revenge is living well, after all.

[wendelah1]

That's a brilliant vid you've linked to. It kind of overshadows the song in a way.

As for the question? Yeah, I've got nothing. Everything I can think of has like 30,000,000 views and counting on YouTube. My taste in pop must be really mainstream.

[atpo_onm]

Wow, that's a tough one for me. Best I can come up with might be Telstar, by The Ventures. It may even be possible that The Ventures haven't been cool for decades now, I have no idea, although some other old farts I meet up with at the KRC Record Show here in my berg think they're still cool.

I have the album, one of the very first LPs I ever bought-- or had my parents buy for me, more accurately. Not sure if I have the single, might have bought that first. I just knew when it first started playing on the radio, that I must have it!!!

I mean, how uncool could a driving instrumental tune dedicated to the worlds first successful communications satellite be, you know? Sheesh!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telstar

This sounds pretty original, plus-- album covers!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrPwcoc3jcs

[cjlasky7]

Y'know, maybe this question was too tough, because I have always loved the Ventures and the rock instrumentalists from the 50s and 60s, like Duane Eddy or Dick Dale.

I was hoping somebody here harbored a secret love for Paul Anka's "You're Having My Baby" or the Captain and Tenille's "Muskrat Love."

Or "Sussudio."

[shadowkat]

1. I think I've heard 2525, and I think I read the Dave Barry book about it. Both seem vaguely familiar. Also I agree with beer_good, that's a really cool song. It's twisty. I like twisty songs like that - which end up being ear worm songs. Yes, I'm one of those odd folks who like ear worms - such as the Lion Sleeps Tonight.

2. Muskrat Love is an interesting song. Don't diss the Captain & Tennille.

3. Hmmm...candidates for songs no one knows I like? The Windmills of Your Mind - Noel Harrison theme song to The Thomas Crown Affair.

My taste is so non-discriminating and broad that it's kind of hard to find songs that I don't like.

I remember loving The Carpenters as a kid. I had a music box for a while that played We've Only Just Begun.

I adore Cher's Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves
(which is kind of controversial).

And...I had Air Supply on 8-Track Tape. Also Olivia Newton John - I loved her song Xanadu. LOL!

[cjlasky7]

Oh man, I love post-Sonny Cher: "Dark Lady," "Half Breed," "Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves"--cheesy as hell, maybe, but fantastic performances.

Not crazy about the Noel Harrison version of "Windmills," but I liked Dusty Springfield's.

Xanadu is a terrible movie with an amazing soundtrack. One half is ONJ, with songs by John Farrar ("Magic"), the other half is Jeff Lynne and ELO ("I'm Alive") "Xanadu" is where they meet, and it is glorious.

I will never watch the movie again, though.

[shadowkat]

I prefer ..Elaine Page's take on Windmills, which is actually the first one I heard.
go here: https://youtu.be/GzZX8dE1DcE

A college friend had given me a mixed tape of Elaine Page's songs. And her rendition is amazing, with her own voice echoing itself.

Gypsey, Tramps and Thieves was actually done while Cher was still with Sonny. It was one of her solo songs on the Sonny and Cher Show, and first performed on it in the 1970s. It was released in 1971 and her first solo release. She dislikes it and usually sings a truncated version. History of the Greatest Song Here. The link I provided above for it - is from the Sonny & Cher show.

I like it for the same reasons stated in the Greatest Song - link I gave above. It's actually less cheesy than her other songs, and grittier. A story song - about a defiant 16 year old Roma, dealing with the prejudice and hypocrisy of those around her. I love "story" songs. One of the appeals of folk, rap/hip hop, country, over a lot of rock, R&B, and pop is the story song.

Agree on Xanadu. I saw it as a kid, and it was horrible and very disappointing. They actually tried to turn it into a musical on Broadway at one point. The song-book on the other hand is good. I had it on 8-track as well.

[cjlasky7]

Did not know "GT&T" originated in the Sonny and Cher era.

Had to post these links:

https://youtu.be/eWeezUxIzaE

https://youtu.be/Ia1D9TfZdiA

[shadowkat]

I finally found the performance that I remember that was performed on Sonny & Cher hour around 1976. It's the first time I saw it and heard the song.

https://youtu.be/TOSZwEwl_1Q