Perfect Circle - Mystery Solved (and sorry for the wait!)

 

Okay, y'all - what even is time these days, amirite? I posted this Mystery Song ten months ago?! Anyway, I solved it pretty soon afterwards, but I never got around to posting the answer. Here we are, finally!

The Mystery Song from November last year turns out to be REM's "Perfect Circle," from their 1983 album, Murmur. It's the last seven syllables of the chorus phrase

"standing too soon, shoulders high in the room."

Above, I've made a better rendition since the original from-the-top-of-my-head attempt.

The video below is queued up to the best example in the actual song, at about 2:38 mins:



It's not surprising to me that it was an REM song (they're historically one of the most frequent bands in my head) but, in an appeal for ideas from my friends on Facebook back when this happened, my friend Joe pointed out that the melody is similar to Barry Manilow's beautiful "Weekend in New England."

I absolutely think that my neural path memory in this case cleaved close to the Manilow tune on this recollection! And I do wonder if Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe were unconsciously influenced by it, despite how cool they thought they were!

My online synth re-creation of the REM tune was misleading in a couple ways. One, the tempo of the actual song is slower, and two, the rhythm of the notes is steadier and less "waltzy" than I made it. These two things are also true of the Manilow song.

And here's "Weekend in New England" for comparison. The similar melodic interval is heard right away, and then gets repeated in the chorus:

 

Thanks everyone for playing along!

Artist: REM

Year: 1983

Rating: Luke Hot

Artist: Barry Manilow
Year: 1976 (Yet another song from the US Bicentennial year!)

Rating: Warm

 

I'm Free (Heaven Helps the Man), Redux x2

Last blogged: June 5, 2013.

Jeezus, this song is in my head A LOT. A lot, lot, for a song I'm pretty meh about. Nevertheless.

Artist: Kenny Loggins
Year: 1984
Rating: lukewarm-cold

Handy Man

It's been a year and a half since I last posted an entry here. I've been sucked into other social networking, and also trying to focus on, y'know, life and stuff. Maybe I'll pick up the pace here at The Songs in My Head, and maybe not. I tweet at twitter/soozenextthing with a touch more frequency, so follow me there!

For now, the lilting mellowness of a tune from my youth, with Mr. James Taylor's "Handy Man." The "comma, comma, comma, comma, come, come," refrain was ubiquitous on 70s radio, a song not to be confused with Sammy Davis Jr's "The Candyman" and the weirdness that is Neil Sedaka also spelling out that useful bit of punctuation. But I actually didn't realize that the song is much older. It's easy to attribute to JT, since he was mainly known for singing songs he'd also written, but the song was originally penned by roots rock and R&B singer Jimmy Jones and songwriter Otis Blackwell (who also wrote "Don't Be Cruel," "Great Balls of Fire," and many other very influential rock tunes). It's a case of the long, vague memory thread of a song that's been part of the culture for a very long time, arriving in my head one random day in 2015, in the form I'm most familiar with. Likely you've heard a couple of these versions of the tune yourself:

The 1959 original, by Jimmy Jones:



The chart-topper, later that same year, by Dell Shannon and his distinctive clavioline:



And who knew that Frank Black and Teenage Fanclub even banged out an indie cover of the song for a John Peel session record?



Artist: James Taylor
Year: 1977
Rating: Warm

Artist: Jimmy Jones
Year: 1959
Rating: Luke Hot

Artist: Del Shannon
Year: 1959
Rating: Luke Hot

Artist: Frank Black & Teenage Fanclub
Year: 1997
Rating: Warm

Wild Sage - Original Cover!

I've got a little time on my hands lately, so I'm noodling around with more songs. Here is my faithful rendition of "Wild Sage" by the Mountain Goats, from their album Get Lonely.

Last blogged on November 23, 2011.



Artist: Sooze
Written by: John Darnielle
Year: 2014, (2006, original)
Rating: Hot!

Downtown Train - Original Cover!

Tom Waits's "Downtown Train" has been in my head for a few days, so I decided to figure it out on guitar. Then I sang it at karaoke last night, and it wasn't too shabby. I'm using something closer to the key Rod Stewart sang it in, 'cause Tom's range is a mite bit too low, as you can imagine. Hope you enjoy it!



Artist: Sooze
Written by: Tom Waits
Notable covers: Rod Stewart (1989); Everything But the Girl (1992)
Year: 2014; original 1985
Rating: Hot!

Every Day Is Like Sunday

And a strange dust lands on your hands
And on your face...

Artist: Morrissey
Year: 1988
Rating: Hot!

Do That To Me One More Time

This song is sadly underrepresented in nostalgic playback in my life. Its racy lyrics, masked as they are by the smooth pop melody, flowed into my late-70s/early 80s kid consciousness almost insidiously. "THAT'S what they're talking about??"

Artist: Captain and Tennille
Year: 1979
Rating: Warm

Note: Get ready for the Captain's recorder breakdown at about 1:35!

Breaking Us In Two

I alerted the tribes on twitter/soozzip last Sunday that this song had already been in my head for some time. Still it persists, and, though I love me some Joe Jackson, and I love this song, the compulsive repetition is wearing on me. I even tried a Mozart Reset, to only limited effect. Sometimes too much of a good thing is too much.

Artist: Joe Jackson
Year: 1982
Rating: Hot!

I Go To Extremes

A song I'd pretty much forgotten existed. A compliment, compared with the the album's awful, earwormy first single that I only wish I could strike from memory. Ah, Billy Joel. His songwriting really does go to extremes. Quel human.

Artist: Billy Joel
Year: 1989 - album/1990 - single
Rating: Lukewarm

I'm Free (Heaven Helps the Man), Redux

Been in my head for an hour, with no signs of abating. Last in my head on May 19, 2011.

Artist: Kenny Loggins
Year: 1984
Rating: Lukewarm

Major Tom (Coming Home)

Roller-waitresses in spaaaaace!

Artist: Peter Schilling
Year: 1983
Rating: Luke Hot

Country Road

Great performance, with Ms. King on the keys!

Artist: James Taylor
Year: 1970
Rating: Hot!

If You Could Read My Mind

This is one of those songs that makes me so deeply grateful that I was a kid in the 70s and got to hear it on the radio in my mom's car, in my sisters' cars, over and over again. The words are so seemlessly embedded in my head and so beautifully constructed that the specific, sad beauty is easily glossed over.

Artist: Gordon Lightfoot
Year: 1970
Rating: Luke Hot

Superball

(You'll have to play this video once to be amused by the hamster, and once to actually hear the song! "Nibbler" is quite distracting, but cute.)

This song has been in my head for weeks, but today was the first time I woke with it. Unbelievably, this is the first Aimee Mann song hitting the blog, despite the fact that she's one of my faves, and that I've seen her at least three times live. This morning, the song was ushered in by a dream: I was having a conversation with Aimee (clearly, we were on a first-name basis in my dream), and with some 20-somethings who had never heard her stuff. I was recommending albums they should listen to. The dream, in turn, I'm sure, had been prompted by a false sense of intimacy I'm feeling with her and with another indie rock hero of mine, Ted Leo, who have been touring together and being all lovey on the Twitter. Damn, wish I'd seen them on stage together.

Artist: Aimee Mann
Year: 1995
Rating: Luke Hot

Someday, Someway, Redux

Last in my head on March 14, 2011.

Maybe I'll understand you.

I'm singing this to and about myself today.

Artist: Marshall Crenshaw
Year: 1982
Rating: Luke Hot

I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song

I've been experiencing a significant amount of internal resistance to speaking my truths lately. I'm in a battle over what I need to defend versus what I need to surrender. At the end of the day, usually the communication should just be distilled down to this: I love you.

Artist: Jim Croce
Year: 1973
Rating: Warm

More Than This

It's no small feat when such a simple song lyric captures not only the grief and disappointment, but the absolute beauty and transcendence, of the sentiment that this is all there is. It's one of the most elegant, evocative pop songs, ever. Today, it's bringing tears to my eyes.

Thanks, Mr. Ferry.

Artist: Roxy Music
Year: 1982
Rating: Hot!

Don't Go Breaking My Heart

A song that really should be in everyone's head, all the time. I unabashedly, unironically, love it.

Enjoy the weekend!

Artist: Elton John and Kiki Dee
Year: 1976
Rating: Hawt!

Another great song from 1976!

How Long?

The refrain is playing over and over in my head, and that voice is so familiar...my first thought was "is this a one-hit wonder band?" or could it be Mike & the Mechanics? No, this song is way older than the span of that particular Genesis offshoot band. Is it a smooth R&B singer like Luther Vandross, or a richly-timbered white-guy crooner?

Why, it's Paul Carrack, in one of his first bands, Ace. Who's Paul Carrack, and why have I never heard of him before? Listen closely...does his voice sound familiar to you? It's seeped into the collective consciousness, via his higher-profile projects. Are you Tempted to google his name? And, yes, indeed, Mike Rutherford did hire him in the late-80s -- can you hear him calling you?

Will you join me in raising a collective, "What the hell??" when I say why hasn't Paul Carrack gotten the name recognition he deserves?

Artist: Ace
Year: 1974
Rating: Warm

Big Boys

Some of my favorite lyrics ever:

So you take her to the pictures/Trying to become a fixture
Inch by inch trying to reach her/All the way through the second feature
Worrying about your physical fitness/Tell me how you got this sickness

So many double -- and triple! -- entendres in this song. Fucking love him. As to why it's in my head today: the perpetual vicissitudes of love, man.

Artist: Elvis Costello
Year: 1979
Rating: Hot!