recorded off German radio in the mid-80s but otherwise totally unknown
February 29, 2024 12:28 PM Subscribe
The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet was the subject of a short little discussion on the BBC's Today programme this morning (1:47:10). Since it was posted to MetaFilter back in 2019 a lot has been unearthed about the track, but while a number of its fellow lostwave songs have been identified, it stubbornly refuses to give up its secrets. A week ago, Mike of All Things Lost made a video essay with a thorough recap of the evidence, theories, drama and characters and for the latest speculation and news you can dive into the subreddit r/TheMysteriousSong.
One of the articles makes to point that these kinds of songs are so rare. The early 80s was a time when, to have a song with proper sounding drums, you would have to go and record it in a studio. Then, to gather a reasonable following for it, it would have to be played on the radio. The radio stations would have to announce what they were playing and keep a log. Finally the audience for any show pushing new music would be taping it, no doubt. Then, if a tape found its way online - there would be Shazam as a first port of call and a committed army of sleuths willing to lend an ear for anything that evaded that. So: very difficult for a song that had made it onto any radio station (note the discovery of the sound spectrum analysis that confirms it came from the German show the uploader claimed) to clear all those hurdles of remaining unknown. I am also glad that there is at least one in that category.
posted by rongorongo at 2:49 PM on February 29 [2 favorites]
posted by rongorongo at 2:49 PM on February 29 [2 favorites]
Hey, thanks for posting that! I enjoyed the video essay a lot. The song itself is so tantalizingly Eighties and I feel like I should know it but I do not.
posted by hippybear at 2:51 PM on February 29
posted by hippybear at 2:51 PM on February 29
I've personally been trying to find a song I heard on the radio once in 1991-1992 with no luck (Unfortunately I don't have a recording of it). I heard two songs back to back that intrigued me. I was able to locate one of them years ago - I Love Cookies by The Look People, but the other song that was played remains a mystery. It sounded late 50s/early 60s with the refrain "windmill walk, windmill talk." I think it was about the dangers of gossiping.
The internet feels like it's getting smaller, even though we have so much information at our fingertips. Only some of it makes the cut, a lot of it doesn't stick around, and our search engines are degrading in usefulness.
posted by Stoof at 3:12 PM on February 29 [7 favorites]
The internet feels like it's getting smaller, even though we have so much information at our fingertips. Only some of it makes the cut, a lot of it doesn't stick around, and our search engines are degrading in usefulness.
posted by Stoof at 3:12 PM on February 29 [7 favorites]
MetaFilter: Unfortunately I don't have a recording of it
posted by hippybear at 4:15 PM on February 29
posted by hippybear at 4:15 PM on February 29
Cool! Lostwave is perfect - I had no idea there was a name for this stuff. I loved the “Stay (the second time around)” saga and resolution (I posted about it on MeFi a while back), but I guess I should check out this one too!
posted by gemmy at 4:48 PM on February 29
posted by gemmy at 4:48 PM on February 29
I've followed this for a while and I find the Alvin Dean theory far less convincing than the video essayist does. Groupthink and wishful thinking - the subreddit is full of it. "Billy's affect is superficially similar to the Fond My Mind dude so it's totally the same thing!" Sure.
posted by StarkRoads at 5:05 PM on February 29 [1 favorite]
posted by StarkRoads at 5:05 PM on February 29 [1 favorite]
I like the mystery, but I have to admit I would like it if it were a hoax, too, as it would require real skill to put together a pastiche like that and a fake yet unfalsifiable provenance as well. It is 100% the sort of thing an obscurely but highly motivated side character in Gibson would do.
posted by praemunire at 5:12 PM on February 29 [13 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 5:12 PM on February 29 [13 favorites]
I began to wonder if it was a hoax after seeing the video. A glorious, delicious, hoax. So much dedication to detail with no expectation of any kind of payoff, the making of the best kind of hoax.
posted by 2N2222 at 7:09 PM on February 29 [6 favorites]
posted by 2N2222 at 7:09 PM on February 29 [6 favorites]
I don't think it's a hoax but I don't buy ANY of their so-called evidence.
- LOTS of male singers in the 80s in Europe sounded like that.
- Yamaha FM synthesizers started coming out in 1980 and there's no proof it was specifically a DX7. FM synthesizers are digital and don't have an amazingly unique sonic fingerprint.
- The 10K (not "10 hertz") line in that recording was probably created by a piece of audio equipment or RF equipment the station used, and other stations of the time could have easily used the same equipment.
- It wasn't that hard for an amateur band to get on the radio. I made songs that were on the radio in 1987 on a local DJ show and if anyone had recorded them they'd be mysterious too...
- They think they can narrow down a lip-smacking noise to a particular DJ ?!?
To me this is just a reminder of how different people's attitude toward mysteries is now than it was in the 80s. If I heard a song on the radio and didn't know what it was back then I would have just accepted that I'd never know and that was fine. Now people go down Reddit rabbit holes that will probably evolve into religions someday just because there's no solid answer to the question...
It would be MUCH more interesting if it was a hoax.
posted by mmoncur at 8:30 PM on February 29 [9 favorites]
- LOTS of male singers in the 80s in Europe sounded like that.
- Yamaha FM synthesizers started coming out in 1980 and there's no proof it was specifically a DX7. FM synthesizers are digital and don't have an amazingly unique sonic fingerprint.
- The 10K (not "10 hertz") line in that recording was probably created by a piece of audio equipment or RF equipment the station used, and other stations of the time could have easily used the same equipment.
- It wasn't that hard for an amateur band to get on the radio. I made songs that were on the radio in 1987 on a local DJ show and if anyone had recorded them they'd be mysterious too...
- They think they can narrow down a lip-smacking noise to a particular DJ ?!?
To me this is just a reminder of how different people's attitude toward mysteries is now than it was in the 80s. If I heard a song on the radio and didn't know what it was back then I would have just accepted that I'd never know and that was fine. Now people go down Reddit rabbit holes that will probably evolve into religions someday just because there's no solid answer to the question...
It would be MUCH more interesting if it was a hoax.
posted by mmoncur at 8:30 PM on February 29 [9 favorites]
- The 10K (not "10 hertz") line in that recording was probably created by a piece of audio equipment or RF equipment the station used, and other stations of the time could have easily used the same equipment.
I have cassettes with a 10khz hum that were recorded live via a microphone. If you EQ/notch filter out that specific frequency you create an identical empty spot on the spectrogram (and a recording that's much easier to listen to). Someone analogue savvy might know why, long story short this isn't evidence of anything about any radio station.
posted by StarkRoads at 9:24 PM on February 29 [1 favorite]
I have cassettes with a 10khz hum that were recorded live via a microphone. If you EQ/notch filter out that specific frequency you create an identical empty spot on the spectrogram (and a recording that's much easier to listen to). Someone analogue savvy might know why, long story short this isn't evidence of anything about any radio station.
posted by StarkRoads at 9:24 PM on February 29 [1 favorite]
It would be MUCH more interesting if it was a hoax.
It would indeed be a magnificent hoax - not just for its execution back in 2007 - but for the handling of the 17 year follow up: nothing very much for 5 years, then discovery and promotion by a Brazilian teen and then the discovery of the "full song" years on from that.
It is symbolic of life at that time to have had songs identified only by some scrawled lyrics in a notebook or from their presence on a single cassette that had lost its label.
posted by rongorongo at 9:56 PM on February 29 [3 favorites]
It would indeed be a magnificent hoax - not just for its execution back in 2007 - but for the handling of the 17 year follow up: nothing very much for 5 years, then discovery and promotion by a Brazilian teen and then the discovery of the "full song" years on from that.
It is symbolic of life at that time to have had songs identified only by some scrawled lyrics in a notebook or from their presence on a single cassette that had lost its label.
posted by rongorongo at 9:56 PM on February 29 [3 favorites]
It sounds like what Trey Parker and Matt Stone would have recorded had they wanted to shit on 1980s europop
posted by not_on_display at 11:24 PM on February 29
posted by not_on_display at 11:24 PM on February 29
It would be MUCH more interesting if it was a hoax.
I agree. I probably have 4-5 songs in my collection I have no idea who they are by, despite trying. If someone did the work to fake this, that's way more impressive than getting a song on the radio.
The early 80s was a time when, to have a song with proper sounding drums, you would have to go and record it in a studio.
This isn't the dealbreaker you might think it is. Recording studios were pretty common in those days, and my so-so college band recorded our CD in a studio for $10 an hour in the '90s.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:22 AM on March 1 [3 favorites]
I agree. I probably have 4-5 songs in my collection I have no idea who they are by, despite trying. If someone did the work to fake this, that's way more impressive than getting a song on the radio.
The early 80s was a time when, to have a song with proper sounding drums, you would have to go and record it in a studio.
This isn't the dealbreaker you might think it is. Recording studios were pretty common in those days, and my so-so college band recorded our CD in a studio for $10 an hour in the '90s.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:22 AM on March 1 [3 favorites]
My first Ask on Metafilter was about a song that no one could find! Sadly what little I remember of it is even more faded now.
posted by tavella at 9:37 AM on March 1
posted by tavella at 9:37 AM on March 1
It wasn’t bad, but doesn seem worth the drama.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 3:12 PM on March 1
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 3:12 PM on March 1
Wow, I really like that song. Thankful for the mysterious creators, whoever they may be!
posted by nightcoast at 4:52 PM on March 1 [1 favorite]
posted by nightcoast at 4:52 PM on March 1 [1 favorite]
It would indeed be a magnificent hoax - not just for its execution back in 2007 - but for the handling of the 17 year follow up: nothing very much for 5 years, then discovery and promotion by a Brazilian teen and then the discovery of the "full song" years on from that.
But...yes. Casually allowing ~20 years for the hoax to gain credibility through mere passage of time, even though you have to pay rent all those years...*chef's kiss*
posted by praemunire at 10:55 AM on March 2
But...yes. Casually allowing ~20 years for the hoax to gain credibility through mere passage of time, even though you have to pay rent all those years...*chef's kiss*
posted by praemunire at 10:55 AM on March 2
I liked it. I hope musicians make their own versions of it.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 7:00 AM on March 13 [1 favorite]
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 7:00 AM on March 13 [1 favorite]
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posted by kirkaracha at 2:23 PM on February 29