Over and over.
As OTers may remember my son rolled his mothers car (with me as passenger) just before Christmas. We had it dragged back onto the road by a kind farmer with a tractor and chains. Piglet turned the key to start the engine and all was well and we drove back to the farmers home to make sure the car was ok in case we needed to have it picked up from the back end of beyond. On the way he turned the cd on. I shit you not that Queen "Another one bites the dust was the track that came on. We laughed so hard he had to stop the car before we crashed again.
(porkylips looks better as the sun goes down., Fri 29 Jan 2010, 23:15, 1 reply)

Talkin' 'bout the big monkey man
Oh, goodness... There's this one song. And. I. It. Right. Um. Well.

Basically, this song is, to me, the greatest song in all the world. As soon as I hear the shout in the beginning, my face explodes into a grin of pure jubilation. There is nothing that makes me want to jump to my feet and skank my arse off quite like this song. It's silly, it's fun, and it makes my eyes well with tears with just how much life and joy there is in this track. We're talking spinning-in-circles, arms-out-like-an-aeroplane, traffic-cone-on-your-head, pure and sweet childlike glee that makes my spirit sing. It's sunshine, and lollipops, and the last day of school before the summer holidays, and the first bluebells of spring, and realising you have some fucking jaffa cakes in your coat pocket. Please do check it out.

Monkey Man, as covered by Reel Big Fish: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSuEMJ_48YE

(There's also the obligatory "One That Got Away" song, which is Cuts You Up by Peter Murphy, but that's a little less fun.)
(Elegant Lady Vee is not my real name., Fri 29 Jan 2010, 22:52, Reply)

I split up with a girlfriend when I was 18.
Devastated I rode my motorbike to the top of a hill and sat on a stile listening to The Beatles.

The Fool on the Hill was playing and I was singing along to it, miserable as anything, when a cow comes up behind me and licks my ear.

It was quite a shock I can tell you! So much so that I fell off the style and knocked the kickstand off my motorbike, which then rolled down the hill gathering pace as it did so, straight into a garaqe filled with propane canisters, the impact exploded the propane sending the occupants of the adjacent house flying so far into the air that they landed in a pyramid formation on the cow that licked me which, startled, ran around the field shouting MOOO! at the top of its lungs whilst the pyramid of burn victims swayed precariously in the breeze.

Whenever I hear that track, I always think of that comedy event, and never about the ex that dumped me, awesome.
(Mortal Wombat - he's just an excitable boy, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 22:42, 1 reply)

Shiny
There is one song in the world that no matter what, no matter how cantankerous or disgruntled I am, how sad, lonely, full of bile and disgust and sorrow (or even just a teeny bit constipated), makes the world a truly beautiful place.

I first heard it in New Zealand, and as the opening warbles assailed my ear drums, I thought to myself "What the bloody hell is this shite?" Then the rest of it kicked it, and I proceeded to laugh so hard my underwear got just a teensy bit damp.

If you give it a listen, I guarantee that the first face you will pull will embody the term "WTF?", but by the time the song ends,you'll be laughing so hard that everything is right with the world, even if just for a short time.There is a video on youtube, but the version on the CD is worth it just for the sound quality and sheer unexpectedness of it all(sounds like some wartime 40s or 50s stuff..which makes what happens next all the better).Whenever I play it for other people, I don't tell them anything about it, not even the name.I just tell them to listen. And wait. Then they wet themselves.

Yes..the one song that will always turn a smile into a frown: Machine Gun Fellatio - "Let Me Be Your Dirty F***ing Whore"

As you can imagine, it might just be NSFW.
(Carmen Dyslexia, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 22:32, 1 reply)

Following from my post about Noel earlier, another Crematorium tale...
When my bestest ever pal Mike Thornton (aka Captain/Mike Vortex) died, getting on for 4 years ago now...
The ceremony at the crem had a few moments of non-conformity, in keeping with his somewhat non-conformist self. He remains a much loved and much missed friend to many.
One thing that astounded me was the number of his ex-girlfriends/partners who attended. They all seemed to get on so well with each other. I guess they all knew they had shared someone special.
Anywho, as Mike was a graphics kind of guy, projections and screen-printing and since I only found out at very short notice I decided that I could pay tribute to him by mass-producing him for posterity. To this end I printed off about 20 contact sheets of candid portraits of him, cut them out and placed one on each of the seats in the crem. Caused a bit of a hoot!
But anywho, the music...
During the ceremony there were various bits of Yes and such but the piece de resistance was the soundtrack to his disappearanc behind the red felt curtains...
Written by Ron Grainer and realised by Delia Derbyshire in 1963 for the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
Check it out...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF2x5IKxmAQ&feature=youtube_gdata
( blaireau69 , the Cumbrian Travis Bickle., Fri 29 Jan 2010, 21:42, 2 replies)

Meet me On The Corner
by Lindisfarne.

Met Mrs Meister on the corner on the way to Grammar School, while she was at the Girls High. Still together after 38 years.

On the Beach, by Chris Rea. My first cd. Three years before I had a cd player.

Pixie Pixie, by Silver Sun. I waited 13 years to see them live, and this was/is my favourite song. For the first and only time they opened their set with it at the Camden Barfly. I was transported!

New York, New York, by Ryan Adams. Because, just because.

All For Swinging You Around, by the New Pornographers. Just the happiest song you'll ever hear. YouTube it and tell me I'm wrong!
( The Lone Groover has mal des nuts., Fri 29 Jan 2010, 21:37, 4 replies)

Billy Bragg and Gloria Estefan constantly
Anything by Billy Bragg and Gloria Estefan transports me back to the A level Geography residential field trip to Grange over Sands in Cumbria. It's a long way from Somerset and we covered a fair few miles while we were away for the week. Every minute we were on the coach a Billy Bragg and a Gloria Estefan cassette were alternated. My main memories of the week are standing in the middle of a river in the pouring rain trying to measure the flow and Deniece getting us banned from the pub for the week by lying in the pub car park and shouting "Anybody come and fuck me now!"
(jvz, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 20:49, Reply)

Pearoast from the "Cringe" qotw
Every time I hear the line from Psalm 23:4 "As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death" I can't help but think of one of the daftest things I've done while sober.

A few years ago my aunt got married for the third time. Not being particularly religious, she went for a registry office wedding, and because I was deemed to be "more sensible" than her kids I was left in charge of playing the music when they signed the register.

Despite jokingly moaning that a church wedding would be better as you could have a live action opening to Metallica's For Whom The Bell Tolls, I assured her that I would be sensible and wouldn't ruin her happy day. She handed me a cheap compilation CD and told me she wanted me to play side one, track one.

"Ah," thought I, "a nice soppy Queen ballad. That'll be nice" as I picked up the first CD from the case and cued it up. The ceremony went off without a hitch, and as they went to the register to sign it, I got the nod and pressed play.

Smugly, I sat back down, just as the first few lines of "Gangsta's Paradise" filled the room. If I'm ever allowed to be in charge of the music at another wedding, I'll check which disc I'm putting in first.
(jamesthegill opens new tabs with his scroll wheel, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 20:39, Reply)

Quite sad, really.
My grandma died when I was 11. I don't actually know what she died from but I think it was blood clots and the return of cancer.
Anyway, I had just started high school and we visited her after school each day when she was first admitted into hospital.

It was absolutely terrible. She had an oxygen mask, could hardly talk to you, so of course I was close to tears.

We got the call Saturday morning that she didn't have long left so me and my brothers and dad jumped in the car and began the 20minute drive. That Craig David and Sting song "Rise and Fall" came on the bloody radio. I'm telling you, no one spoke the whole journey.
(I've got the clap has some cool sentence here, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 20:37, Reply)

PhD mind melt
When I was in the 2nd year of my PhD and it was getting to be too much (suicidal depression), I found 'Eels - last stop, this town ', and Wednesday 13's Skeleton's album to be very relaxing.

I've since left the Uni in question after having had a mildly turbulent 7yrs, both as UG and PG student.
(trainee mad doctor is currently trying to build a secret laboratory, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 20:15, 2 replies)

Pulp - Disco 2000
Her name was deborah you see.

mmm
( ogwen69 has returned from Reddit, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 19:53, 1 reply)

The precise moment I lost my innocence
Step back in time with me to early 1994 ...

I was sat in the front passenger seat of my Dad's car, singing along (badly) to something on the radio. It was perfectly stereotypical - bratty kid playing music too loudly, long-suffering parent complaining about the state of music these days.

"Come Baby Come" by K7 came on, I continued singing along loudly ... somewhere around this point in the song ...

Two balls and a bat
the pitchers wears a hat
sliding into home base
trying to hit a home run
swing batta batta batta
batta batta swing

... I came to a startling realisation about the meaning of the song, went bright red and shut up. My Dad pissed himself and, indeed, still likes to bring it up from time to time.
(Penguins_Made_Me_Do_It is a dolt ... and she don't care, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 19:46, Reply)

I had to say goodbye
to my girlfriend of a few years ago. She was returning back to Japan and I chivalrously volunteered to go with her to the airport. This was always going to be tough, we both knew it was effectively the end of what was quite a special relationship for both of us.

So in the last coffee shop we were spending a final few heart-wrenching minutes together before she went through the gate of no return. I was attempting to remain stoic and composed when the airport radio, in its infinite wisdom decided then was the time to play "nothing compares", by Sinead O'Connor. This triggered blubbing on a scale not seen since mufasa got trampled by wildebeest in the lion king.

Airports have absolutely no business playing this song ever.
(Amos Moses, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 19:43, Reply)

I'm not much of a musical person
but whenever I get a crush on someone, there is always a song that pops into my head associated with them, either due to the lyrics fitting, or it playing at some event, or generally both.

As an example, one of my earlier crushes was Beautiful south- Little Blue, since that was the CD she'd brought along while visiting her cousin where we first met.

A later one was Silvertide - Blue Jeans, since she really did look good in blue jeans, and was the kind of girl you'd bring home to your mother, though I never did find out if she was better under covers.

And then we get to my latest failed attempt, we'd known each other for a while, but I'd only really got to know her properly this year, and for some reason my mind decided this was a tenuous enough link to associate Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up. This wasn't so bad, it meant that being rick-rolled wasn't entirely unpleasant. I asked her out, she said no, my brain then switched to ABBA - Take A Chance on Me, which is basically the opposite of any song I like.
Forced listening has eventually switched this to Klein Four - Finite Simple Group of Order Two (she does maths at the same uni as me).
( Tedium Alduce me to interlow myself., Fri 29 Jan 2010, 19:21, Reply)

Simon Cowell was mentioned in the Question...
So maybe not totally o/t, but there's a Facebook group up and running:

I Won't Buy Simon Cowell's Haiti Charity Single (I'll Just Donate Instead)

www.facebook.com/#/group.php?gid=277304903616&ref=ts
(Neil_E_There didn't the Aussies used to be good at cricket?, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 18:50, Reply)

Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
The only time I have ever had a car accident (nothing serious, just caved in the whole side of a brand new BMW) this was playing on the radio.
If I'm in now in a car and this comes on I HAVE to turn it off and wait 4 minutes before listening again.

Length - 6 years and counting.
(pastcaring trembling in a corner....., Fri 29 Jan 2010, 18:14, 2 replies)

how to tell if i'm REALLY drunk
if i'm a bit tipsy, i'll sing along to practically anything.
if i'm totally shitfaced, i will always, without fail, sing the armor hot dog song. i have no idea why.
( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 18:10, 3 replies)

Here's one of many.
"The 900 number"
You know the one, the sax on repeat, sampled in "Hear the drummer get wicked"?
Well the non wicked version was and is, well, wicked.

Takes me back to a particular dive in Leatherhead called the Mole bar. Had a really small smokey cellar where you could get high from just being there. Those days were classic, the joys of vodka and beats going straight to the heart were good times indeed.

Once the Mole closed, and tastes turned a bit darker, Batchelors (I'm sure that was what it was called) in Reigate had a small entrance. Once inside, a set of steps at the side of the room led down, then down further, round a corner and down further still, becoming more and more like the batcave 'till you emerged, perhaps fifty foot plus under the ground in a system of sandstone caves. Bar and music again, (Badger beers this time) solved evenings out. Must have closed down due to fire regs I guess, but damn I miss those days.
( Blind Meach Cautiously optimistic, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 17:47, Reply)

Humpty dumptys post below
Reminds me of my all time favourite thing ever, not a song but more of a soundtrack. A soundtrack of summers gone by, blue skies and fluffy white clouds, me rattling around the village on a bike with my mates having egg fights, or plum fights, the soundtrack of sitting on the recreation ground watching the local pub teams playing cricket or reading a book, having a smoke and staring up at the sky to see if I can spot where the soundtrack was.

See I grew up in a little village near Duxford airfield, and lots of old WW2 planes do displays in Duxford. But most importantly they have a fair few Supermarine Spitfires

There is no other sound that can bring a huge smile to my face like the echoing purring burble of a rolls royce merlin engine, housed in these beautiful machines as they dance around the sky, pirouetting through the clouds and swooping overhead as they practice formation flying, its such a wonderful, evocative sound of care, pride and engineering genius that I feel is sadly lacking these days.

I know im eulogising over some old warplane, but by god it’s a thing of perfection
(Halfy By light alone, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 17:38, 6 replies)

As a minor aside
I don't know how many others have spotted this, but listen for it next time...

On some of the recent ASDA adverts, just at the moment when they point out that they are cheaper than Tesco the music segues into a jazzed-up version of the dad's army theme, the first line of which is "Who do you think you're kidding Mr. Hitler"...
( MatJ LOOK, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 17:37, 2 replies)

Back at the start of the month
When we had all the snow, I had to drive four hundred miles up from Suffolk to Edinburgh on a day when people were being advised to take shovels and sleeping bags if they were travelling thirty miles. Going past Newcastle there were three foot snowdrifts serving as lane dividers when I flicked on the radio. The song that begun that instant was AD/DC's "Highway to hell". I considered it strangely appropriate.
( MatJ LOOK, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 17:01, Reply)

How music got me a boyfriend.
I really love my music. My music player's a bit fucked, so I can't do my usual trick of wandering round in circles listening to whatever guff I fancy, and I'm not sure I have enough just yet to get a new one, but ah well.

If anyone knows Manchester well, or is of the right age, you'll know of 5th Avenue. When you pass it in the day, you can smell it down the street; it smells of red bull and regrets. It was my haunt last year, while I was still at school oop north, and often we'd go there, get pissed on ludicrously cheap vodka, request Killing in the Name to be alternative, count how many times they played the Killers or Kings of Leon (usually 3 songs a night) and generally act like 18 year old twunts. 5th is a bit of a meatmarket, and I'd often go with my friend Rose, who is 5' 10", blonde, willowy, confident and gorgeous. Me, on the other hand, I'm none of those things. There was also another group of friends we had from a local mixed school (I was all girls schooled. I'm not a lesbian, no, but our school breeds (a) neurotics (b)anorexics (c) chronic overachievers (d) general nutcases). So while Rose was gyrating around with MEN, I'd just hang around with my best friend John, who besides being taken was a grumpy little sod and didn't do much dancing.
Except one night.
The Bedes Boys, as we called them for short, were there, and they'd brought along someone I'd not met before. I saw him as soon as I came in, as he was wearing my favourite band's t-shirt. Now, that sounds horribly cliché. I'm sorry. But after I'd stopped staring at his chest, I noticed that while being a little geeky looking, he was quite attractive. So after plonking myself down opposite him and another of my friends, I told him how much I liked the band. We had a short conversation about music, what we were listening to (this was the beginning of my loving of Montreal, I seem to remember) which lead on to me talking to another of my male friends, and at that point he went up and got a drink.
After a while, we all headed to the dancefloor. I can't remember what was playing; I don't think it mattered. Now, I can't dance. I really can't dance. I sort of shuffle around and take the piss. And the lovely boy with nice glasses didn't seem to be dancing either. So I did something that was pretty unforgivable.
I got out my phone (too loud to shout) and wrote out the lyrics from my favourite song, by the band whose t-shirt he was wearing.
The lyrics?

"The one thing I could never confess, is that I can't dance a single step"

I showed him, and he hugged me.
We were, in horrific teenage style, stuck together for the rest of the night, save the few minutes where I did air guns to Paper Planes by M.I.A.
He asked me out the next morning, and I, so flattered that anyone would find me attractive, was overjoyed.

We had 2 weeks together where I was happier than I'd been for ages, we had lots to talk about, a lot of fun was had, my confidence was creeping up.
And one day with no real explanation, he breaks it off. When I press him for a reason, he gives an answer that knocks my confidence back down and below what it was before. I'm not sure if it was the truth of why he ended it, but I try not to think about it. But still, it still hurts a bit thinking about it. And things haven't been the same with how I see myself since.

But thank god, it's not stopped me enjoying the song.
He's coming to London to see the band in a gig, roughly a year from where we met. I will try and avoid him for my own sake.

This song has a message I try to keep in mind. Yes, it's silly. Yes, it's pretentious. I think it's catchy, I like the band, it's good to dance to, and it reminds me of a time when I was happy, rather than what happened afterwards.

Here you are, if you want to listen to it:
Los Campesinos! - You! Me! Dancing!

God, all this fuss over a 2 week relationship. At least this passed the time.
( Lampito rise with the moon, go to bed with the sun, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 16:39, 6 replies)

Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros - 'Home'...
...not usually my sort of music, but this was the first track I heard on the radio at home after being discharged from hospital after a stay in ICU last year.
This upIifting song always brings a huge smile to my dial and reminds of how good it feels to be alive and loved!
(emadex thinks the world will end on, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 16:30, Reply)

Suffering really badly with all sorts of mindshit
The album that probably saved my life and my sanity, Let It Come Down by Spiritualized. Came along just at the right time and every song on there just made me feel... I dunno, like it maybe wasn't my fault, I should probably go outside and get some sun and life isn't as bad as I was making it out to be.
People rate Floating in Space more but I'll always favour this one. Nearly ten years later and it's still one of the best things I've ever heard.
(Suddenly, zebras Safe and sound for eternity, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 16:21, 3 replies)

The Macarena...
...I went to a hanging (paramedic) where a girl of 16 had killed herself and this track was playing on the radio in the room we found her.

Poor kid. Fancy dying and hearing that shit as you fade away. Fuck.
(emadex thinks the world will end on, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 16:18, 2 replies)

It's when an unexpected line catches you that always gets to me
Attempting to brighten my mood after a break up I put on my cherry songs playlist which had been going ok up until about half way through Still Alive when GLaDOS sings

I'm not even angry.
I'm being so sincere right now.
Even though you broke my heart.
And killed me.
And tore me to pieces.
And threw every piece into a fire.
As they burned it hurt because I was so happy for you!


Crashing back from the start of a better mood into a deep funk because I felt affinity with a computer being ripped apart and thrown into an incenerator was quite a wierd feeling!
(bill, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 16:18, 1 reply)

More disco stuff...
Very embarrassing and 35 years on my sister still delights in reminding me of this:
Donna Summers' "Love To Love You Baby" (the one where she 'orgasms' in the middle of the song) reminds me of when my big sister caught me having a wank to the orgasm bit of the song.

And to make it worse, I got kicked out of the record store.
(emadex thinks the world will end on, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 16:00, Reply)

Saturday Night Fever...
...Yvonne Ellimans' "If I Can't Have You" always makes me feel guilty.
I was in the merchant navy and received a letter from my girlfriend of the time telling me how this track described how much she loved me. I'd already sent her a letter finishing the relationship as I figured being away so much wasn't fair on her. She'd not yet received that letter when she sent her letter to me.
Regretted it when I got her letter, but it was too late.

It was eons ago but I still feel guilty when I hear that song. (Sorry Michelle.)
(emadex thinks the world will end on, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 15:55, 2 replies)