Episode 297 – ADHD Carnival

Jordan and Bobby,

It’s not that I feel underappreciated… OK, maybe a tiny bit, but I’m over it. I mainly asked the question out of honest curiosity for the answer, which I was hoping to elicit via a comment, or better yet, in the podcast discussion (which I appreciated). 🙂

Regarding my song choices:

No, I’m not trying to choose obscure songs. If I had been, I’ve done very poorly, as plenty have been quite well known. Rather, I generally try to select the song that best fits the aspect of a particular theme that I’m trying to capture. I also try to reject songs previously referenced, avoiding duplicates unless especially justified. I mostly choose songs that I’m familiar with from the database in my head, but this isn’t a hard line. It’s just that I usually already have the idea for a song soon after carving out a topic. Also, I don’t think that an AI query or internet search is going to be overly helpful in this quest (unless I’m choosing based on a song’s title), other than to perhaps jog my memory about a song or title with which I’m already familiar.

Of course, there will be some obscure songs–there simply isn’t a Depeche Mode song about the Unabomber (that I know of), but there is by the Donna’s. Pick obscure topics and you get obscure songs.

I won’t dismiss a well-known song, but in the case of multiple options, I will choose the particular song that I like the most. Because of this, the probability of a Backstreet Boys or Britney Spears song being chosen is lower than a U2 or Collective Soul song, given equal relation to a theme–yet all four options are popular. I will admit that much of the music I listen to is more likely to appear on the Alternative or Modern Rock chart than on Top 40, so there is a measure of built-in obscurity. But I’m just as likely as you are to be inundated with Mariah Carey singing about what she wants for Christmas while shopping in December (or even November or October these days), so I haven’t completely lived my life in a cave (or the dark corner of an industrial/goth club).

I make it a game, from which most of my satisfaction is derived. Also, I get to listen to the songs, too, some of which I enjoy a lot. If others get to expand their music listening horizons or listen to songs they already know or appreciate, then it’s even better for me. Hence, my posing the question.

Now, for some topics and songs:

You guys directed a fair amount of attention to the triple-breasted alien woman in Total Recall. While I’m not aware of any songs about polymastia (maybe AI would have helped), there are multiple song references to breasts, including those of the fake variety. Foo Fighter’s “Stacked Actors” uses double entendres in its lyrics to refer to Hollywood’s “fake” and “stacked” items in several different ways. The line “I’m impressed, what a beautiful chest” is especially relevant. And… I really like the song. It’s not the most well-known Foo Fighters song, but it was released as a single and was also the first track on their third album… so not notably obscure or in hiding like the hidden CD tracks I commented about a few months ago for episode 284.

Foo Fighters – Stacked Actors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj91k4Omyfo

The question was asked on the podcast, seeking a song about “losing your mind.” I’ll step past the mostly-not-stellar song choices that Jordan listed from a search engine. What song immediately came to my mind?… “Where is My Mind?” by the Pixies. Not only do I enjoy this song, I’ve been fortunate to see the Pixies play it in concert. The Pixies aren’t especially well-known, nor was the song popular from its release in 1988, but the song became popular after its inclusion in the 1999 movie “Fight Club,” and subsequently being covered by many others. It’s not the song that I think of when I think of the Pixies, but it’s likely the only Pixies song that many know or have heard.

Pixies – “Where Is My Mind?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ62RzJkYUo

For the third and final song, I’ll let Jordan and Bobby do my job for me, using their Bon Jovi suggestion. I vividly remember the first time I heard the “Slippery When Wet” album. I didn’t embrace glam rock, hair metal, and the like, preferring what many see as a polar opposite–grunge (and many other non glam-rock-hair-metal genres).

Bon Jovi – “Livin’ On A Prayer”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDK9QqIzhwk

-Dmitri

P.S. The audio clip of “Some Dispute Over T-Shirt Sales” that you played on the podcast probably does count as a relatively vague and obscure song. Definitely the least known from last week. It was the discussion of t-shirts that reminded me of this song.