[I’m getting nowhere with wordpress, so here’s a fun distraction post.]
It’s a short list but there are some songs which I like but which also cause folks to break out in hives. Among them, is “Brand New Key”. I don’t care what anyone thinks, it’s sweet. Anyway, the artist “Melanie” has died and I’d like to honor her memory (and/or torture you with an earworm).
Comic geniuses “Kids in the Hall” seized upon “Brand New Key” as an ideal post-apocalypse torture:
Another song on my list is “Vehicle” by “Ides of March”. I think it’s a damn fine song with a rocking beat and lots of brass. Mrs. Curmudgeon says it’s a skeevy stalker’s anthem. Can it be both?
Just found out about Melanie. A huge talent. I liked her Animal Crackers also. Just one year older than me. As they say in Yorkshire, “They’re taking ‘em from our pen” referring to the practice of keeping sheep and lambs separated by age.
I’ve always enjoyed Melanie and that song.
Didn’t Melanie also sing “Midnight at the Oasis”? I had a friend in high school whose hot older sister loved that song.
Our high school marching band frequently played “Vehicle” as the song for the twirlers during the halftime show. I must have played the trumpet part 5,000 times during four years of high school. I have a thumb drive full of MP3s that I listen to when I’m driving, and that’s one of them.
Joe, Melanie may have covered it. The big hit with that song was Maria Muldaur, IIRC.
When I was a kid, about 1971, I was allowed access to my uncle’s box of 45s. One I’ve always remembered was “Brand New Key”. I was a rural Southern kid; I didn’t even know what roller skates were, but I liked the song. RIP, Melanie.
When I saw the news, I said “Melanie Safka died!” My coworkers, a bunch of children in their 30s, said “Who?”
if you want surreal and earworm all in one, how about The Wurzels take of the Melanie song “Combine Harvester”?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btEpF334Rtc
And here’s the lyrics if you want to sing along to the tune.
https://genius.com/The-wurzels-combine-harvester-brand-new-key-lyrics
yes, the English are eccentric. Why do you ask?
Phil B
I did NOT see that coming!
Naw maria muldaur did midnight.
But I do like vehicle.
Thought it came from Chicago. Wrong again.
Re: Torture with an earworm
The movie One, Two, Three with Cagney, made in 1961 (set in Berlin, and completed shortly before the wall went up) featured the song “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” used to torture Otto (played by Horst Buchholz).
One of the best comedies ever made.
Kurt
Oh my God, that song is a menace!
The story I heard on “Vehicle” is that the writer (Jim Peterik) had a friend who was a girl, but wasn’t really his girlfriend, who mostly used him for his car. He decided he was just a vehicle to her. The song does go into creep territory, “I got pictures, candy, I’m a likeable man…” Possibly payback for feeling used.
After Peterik left Ides, he formed Survivor, and co-wrote all their hits, including Eye of the Tiger. He also wrote songs for .38 Special.
I’d read the same story. Just goes to show that a girl using a man while he’s in the friend zone is as old as time. That said I think a lot of the “creepy vibe” is 2024 zeitgeist pasted on a 1970’s song.