Unknown songs that define a time for you?

October 3, 2008 4:56 AM

I'm trying to avoid a "Let's just list sentimental songs" thread, since that's not what MeFiMuTa is for...

...but I stumbled upon, without StumbleUpon, a song that I used to play a lot in the nightclub I owned/operated as a 17 year old and I was going through a serious techno DJ period. A funny, pornographic gabber song called "Shaftman". It so well represents, in retrospect, who I was at the time. Loud, obnoxious, desperate for attention/affection so I often played provocateur.

The dance club itself was a slap in the face of the small conservative town I lived in at the time. It was an all ages club, ran by kids with no adult supervision save for one dude who was 21, open all night, and ended up a popular haunt for GLBTG kids. We handed out condoms, dental dams, lubes, etc that we had donated to us by Planned Parenthood at the door. And this was one of my favorite songs, both personally and it burned the dance floor like hot napalm. Of course, we were all kids, I was just one of the older.. we had seriously young kids there, like 11 year olds. But this song would come on, they would recognize it because I played it once a night, and the dance floor would light up, hit the lights and the fog machine.. all to this foul mouthed, unrelentingly loud and abrasive in an attention-whore manner song, just like I was.
posted by mediocre (3 comments total)

I have had bad things happen when the song How Bizarre by OMC comes on the radio. It was on the radio when my family was driving through a thunderstorm and saw a tornado, and it's been connected with a lot of minor bad luck.

I'm seriously feeling ill listing to a little bit of it having watched it, which sucks because it's such a laid-back song. I know it's all in my head but...ugh
posted by hellojed at 11:39 PM on October 4, 2008


I feel kind of pathetic admitting this, but "Eye In The Sky" by Alan Parsons Project is one of these songs for me, inasmuch as it immediately brings me back to what it felt like to be around eight years old and reading Piers Anthony novels.

That, and the first They Might Be Giants album always puts me back in my high school Buick Regal with maroon interior, waiting outside of a medical center in downtown Chicago, waiting for my girlfriend while listening to that particular cassette on a cool autumn day.
posted by davejay at 7:44 PM on October 12, 2008


The album And I Love You So was the soundtrack of 1976 for me, back when my parents were getting divorced. For the majority of my life I haven't been able to hear any of the songs it contains without starting to twitch and wanting to leave the room. I actually have to steel myself to listen to them.

I used to say it was just because Perry Como sucked, but now I recognize it wasn't his fault... he had some very fun, catchy, iconic songs back in the day that I can actually enjoy. It's just how that one damned album (which was being played on a regular basis by my father) and its pathetic lyrics hit a little girl who was surrounded by over-emotional, self-pitying, whiny grown ups and wishing they'd pull themselves together and quit acting like they were far more immature and crazy than parents should. When any of those songs hit my ears, I'm right back there.

But nah, it wasn't Perry Como's fault. So I'm officially sorry for dissing ya, Perry. RIP.
posted by miss lynnster at 10:50 AM on October 18, 2008


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