Name That Tune!
Written by Edward ChampionPosted on November 19, 2008
Filed Under Music
Not long ago, I listened to a remarkably wretched piece of music, perhaps dating from the late 1980s, while waiting for someone. Now I had not heard this song for a number of years. It was sung by a needlessly husky New Age-like Michael McDonald-sounding singer. Perhaps it was McDonald for all I knew. The song was certainly written and recorded with the intention of being played all the time on easy listening radio.
Days later, the manufactured melody has become a dreaded earworm. What is most curious about this insipid little song is that, perhaps in an effort to protect myself, I have deliberately blanked out on the lyrics. Maybe I just don’t want to remember. Or perhaps this reflects a certain trauma related to the song that may come up once I have discovered its identity. But the phrase “matter of touch” seems to be there. Here are the notes in question for the main verse, which repeats about four times in the song:
F# / F# / F# / F# / F# / G / F# / E / D / C# / A
F# / F# / F# / F# / F# / G / F# / E / D / C# / A
(one octave lower) F# / A / C# (suspiciously similar — perhaps deliberately so? — to the beginning of the crescendo of the Carpenters’s “Close to You”)
A / B / C# / C# / C# / C# / C# / B / A / C#
A / B / C# / C# / C# / C# / C# / D / E / D
Now in that last line, this McDonald-like warbler ends this tune with the lyrical fragment in question. It could be something along the lines of “But it’s really just a matter of touch.” That sounds right, although I suspect it’s dreadfully wrong.
Do you know what this song is? And if you have had to endure it at any point in your life, have you experienced any specific trauma related to it? What I think we need to do here is determine what the song is, track down the people responsible (I will make phone calls; don’t you worry), and find out why this tune was emitted over the airwaves. There is, I suspect, a big story here that may yield unexpected truths.
[UPDATE: The ever helpful Doug Finch has correctly identified the song as Billy Joel's "A Matter of Trust." Rest assured, there will be efforts to track down Mr. Joel and get him to answer for this atrocity. This particular song in his oeuvre is the least Billy Joel-sounding -- a fey cross between Michael McDonald and Bruce Springsteen. More TK.]
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Generosity by Richard Powers. It doesn't come out until September 29th, but Richard Powers's latest will have anyone committed to books reconsidering their literary fervor. I foresee some animosity from the vanilla critics hostile to idea-driven novels, but book bloggers, YouTube chroniclers, and MFAs would do well to plunge into this chance-taking narrative, which introduces vital questions about what the reader's relationship is with media, scientific dissection, and "creative nonfiction." Are we rats fleeing to happy cities? Or can we find the humanism within the purported plague?
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The Means of Reproduction, Michelle Goldberg This thoughtful book tackles the complicated (and little discussed) subject of reproductive rights from numerous angles, which includes a number of unpleasant but necessary ones. The upshot is that there isn't a quick fix solution for declining birth rates and fundamentalist abuses. Just about every political faction has contributed to the friction. But you'll want to read this book anyway to refamiliarize yourself with the topic, but also to understand just what's occurred during the past several decades to get us where we are today. (See also podcast interview with Goldberg.)
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- @annaleighclark Not yet, but thanks. Shepard appeared Thursday on "Talk of the Nation" and here's the link: http://bit.ly/X0v6Y in reply to annaleighclark 3 hrs ago
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Billy Joel — A Matter Of Trust.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xx53c_6h-W4
Sweet Jesus, you’re right! He doesn’t even sound like himself in that song — some heavily reverbed cross between Michael McDonald and Bruce Springsteen.
Here’s my ‘ouvre’ – Fuck You. Sincerely, Billy Joel
Oh Billy: If only you could spell.
Oh Dr.: If only you could hear. Sincerely, Billy Joel
Oh Billy: If only you could sing the National Anthem without AutoTune.
Dear Billy, you are the best, we love you just the way you are. Thank you for all these years of fantastic music.
From Spain,
Pablo Bosch
My Spanish Joel fan site
http:www.billyjoel.es
wow. Is billy responding to this ???
[...] less for his music than as the guy who went all Courtney Love AOL95 on Ed Champion’s comments here and here. More from Idolator on [...]
” A Matter of Trust ” sounds neither like Bruce nor Michael. Especially not like Michael! Perhaps, you, sir, should get your hearing fine tuned.
In the words of, Mr Joel…fuck you!