# Rediscovering obscure old songs from your youth
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** music
**Created:** [November 10, 2015, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234 "2015-11-10T23:14:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2015, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/21 "2015-11-11T18:06:17Z")
> [@racer72](#):
>
> I went to a club in Seattle back in the late 70’s with a cousin of mine. That band that played that night was called Gamma. Didn’t recognize the guitar player till later in the show when he said he was going to play some of his early stuff. Suddenly realized it was Ronnie Montrose. I’ll bet there wasn’t 75 people in there that night. Most excellent show.
Which reminds me of another great old song: Gamma’s “Voyager”.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxPLN4HBJ7Q)
---
### Author:  [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2015, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/22 "2015-11-11T18:28:56Z")
I reckon pretty much all of you have heard this, but you can’t remember the name or the artist, right?
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0EL7fjfeE8)
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2015, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/23 "2015-11-11T18:38:35Z")
> [@casdave](#):
>
> I reckon pretty much all of you have heard this, but you can’t remember the name or the artist, right?
I can, but I live in Chicago, and the band is still well-known here, having re-formed 25 years ago.
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2015, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/24 "2015-11-11T18:42:37Z")
I liked that song “Flagpole Sitta” by the band Harvey Danger and got their full album _Where Have All The Merrymakers Gone?_ as one of my 10 CDs for a dollar or whatever from Columbia House. I don’t think it went in to my main rotation (you know, the 30 CDs you could fit in your CD wallet?) and I didn’t give the band much thought after that.
A few years ago I re-discovered the album, as well as the next two albums the band released. They are all great and I love them!
Sadly, I also found that the band had broken up just a few years before I re-discovered them. Bah.
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### Author:  [@davida03801](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davida03801)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2015, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/25 "2015-11-11T19:58:37Z")
Back in college in mid 70 time frame one late night DJ played every night a rock and roll version of “In the hall of the mountain king” by greig.
I never heard that song since, wish i could find.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2015, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/26 "2015-11-11T21:02:05Z")
> [@davida03801](#):
>
> Back in college in mid 70 time frame one late night DJ played every night a rock and roll version of “In the hall of the mountain king” by greig.
>
> I never heard that song since, wish i could find.
Electric Light Orchestra did a version of it on their [third album](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Third_Day) (released in 1973), which would fit that time frame. Is this it?
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMS5h8OXl0Q)
---
### Author:  [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2015, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/27 "2015-11-11T22:07:13Z")
[quote=“casdave, post:22, topic:737234”]
I reckon pretty much all of you have heard this, but you can’t remember the name or the artist, right?
[/QUOTE]
I know the group’s name is The Ides of March. However, I think a lot of people initially thought it was Blood, Sweat, & Tears because the two groups sound a lot alike and BS&T was at the height of its popularity when “Vehicle” was released in 1970.
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### Author:  [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2015, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/28 "2015-11-11T23:11:46Z")
[quote=“casdave, post:22, topic:737234”]
I reckon pretty much all of you have heard this, but you can’t remember the name or the artist, right?
[/QUOTE]
That’s still played on the local oldies stations; however, I’m not all that far from Chicago either.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2015, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/29 "2015-11-11T23:27:11Z")
I recently ran across Ian Dury’s “[Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WGVgfjnLqc)” again (the video was a bit controversial because Dury was wearing cut-off sleeves).
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2015, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/30 "2015-11-11T23:43:11Z")
When I was around 6 or 7 years old, there was occasionally this song on the radio that I absolutely _loved_ for some indescribable reason. I remember this time I was listening to it and I was utterly entranced, and my little sister ignorantly grabbed the dial on the radio and switched it to another station. I freaked out and begged my mother to get the song back, but she couldn’t find the station in time. She asked my father if he had that song in his LP collection, but, alas, he didn’t.
I didn’t hear that song again for a good 20 years or so. I had no idea who had sung or composed it. I could only vaguely remember the melody.
Then, one day a few years ago I was driving at night, and I had a classic rock station on, and Roy Orbison’s “You Got It” came on, and I realized that _that_ was the song I’d loved and never quite been able to remember.
(I went through a slightly less traumatic experience forgetting and remembering the Who’s “Bargain” between when I heard it as a kid and rediscovered it as an adult.)
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### Author:  [@PapSett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PapSett)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2015, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/31 "2015-11-11T23:56:54Z")
> [@CheshireKat](#):
>
> Well, it’s stimulating!
> _This is one of my favorite Tim Curry performances._
God I love Tim Curry!
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### Author:  [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2015, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/32 "2015-11-12T00:54:21Z")
> [@Malthus](#):
>
> When I was a kid in the early '70s, my dad gave my older brothers an ancient record player, the kind that came in its own carrying case and latched up, and a few old records - including some old 45s (there was a sort of plastic adaptor you needed to play 'em, which was lost, and replaced with a bit of cardboard). One of those 45s (it may even have been the original) had “the Witch Doctor Song” on it, with the “Oo ee oo ah ah ting tang walla walla bing bang” chorus. Left a big impression on my six year old self. We played the shit outta it.
>
> Flash forward to yesterday - my kid was singing in the bathroom while washing up - and he was singing the “Oo ee oo ah ah ting tang walla walla bing bang” chorus. I have no idea where he heard it.
Does he watch Family Guy? Quagmire does that refrain in response to gay marriage.
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### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2015, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/33 "2015-11-12T01:19:59Z")
I listened to **Rush** ’s _Caress of Steel_ album a few weeks ago. That was a blast from the past!
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2015, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/34 "2015-11-12T13:36:56Z")
> [@Malthus](#):
>
> When I was a kid in the early '70s, my dad gave my older brothers an ancient record player, the kind that came in its own carrying case and latched up, and a few old records - including some old 45s (there was a sort of plastic adaptor you needed to play 'em, which was lost, and replaced with a bit of cardboard).
An aside: Canadian TV often shows commercials for insurance (I think) for baby boomers that usually start off “If you can identify these [various pictures], you’re over 50,” or something like that. One of the pictures is the kind of plastic adaptor you speak of. I asked my 20-year-old daughter, who is generally pretty knowledgable about pop culture, if she knew what it was. She had no clue. The best she could come up with was “Some kind of symbol?”
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2015, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/35 "2015-11-12T13:42:16Z")
> [@cjepson](#):
>
> “The Legend of the USS Titanic” by Jaime Brockett.
Are you sure that’s the title? Not to nitpick, but _Titanic_ was an RMS (Royal Mail Steamer), not a USS.
Is this the song (popular among some folk in 1912) about the black guy who survives the sinking of the ship?
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2015, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/36 "2015-11-12T13:43:50Z")
> [@terentii](#):
>
> The best she could come up with was “Some kind of symbol?”
In her defense, the adaptor they show does look sort of like a neon-green triskelion.
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### Author:  [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2015, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/37 "2015-11-12T14:06:55Z")
> [@terentii](#):
>
> Are you sure that’s the title? Not to nitpick, but _Titanic_ was an RMS (Royal Mail Steamer), not a USS.
>
> Is this the song (popular among some folk in 1912) about the black guy who survives the sinking of the ship?
[That is in fact the title](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaime_Brockett)… and it does use the old Leadbelly song “The _Titanic_” as a jumping-off point, referring to the fighter Jack Johnson, who (according to legend) was refused passage. But it’s more along the lines of “Alice’s Restaurant”, albeit more manic… an extended comic narrative presenting a fanciful explanation for why the ship hit that iceberg.
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### Author:  [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2015, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/38 "2015-11-12T17:03:28Z")
[quote=“kenobi\_65, post:26, topic:737234”]
Electric Light Orchestra did a version of it on their [third album](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Third_Day) (released in 1973), which would fit that time frame. Is this it?
[/QUOTE]
The Who did it but I think it came out as a bonus track later.
---
### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2015, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/39 "2015-11-12T19:26:38Z")
> [@cjepson](#):
>
> [That is in fact the title](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaime_Brockett)… and it does use the old Leadbelly song “The _Titanic_” as a jumping-off point, referring to the fighter Jack Johnson, who (according to legend) was refused passage. But it’s more along the lines of “Alice’s Restaurant”, albeit more manic… an extended comic narrative presenting a fanciful explanation for why the ship hit that iceberg.
Brockett’s version is deliberately ahistorical – the ship sails from NY to the UK, for instance.
And I doubt you could _lift_ 497 1/2 feet of rope. 😉
---
### Author:  [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2015, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rediscovering-obscure-old-songs-from-your-youth/737234/40 "2015-11-12T20:03:20Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> And I doubt you could _lift_ 497 1/2 feet of rope. 😉
You ain’t Jack Johnson!
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