# You love the song and then you listen closely and hear... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 13, 2013, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-love-the-song-and-then-you-listen-closely-and-hear/655642 "2013-04-13T23:21:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2013, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-love-the-song-and-then-you-listen-closely-and-hear/655642/21 "2013-04-14T18:15:31Z")
> [@voguevixen](#): > > That’s the whole point of that song! 😕 You had to POINT IT OUT to someone? If you think “Woo Woo” is the POINT of the song, well, I’m not sure I’d agree with that, but I am not going to defend that statement, because I feel rather like EmilyG. > [@EmilyG](#): > > Even the very first time I listened to that song, all I heard was the “woo woo.” It’s always been the only thing I can hear in that song. That song has always annoyed me. I call it the “Woo Woo Song” for that reason. The same thing happened to me. If they’d buried it a bit in the background I might not mind it so much, but as it is, I won’t voluntarily listen to it. It’s like: How much more “Woo Woo” can they put in the song? The answer is none - none more. > [@Peremensoe](#): > > Pointed it out to him? It’s not exactly buried. I can’t imagine hearing the song, even once, without hearing that. Of COURSE he heard it. It’s just that he didn’t focus on it. Once I pointed it out to him, probably at length and in that nasty, dismissive, cocksure manner that only a teenager can achieve, what I said stuck in his head and the “Woo Woo” went to 11. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2013, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-love-the-song-and-then-you-listen-closely-and-hear/655642/22 "2013-04-14T18:19:47Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > Even the very first time I listened to that song, all I heard was the “woo woo.” It’s always been the only thing I can hear in that song. That song has always annoyed me. I call it the “Woo Woo Song” for that reason. There was another song that people called by that name. Since some people also called Sympathy the Woo Woo song, that would make that other song the second song. Perhaps shall we say…song 2? (I know, woo hoo) ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2013, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-love-the-song-and-then-you-listen-closely-and-hear/655642/23 "2013-04-14T18:21:35Z")
_Sorrow_ by Bad Religion is an excellently-written song, and the performance is powerful. But right before the “Sorrow” in the chorus, there is this nasty sounding static crunch every single time. It would have been one of my favorite songs from the 2000s if not for the crunch which once I heard I cannot unhear. ---
**Author:** ![Flywheel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2013, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-love-the-song-and-then-you-listen-closely-and-hear/655642/24 "2013-04-14T18:24:35Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > The “cowbell” skit on SNL pretty much ruined “Don’t Fear the Reaper” for me. I’ve had a hard time taking “Ride Like the Wind” seriously ever since I saw [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0HzWMqLeiE). ---
**Author:** ![Rollo\_Tomasi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/58956e/32.png) [@Rollo\_Tomasi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rollo_Tomasi)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2013, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-love-the-song-and-then-you-listen-closely-and-hear/655642/25 "2013-04-14T18:28:18Z")
In the Passion Pit song “Take a Walk,” I swear there’s a sound in the background that sounds almost like the sound my phone makes when I snap a picture with the camera. It’s only in the first verse, but I can’t help hearing it throughout the rest of the song too. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2013, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-love-the-song-and-then-you-listen-closely-and-hear/655642/26 "2013-04-14T18:29:23Z")
> [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#): > > If you think “Woo Woo” is the POINT of the song, well, I’m not sure I’d agree with that, but I am not going to defend that statement, because I feel rather like EmilyG. > > The same thing happened to me. If they’d buried it a bit in the background I might not mind it so much, but as it is, I won’t voluntarily listen to it. It’s like: How much more “Woo Woo” can they put in the song? The answer is none - none more. > > Of COURSE he heard it. It’s just that he didn’t focus on it. Once I pointed it out to him, probably at length and in that nasty, dismissive, cocksure manner that only a teenager can achieve, what I said stuck in his head and the “Woo Woo” went to 11. The point of the song is “who?” not “woo.” Although if you don’t know, the song title should be in spoiler tags. ---
**Author:** ![Lucky\_13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucky_13/32/13209_2.png) [@Lucky\_13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky_13)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2013, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-love-the-song-and-then-you-listen-closely-and-hear/655642/27 "2013-04-14T22:01:06Z")
I know this board is no fan of the Black Eyed Peas, but I kind of liked their song “[Just Can’t Get Enough](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrTyD7rjBpw&list=UUrwmu-gceGOmtZeuTsn7DlQ&index=4).” Correction: I was kind of obsessed with it for a couple months. There’s a part, around 2:08, where you hear a noise in the background that sounds like a child saying “Mom?” The first few times I heard it, i had to take my headphones off to make sure that wasn’t my daughter calling me. ---
**Author:** ![irritant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@irritant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irritant)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2013, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-love-the-song-and-then-you-listen-closely-and-hear/655642/28 "2013-04-15T00:20:06Z")
> [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](#): > > Isn’t there some Led Zeppelin song where you can hear Bonzo’s bass drum pedal squeaking? I never heard it, but I don’t think I can hear high pitched sounds these days. That’s “Since I’ve Been Loving You.” ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2013, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-love-the-song-and-then-you-listen-closely-and-hear/655642/29 "2013-04-15T01:41:25Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > Pointed it out to him? It’s not exactly buried. I can’t imagine hearing the song, even once, without hearing that. When it was contemporary, you couldn’t play it a party without at least one nebbish who didn’t know the lyrics, sitting by the record player _woot-woo_-ing along! ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2013, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-love-the-song-and-then-you-listen-closely-and-hear/655642/30 "2013-04-15T04:51:17Z")
> [@SeaDragonTattoo](#): > > In the EMF song [Unbelievable](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waacof2saZw), during the refrain there’s a dude yelling, > > “What the fuck?!” … “What the fuck?!” … “Waaaas Thaat?!” > > No one seems to know that’s what he’s saying, until I tell them. Once you hear it, you can’t un-hear it! How do I know? I bought the CD way back when and it’s part of the lyrics written in the liner notes. The only song that got airplay from day one, loaded with the f-word, and still does without a radio edit. OK, I agree the refain is “What the fuck?”, and I can buy Andrew Dice Clay as the one yelling it too - but are you getting the liner notes off a CD Single of the song? I have the CD “Schubert Dip” right in front of me (haven’t played it since I ripped it years ago, but anyway), and the lyrics for Unbelievable certainly do not have “WTF” at all. The refrain is just the “The Things You Say…” up to the “You’re unbelievable” line, nothing else (well, the verses run on a bit into “You burden” due to crappy printing I think). It’s the album with the B&W line drawing of a cartoony face on the front, and the band’s picture on the back, with some random spotches of “ink” through-out the liner notes - and a “thanks” from James to, among others, “Andrew Dice Clay for the ‘Wow!’”. While we’re at it, what is that guy saying in the background that sounds like “da-doink”? - 20 years later, I still don’t know. Hmm, DJ MILF was on that 1990 song, when did MILF get it’s now common connotation? ---
**Author:** ![Leiko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Leiko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leiko)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2013, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-love-the-song-and-then-you-listen-closely-and-hear/655642/31 "2013-04-15T06:00:51Z")
> [@Rollo\_Tomasi](#): > > In the Passion Pit song “Take a Walk,” I swear there’s a sound in the background that sounds almost like the sound my phone makes when I snap a picture with the camera. It’s only in the first verse, but I can’t help hearing it throughout the rest of the song too. Hooray, I’m not crazy! Between this and an ambulance-sounding instrument half buried in the mix of another song (I thinks it’s Mumford and Sons but I could be wrong), listening to the radio has been odd lately. ---
**Author:** ![sco3tt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@sco3tt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sco3tt)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2013, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-love-the-song-and-then-you-listen-closely-and-hear/655642/32 "2013-04-15T07:11:53Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > I don’t know that I love the song but I’m always caught by the beeping in “Rock the Casbah.” It’s like the beeps of a little electronic game. I didn’t hear it on the version I found on YouTube but it exists - [it was discussed on the SDMB](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=217502) in 2003. The beeping is definitely there on the original Combat Rock CD (I just pulled out my nearly 30-year-old copy to confirm). It starts at 1:52 with the “in-crowd say it’s cool” line and mimics Joe Strummer’s vocal for the next 20 seconds or so. Apparently they dropped it from the [single mix](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_the_casbah#Single), which is the only version I could find on YouTube. The single mix also has the annoying too-loud/too-long delay effect added to the “crazy Casbah jive” line, which ruins it for me. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2013, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-love-the-song-and-then-you-listen-closely-and-hear/655642/33 "2013-04-15T08:06:20Z")
> [@SirRay](#): > > OK, I agree the refain is “What the fuck?”, and I can buy Andrew Dice Clay as the one yelling it too - but are you getting the liner notes off a CD Single of the song? > > I have the CD “Schubert Dip” right in front of me (haven’t played it since I ripped it years ago, but anyway), and the lyrics for Unbelievable certainly do not have “WTF” at all. The refrain is just the “The Things You Say…” up to the “You’re unbelievable” line, nothing else (well, the verses run on a bit into “You burden” due to crappy printing I think). > It’s the album with the B&W line drawing of a cartoony face on the front, and the band’s picture on the back, with some random spotches of “ink” through-out the liner notes - and a “thanks” from James to, among others, “Andrew Dice Clay for the ‘Wow!’”. > While we’re at it, what is that guy saying in the background that sounds like “da-doink”? - 20 years later, I still don’t know. > > Hmm, DJ MILF was on that 1990 song, when did MILF get it’s now common connotation? I can’t be soused to dig my CD’s out of their boxes in the back of the closet, but yes, I’m sure I read that - and no, I can’t be sure it wasn’t a cassette either, but I know I read them in a printed set of lyrics way back when it was a new album. IIRC, it was badly printed, and the “wtf” line was only in there once or twice, not printed as an interjection within the lyrics each time it’s in the song, more sort of insinuated at the beginning or end. Of course, the only cite I can find is a [Wiki entry:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unbelievable_%28EMF_song%29) > [@](#): > > Due to the amount of air time that “Unbelievable” has received since its release, it may be responsible for the most profanity ever heard over radio. The constant background vocal during the chorus saying “What the fuck was that?” which even appears in the lyrics in the CD booklet, was never edited. This is possibly because the background vocal appears incoherently, and most people dismiss it as undecipherable lyrics.[citation needed] The song has also been used unedited in pre-watershed television adverts. I worked at a record store in the very early 90’s and got first runs of a lot of stuff, plus cut-outs and imports, so who knows if what I saw was an early/restricted printing or import that was modified later. It was a long time ago! I don’t know anything about DJ Milf, but that seems to be a name, not the acronym made famous in _American Pie_. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2013, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-love-the-song-and-then-you-listen-closely-and-hear/655642/34 "2013-04-15T08:47:11Z")
> [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#): > > If you think “Woo Woo” is the POINT of the song, well, I’m not sure I’d agree with that, but I am not going to defend that statement, because I feel rather like EmilyG. > > The same thing happened to me. If they’d buried it a bit in the background I might not mind it so much, but as it is, I won’t voluntarily listen to it. It’s like: How much more “Woo Woo” can they put in the song? The answer is none - none more. > > Of COURSE he heard it. It’s just that he didn’t focus on it. Once I pointed it out to him, probably at length and in that nasty, dismissive, cocksure manner that only a teenager can achieve, what I said stuck in his head and the “Woo Woo” went to 11. WOW that is so much coding for nothing. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2013, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-love-the-song-and-then-you-listen-closely-and-hear/655642/35 "2013-04-15T14:17:54Z")
> [@kirk1168](#): > > Similarly, all I can hear on Steve Miller’s _Jet Airliner_ is gasping for breath before each line. Don’t listen to it with the intention of hearing the gasps. You’ll hear it for the rest of your life. Not as bad as “She’s Not there” by the Zombies, where the singer (Colin Blumstone?) has an asthma attack: \*Well, let me tell you (inhale) 'bout the way she looked (inhale more) The way she’d act and the colour of her hair (inhale A LOT more) Her voice was soft and cool (suck air) Her eyes were clear and bright (suck more air) But she’s not there… (pass out?)\* ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2013, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-love-the-song-and-then-you-listen-closely-and-hear/655642/36 "2013-04-15T15:32:35Z")
> [@Leiko](#): > > Hooray, I’m not crazy! Between this and an ambulance-sounding instrument half buried in the mix of another song (I thinks it’s Mumford and Sons but I could be wrong), listening to the radio has been odd lately. There was a song 10 or so years ago with a siren in the middle and it drove me fucking insane. All I remember is that it was a female singer and involved a lot of piano. ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2013, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-love-the-song-and-then-you-listen-closely-and-hear/655642/37 "2013-04-15T19:11:46Z")
> [@voguevixen](#): > > WOW that is so much coding for nothing. It’s not coding, it’s clicking on the quote feature. It’s a long-established feature of the board. So, tell the group, do you feel better having put me and my '“nothing” post in my place? Has it elevated your self-worth? Perhaps a comment on my wardrobe will help. ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2013, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-love-the-song-and-then-you-listen-closely-and-hear/655642/38 "2013-04-15T19:16:20Z")
The jet plane noises on the Beatles’ “Back in the USSR”. I’ve always heard the fade-in at the beginning and the fade-out at the end. But about 2 weeks ago I heard it on the radio, and for the first time in 35 years noticed that damn sound effect is throughout the entire song and really prominent, to the point that my brain couldn’t hear anything else. I don’t know if they were brought forward in the mix in the new remastering, or if the radio station had some weird compression going on, but it was so loud it was all I could focus on. My only reference copy is a White Album mix tape I made in the 80s where I weeded out all the crap and got it on to a 45 minute cassette. I may have to dig it out to see if the sounds have always been so noticeable. ---
**Author:** ![OffByOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/45deac/32.png) [@OffByOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OffByOne)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-love-the-song-and-then-you-listen-closely-and-hear/655642/39 "2013-08-08T14:29:55Z")
“Over My Head” by Fleetwood Mac, has a strange longish beep that occurs during the chorus. I first noticed this while I was listening to the radio at work when this song came on. I heard “Over my head,” beep, beep, “But it sure feels nice,” beep, beep, with the first beep occurring during “head”, and the third during “nice.” I took off my headphones, thinking it was my phone, primarily because the beeping did not seem to fit the rest of the song. No phone, and every chorus has it, so I know it is not some mistake. Now, I cannot not hear it. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-love-the-song-and-then-you-listen-closely-and-hear/655642/40 "2013-08-08T14:36:05Z")
It’s minor, but the cover of “Desolation Row” by My Chemical Romance (done for _Watchmen_) has an incredibly annoying ping right at the beginning. It sounds like every car-system and electronic device warning sound on earth, and it jars me out of the song for a moment every time. As for strange sounds in Steve Miller cuts, those are mostly… Steve Miller. I solved that by not listening to his stuff any more, even in a radio stream. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-love-the-song-and-then-you-listen-closely-and-hear/655642.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-love-the-song-and-then-you-listen-closely-and-hear/655642.md?page=3)