{"id":2979,"date":"2010-09-30T16:49:18","date_gmt":"2010-09-30T20:49:18","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2010-10-10T18:11:21","modified_gmt":"2010-10-10T22:11:21","slug":"title-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/title-16\/","title":{"rendered":"Uneasy Listening"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JFSOZnAjWlg?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nI&#8217;ve noticed that since I started following RTH, I&#8217;ve been listening to music differently.  So it came as a surprise that over dinner, Mr. Royale and I were initially unable to identify an instrumental version of a familiar song that we heard while we were waiting for our Pad Thai to arrive.  There was that Wes Montgomery-style jazz guitar.  There was a soft, burbling saxophone.  Mr. Royale initially placed it as a cover of Charlie Parker&#8217;s &#8220;Little Brown Shoes.&#8221;  But we noticed that we continued to listen alertly in that way that you do in that aural tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon.  The lyrics of the song soon arose, unwelcomed, to curdle the taste of our just finished Som Tum, as we realized with horror that the song was &#8220;Light My Fire.&#8221;  A cover.  Not Doors-worthy.  More like a cover of the <strong>Jose Feliciano<\/strong> version.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nSo while spearing chunks of tofu, we started to discuss that Muzak isn&#8217;t just an imitation, but a way to make a potentially pitiful situation even worse.  We decided that &#8220;Light My Fire&#8221; would be on our list of songs that are even more horrible in a Muzak version.  But then a flamenco-inspired version of &#8220;Black Magic Woman&#8221; started up and we realized our list was oh, so incomplete.<\/p>\n<p><em>What songs make the best\/worst Muzak versions?<\/em> I&#8217;m not just talking about covers, because I really enjoy a little ironic or shapely rendition of a favorite.  What songs would be improved with Muzak?  Mr. Royale and I decided that we would like to hear Muzak versions of NIN&#8217;s &#8220;Closer&#8221; and MBV&#8217;s &#8220;Soft As Snow (But Warm Inside)&#8221; just to have a laugh about the ludicrous counterpoint of the lyrics and the instrumentation.  But maybe the reason that &#8220;Light My Fire&#8221; and &#8220;Black Magic Woman&#8221; are &#8220;successful&#8221; is because of the cheesy allusions to sex, and that more straightforward descriptions of sex and sexual parts wouldn&#8217;t translate as successfully?<\/p>\n<p><em>What do you think?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve noticed that since I started following RTH, I&#8217;ve been listening to music differently. So it came as a surprise that over dinner, Mr. Royale and I were initially unable to identify an instrumental version of a familiar song that we heard while we were waiting for our Pad Thai to arrive. There was that <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/title-16\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1838,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2979"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1838"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2979\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}