#28 is the Zehner Marsch, which I feel only made it into this countdown because it is so short.
I really tried to cut back on listening to the Musikkorps recordings this year, thinking maybe it was in my best interest…I don’t know though.
I feel better when I am listening to them. Calmer…which is kind of the opposite of most of the music I like, which usually serves to agitate in one way or another.
Maybe it’s because I still (erroneously, probably) associate the marches with the carousel from my childhood vacations? I swear, I am still mad about finding out that they changed the music box so that I couldn’t prove one way or the other that I’d heard some of these songs before…
Oh well.
I had trouble finding out much about the history or composition of this song, so that makes it not as much fun as some of the other marches, but like I said: it’s very short. Maybe that’s something to do with why I can’t find out much.
Over a year later, I have to confess…I still haven’t persuaded myself that I never heard this tune on a carousel. I absolutely have to have done. My mind is convinced that I knew this song before all the nonsense with tracking down the vintage music samples in Rome songs.
I didn’t know what it was though, and now that I do I can’t fathom how it ended up in the repertoire of a carousel music box. But…where else would I have known it from? 😦
This question is very vexing to me. And the more I try to dissuade myself and tell myself maybe that I was mistaken, the more ridiculously latched on the Wolf-me becomes. He is convinced that we heard this tune as a child. Enough times to remember it, even, in spite of finding that there are words that go with it.
*sigh*
Mysteries that I will never solve, I guess.
I really haven’t made any further progress as far as appreciating this song. Just stuck on the wtf? feeling that I had last year when I first heard it. Although after listening to it so often, I am still slightly amused that the album cover connected with it in iTunes has that little STRICTLY FOR NON-POLITICAL USE label on it. (Because we know that this is the sort of thing that get’s people interested in political messages these days…I hear that “fashwave” is the thing right now…which I would potentially be in danger of getting interested in if I didn’t really dislike ambient synth music.)
Also, a semi-related sentiment about this song…
I regret using this to name my car. The Erika of the song supposed to be a sweet girl, and my car is decidedly not that way. In the time I’ve had her, I’ve noticed that Erika seems to have the personality of a dramatic tweenaged girl (insofar as cars can have “personalities”).
All the times she’s stalled for no discernible reason… (Maybe if I died you’d miss me!)
When she started sliding on the road in a light rain and then could not even when it actually snowed… (I hate you!)
When my battery died a few days ago and we jumped it…and Jester started my car before he left for work the next day and said she was fine…and then when I actually tried to leave–
Me: Alright–let’s go!
Erika: lol, nope. I don’t wanna go and you can’t make me.
Me: …………
Erika: ………………………..
Me: *sigh* Fine. Do what you like.
Erika: Yesssss!
I’ve had to buy her a new battery and a new set of tires in the past week and a half, so hopefully she’ll be agreeable for a little while at least. We’ll see, since I tried to get something out of my trunk this morning and discovered that it doesn’t stay open on its own at all anymore…
Previous #7 Songs 2015: Der Brandtaucher (Stringed Version) by Rome 2014: My Faults Are Your Reward by My Dying Bride 2013: It Was Only a Dream by Colony 5 2012: Satan by The Zydepunks 2011: Chase is On by Pretentious & Moi?
In my quest to not feel so murdery towards other drivers, this has become another one of my go-to songs. Sitting in traffic where people are being swervy and extra stupid? Feeling the creeping panic that keeps reminding me we could get into another accident? Drown all the bad feels with cheerful sounding marches, I guess. It seems weird to me, seeing as this was what I was listening to when the accident happened…you’d think that would make them increase my anxiety…but so far it seems that the opposite is the case.
*shakes head*
Even I give up on understanding why I like the things I do…
I don’t think I talked about anything specific regarding the music when this song appeared in my playlist from last year…but tbh, the brass section is probably what I like best about this song. My typical listening habits tell me there’s something a little bit too enthusiastic about the tuba that is chugging along through the whole song, and about the trumpets at the end of each verse…but really, I think those are the things in this song that are showing what a parade marching band is supposed to be–parade bands are supposed to be loud and enthusiastic and kind of fun, even (the main reasons why circus music was developed from marches).
The only thing I don’t know if I really buy is that piercing whistle in the chorus. Like…was that actually part of the song, or did you all just embellish this recording because you could? I suspect the latter, as that bit of recording sounds distinctly separate from both the vocals and instrumentation in this song…but I think it’s one of those questions I’ll never know the answer to.
Also…why is the whistle a thing? Because of the whistling mountain wind? Like…for real? That is the sort of thing that reinforces my impression that this particular recording was intended to have a more entertaining quality to it than just as a straight up march recording. Someone thought about this and said, “I know what we can do on this recording that will make this song better”, and that is something I find amusing.
Cheers.
Previous #10 Songs 2015: Über den Horizont by Blutengel 2014: Cold War Transmissions by Anberlin 2013: Mag Mell by Suidakra 2012: Angel Whiskey by The Zydepunks 2011: The Curse by Diary of Dreams
16 this year is Funkerlied, performed by the Wehrmacht Musikkorps.
There are sooo many times this song would pop up on mu iPod, and I’d be like…”nah, not today…” BUT THEN I WOULDN’T SKIP IT! I’d just let it play through anyway! *strangling noises*
Wolf me is insufferable. Because of course that’s the me who likes this music so much…can’t do anything halfway…all the music has to be SO SAD or SO MURDERY or, in this case, SO CHEERFUL.
It’s no wonder I started also listening to the neofolk stuff, because at least a lot of that isn’t SO any particular thing…gotta get Wolf-me to be calm somehow, right?
But I do really like this song. Not even just out of curiosity about it…I genuinely enjoy listening to it and I’m glad I ran into it. Which brings us to yesterday, when I went out with Jester and he was like, “I don’t remember us listening to most of the stuff in your playlist this year.”
Of course he wouldn’t remember listening to this stuff. Because we didn’t, mostly. I try so hard to not listen to this sort of thing with other people in the car (except for my youngest sister who is never paying attention). Nobody deserves to have to listen to Funkerlied for the umpteenth time…….
*Wolf me plays it again just because we can*
Wenn die Geige singt Und ein Walzerlied erklingt, Dann singen alle mit, Dann singen alle mit…
Previous #16 Songs 2015: To Teach Obedience by Rome 2014: Somewhere Only We know covered by Joy Electric 2013: Smoke by Assemblage 23 2012: Tempest by Aurelio Voltaire 2011: Haunted by Bella Morte
I live less than 10 miles from my theatre. Travel time is a bit better, usually, than when I lived 32 miles away. Like 20-30 minutes, rather than 30-45.
Not last night though. It took me an entire hour to get home because of snow. Got here around 435 because, about two miles from the apartment, there is a farm. This farm is on a two lane road, and also is right after the bridge over the river…aaaand there was an accident right by the farm so the narrow road was impassable. And when I turned around, I had to go back to the wrong side of the river. But I don’t know where the next bridge is, or if it connected through back to where I needed to be…so I drove aaaaaall the way back to the theatre to get on the highway (which I’d wanted to avoid), and drove home that way instead. It was terrifying.
The tread on my tires doesn’t indicate that they need replaced, but I’m seriously considering replacing them anyway because Erika is way, WAY more prone to sliding than either of my previous cars. With her, one mustn’t drive faster than 20-35 mph (something like 32-56 kph) if one would like to stay on the road. And I would. And I one-hundred-thousand-percent don’t want another accident. Especially not now that Comrade Doctor’s hospital is probably the closest one to me.
Welp. Here is a song.
21 is…Schwarzbraun ist die Haselnuss performed by the Wehrmacht Musikkorps.
Ugh. -_-”
I’ll stop this eventually. I swear. I really, really will.
But…much like I said last year…they just sound so happy…and Wolf-me is making all kinds of excuses about trying to cheer us up and how there’s really nothing inherently wrong with the songs, so it’s not a terrible thing to have them showing up on our most-listened-to playlists…buuuuut tbh, I am still disappointed with myself. Not least of all because these marches show up three more times for this year.
Still, on the bright side, this one wasn’t a repeat from last year (which makes it worse, in a way…because that means there are more of them than I admitted to last year), and also…at least it’s not the Condor Legion theme song, soooooo…
Yeah. I have no idea how long it will take me to recover from my unearthing these songs, and eventually put them out of my mind…but you’ll know first, I suppose.
Again, I’ve read what I could find about this song, and like at least two of the others, it wasn’t originally a march but was a folk song about a girl. There seem to be two versions of this song though…one where the girl has no money for a dowry, and one where the man doesn’t have enough money to ask the girl to marry him, and both versions ending with the man deciding he would never give her up regardless of the money situation.
There are also apparently different interpretations of the song in regards to translating it into English. Personally, I think people are being too literal, but idk. The title of the song is literally “brown-black is the hazelnut”, and the speaker takes that and uses the colour to describe his and the girl’s hair…but it makes better sense, I think, when schwarzbraun is interpreted as auburn rather than black-brown. Because hazelnuts aren’t black-brown. They’re red-brown, right? Which is what auburn hair is. Right?
(While we’re on the subject–I haaaaate hazelnuts! Out of all the nuts, they are the worst. Even brazil nuts–which everyone else I know seems to hate–are better!)
I think I listened to this song more this year because, ultimately, as someone who married a redhead this past May–one who is constantly reminding me of his redheadedness, I might add– it amused me that the song was about a redheaded couple. 😛
Anywho. I hope you will forgive me for still not being over my march phase…but I haven’t found any other new ones that I really like. I swear!
Previous #21 Songs 2015: Vergissmeinnicht by Eisbrecher 2014: Still Life by The Horrors 2013: Winter Souls by Diary of Dreams 2012: It Was Only A Dream by Colony 5 2011: Day of The Dead by Aurelio Voltaire
I’m too sleepy to say much just now…fortunately, I have some pre-written music posts to get me through the next few days, since I’m sure I will not have adequate time to eat or sleep or breathe because of Star Wars.
…also, if you read an entertainment article about Quentin Tarantino saying that Disney is threatening theatres unless they do what Disney says regarding Star Wars, that is true. That is a real thing.
So…yeah. Happiest corporation on earth? Probably. They just don’t want anyone else to be happy.
Now, on to my most questionable music selection of 2015.
Song 15:
Parademarsch der Legion Condor (Wehrmacht Musikkorps)
Yep. This was also a thing for me this year.
Somehow it even made it all the way to #15 out of 31 songs. Not sure I have a good explanation for that. For how I came across it? Sure. Just…not to justify the number of times this song got played.
Possibly because I was so puzzled at first that the music collection this came from (not the block I found on youtube, but a legitimate vintage compilation) had a label noting that it was “STRICTLY FOR NON POLITICAL USE”.
I didn’t understand at first, why that was a thing. Although the least Wolfish side of me was really nervous about that label…which Wolf me thought was ridiculous.
Me: Are you sure we should download this…?
Wolf: …why do you ask?
Me: Well…it says…
Wolf: Yeeeeees? What about it?
Me: I don’t know. Just…maybe they put you on a watch list if you download this? *Wolf-me falls down, laughing*
Honestly. Sometimes I am too dumb to be tolerated.
Buuut…I can blame my curiosity about this song on another Rome song, because he used a sample from a recording of the Parademarsch der Legion Condor, and I was intrigued. So I went looking for the song in the sample. I didn’t find the one Rome used. In that version, they don’t leave out the laughter of the Devil in the chorus part, and it’s much creepier with that left in.
Still, this was definitely the song I was trying to find…I just couldn’t get over how happy the musical opening and closing of the song sounded.
And that’s when my Wolf had his epiphany that this march sounded like carousel music, and wouldn’t it be fun to find out if there was more of it out there?
Granted, when I got interested in Rome’s music, I didn’t know what themes they tended to choose for songs or albums…they’d been introduced to me as a Goth band, which isn’t really fitting now that I know their music better…and the particular album I got started on was Flowers From Exile, which was written around the theme of the Spanish Civil War, another subject which I knew nothing about.
So I went around and started doing some reading. And I’ve since come to the conclusion that out of all the march music I’ve been enjoying this year, this particular song is also one of the most likely to offend someone who knows the tune, but doesn’t know what version of the song it is, because the tune was later claimed by the SS for one of their marches. (Possibly, this is why that Rome album has an “Explicit” label, since there’s literally nothing else questionable about it.)
*considers*
I suppose…I must confess I have an SS version of the song in my music collection, too…and the difference between the two recordings is striking. Where this one sounds like it’s at least trying to be enthusiastic, the SS recording is…dirge-like? The recording is inferior in quality to the Legion Condor’s, and it’s creepier because instead of a marching band version, the one I found has an accordion accompaniment. I was cross about that because I like accordion music a lot, and this recording just makes it sound creepy), what with the faint echo in the recording.
(Fun fact: in college, I had an audio recording class with a really annoying professor who assigned us a paper once where we had to choose a song that had multiple versions either by the same artist/band, or across different decades…and we were supposed to compare the way that different recording techniques or different ways the audio was manipulated changed the sound of the song…Wolf has been rather disappointed that we can’t go back and troll that professor by using this song for the project. 😛 )
Overall, it’s been an interesting catalyst for me learning more about history. I’m just embarrassed that I took such a liking to the music. That wasn’t something I planned on. x_x”