The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet

[@names_are_useless]

The search is over: it's "Subways of your Mind" by FEX A Redditor not only got in contact with the band, but also a cassette with a more polished and complete 4 min version of the song but also 2 more songs by the band: "Heart In Danger" and "Talking Hands". A live version of "Subways of your Mind" has also been unearthed. Lastly, one of the bandmates even said they'd do a rerecording of the song :)

[@mirandagoldstine8548]

That’s awesome. I read on the Mysterious Song subreddit that the daughter of one of the band members wants to talk to Rocksteady about including Subways of your Mind in the latest GTA game. This has been a great year for the band.

[@Emobunneh]

Whang has done a video on it now for anyone wanting to follow up after this video :)

[@Ice-Qube]

Came here from the German broadcast video. The member that was found first contacted two others and meet in the city where the song was recorded. Together the 3 members went on a radio broadcast the last member (the drummer) contacted the radio station and they all reunited. They have rerecorded the song and plan to rerecord the other songs too. They are trying to ride the hype and start making new songs again. It also seems that they have a bunch of songs that they never released.

[@supersloth4635]

My son was in a band 15 years ago and the other moms and I thought we were the only fans of the band. Last year my son, who now lives in another part of the country, bumped into a fan. The guy knew the lyrics by heart. I'd recognize the songs if I heard them, but there is no way I'd know the lyrics, even though the band rehearsed at our place for years...

[@DesiGalCrochet]

That must've been awesome for your son! He really touched someone ❤️

[@lealta1481]

Their son is in Mumford and Sons

[@a-train992]

@Moon Cricket man you really have nothing else to do except be negative online huh?

[@coatlessali]

​@Moon Cricket I hope your hot pocket is cold

[@jrmckim]

​@@coatlessali or too hot while bursts from all sides when you take a bite. Leaving little burns here and there 😅

[@downix]

Something similar happened with the 70's Detroit band Death, which was made up of three brothers. They never got a record deal, but had a single which they'd handed out to people. Eventually they moved to New England and changed genres and band names. Flash forward a few decades, one of their sons was at a party in San Francisco which was playing unusual or mystery songs, when suddenly he heard what he recognized as his Uncle singing. One phone call back home, mystery not only solved, but the studio tapes they had recorded back then were finally released as an album.

[@mattday2656]

such a great band, the doc about them was rad.

[@davidg5898]

​@nickfrito Proto-punk, but yes. Death's EP/album predated the Ramones first album by a year. It's a case of having the right sound, at the right time, but the wrong place. The first black band playing true punk was probably Pure Hell.

[@Sunny-jz3dy]

Omg! Really?! That is wild!

[@downix]

@@Sunny-jz3dy yup. Their first album is called "...For The Whole World To See"

[@es68951]

@@downix Such an awesome album. It has a certain Motown sound to it too, which is just such a unique and special blend

[@christinak1053]

Literally just this weekend, I took a box of unmarked mix tapes home from my parents' house. The first one I popped in (ah, that sound alone is iconic), was my Grandma teaching me Polish and singing with me in 1997. She passed away in 2003. Best find ever. 🥰

[@jillianb1744]

My grandpa read law books on tape for the blind. I have a cassette tape of the most boring book on tape, but it’s my grandpa and being able to hear his voice is priceless!

[@ErisApplebottom]

Aw ❤️ that sounds precious 🥰. My grandma taught me polish too. She just passed away a couple months ago. But after she passed my mom and i were watching old childhood videos and there was a recording of my english (only) speaking dad telling me and my brother to make silly faces while my polish (only) speaking grandma was telling us to put our tongues back in our mouths. It was adorable. That dynamic became a recurring theme in our household 😂

[@Bear-lb4qj]

I'm very envious, I'd pay alot to hear my Father, Grampy, or Nan again.

[@ahleena]

When my mom died in dec '21 we found a box of tapes...cassette tapes but also some reel tapes addressed to me, specifically. We got them digitized and one was of my very young mother singing kids songs and nursery rhymes, with preschool me and my little sister singing along. In between she'd address my little brother telling him she loves him. She made a tape so she could play it for him each night while he fell asleep. It was one of the greatest treasures.

[@rickwilliams967]

Stop trying to get attention

[@0UmAndUh0]

I just spent 3 hours with Simon on the Causal Criminal. Apparently, my day is yours Simon.

[@jonbradley2475]

Yep same here, finished John Wane Gacy and came straight here

[@meagansefner3215]

I admit, I took a brief detour to Hot Ones after making it through CasCrim...

[@waynesteffen3262]

Other way around for me. I need to start here and gather steam before three-plus hours by David on the Killer 🤡. Oh, what will Simon’s spirit be like by the end?

[@Lownamebrand]

I also am doing it in reverse because I've been part of the search for this song for awhile

[@dena81]

That was last night for me which was why I went to bed after 2am.... Only to feel scared that there would be John Wayne Gacy in his clown costume watching me

[@derincattelane43]

The song has been identified today. It's "Subways of your mind" by FEX

[@selinesbeau]

When I was a kid, I remember listening to the radio in my room with blank tapes in the player just waiting for songs I liked to come on, then LUNGING across the room to start recording as soon as familiar tunes started playing. I got a real workout when the new years "best of 19xx" all day things would be on.

[@-sweyn-9559]

🙋🏼‍♀️

[@ScottieD813]

I've known the struggle. I just started watching the video but your comment reached out and touched my 12 year old self right in the feels

[@Howiesgirl]

@@Willam_J So true, & extremely frustrating!! Glad to see Whistler fans who remember the struggle!! Sometimes I feel like the oldest person watching these videos, lol.

[@chasincara]

They'll never know the effort that went into making a mixed tape.

[@Buzzygirl63]

Can relate. I'm in my 50s and lived for making mixtapes from the radio. HATED when the DJs talking over the first or last part of the songs...

[@tomnicholls9016]

It has been found today. It is "Subways of Your Mind" by FEX

[@Shauma_llama]

I found a mystery CD one day and popped it into my car's CD player. Listened to some guitar for awhile, thinking "who the he'll is this?" It was me, and I'd recorded it only a year or so earlier, and forgot that quickly. 😆

[@Sunny-jz3dy]

😂 priceless

[@CaseyBDook]

I can't count the times I have done that. I recorded a lot when I was younger but I never labeled anything.

[@Rujewitblood]

I found a guy using my online username posting stuff on a forum one time, it took me a while to realise it was me posting when I was a kid lol The way I wrote was so different I couldn't recognise anything of myself in it

[@darthbane5676]

Meanwhile, I’m over here thinking about the extended version of the Brandsmart U.S.A. commercial jingle that I heard as a kid, even though only the short version can be found on the internet, and the fact that a few other people remember it word for word is the only reason I know I’m not crazy. Memory is weird.

[@beefaronibois4446]

let's hear it

[@ThatWriterKevin]

Fun fact: those casettes that plugged into the audio jack of your discman still exist. They even make casettes with bluetooth capability so you can listen to streaming music from your phone on a car's tape deck!

[@LisaBowers]

Excellent script, Kevin! 🤘

[@ThatWriterKevin]

@@LisaBowers Thanks!

[@onbearfeet]

I still have one of the old-fashioned ones somewhere! I originally got it to listen to CDs, and then MP3s, in my 1999 subcompact's tape deck. Nobody expected the car to last 15 years, so I had a lot of "WHY do you have a TAPE DECK?!" conversations in 2012 or thereabouts...

[@ThatWriterKevin]

@@LisaBowers thanks! 💕

[@cmndrkool321]

I had one when they first came out. Came from a goodwill bin; and I threw it out like a moron because I had no idea what it was.

[@rachelwitherspoon4394]

Ah Kevin, knew you were my generation, lol. Sooo many hours waiting by my stereo to hit record for that ONE song that would make my mix tape the absolute party mix, lol. Then the years of CDs. Glad to know from a professional that I wasnt wrong about records not being better, lol. Still dont have any streaming music services tho. Once again, wonderful script, and thanks for all the laughs Simon, you and Jen give me. Next to the SoSF new vid!

[@ThatWriterKevin]

You're welcomr as always 💕

[@russellfitzpatrick503]

1970s and John Peel shows, taping probably the best compilations going (and still worth a listen .... 50 years on??????)

[@rachelwitherspoon4394]

@@russellfitzpatrick503 My very first tv memory is MTV's Twisted Sister scaring the ever loving crap outta me with We're Not Gonna Take It, lol. I blame them for my fear of clowns 🤣🤣🤣

[@ThatWriterKevin]

@@russellfitzpatrick503 1970s is before my time

[@froloffanton]

22:45 Even mega talented monster artists such as Prince and Stevie Wonder never bothered to program the DX7 themselves and usually just recorded the presets or bought aftermarket sound cartridges - it really takes an engineer to master something as complex as FM synthesis through the 80’s calculator type LCD screen UI.

[@mwolkove]

Wait... Simon could've solved this mystery simply by playing the song and waiting for the copyright strike?

[@AronBezzina]

😂🤣

[@emark8928]

Exactly my thought

[@_black_bird]

People have done it before, no copyright claim, the search has been going on for years cause it's not that easy lmao

[@gracerodgers8952]

That's like, how do you find a needle in a haystack... Burn it down.

[@TheWhiteTrashPanda]

That only works if it's owned by a record label. A song this obscure is likely from a band that was never signed

[@jcurses]

Whang was the person who introduced this mysterious song. I’d highly recommend watching his coverage on it, he presents the timeline of the search in a very good way.

[@ReddFoxx1562]

Yeah, I'm kind of disappointed that they're ripping him off in a way here. So many other topics that could be covered that haven't already been covered, why choose this?

[@ericbishop6861]

They didn't talk about a lot of the things Whang said that transpired in regards to Statues In Motion. Seems like that's a dead end, but I was expecting them to talk about it.

[@jackgarrison8497]

@@ReddFoxx1562 Why choose this because The Mystery still hasn't been solved The Band Who made Them are still missing

[@jackgarrison8497]

@@ericbishop6861 Statues in Motion didn't make this Song

[@ericbishop6861]

​@@jackgarrison8497​... kinda why I said it seemed like a dead end.

[@morphman86]

About the cassette aux cable thing, I remember the early 00s in Sweden, a gadget store had a competition to spot the fake item in their catalogue and about 90% of the submissions thought it was that device. The store thought it would basically be a lottery, but out of 15 000 submissions, only about 50 even found the right item. That era was full of weird gadgets...

[@scooby45247]

Simon, " I just want to replace this wall with a new wall." Govt, " sir, that's Hadrians wall."

[@sbsstorytelling]

Damn it, Simon! I thought it had been solved! You did crush me, AND I kept listening. I always do.

[@WDCallahan]

Oh yeah. That's that song by FEX. What was it called? Subways of your mind, I think.

[@Afroduck91]

I had a band that recorded a few songs at home in 2012. One was released on a really obscure compilation CD that was bundled with a magazine in one city. I recently heard that song play on an online radio stream with no details attributed to it.

[@weedfreer]

Hey man...that's not a bad idea. Just watched a Tom Scott video whereby he was in the British library vaults. Turns out that the British library has, since its inception, collected a copy of EVERY single publication that has ever been produced (originally, as a legal requirement of the publishers). The video discussed how difficult and challenging this is becoming these days, however, it also suggested that there were other countries with their own systems doing similar. I wonder if the German equivalent of the British Library would have collected these magazines along with any tapes that may have been attached? It may well be possible to 'digitise' these tapes such that the two could exist as separate entities from eachother. Do it for the entirety of 1984, and, you never know, they may very well come up trumps!

[@yllekjs76]

I had a tape that a friend gave me in 1990 and it had an album on each side from two different bands, one of the bands became famous but the other I could never figure out who they were, I even learnt to play one of the riffs from my favourite song of the album. In 2019 i went to a music festival in Germany and I saw the band perform the song, was almost a 30 year mystery solved.

[@dallassukerkin6878]

Don't leave us hanging, Sean! Who was it?! :D

[@marekohampton8477]

@@dallassukerkin6878 😂 Yes!!

[@richtravis9562]

and it was? btw, I went with a freind of the band, Slider or Slyder to a practise session in Sandoval, il in 1980 or 81; blew me away. band lead was (I think) Kevin Wood or Woods. I bought A casette, really high quality recording, 70% of the songs were just AMAZINGLY good. Note: I'm a horrible guitarist & vocalist, but had been performing since I was a 9yo kid with my dad as a novelty here and there, my dad was a Nashville studio guitarist, inducted into a couple of hall of fames, possibly the best ever in his niche ("father of rockabilly" in some circles). point being I knew music & the industry to a degree, they were GOOD. played for my dad and a few others, he totally agreed. then my life went weird and I lost the tape a year later and never heard anything from the band ever again, and as far as I can tell, the band never existed. if anyone has this bands music...

[@MCC4RTHY1]

So many bands in the late 80’s through early 90’s were played on the radio. So many one hit wonders and almost hits. I went 20 years looking for a certain song/ artist before I found them. BEST feeling ever.

[@billg3356]

Just out of curiosity, what was the song/ band?

[@jackgarrison8497]

@@billg3356 Unknown We still don't know

[@tenacious3911]

My theory is that the song was made by some underground post-punk band in the Eastern Bloc who were eventually banned and had all their recordings destroyed by the authorities, some commentators have suggested the accent sounds Polish or Estonian.

[@danielreuben1058]

I actually enjoy hearing old blues music on a record, or cassette. The pops, fuzz, and other distortions, seem to add something to the music, rather than take away from it. It sounds more 'raw', and authentic somehow.

[@resileaf9501]

Simon is so much of a skeptic that he even doubts his own writers' memory.

[@TheLoxxxton]

I love Simon when he starts to think he is old. My first car had an 8trak in it and CB radio with a megaphone switch

[@golfgrabu]

Ahh these good ol' 8 tracks cassettes made of thick plastic that looked indestructible!

[@tkendall]

Hah! My first car had an FM converter. This was a device to allow AM radios to receive the new FM bandwidth.

[@PrisonKilljoy]

@@tkendall My first car had a big ol' hole where a radio should have been. My sister's car had a state of the art AM radio, though. I was jealous. lol

[@rcknbob1]

If we're one-upping each other, my first car had an AM radio with a speaker that played out of the (doorless) glove compartment. It was also a positive-grounded British car, so I was unable to find a replacement radio before the car rusted out.😛

[@TheLoxxxton]

@@rcknbob1 God you beat me! Mine was a Mk1 Escort estate

[@ExperimentIV]

with regards to the dx-7, trust me, the presets were REALLY heavily used. FM synthesis patches aren’t easy to programme, and doing it on the dx-7 itself and not a computer with a sysex librarian is a special kind of hell. you have a screen with one line of characters and a bunch of membrane buttons. most usage of the dx-7 you hear in an 80s song is one of the presets in the synth’s memory (like the bass in take on me, or that e piano patch that was on like, everything), not even one of the expansion rom packs you can put in it. my dx-7 was a steal at $200 CAD in 2017. don’t think i could find one at that price again, at least not working

[@ClifBratcher]

This. The DX7 is a beast to program and the presets were all over the 80s charts. Only a few folks, like Brian Eno, really took the time to dive into it back then.

[@AllTheHappySquirrels]

So that's why so much of 80s pop sounds the same!

[@johncrossley6945]

When I was a teenager my uncle gave me a stereo with an 8-track player in it, and one day I found an adapter for 8-track to cassette at a yard sale, and I used that with the cassette adapter Simon is talking about to play CD's through my 8-track player.

[@KevinStriker]

God tier

[@SpikeBrave]

I'd love to hear Simon going off about German stuff with Werner Herzog's accent.

[@maironamakesstuff]

I was thinking the exact same thing! And there's plenty of his material for Simon to listen to for inspiration - far more than for Einstein anyway lol

[@blob537]

I vould like to see the baby

[@RealSkoolmaster]

I just spent over 5 hours (thanks work.. lol) listening to the John Wayne gace episode of casual criminalist... please God let this episode be lighthearted and funny

[@theConquerersMama]

I only made it about a half hour or so in. I just couldn't do it right now.

[@NoxCattus]

He's got a helicopter heist one on casual criminalist that looks lighter-I've heard other gace deep dives so I haven't listened to the casual criminalist one just yet

[@theConquerersMama]

The maple syrup heist needs a relisten.

[@RealSkoolmaster]

@@NoxCattus the JWG deep dive is rough, just be ready for it. I have heard others, but this one took the cake in just the roughness to listen to.

[@RealSkoolmaster]

@@theConquerersMama I found the helicopter heist and a few others that made the day a bit better lol. I just had to get my head out of that dark place that day

[@c.r.blankenship9040]

Also just a note: the DX7 is one of the most notoriously difficult synthesizers to program, so the fact that they used presets doesn’t actually tell you anything. If it were any other synthesizer sure, but being hard to program was part of what the DX7 was infamous for

[@phizc]

Haven't watched the video yet, but the best way to figure out who owns a song is to play it on KZbin and see who copystrikes.

[@generatoralignmentdevalue]

Yes! This has been a recurring joke at least since Whang's videos on the topic. Lots of "the one video you WANT to get a strike" in the comments on the song itself.

[@themoviedealers]

People tried Shazaming it and some copyright squatter tried claiming it. But not the actual originator of the song.

[@Davey-Boyd]

Doesn't always work. I know a couple of you tubers who got copyrighted for playing music they wrote and performed.

[@anemoiatrippin]

Loads of people have uploaded it and radio silent...

[@michag4337]

@@Davey-Boyd doesn't matter who wrote it/ sung it, all that matters is who owns it. That concept seems lost on a lot of people.

[@foxhoundp9949]

If my childhood friends, older sisters bands music resurfaced and became famous randomly one day I would definitely remember and recognize her voice and the tone of the music. I haven't heard it in 15 years but I can still hear some of the music in my head and I haven't talked to that friend in almost 10 years. It's one of those weird things.

[@MegaKat]

Fun fact, you store music in a different part of your brain than you do your other memories. I've worked in healthcare for 2 decades, and all of my worst Alzheimer's patients that still have some speech ability can sing you a song from their childhood in the 30s, and do so consistently everyday. But they can't remember that their husband/wife/parents/kids are dead and can't remember their living kids/spouse when they see them. But if I put on a record, they know every note and word to every song.

[@foxhoundp9949]

@@MegaKat I've worked in nursing homes as a tech done personal care for older folks and I've definitely see that! That's cool to know it's been studied.

[@MegaKat]

@@foxhoundp9949 from personal experience, I've had 2 ministrokes, which resulted in basically erasing 6 months of my memory, other than brief flashes of things that happened. Over time, my memory came back in short video clips and general knowledge that "yeah, I know it happened, but don't recall the details." Notably, it erased full seasons of shoes I'd watched during that 6 month timeline... but not music I'd heard, and that includes music I'd heard in the shows I couldn't remember. Losing my memory was a special kind of terrifying, but the fact I'd retained the scores of movies and that season Game of Thrones and that season of The Walking Dead, as well as a rock album I'd heard was fascinating. Hell, I didn't even remember the name of the album or the songs, but I did know the lyrics and the notes to hit when singing the songs. Human beings are fucking weird lol

[@foxhoundp9949]

@@MegaKat I wonder if that's why it affects us so much 🤔 I've been in and out of hospitals and surgery since I was 6 and on multiple occasions I sat up in ICU with tubes and such coming out of everywhere just to ask if I could listen to music. I would be so drugged up I barely remembered my mother at times but through my breathing tube I could hum the songs I wanted my mother or nurse to play and rather than the drugs given to me that could sedate and kill a man the size of the Andre the giant I could only sleep when the music was playing.

[@petraw9792]

This band probably played at school events and town festivals. Why doesn't anyone from the audience recognise them?

[@DFSJR1203]

Us oldies miss the hiss and pop of a record that you don't get with digital media. Great video Simon and Kevin. Pink Floyd Rules, SIMON.

[@generatoralignmentdevalue]

There are long white noise videos of just the pops and crackles. What if you played that in the background? Probably not the same as knowing yoyr own needle is making the noise, but it might be fun to do that with new songs and pretend that they're old.

[@DFSJR1203]

@@generatoralignmentdevalue Sounds like a good idea.

[@OneEyedWheeler]

That is exactly why vinyl is better for listening to, it has the warmth and soul that you don't get with digital. Also, for DJs, vinyl is so much more fun to mix with.

[@Sunny-jz3dy]

💯

[@nyxskids]

It hits best when it feels that the media couldn't contain the intensity the musicians put into the music

[@AllTheHappySquirrels]

In high school, I had a car with a cassette deck and a radio. Eventually, I got a CD player with a cassette adapter to play CDs in my car, which would skip every time I hit the tiniest bump in the road. Older millennials have entered the chat 😄

[@vickislominski7618]

Boomer says, "Hold my beer" while I play this 8 track!

[@angelitabecerra]

#preach

[@DivineDawn]

God I remember this

[@iWilburnYou]

1:39 "You don't have to fully understand everything to be able to believe in something" I think you just explained how religions work

[@MrfnordTim]

Or trusting experts to know what they're talking about.

[@silrana37]

Dang, you are making me feel old. I can remember relatives still using those big cabinet radios, and the TV remote was me and my brother. I've passed through the transistor revolution, the microchip revolution, Bill Cosby pitching home computers, and a professional seminar on how that new coming thing, the world wide web, would change my job.

[@erikaf4259]

Turbo Encabulator!!!!! Fantastic thank you Kevin for making my whole day

[@ThatWriterKevin]

Whenever the sequel to Deepest Internet Mysteries comes out, one of the mysteries is essentially technobabble. I had wanted to memorize the turboencabulator speech for my video with the answers, but I ran out of time.

[@and_genius9212]

Simon trying to explain cassette tapes might be the funniest things I've seen in awhile

[@neva_nyx]

I had a friend with a 70s make. He had an 8track player. He used a 8track to cassette adapter then added a cassette to cd adapter. There were wires everywhere, but we had a working cd player 🤣

[@Skullofdarkness1]

16:39 a British media presenter in the Czech Republic is momentarily confused by the mention of a British media presenter in Germany. Gotta love it.

[@ignitionfrn2223]

6:45 - Chapter 1 - The usenest post 11:10 - Chapter 2 - Then for a long time nothing happened 13:45 - Chapter 3 - A viral sensation 19:10 - Chapter 4 - Due diligence 26:25 - Wrap up 27:55 - Bonus facts

[@robertarcher4891]

people like you are the foundation of society

[@andym2612]

Cool, I guessed correctly, it was a Yamaha DX7 synthesizer used in the song. I listened to the whole song half way through watching this. The sound of that machine is the sound of my youth.

[@MrfnordTim]

I want Simon to base his new German voice on Werner Herzog!

[@maironamakesstuff]

I was thinking the exact same thing! And there's plenty of his material for Simon to listen to for inspiration - far more than for Einstein anyway lol

[@dcodygaycg]

Simon...i love all of your tangents, but the one that you went on about 2 & a half minutes in...so relatable. I love you Simon. Thank you.

[@CrudzMcKenzie]

In my head German accents are usually very angry, or very sarcastically effeminate and condescending. I know that's not accurate but I can't help it. 😂

[@gamin9wizard945]

Being a German male dude who is often being insulted by locals for having a feminine touch within my behaviour, your comment just brightened up my day by a lot. Thank you ^^>

[@AvoidTheCadaver]

I love it when Jen stops the background audio whenever Simon goes off on a tangent.

[@bradyanselmi]

Jen is very underrated in my opinion.

[@AvoidTheCadaver]

@@bradyanselmi I've heard of being overrated or underrated. Can one just be "rated"?

[@bradyanselmi]

@@AvoidTheCadaver it’s kinda like not being overwhelmed or underwhelmed. I’m just whelmed….

[@SilverionX]

@@AvoidTheCadaver Appraised or judged by some sort of standard or characteristic? Evaluated? Possibly with a score involved. Like "I rated this song three angy kittens out of eight sad chihuahuas with a fedora"

[@AvoidTheCadaver]

@@bradyanselmi You win my internet for today

[@romarqable]

Yeah. Its called Subways of Your Mind by a band named Fex. Just discovered two days ago.

[@PeachM0de]

Thank you, Kevin and Jen for making Simon famous.

[@martyrx3436]

It’s not that records sound better, it’s that they sound “warmer”. Nothing like “vinyl warmth”…

[@ssokolow]

Yeah. I remember reading that it's desirable enough that someone reverse-engineered it and now sells a VST plugin to add it to your all-digital audio production pipeline.

[@1pcfred]

It's complicated. Basically all old music was mastered to be put onto records. Then when CDs came out they just used the old master tapes. Which were mastered to be pressed on vinyl. That made those early CDs have an uneven frequency spectrum. Which is why in the mid 2000s you see all of the digitally remastered discs. They took the vinyl mastering out of the original master tapes. Though cynical people can say it was all a money grab. Which it partly was.

[@blaster-zy7xx]

Speaking of finding old cassette mix tapes, my brother-in-law was a DJ back in the 80's at the US Naval Academy. He made several tapes of his shows for my sister at the time when they were dating. It was this kind of progressive 80's music like the song in question. They eventually got married, had three kids and he went on in his military career. He died suddenly years ago. My nephews are young adults now. My sister found the old cassette tapes of their dad's radio show from the 80's and they were blown away from hearing their dad doing his DJ gig when he was younger than they are now. And they were really good shows! RIP Buzz Oshanigan.

[@420gravy4]

There is a much more mysterious song on the internet, purchased on a cassette in a Tokyo thrift store, "the Akiba Tape". And that song actually has some worth. Fun fact, Ray Parker Jr. was sued by the band whose song he stole to create Ghost Busters, Huey Lewis And The News. Ray bit their song "I Want A New Drug". There was a settlement. Ray later sued Lewis for discussing said settlement. Happy Friday 👹🎹

[@cedartheyeah.justyeah.3967]

The Akiba Tape sounds interesting. I'll look it up

[@mirandagoldstine8548]

@@cedartheyeah.justyeah.3967 Oh it is. SakuraStardust did a great breakdown video on the tap. She also did a video on a J-hip hop (Japanese hip hop) song whose singer still hasn’t been identified. I and another commenter think that song is autobiographical in nature with me thinking it could be about the stigma the singer felt as being an outsider in a xenophobic country (possibly a hafu (half-Japanese), Ainu, native Ryukyuan etc). The singer does talk about tainted blood a fair deal from what I understand and that can be a metaphor for mixed ancestry as I understand it.

[@lunacouer]

Really? "I Want A New Drug" is so generic that I think they could sue on every song ever made if that's the standard, lol. But even with these two songs, I don't hear where Parker Jr ripped them off. Well, in my head, and I can't be arsed to go look it up.

[@dedmanzombie]

@@lunacouer it was a groundbreaking case that and vanilla ice who won his case against queen for the same thing

[@lunacouer]

@@dedmanzombie Well, not really groundbreaking, since it was settled out of court and no one knew who got what, until Huey Lewis broke his confidentiality agreement on VH1's Behind The Music 17 years later. Oops, lol. But I mean it wasn't groundbreaking like the "Blurred Lines" copyright case. Anyways, I was talking about how generic "I Want a New Drug Is". I went and listened to them both, and yeah, I hear where Parker and Lewis have a similar riff. But their songs are so different that it's not a clear-cut case of "OMG, he stole it!". I listened to them both back in the day as a young teenager (over and over again, lol, because Top 40 radio's gotta make their money). I never thought "Wait, they sound the same." Unlike Vanilla Ice with Queen, lol. BTW, in looking things up, I found out Vanilla Ice didn't win his case - Queen and David Bowie did. So Ice, Ice Baby shares credits with Queen and David Bowie now. Vanilla Ice also claims he went to Brian May and bought the publishing rights to "Under Pressure" for $4 million, since it was cheaper than battling this in court. Queen's camps says that's inaccurate and that they both share publishing rights to "Under Pressure" now. 🤷‍♀

[@aprilkurtz1589]

This was a fantastic episode. I really enjoyed it! Recording on analog 2" tape machine through some nice Neve pre-amps and putting it out on a CD or vinyl beats the hell out of what comes out the backend of somebody's Reaper setup.

[@VillagerJeff]

Went to the description to see if there was a link to this song, and noticed Brain Blaze is still listed as Business Blaze 😆

[@Vordb666]

I’m pretty sure Kevin and Simon’s point with the whole analog/digital thing is you can much more readily create, store, and play a higher fidelity audio master digitally, and you’re not gonna accurately replicate that same quality listening to a vinyl record let alone rip the audio from it and get close to the original master quality unless unless you have a really good setup. That being said, vinyl is cool when the music is actually mastered for vinyl because in addition to the inherent “analog (analogue?) warmth” the audio will typically have way more dynamic range than its digital counterpart

[@rome8180]

Vinyl doesn't have more dynamic range than CDs. It has more dynamic range than mp3s, sure, because mp3s are hyper-compressed.

[@Vordb666]

@@rome8180 that's not dynamic range, that's bitrate compression, and sometimes engineers or whatever will master the vinyl master with more breathing room in the dynamic compression compared to the digital/CD masters because they know people are gonna crank up their record player anyway

[@djgeorgetsagkadopoulos]

Don't mess music production with the technical capabilities of each medium. Dynamic range is the difference between the lowest and the highest volume that can be stored (recorded) and played back from each medium. With vinyl, depending on it's press quality you could get at extreme occasions 70db of dynamic range at most. CD-DA is capable of having 96db of dynamic range. If you know anything about music, then you should also know that db is a logarithmic scale. In other words, those 26db of difference (at best case scenario) mean that CD-DA has about 10 times bigger dynamic range than vinyl. How music producers use that dynamic range is another story all together. Most modern music productions are highly compressed due to "loudness war" effect, not because CD-DA doesn't provide enough dynamic range. Which also means that the same modern music productions would also sound about the same hyper compressed $$$$ either on CD or vinyl. Finally, same rules apply to digital mediums. MP3 is not the only digital medium in the world. MP3 is a lossy format (loses part of the original information ir order to compress the size of the file). There are also lossless mediums (like FLAC) which compress the file size without loosing information or altering it at any way, and their contents can be an one by one "bit accurate" copy of the original master. These are facts. CD-DA is superior to vinyl when it comes to it's technical capabilities and fidelity. "Perceived quality" is another thing all together. And because it's "perceived" (in other words because it's more of a personal interpretation) all statements can be "correct".

[@Vordb666]

@@djgeorgetsagkadopoulos good reply

[@Nadine_8888]

I like some Pink Floyd songs. And Star Wars and LotR. And I absolutely love Simon roasting them.

[@ToreHansen]

DX-7 is the most sold digial synth soo... in Norway the story goes that two persons could program sound, the rest ended up with bells sound. Cool video!

[@apexqc04]

So I decided to do what you did and stop and listen to it. I too am one of those people who, if I've listened to a tune at some point in my life will instantly recognise it (often ratatouille memory style) if I hear it again, and as I listened to a lot of obscure Christian rock and metal music in the "tape" era thought, well, you never know. Turns out I still don't know but here's a few thoughts. The music production sounds sharper than any amateur attempts I've ever seen, even in a good studio, and especially considering it's age. The guitar work sounds decent enough, but the real mystery is the vocals, a lot of work seems to have made them sound as bad as they are, considering how nice the instrumentation is. Like there was a deliberate attempt to obscure the real person's voice. Now maybe this isn't some professional either moonlighting or trying to play a prank, but considering this is Germany and back in the cold war most communist countries didn't smile upon creative activities like this, just maybe we are hearing the last remnants of a rebellious enterprise from across the curtain. But of course I'm now gonna watch the rest of you video where you'll blow my daydream out of the water.

[@TxWIll]

It was just found

[@ishotacop]

It would be awesome to find out the artist of the song. However, I like the eeriness and the mystery. Knowing the context and how it is 'lost', I think the enduring mysterious nature makes it a million times cooler.

[@mirandagoldstine8548]

Well good news is the band has been found. And what’s even more exciting is that the band wants to re-record the song and one of the kids of a band member is hoping to talk to Rocksteady about including the song in the upcoming GTA game.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

The thing with the DX7 is, pretty much everyone used it back then, and despite the synth being programmable, nobody bothered with it and just used the factory patches. And I'm talking things as big as Europe, Rush, Peter Gabriel, Mr Mister, Madonna, Pink Floyd, a-ha, Berlin, Van Halen, Phil Collins, and more.

[@Rujewitblood]

I used to have this version of "eye of the tiger" on a cassette when I was a kid, no idea where I got it from, but i have never been able to find that version since, and I've listened through about a 100 different remixes and covers, and the worst thing is what if my memory of it is so bad, the way I remember it never existed and I'm looking for an imaginary song

[@RealElongatedMuskrat]

I remember having a similar experience with a song, it was a live version that differed in harmonies from the album or any live version I've ever heard since, and I lost the version that I had a few years ago. It's so frustrating 😂😭

[@jax4652]

Might have been a demo, remix, or cover.

[@kolpkii]

interesting, can you explain more of it in any way possible?

[@Rujewitblood]

@@kolpkii it sounded like some kind of dance remix, and it was sang by a woman. I listened to a couple of versions that I was almost sure were the one, but they all either had one thing wrong, or missed one thing. I'm not sure what the chances are that I just happened to have a version of the song that can't be found anywhere, that's why I'm kind of questioning my memory, because there have been other songs from my childhood that sounded different when I found them years later. Then there are ones that sound exactly how I remember. There is no way to know

[@melanezoe]

I listened to the whole thing. Every word. Why? I don’t even care about the topic at all. Simon, you are the best time waster on KZbin. I’ll smash the like button just for you.

[@kevinstachovak8842]

I 'liked' this video, but then heard that crack at Pink Floyd... And I had second thoughts. They had at least a few awesome songs but anyway great video as always. Anyone else remember the horror of the cassette deck eating the ribbon on your favorite mixtape?

[@ladykoiwolfe]

We know Simon's opinions on popular media are questionable at best.

[@singledad1313]

I remember those days. If the tape got too mangled to play, you would cut out the bad section of tape and VERY carefully tape the ends back together with clear Scotch tape on the backside of the ribbon.

[@ravarga4631]

Or your cute rug rat kids pulling them apart when they were suppossed to be quietly watching saturday morning cartoons while you slept in until 900 am... what?! The kids are QUIET!!! What are they doing? Arrrg!!!

[@carlmohr5460]

Any song that hits you in the feels will last with you forever.

[@owlbusdumbledork9966]

Simon is the Dollar General of KZbin. He keeps popping up in more and more places, on more and more channels. There's no stopping his spread. Simon is endemic. Simon is inevitable. Soon I will start a KZbin channel. It won't be about me or my interests. No. It won't even have me in the video. It'll be Simon. With another variety of topics and videos to cover them.

[@cotati76]

FUN FACT: Ray Parker Jr was sued by Huey Lewis because the main riff in the song Ghostbusters is the same riff as their song I Wanna New Drug. If you listen to them back to back it’s very obvious. Huey Lewis was huge back then and their music videos debuted on regular tv back then. They were events.

[@youtuberofthings1435]

This is one of the most interesting internet mysteries.

[@TheAquabears]

The Yamaha DX7 was notoriously hard to program, bordering on impossible. The variety of synthesis it used was a new concept, the controls built into the keyboard for programming it were ill defined, and learning how to make it do anything remotely custom was practically alchemy. Most artists who used it only used the presets, for this reason.

[@WildWestRosie]

I, too sat and waited to make my mix tapes after my brother got a cassette recorder back in '74. I'd listen to those tapes so much that I knew what song would come next. To this day, when I listen to "x" song, I mentally follow it up with "y" song, and I get mildly peeved when they get it wrong. Lol The other issue is particularly specific to America's Holiday album, wherein the song "Miniature" is followed by "Tin Man". I can't listen to either song separately. When I play my Spotify list on shuffle, I'll get aggravated when one or the other plays. It's a personal problem, I know.

[@robertarcher4891]

same with we will rock you and we are the champions by queen for me cannot listen to the two separately they always got to be back to back and always the same order too

[@fuseunison]

Vinyl records actually do sound MUCH better. There's just one thing. You have to play them out of a tube-based speaker system, not a solid-state circuitry based speaker system.

[@ianmacdonald9201]

The story of Sixto Rodriguez is also interesting. Made a recording in the US that was not successful moved on and was unknowingly very famous in South Africa. There's a documentary on it called "Searching for Sugar Man"

[@TheKalaxis]

Wooooo!!! Been requesting this for a while! Awesome

[@TheKalaxis]

I like that Kevin didn't go too far down the rabbit hole of bands who've falsely claimed it was them. The most nuts and yet oddly plausible being a guy called Randal Turner. He says he's the singer and it's called "Subways of your mind". However, he also claims to have been a victim of the CIA's MK ULTRA program and to have sang backing vocals on hundreds of hits over the years so who knows.....

[@fortmountaingroundpounder]

One cannot violate a copyright without the copyright owner being a known entity… by posting the full song, we might have discovered the true artist sooner

[@MissMocha]

not if the song was a mere demo

[@ruledtrendy5066]

The CD vs vinyl thing reminds me of something with my old band. Our first recording was done on basic equipment with a low budget. People really seemed to like what we achieved and the sound. Our next recording was done on "better" equipment with a higher budget. The general feedback was the songs were good but people didn't like the "better" sound

[@Estes705]

Simon needs to do an ENTIRE episode in his German accent!

[@mikeyoung9810]

I knew a guy named Sadler back in the 70's and he had recorded many reels of songs and he made mix tapes for people (for free for his fellow airmen). You just selected the songs off a list and a cassette would be yours. I can imagine him just recording off the radio for many months to acquire his collection.

[@destinyheath6583]

Man I’ve never seen someone put in so much amazing work on multiple channels. Top quality content as always Simon

[@DerptyDerptyDUM]

Love this channel & love Kevin. ✊️

[@ThatWriterKevin]

Love you too

[@DerptyDerptyDUM]

@@ThatWriterKevin 😊 Hey, y'know what? You - *you that comic shoppe dude Kevin* - your recent efforts have made life genuinely more entertaining, more informed & even perhaps more manageable for a lotttttt of people around this planet. Think about that & have a good one, man. Regards from Ohio.🤘

[@ThatWriterKevin]

@@DerptyDerptyDUM I really appreiate it, thank you!

[@jamie_ghost.johnson]

I don’t think this so will ever be solved, unless someone who related to this song. Or A part of it, I doubt it will get be close to identify it.

[@Sammy.H.Redwood]

I agree, I don’t think this song will ever be solved. Unless it’s a miracle that someone, would claim the song and revealed. Both the song and artist.

[@Rujewitblood]

It makes me think of an old song your memory changed so much, it now sounds different from the original, so you now have a song stuck in your head that doesn't actually exist

[@magic8ball1982]

Simon: "You don't have to fully understand everything to believe in something." Also Simon: "Ghosts aren't real."

[@KevinStriker]

Deferring to experts on matters of science and scientific consensus (which is what he's really talking about) is not the same as believing in ghosts. In fact, science can't conclusively prove anything to do with the supernatural, so it's perfectly reasonable to say ghosts aren't real.

[@magic8ball1982]

@@KevinStriker Someone lacks a sense of humor.

[@KevinStriker]

@@magic8ball1982 It's the internet. You never know who's serious.

[@jackgarrison8497]

@@KevinStriker Ghosts are real They are called Spys or undercover Police or FBI agents

[@ucrock]

This video has as much rambling as a B̶u̶s̶i̶n̶e̶s̶s̶ Brain Blaze video does - love it

[@the-chillian]

What a weird song. It has the curious effect on me that I could swear I'd heard it before, when I plainly haven't, and I think it's because the music itself is so generic that it sounds similar to half the music produced in the 1980s. So do the lyrics: they make me think of Duran Duran more than anyone else.

[@ProdCritic]

Essentially the reason analog "sounds better" is because more often than not, the equipment used to play it and listen to it, is all compatible with hi-def/master quality etc... audio. Unlike digital where more often than not, you might have one link in the chain that is not capable of reproducing lossless audio quality (assuming you are even playing the original quality audio & not something like spotify for example). Thats about as barebones an explanation as I can think of

[@ryanroberts1104]

Why don't you just give it up and start a new channel called Simon's Random Rambles? You can use that picture of grandpa from the Simpsons yelling at clouds as your logo.

[@nikkiewhite476]

Simon definitely think about Albert Einstein for your German accent, even go ahead listen to recordings of him to get the sound of his voice in your head! I would adore hearing you with his delicate candence. I love this show above the rest because of your honest reactions to the script. It is not only interesting, informative but funny as hell! Kevin knows how to get you to react in the best ways! Keep it up all the of you!

[@daletimmothy]

What if that 16mm film was actually footage of the band recording the mysterious song….

[@downix]

If they ever want to find out, I own a 16mm projector

[@ThatWriterKevin]

@@downix i emphatically want to know

[@downix]

@@ThatWriterKevin if I recall you're in Britain, and sadly I am along the Pacific coast, so a bit of a drive. For someone closer, I have had Gauge Film in Wolverhampton recommended to me by a few friends.

[@ThatWriterKevin]

@@downix I am not in Britain, that's Danny. And I think other writers. I'm from Boston. Still nowhere near the Pacific Coast

[@downix]

@@ThatWriterKevin Boston is easy. I usually used Play It Again in Newton for film transfer back when I lived in the area.

[@scooby45247]

we used to prank our friends by hearting music they hated.. we still do it on youtube if they forgot to sign out.. "why does my youtube keep referring to fart compilations? " tehe.. sshhh

[@kc62301]

I like specific songs, regardless of who made them or what musical genre they fall under. Some artists have produced several songs I like. Other artists have produced only one song that I like. (I thank all these artists equally for making my life more enjoyable.) Yes, if I heard a song that I liked from decades ago, I would recognize the song. I am more likely to remember the artist if that artist made several songs I like--as compared to making just one song that I liked. I am least likely to remember the official title of the song. But I will definitely recognize the song as something I heard before and enjoyed. I can often recognize songs from decades ago that I did not like...just not as often as songs that I liked. I suspect it's because I try to listen to songs I like repeatedly and because music I enjoy moves me.

[@yaeldragwyla8170]

Even so, this is a pretty good presentation of the subject. The admonition not to take wild claims too seriously is always a good principle to follow. 🙂

[@hercules5813]

But if you play it and get copyright claimed, then the mystery would be solved.

[@FM60260]

The unknown has officially been decoded, the song is "Subways of Your Mind - FEX"

[@UrbanAgent423]

My first car had a tape deck so I used that cassette to phone adapter, I then upgraded to a slightly newer car that has neither a cassette deck nor an aux port so I can't hook my phone up at all. I do know fm transmitters exists but the ones I tried were crap and I gave up

[@PopeSalty1]

"It's fine. It's not good." ...Well, they can't all be John Mayer, Simon...

[@justaguy2365]

Anyone else ever sit up late listening to any local radio stations, listening for the most bizarre shit you could hear? That was my childhood. It's how I discovered Frank Zappa and Steve Tibbetts.

[@LumiSisuSusi]

My friend was obsessed with Frank Zappa and his nose, she fancied the pants off of him. I was shocked when I saw a photo as we were 14 (2004) and he looked like he was dodging Death and his scythe, and old man time 🤣🙈.

[@mwolkove]

They played Zappa on the radio? You sure you weren't listening to Morse code?

[@justaguy2365]

@@mwolkove Like I said, it was a local radio station. They played a ton of eclectic music. Yeah they had a Frank Zappa hour sometime very late. But then it became Frank on Friday from noon to one. But yeah, that's where I've discovered a lot of the music I love.

[@TheKalaxis]

Yeah sometimes. I remember really liking one song I heard and writing down some of the lyrics. The next morning I asked my parents about it but neither of them had a clue what it was. Nor did my elder brother or my sister so I thought I'd stumbled upon something really obscure. That weekend I asked my uncle if he knew what it was and within literally seconds of seeing the lyrics I'd written, he knew that it was 'Kites' by Simon DuPree and the big sound. Not only did he know it, he even had the single on vinyl!

[@chasincara]

College radio stations were the best for that

[@whimai412]

Jen the Legend 🙌 Sprinkles in the most delicious memes 😊

[@onionshavlayr6429]

i mean if kevin was a student in the music field, he likely has a larger mental music catalog than someone not super interested in music (like simon)

[@amandarose4469]

Me shouting at the screen at 10:28. "Yes he shot a president Simon, he shot Reagan."

[@Howiesgirl]

Thanks Simon... I graduated high school in 1983, & hearing you talk about music from the 80s being "old, old, OLD" really made me glad I'm in the US, so I can easily go buy a gun & shoot my "old, old, OLD" self, LOL. God, I just turned 57... I hope I'm around long enough for Simon to be in his 50's. Curious to see how "old, old, OLD" he'll feel then, when someone 20+ years his junior frames anything from his younger days as being SO old. No matter, I still love all things Whistler!😘

[@chasincara]

He'll experience that once his kids are teenagers 😁

[@MK_Peace]

I too had 1 of those cassettes that had an aux cord to connect to a separate device.. I kinda wish I still had it, even though I do not own a cassette player of any kind these days. It was just a weird niche piece in the history of musical accessories. Sort of, but mostly unrelated: My best friend found (at a sketchy flea market, of all places) a crazy old bootleg cassette from the early to mid 90s, it was Run DMC & Biz Markie live in NYC.. I was so excited, I couldn't wait to play it!! Then we both slowly came to the realization that neither of us had any access to an antique cassette player.🤦‍♀️ We sat on his porch a while, feeling sorry for ourselves for being "so old".. then we decided to use Spotify & listen to both.. you know, the modern way.. the easy, functional way. I still have the cassette, because OFC I do..