By: Sean [2002-05-17]

A Sad Cry For Help

Please help me identify this song

As we all know, we likes to have the contests 'round here at thingsihate.org. We loves to give away the prizes, oh the prizes...

...oh, uh, I haven't forgotten about you, by the way, alptraum. I'm right on top of getting your prize to you.

Anyway, yes, the prizes, the glamorous glories t-shirts and edibles and...

...yeah, Jonas... I'm still working on finding vendors of farm-fresh rabbit meat in your area. Lou has verified that he's got it in his neck of the woods. If I didn't think it'd melt and spoil in the mail, maybe I'd... well, uh, maybe Lou can provide us with the going rate of farm-fresh rabbit meat these days, and I can send you a cash-equivalent.

Anyway, ... ok, let's get down to brass tacks. I heard a snippet of a song, and it's driving me crazy. I have to know what it is. Let me tell you the story:

Not long ago, I was with my family. We were driving, from Alameda, California, to Medford, Oregon. A seven-hour drive. I was in the passenger-side seat, and as I am wont to do on long car rides, I got sleepy.

There I was, on the long stretch of US Interstate 5, somewhere in northern California, in that dreamy-state between sleep and wakefulness, and there was a song on the radio.

Here's where the distinction between dreams and reality get blurred. You see, I'm not sure how much of this song I was hearing and how much I was dreaming, or if I even heard it at all. But what I remember goes something like this:

It was a funky little number. The quality of the recording indicated that it was most likely recorded sometime in the 60s or 70s. It had a horn section, and some funk guitar played by an individual that had the kind of soul that most of us can only dream about. All I can remember of the words is that the singer kept repeating "Tell me what the name of your casino is! Tell me what the name of your casino is!"

It's a safe bet that I dreamed those lyrics. But there was also a haunting riff played over and over by the horn section, and since that day I've been unable to get it out of my head. In the hopes that someone can help me identify this song, I've recorded a very short recording of that horn riff, reproduced by myself on my badly-tuned synthesizer.

DOWNLOAD THE MYSTERY SONG.

I know, it's a sad, sad reproduction, but if anyone can help me identify this song, I promise them big big things. Big bit 99% cotton 1% "other fiber" things that just might bear the likeness of Petey and "thingsihate.org" emblazoned across the front in impact font.

Or anything else. Name your price, just tell me what the song is!
[2002-05-17 00:38:07] twins
I'll be back in a jiffy!
Uhm try... [2002-05-17 01:15:25] Andrew
Casino City - Parka Kings featuring the Reuben Sandwich Horns

I only managed to get the first 3 seconds of the song at work because of our firewall, but it has a similar kind of beat just a tad slower.

Besides they sounds cool anyway
Its not the one but its great in a cheese sort of way [2002-05-17 01:25:17] Andrew
herb alpert & the tijuana brass - casino royale
Tune [2002-05-17 01:59:53] Jacques Kitsch
From the intro or riff, I dunno; but I have a feeling that it might be found on one of the misunderstood lyrics sites. I think that you subconsciously wanted to go to Vegas. Or it might be from "Won't You Roll Your Fuzzy Dice Across the Crap Table of My Heart" Ted Nugent cooked rabbit meat on the David Letterman last night, and I thought of Petey.
[2002-05-17 05:57:27] andy
school, thats where i be
boredom is all that i see
the sercuirity guards name is lee
he yells at me when i go in the hallway
..to pee
continuing support of tshirts [2002-05-17 06:48:26] Danielle
Yes, I just wanted to let everyone know that the quality of the tshirts is BEYOND COMPARE. Best shirt ever.
love always,
Danielle
rampant materialism [2002-05-17 06:58:56] posthumous
why don't you use cafepress.com and sell t-shirts?
misunderstood lyrics [2002-05-17 08:08:26] alptraum
maybe they were saying:
"Tommy went Da Nang, offshore Cats see no Wiz"

which would make it some sort of vietnam commentary couched in references to broadway musicals. makes perfect sense to me.
Miss Saigon [2002-05-17 08:46:50] Jacques Kitsch
Yeah, it could be from "Miss Saigon". One of the Blues Brothers songs has a horn intro sort of like that, but no lyrics anywhere close. From the intro, I would guess some sort of MoTown tune.
Bleh Parka Kings ... [2002-05-17 09:23:15] Andrew
.. Were just not what I expected at all, so we can strike that one off the list.
Parka Kings [2002-05-17 12:49:38] Jacques Kitsch
I think that I saw that movie, "The Parka Kings Sing Songs of Love." It was about a bunch of Latino guys in New York City who worked in a meat factory and wore king-sized XXL parkas, and they started a Mambo-Rhumba-Salsa-Merengue-Cholo-Narcocorrido-Ranchero-TexMex-Caribe band that played for street fairs like the Pachinko de Mayo and Conchita Rodriguez' Quince Aņos Party.
Reserved Parka Space [2002-05-17 13:36:25] posthumous
my ex-mother-in-law designed the costumes.
South of the Border [2002-05-17 20:01:30] Jacques Kitsch
They were South Parka kind of guys.
Eyes on the prize [2002-05-17 20:16:08] Jonas
I would gladly accept just about anything else in lieu. I lost the Battle of Maldon! *Kicks self*
A prize of eyes [2002-05-18 13:45:20] Jonas
I found the Battle of Maldon! It was hidden in a pile of school records. *Bandages self*
Karl Malden's Nose [2002-05-18 14:43:28] Jacques Kitsch
I found Karl Malden's nose on the counter at the diner.
it's sunday [2002-05-19 11:29:36] pithymood
where's the comic?
Yeah! [2002-05-19 13:17:38] Jacques Kitsch
That's not funny, the non-comic part!
Screw That [2002-05-19 15:37:49] Pop
Screw that, Sean; does anyone out there know "The New Shoes Song"?

When I went to kindergarten in the mid-1950s in Redondo Beach, California, we would all sing "The New Shoes Song" whenever anyone came to school wearing new shoes. The proud new-shoes-wearer would meanwhile walk around his seated confreres, displaying the recently purchased footwear.

No, I don't remember any of the lyrics or melody. But I'd like to.

Now THAT's a song worth pursuing.
Shoe Songs [2002-05-19 17:00:08] Jacques Kitsch
A Bear in Tennis Shoes
Betty Lou's got a new pair of shoes - Bobby Freeman
A NICE PAIR OF SHOES by Duncan Wells
I Bought the Shoes that Just Walked Out on Me
If I Were In Your Shoes, I'd Walk Right Back To Me
She Can Put Her Shoes Under My Bed Anytime
The Christmas Shoes
OK, I've never posted before... [2002-05-20 13:10:42] AD
...but I also have a song that has been ripping ass in my head for, oh, like 6 or 7 years now. It's around 20 minutes long, consisting only (or mainly) of a man humming this haunting lullaby-like melody. There may be some ambient noises / conversations floating in and out of the background.. I heard the song once or twice on Fordham radio NYC in (I believe) 1996. Ooooh, the title or author is something like "Tachtonis" (sp?) but I haven't been able to discover anything else about it or find it in the stores (which is the obvious goal here)...

Sorry everyone, please resume your discussions. And no Sean, I don't know what song that is... I'm also sorry for that and I feel your pain.
'mystery song' [2002-07-03 09:09:09] matt conway
--here it is..July 3rd and I'm wondering if you ever found out what this song is. By the sound of the audio it seems oddly familiar to me as well;the intro reminiscent of something Wilson Pickett or Otis Redding would do...so maybe this tune is a sixties' thing? If it is I'm almost sure it is from the Stax/Volt catalogue or possibly the great Atlantic 'soul' era. With the lyrics (imagined or otherwise) it could be something James Brown did. Anyway, now you've created a problem for me as the 'badly tuned synth' riffage is now in my head. Just the same,rest assured I will be on the case going through my own archives until this matter is resolved.
AD [2003-03-03 10:40:00] Cocheese
AD your song probably is "Return to Innocence" by Enya of all people!
You're mysterious song [2006-02-22 07:07:28] Kevin
I appreciate your incredibly monumental search for a song that has been stuck in your mind for years. So far, however, you have only asked fellow music clan members. You should consider asking the musical generation that precedes your own. They were there when what we consider to be mundane was revolutionary. I love and admire the ongoing, perplexing search for that one riff, that one loop, that one refrain that has become a staple of our musical conquest. I have found repeatedly, that we will more than likely find the answers to our queries in tiny little musical references we never, ever expected to encounter. Whether it's listening to the radio on some random night, or hearing someone hint at the reference we are looking for, or going to the bathroom at IHOP one night, and hearing a muzac version of the song we're looking for...When we find these songs that haunt our reminiscense, it always, ALWAYS, feels amazing. Like finding that one crush you had in High School, and realizing that they have been looking for you the whole time. It's an amazing feeling. I hope you find, or have found your musical conquest. Music often times can define who we were. And if we don't have a reference point, it will leave us alone, suffering.
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