Did you know that Tiffany did a cover of Alphaville’s song? Weirdness.
I am currently wasting my life scouring iTunes for weird remixes. It has been highly rewarding, and highly entertaining. There are all sorts of fucked-up, genre-crossing remakes here. The ones I dig the most are the rock crossovers to hip-hop, or even better, the salsa and marimba versions.
It may be time to start myself an mp3 blog. Hmm.
Maybe I’m just being morbid. Maybe it’s because I just finished working in the ICU and watched plenty of people die and signed plenty of death certificates. Maybe it’s because I had dinner with (among others) someone who works for the medical examiner. Nothing like talking about people who died in sudden, unexpected, and often gruesome ways while having Japanese food. Maybe it’s because the track before this one was “Mad World” by Tears for Fears, which has the classic line “the dreams in which I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had,” a song that was resurrected by Gary Jules and the movie “Donnie Darko.”
But this song makes me think of dying.
Take that look of worry
I’m an ordinary man
They don’t tell me nothing
So I find out all I can
There’s a fire that’s burning
Right outside my door
I can’t see but I feel it
And it helps to keep me warm
So I, I don’t mind
No I, I don’t mindSeems so long I’ve been waiting
Still don’t know what for
There’s no point of escaping
I don’t worry anymore
I can’t come out to find you
I don’t like to go outside
They can’t turn off my feelings
Like they’re turning off a lightBut I, I don’t mind
No I, I don’t mind
Oh I, I don’t mind
No I, I don’t mind
So take, take me home
‘cause I don’t remember
Take, take me home
‘cause I don’t remember
Take, take me home
‘cause I don’t remember
Take, take me home, Oh Lord
‘cause I’ve been a prisoner all my life
And I can say to youTake that look of worry,
mine’s an ordinary life
Working when its daylight
And sleeping when its night
I’ve got no far horizons
I don’t wish upon a star
They don’t think that I listen
Oh but I know who they are
And I, I don’t mind
No I, I don’t mind
Oh I, I don’t mind
No I, I don’t mind
Seriously, though, this makes me think of someone on death’s door, sedated and paralyzed so that they don’t pull out their breathing tube, but whom the family is not ready to pull the plug on. The line “I can’t see but I feel it” is kind of eerie. The line “They can’t turn off my feelings/like they’re turning off a light” creeps me out.
The preceding lines—
Seems so long I’ve been waiting
Still don’t know what for
There’s no point of escaping
I don’t worry anymore
I can’t come out to find you
I don’t like to go outside
—totally make me think of being paralyzed and sedated despite knowing that there’s nothing that can be done to make things better. It’s simply prolonging the inevitable. Dragging out the process of dying. And for what, when they can’t get up out of bed or even wake up to talk to you?
I don’t know. Would this be an appropriate funeral song? I’ll put it in my advance directive, maybe.
A while back (in 2005) I discovered this cover album entitled ”Urban Renewal” which is basically a Hip-Hop/R&B tribute album to Phil Collins, and Malik Pendleton does a cover of this song. The artists involved are pretty interesting:
Of note, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony also used the chorus from this song, in ”Home”
Who knew Hip-Hop and R&B artists were into Phil Collins?
And in more Phil Collins-related news, there is a mashup of Phil Collins and Bloc Party—
Phil Colllins vs Bloc Party “She’s Hearing Voices in the Air Tonight”
—put together by DJ Lobsterdust. There are also a few other Bloc Party mashups on there, like with Luniz and with Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz. Bizarre. But I suppose Bloc Party is another topic entirely.
You know what would be an excellent Turing test?
Spot the fembot.
Using the ingenuity of spammers against themselves! Sweet!
The trick would be how to turn it into an algorithm so I can have a bot-proof CAPTCHA for my comment system. And maybe I can sell it to Myspace so that they can implement some kind of system where fembots couldn’t spam me every 15 minutes.