Death by MUZAK

[whitefang]

I posted a thread like this some years back. Popular rock and pop tunes overheard in restaurants with piped in music, on elevators or while on hold given the MUZAK treatment. These lists are getting harder to compile as more and more places switch to satellite radio. Brace yourselfsome of these are scary!

 

Living in the Past At first, I thought it was the Jethro Tull version, it was that close. Until the trombone came in to cover the vocals.

 

The Cheers Theme. Wasnt that tune lame enough before MUZAK had a go at it?

 

Cats In the Cradle. The melody was nicely done by flutes. But all guitar work was replaced by a harpsichord. Alright I suppose for 1966. But not now. On the other hand

 

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. Theres plenty of harpsichord in Simon and Garfunkles original. None at all in this MUZAK version. Go figure

 

Maxwells Silver Hammer. Done Dixieland style with a trumpet, clarinet, trombone and banjo taking turns with the melody. Other instruments include a rinky-dink, clangy sounding whorehouse piano, drums and a tuba.

 

Blowin in the Wind. Try imagining Sergio Mendes and Brazil 66 doing this tune their way. I dont have to imagine it. I heard it. Youre lucky!

 

Free Man in Paris. Flutes and more harpsichord. NO guitar! With scant, Chicago style horns noodling in the background.

 

Just Too Good To Be True. Im beginning to think that the bands that record MUZAK are the only places trombonists and harpsichordists can find gigs!

Whitefang

 

[Electric Biscuit]

HOW DARE TOUCH JETHRO TULL

[Bluesape]

Years ago there was a spoof on TV with Devo's "Whip It" as the song subjected to the elevator music treatment. Don't remember the show, but the Lawrence Welk style post-menopausal female chorus line was hilarious!

[Scott Fraser]

I remember hearing a Queen tune in a supermarket several decades ago. I don't recall which, not Bohemian Rhapsody. It kind of worked as Muzak.

 

Scott Fraser

[skipclone 1]

A while ago I was getting a box lunch to go and the place was playing piped in muzak-a song came on, I don`t recall if it was VH or something that had Steve Vai originally. I amused myself by waiting for the lame

excuse for the guitar solo-but no, someone copped the original solo and did a not bad job. It sounded kind of weird against the anemic backing music but it put a smile on my face.

Another place I go for dinner sometimes, plays smooth jazz which I`m sure most of the staff is clueless about. But some of it is good, think Chuck Loeb or Hiram Bullock.

 

[p90jr]

Years ago there was a spoof on TV with Devo's "Whip It" as the song subjected to the elevator music treatment. Don't remember the show, but the Lawrence Welk style post-menopausal female chorus line was hilarious!

 

If I recall my teen years correctly, DEVO did a muzak record themselves that you could order from a form in their releases and from their fan club.

 

yep...

http://www.amazon.com/E-Z-Listening-Disc-Devo/dp/B0000009U5

 

[p90jr]

The Muzak corporation was headquartered in Seattle, and apparently employed a lot of the Seattle-area rock, punk and grunge musicians until they started automating stuff (and probably farming out recording/production stuff to people with home recording setups) in the mid-90s.

[Larryz]

Back in the day the old folks hated the Beatles (kinda like when Elvis came out)...but I found it funny to be cruze'ing down the supermarket isle and watching little old ladies rocking out while pushing their shooping carts not knowing the tunes that were playing were Beatles songs (elevater orchestral style)...

[d halfnote]

Though it's a "non-music" cliche (like disco, etc) for the past few decades, in fact Muzak Inc. started well before WW2 as an alternative to radio.

These days it's as unlikely to actually hear the sort of music described in the OP...unless one focuses on TV commersials to hear the licenced ---& often artist recreated--- versions of pop songs.

 

On the other hand there is

&

this, a curious pair of , uh, trods...but really, is

any better ?

 

Or

[skipclone 1]

IMO, hip hop is on its way to becoming muzak, with every song ever recorded rearranged by having some inner city sounding guy saying `yeah, yeah` between

verses and generic raps counting off famous label goods.

[whitefang]

Larryz had an interesting observation. For my buddy's 50th birthday, I sent him a rewrite of the lyrics to Bob Dylan's "It's All Over Now(Baby Blue). One line of it went,

"The music that the elevator plays;

Are all the songs from your old rebel days."

 

And where Dylan's song ended each verse with "It's all over now, baby blue", My ending was, "It's all over now, baby boom!" As we are both "baby boomers", I thought it was relavent for a baby boomer's 50th birthday.

Whitefang

[Larryz]

Thanks whitefang, I can only hope this concept ends before Skipclone's vision of Hip Hop muzak in the elevator comes true...

[Danzilla]

Didn't Rik Emmett get his start doing Canadian muzak? I seem to recall reading that somewhere. Thank God Triumph came along and saved him.