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Help me remember the name of a song - 80s alternative

CambiataCambiata Commander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered User regular
Ok this has been driving me crazy. I remember a song I used to listen to a lot as a very young girl, but I can't remember the band, song title, or even very many of the lyrics.

What I remember was that the song listed a bunch of really old TV shows - I particularly remember My Mother the Car and Mayberry RFD, because while I watched Nick at Nite religiously as a youngster, these shows were not on TV so I had no idea what they were about and found the titles curious.

So the one line of lyrics I remember is, I think (done in a declaimatory way and not really "sung"):

"My Mother the Car. Mayberry RFD. Lassie."

I might have got the order wrong, and I know there were a whole lot more TV shows listed during the song. The chorus is sung but I can't remember any part of it.

Anyone know?

"excuse my French
But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
- Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"

Posts

  • TalonSETalonSE Registered User regular
    This likely isn't the right answer but the song that came immediately to mind was TV Party by Black Flag. The shows they mention in the song were changed over the years although I can find no evidence that the shows you mentioned were ever used. Also, they were a hardcore punk band so it seems unlikely you would have been listening to them as a kid.

  • EsseeEssee The pinkest of hair. Victoria, BCRegistered User regular
    Well the mention of Mayberry RFD and various other TV shows immediately reminded me of Weird Al's Syndicated Inc., but your description of the song doesn't sound like it and the other shows listed are definitely not in the song... so I'm probably wrong. Here's the song anyway (hey, worst case scenario, it's still a great song from one of his greatest albums):
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evQpa71DotE

  • CambiataCambiata Commander Shepard The likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered User regular
    Hmm, good guesses but it's definitely not either of those. Bad Hair Day in particular is a little too late (year-wise)

    Black Flag is the correct era but that's the wrong song.

    The mention of Weird Al makes me think it's a possiblity that it might actually be a Weird Al song.

    "excuse my French
    But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
    - Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
  • CambiataCambiata Commander Shepard The likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered User regular
    edited June 2013
    The irritating thing is trying to google "80s song my mother the car" or "80s punk song my mother the car" or any variation I can think of always seems to lead to results about TV show theme songs which is not what I'm looking for.

    I tried looking through Weird Al's older albums but didn't see anything that fit.

    Dunno if this will help or make it harder, but the stuff I listened to as a kid was They Might Be Giants, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Book of Love, and Weird Al and and second hand (from my siblings) I would hear songs by The Smiths, The Dead Milkmen, Violent Femmes, The Dead Kennedys, PIL, Depeche Mode, The Clash and other such groups without ever having their albums myself to memorize the titles. I'm thinking this is almost certainly a song I heard second-hand, and I never knew all the groups my siblings were fans of. But as I said, it could easily have been a Weird Al song instead.

    Cambiata on
    "excuse my French
    But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
    - Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
  • NocrenNocren Lt Futz, Back in Action North CarolinaRegistered User regular
    Well, Al did Syndicated Inc (a parody of Frustrated Inc by Soul Asylum), and also did the Brady Bunch (parody of Safety Dance by Men Without Hats)

    newSig.jpg
  • CambiataCambiata Commander Shepard The likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered User regular
    Nah, it's not either of those. I've searched the back catalog of a bunch of artists and had no luck seeing anything that looked like it.

    Doing google searches trigged the memory that "Petticoat Junction" was one of the TV shows listed in the song, though.

    "excuse my French
    But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
    - Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
  • XaquinXaquin Right behind you!Registered User regular
    Cambiata wrote: »
    Nah, it's not either of those. I've searched the back catalog of a bunch of artists and had no luck seeing anything that looked like it.

    Doing google searches trigged the memory that "Petticoat Junction" was one of the TV shows listed in the song, though.

    do you remember if these were sung or was it spoken word over music?

    Skid Roper maybe?

  • CambiataCambiata Commander Shepard The likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered User regular
    edited June 2013
    Xaquin wrote: »
    Cambiata wrote: »
    Nah, it's not either of those. I've searched the back catalog of a bunch of artists and had no luck seeing anything that looked like it.

    Doing google searches trigged the memory that "Petticoat Junction" was one of the TV shows listed in the song, though.

    do you remember if these were sung or was it spoken word over music?

    There was music behind the entire song, but when the TV shows are listed the singer is a little bit "monotone", they're mostly spoken but slightly sung (I don't know how else to describe it). When the Chorus comes up it is fully sung but I don't remember any part of the chorus. The monotone parts made me wonder if it might be a King Missile song but nothing in their catalog looks right.

    Dunno who Skid Roper is, but I'll use it for more google inquiries.

    Cambiata on
    "excuse my French
    But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
    - Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
  • NocrenNocren Lt Futz, Back in Action North CarolinaRegistered User regular
    Could it have just been a nick at night ad they played a lot?

    Some of them were pretty catchy...

    newSig.jpg
  • CambiataCambiata Commander Shepard The likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered User regular
    Nocren wrote: »
    Could it have just been a nick at night ad they played a lot?

    Some of them were pretty catchy...

    No, because there were too many titles listed that Nick at Nite didn't have at the time.

    "excuse my French
    But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
    - Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
  • CambiataCambiata Commander Shepard The likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered User regular
    edited March 2022
    Ya'll I know this is a very old thread but after years of trying to remember I FINALLY FIGURED IT OUT. Strangly it wasn't the song itself that made me remember the group, it was another song by the same group. I was in my car on the way home after a short errand, and I past a street called "Annette" which reminded me of the name Annette Funicello. Since I was alone in the car, as I often do I made up a song and started singing it about Annette Funicello. Then I remembered a song that had a lyric about her, and sang it, too:
    Frankie and Annette are at it
    They're squabbling again
    If anyone can bring them together
    Invisible Cindy can

    She's the ghost in a bikini
    Ghost in a bikini
    She's the ghost in a bikini
    Ooh a oh

    Then I was like WAIT, that's the group that sang that song about "My Mother the Car"! Their sound in my memory is unmistakable! So I looked them up on Google and found the Ghost in a Bikini song and the group is called The Judys:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJsoxd4gXo8

    This video didn't help me with the album name, but the group was obscure enough that I was able to find the song associated with the lyrics - it was called Rerun. I was unable to find any Youtube upload with only that song, but I found an upload of the entire album, which is great because I'm sure it was the entire album I used to listen to on repeat as a kid! It's called Washarama:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXzaT_Z0FDY

    Rerun starts at 8:33. The lyrics to the song in question are incredibly simplistic:
    My Mother the Car
    Hazel
    Leave It to Beaver
    Gilligan's Island

    These are the shows that
    We spent twelve years of our lives on
    Rerun

    My Favorite Martian
    Brady Bunch
    My Three Sons
    Mr. Ed

    These are the shows that
    We know all of the words to
    Rerun
    Rerun
    Rerun
    Rerun

    Petticoat Junction
    Andy Griffith
    Maybury Rd
    Lassie
    These are the shows that
    We know all of the plots to
    Rerun
    Rerun
    Rerun
    Rerun

    Rerun
    Rerun
    Rerun

    I want to post this in case some other poor soul who was a small child during New Wave music was desperately trying to remember this group!

    On thing that I find a little interesting is that I do remember the lyric being "Mayberry RD" but when I later learned about what show they were talking about, I saw it was actually called "Mayberry RFD", so for a long time I thought I just misremembered the lyric, when in fact it was written into the song that way.

    Edit: Also, literally every other song on the album is so much better than Rerun, I have no idea how I didn't remember the rest of them before now. The song before Rerun is T.V. and now that I'm listening to it I remember it, but if I'd just remembered it earlier I could have found the group! It's crazy to me that Rerun is the one and only song my brain would dredge up when I tried to find this band!

    Cambiata on
    "excuse my French
    But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
    - Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
  • RingoRingo He/Him a distinct lack of substanceRegistered User regular
    You were clearly just experiencing a rerun
    https://youtu.be/SRoP4AN-cN4

  • CambiataCambiata Commander Shepard The likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered User regular
    Ha, to be clear, I wanted to know this band because I wanted to listen to the songs again, not because I had an earworm.

    And some of these songs are absolute bangers.

    For example, Wilma A-Go-Go:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9md2RXfx84

    Mental Obsession:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ykzyAvxQMk

    And the song I had no idea what it meant as a 8 yr old, Guyana Punch:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhq3O2JGoYc

    (it's about Jonestown)

    "excuse my French
    But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
    - Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
  • HappylilElfHappylilElf Registered User regular
    Cambiata wrote: »
    Ya'll I know this is a very old thread but after years of trying to remember I FINALLY FIGURED IT OUT. Strangly it wasn't the song itself that made me remember the group, it was another song by the same group. I was in my car on the way home after a short errand, and I past a street called "Annette" which reminded me of the name Annette Funicello. Since I was alone in the car, as I often do I made up a song and started singing it about Annette Funicello. Then I remembered a song that had a lyric about her, and sang it, too:
    Frankie and Annette are at it
    They're squabbling again
    If anyone can bring them together
    Invisible Cindy can

    She's the ghost in a bikini
    Ghost in a bikini
    She's the ghost in a bikini
    Ooh a oh

    Then I was like WAIT, that's the group that sang that song about "My Mother the Car"! Their sound in my memory is unmistakable! So I looked them up on Google and found the Ghost in a Bikini song and the group is called The Judys:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJsoxd4gXo8

    This video didn't help me with the album name, but the group was obscure enough that I was able to find the song associated with the lyrics - it was called Rerun. I was unable to find any Youtube upload with only that song, but I found an upload of the entire album, which is great because I'm sure it was the entire album I used to listen to on repeat as a kid! It's called Washarama:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXzaT_Z0FDY

    Rerun starts at 8:33. The lyrics to the song in question are incredibly simplistic:
    My Mother the Car
    Hazel
    Leave It to Beaver
    Gilligan's Island

    These are the shows that
    We spent twelve years of our lives on
    Rerun

    My Favorite Martian
    Brady Bunch
    My Three Sons
    Mr. Ed

    These are the shows that
    We know all of the words to
    Rerun
    Rerun
    Rerun
    Rerun

    Petticoat Junction
    Andy Griffith
    Maybury Rd
    Lassie
    These are the shows that
    We know all of the plots to
    Rerun
    Rerun
    Rerun
    Rerun

    Rerun
    Rerun
    Rerun

    I want to post this in case some other poor soul who was a small child during New Wave music was desperately trying to remember this group!

    On thing that I find a little interesting is that I do remember the lyric being "Mayberry RD" but when I later learned about what show they were talking about, I saw it was actually called "Mayberry RFD", so for a long time I thought I just misremembered the lyric, when in fact it was written into the song that way.

    Edit: Also, literally every other song on the album is so much better than Rerun, I have no idea how I didn't remember the rest of them before now. The song before Rerun is T.V. and now that I'm listening to it I remember it, but if I'd just remembered it earlier I could have found the group! It's crazy to me that Rerun is the one and only song my brain would dredge up when I tried to find this band!

    Listening to the full album and frankly this is so 80s that I'm having trouble even processing it.

  • CambiataCambiata Commander Shepard The likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered User regular
    edited March 2022
    Cambiata wrote: »
    Ya'll I know this is a very old thread but after years of trying to remember I FINALLY FIGURED IT OUT. Strangly it wasn't the song itself that made me remember the group, it was another song by the same group. I was in my car on the way home after a short errand, and I past a street called "Annette" which reminded me of the name Annette Funicello. Since I was alone in the car, as I often do I made up a song and started singing it about Annette Funicello. Then I remembered a song that had a lyric about her, and sang it, too:
    Frankie and Annette are at it
    They're squabbling again
    If anyone can bring them together
    Invisible Cindy can

    She's the ghost in a bikini
    Ghost in a bikini
    She's the ghost in a bikini
    Ooh a oh

    Then I was like WAIT, that's the group that sang that song about "My Mother the Car"! Their sound in my memory is unmistakable! So I looked them up on Google and found the Ghost in a Bikini song and the group is called The Judys:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJsoxd4gXo8

    This video didn't help me with the album name, but the group was obscure enough that I was able to find the song associated with the lyrics - it was called Rerun. I was unable to find any Youtube upload with only that song, but I found an upload of the entire album, which is great because I'm sure it was the entire album I used to listen to on repeat as a kid! It's called Washarama:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXzaT_Z0FDY

    Rerun starts at 8:33. The lyrics to the song in question are incredibly simplistic:
    My Mother the Car
    Hazel
    Leave It to Beaver
    Gilligan's Island

    These are the shows that
    We spent twelve years of our lives on
    Rerun

    My Favorite Martian
    Brady Bunch
    My Three Sons
    Mr. Ed

    These are the shows that
    We know all of the words to
    Rerun
    Rerun
    Rerun
    Rerun

    Petticoat Junction
    Andy Griffith
    Maybury Rd
    Lassie
    These are the shows that
    We know all of the plots to
    Rerun
    Rerun
    Rerun
    Rerun

    Rerun
    Rerun
    Rerun

    I want to post this in case some other poor soul who was a small child during New Wave music was desperately trying to remember this group!

    On thing that I find a little interesting is that I do remember the lyric being "Mayberry RD" but when I later learned about what show they were talking about, I saw it was actually called "Mayberry RFD", so for a long time I thought I just misremembered the lyric, when in fact it was written into the song that way.

    Edit: Also, literally every other song on the album is so much better than Rerun, I have no idea how I didn't remember the rest of them before now. The song before Rerun is T.V. and now that I'm listening to it I remember it, but if I'd just remembered it earlier I could have found the group! It's crazy to me that Rerun is the one and only song my brain would dredge up when I tried to find this band!

    Listening to the full album and frankly this is so 80s that I'm having trouble even processing it.

    But in a good way?

    Also I remembered that the tape I used to listen to had a copy of two Judys albums on it, and the second one was The Moo Album:

    https://youtu.be/FlW3huKLDoU

    This one also has a lot of bangers, Ghost in a Bikini among them.

    Cambiata on
    "excuse my French
    But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
    - Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
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