A patron at Green Mill was wise enough to call many of the following instances “random.”
But when it comes to what’s on the jukebox, or radio, or both, there can be a repetition of songs that’s straight out of the Twilight Zone. When you get to the depths of the tens of thousands of titles available, and they come up at the same time, maybe there indeed is something cosmic.
Around the time of a recent area show, Motley Crue’s Girls, Girls, Girls was played at the same time on both KQRS and 93X, with the trademark refrain being in sync between the two stations right down to the word.
A bit off the subject, but still worthy of “note.” When the first note to Man in the Box by Alice In Chains was played by Jeff Loven in his nightly “name that tune” contest, a friend noted he thought for a long time the title was really Magnavox. That guess, of course, did not win him the Matchbox car that’s given away, but he said in his defense that they both do come in a box. Less understandable is his initial belief that Metallica’s Master of Puppets was actually Puppetmaster. But maybe he got it from his mom, who once asked him about the early pop group Mister Mister, “what’s that song by Man, Man?”
The jukebox at Dick’s Bar and Grill has pumped out several consecutive songs, and maybe even an entire album side, by the likes of, one at a time now, Iron Maiden, the late Ronnie James Dio and even Slayer. But perhaps the most unusual was the two-in-a-row of the tune Mother by Danzig — the studio song immediately followed by the live version. Then that was followed by Danzig’s lost marvel Twist of Cain.
At that same venue, a patron was having difficulty with the jukebox getting an obscure version of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway” to “come up.” Meanwhile, a guy loudly suggested Strangehold by Ted Nugent, and it did indeed pop up on the jukebox. To which another patron danced in place and hooted as a possible song title correction, that it was actually Dancing Fool by Frank Zappa? Who’s the fool now?
But why the Stranglehold reference? Later, a new band out of Detroit dubbed “the Devils” had their first hit followed by another screamer by, who else, the Motor City Madman himself.
Going back a ways, the band Kickstart played Queen’s Another One Bites the Dust as I left Dibbo’s, and it was redone minutes later as the first song on the jukebox at my arrival at the Village Inn in North Hudson.
Then, in of all things my dream — or would you say nightmare? — the song Bark at the Moon by Ozzy was played and stuck in my head most of the day. Guess what was the first song on the jukebox that night?
Other songs that I’ve heard back to back, first on the jukebox then right away on the radio when leaving Guv’s Place in Houlton, include Once Bitten, Twice Shy by Great White — this happening ironically on two different occasions — and Kashmir by Led Zeppelin, which lasted me all the way back to North Hudson.
There are obscure cover songs to be heard, as well, such as Johnny Cash doing Soundgarden’s Rusty Cage, and Kid Rock’s version of Feel Like Makin’s Love, originally done by Bad Company. That actually puts him in good company, as does a rendition of a similarly-styled song by Molly Hatchet.
Not a repetition of what was played, but a song title I found humorous because of its “overkill,” was Motorhead’s Killed by Death. As far as obscurity, this song was second only to another played at Guv’s, that being the live version of The Crunge by — do we see a trend here? — Led Zeppelin.
To end this post, we must go back to Loven. He put together a diddy with Stairway to Heaven’s instrumental and Gilligan’s Island’s lyrics, but not to be outdone, there was a rap song played at Guv’s — with again, just a few minute gap in-between — that did the same thing by incorporating the words to the Beverly Hillbilly’s theme song.
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