Funiculi funicula
The Jam are selling Cadillacs. With their song Start. Which itself, despite words to the contrary, is a essentially a repurposed version of the Beatles song Tax man. They may be trying to get you to consider that: "what you give is what you get". I have that song as a 7" single, it came out in 1980, b-side is "when you're young." I reported in error a month ago the Fall are selling Subaru's with the song Blindness. On closer examination they are selling Mitsubishis.
The Decemberists were selling funiculas, a couple of records ago, with the song "a song for Myla Goldberg" Which brings up the point - What the heck is a funicula? It is a cable railway that goes up a steep hill. One car goes up as another comes down (it's a matter of balance). Like the one built to go up Mt. Versuvius which inspired Peppino Turco to write the poem Funiculi Funicula and have it set to music in 1880. I think one of these Funicula things plays a part in Arthur Phillips' novel Prague, (which takes place in Budapest). After Monday dj, Liz Berg, on WFMU played a version of this song
Liz Berg's Playlist WFMU Monday, 16 April 2007. I had the sudden urge to put paper to pen and spell out Eliza. Or email to Liz, and say I though the refrain of her funiculi song turns up in a Decemberists' song: "It comes around, it comes around, it comes around. Funiculi, Funicula. Funiculi, Funicula..." She emailed back with the Wikipedia entry on
Funiculi, Funicula. Its nice when things have a good story about them. [addendum 23Apr07: This last Monday she played a song by a band called "Big Fun" which would seem to be an obvious reference to the movie Heathers - a band Big Fun and their song Teenage Suicide (don't do it ) being a running joke in that movie. I knew a guy in college who since he had a band, wrote a song called Teenage Suicide, but he was also reading a biography of Sammy Davis jr at the same time so it came out rather oddly. 24Apr07: Heard on a WZBC show Gulls Window Circus Sammy Davis jr's theme from the tv show Baretta: "Don't roll the dice if you can't pay the price (don't do it)]
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