The Whistling Song; Meat Puppets

"The Whistling Song" by Meat Puppets is one of the most known songs with whistling in the music. It took one and a half year for me to post it because the band's name reminds me The Muppets and I thought it was just one childish song... LOL. Wikipedia says that "they settled on the name Meat Puppets in June, 1980 after a song by Curt of the same name which appears on their first album, the title of which was derived from a cartoon by B. Kliban."

The band's second album is "Meat Puppets II", 1984. According (again) to Wikipedia "the final track 'The Whistling Song' was taken as the title of Stephen Beachy's first novel."

And this is it.

It's a shadow in the doorThe silver in the park
It's a broken faded bird
You've learned to call your heart
It's hotter than you can seek
Plainer than you or me
I don't pull the lock back
And I dont have the key

It's a poor living room
Just above the dock
Wish those wild hens there
Feathers drip from every corner
It shows the spectacle of falling
And settles to the floor
It shows the spectacle of falling
and settles to the floor

Jam; Sonata Arctica

Sonata Arctica are a Finnish power metal band from the town of Kemi, originally assembled in 1995. Their later works (most notably The Days of Grays, Unia and a few tracks on Reckoning Night) contain several elements typical of progressive metal.

In early 2004, the band was chosen as the opener for Iron Maiden's Japanese tour. Additionally, Tommy Portimo became a father; his wife gave birth to a baby girl in March. Reckoning Night was recorded in three months and released in October. Both the single and the EP of this release remained on the top of the Finnish charts simultaneously for over six weeks. A promotional tour was to follow, but Sonata Arctica was invited by the popular Nightwish to join their European tour, and thus made a change of plans. The concerts that followed were played for audiences of over ten thousand people.

In early 2005, Nightwish invited the band to open the concerts of their North American tour. This tour eventually got cancelled, but the members of Sonata Arctica opted to still make a short tour, playing concerts in Canada and in the USA. And before, Sonata opened a big Nightwish's show at the Hartwall Areena, Helsinki, on October 21, 2005.¹

Reckoning Night is the fourth full-length studio album by the Finnish power metal band Sonata Arctica, as well as the first to feature keyboardist Henrik Klingenberg.

The hidden track "Jam" is on all albums, but is often mistaken for the Japanese/Korean-only bonus track "Wrecking the Sphere". "Jam" is a jammed Flamenco-style tune (as the name implies) and is significantly shorter than "Wrecking the Sphere", which is a typical song.²

Best flamenco, mitä?
Best flamenco is very good. Se oli siellä hotelliaulassa

Missä on Paasikoski? Ei näy miestä?
Missä on Marko?
Se on vieläkin hukassa sen aprillipilan jäljiltä.
Ei tähän biisiin tuu bassoa kuitenkaan
Naurua
Ei tullut koskettimiakaan
No no...
Ei, alotetaan. Vittu kun mua jännittää
Ihan rauhassa vaan.

Hey! Hey! Intro.
Hey! woo! Wohoo! Allright!
Älä saatana hajota sitä!

The Whistler and his Dog; Arthur Pryor

Dear Sir;

I don't know if you can help me, but it goes.
I am sixty-two years old, and when I was young, ( single digits ), I heard a song that was 100% whistling. My mother, who is now passed away, told me the song's name was, "A boy, and his dog."
I believe that I heard this song while watching "The Little Rascals." You know, "Spanky, and the Gang."
Anyway, try as I may, I can't find it anywhere on the net. I found your site by accident, and thought I'd give it a shot.

Thank You for your time.

---

Hello mr.,

I'm twenty-four years old, so it was very difficult for me to look for the song. I only knew "The Little Rascals" because of the 1994 remake, so these short films by "Our Gang" were a new world for me.

Well, I don't know if the song I'm sending to you is the song you want to listen to, but it was the only one that fits in the tips you gave me. The song is called "The Whistler and his Dog", it was composed by Arthur Pryor in 1905 and according to this website it was whistled by Buckwheat "while [he] pretends to be the whistler on the record."

I'll send you some videos and if it's the whistling song you are looking for, please let me know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zmWpo9RMaU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk1n2Df701M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnfeZuEvPH8

Salut!

---

GUSTAVO!!

YOU ARE A GENIUS!!
I have been looking for this song for a long time, but under completely different names.
"A dog, and his boy." "A boy, and his dog." "The boy, and his whistling dog." "The boy who whistles, but his dog doesn't."
Anyway, I just thought I'd take a chance with you, and it paid off.
Thank you so very much for your time
You know, when I watched those videos you suggested, I couldn't help laughing out loud.
It was such a joy to recall some of my favorite childhood memories.
So, thank you again for your help.
And may you have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Sincerely.

---

That's the entire reason of this blog. =)

Sur le Plafond; Mansfield.TYA

"Sur le Plafond" by Mansfield.TYA is a whistling song nominated by an anonymous visitor and I must thank him or her for the tip.

I don't find the lyrics nor much information about this French duo formed by Julia Lanoë and Carla Pallone.* Mansfield.TYA seems to be Carla Pallone's secondary musical project, since she also sings with the band Sexy Sushi.

This song was released in the 2009 album called "Seules au bout de 23 secondes". "Sur le Plafond" means "on the ceiling" and that's all I know about it. Its video is kind of funny and sadly weird. Just like the song.

Touching the President; Tall T & the Touchers

Yeah! That's a really hard song to discover things about it. I couldn't find any lyrics and I only could understand the "ahn ahn, you know" verse.

"Touching the President" seems to have been released in the 2003 collectanea called Rare Grooves Reggae, as you can check in Amazon. Another Amazon's page shows that this song was released in another album, but in the same year, called 600% Dynamite. So it makes me think that Tall T didn't release it in an album of his own.

So who is Tall T & the Touchers? It is a Jamaican reggae/ska band and that's all I know about it. hahaha

The "BIG MAN" Still Standing; Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra

Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra " is a Japanese ska and jazz band officially formed in 1988 by the percussionist Asa-Chang, and initially composed of over 10 veterans of Tokyo's underground scene. At the time, the band's sound was unlike that of any of its contemporaries in the then fledgling Japanese ska scene, and over the course of the past 21 years, their innovation has proved to have been very influential on Japanese music as a whole. Its sound, the product of the musical influences of its numerous members, is an eclectic mix of traditional ska, jazz, and rock."

Full-Tension Beaters is the ninth album by the skaband released in 2000*. The sixth song of this album is the whistling instrumental song of today. ^^

Felicidade; Marcelo Jeneci

I spent my vacation last month at the beach. The setlist in my MP3Player was all blue: Cat Power, Belle and Sebastian, Béla Bartók, etc. except for this sunny album released last month too: "Feito para Acabar" by Marcelo Jeneci.

It was a good surprise to be walking in the sand and suddenly start to hear songs that speak about the sea, the rain, the beach, the love, the wedding, the laugh, the hapinness... by the way, "Felicidade" means "happiness" in Portuguese.

Jeneci is a Brazilian MPB singer and composer. I think he managed, with his songs, to show what means MPB today. Or what should mean. I discovered Jeneci reading this entry on the music blog Rock'n'Beats. Here and here Portuguese readers can find better reviews than mine.

I think Marcelo Jeneci himself whistles here, like you can see below in the video, I don't know; but I'm sure that the whistling is very catchy!

Jeneci and Laura Lavieri

Haverá um dia em que você não haverá de ser feliz.
Sem tirar o ar, sem se mexer, sem desejar como antes sempre quis.
Você vai rir, sem perceber, felicidade é só questão de ser.
Quando chover, deixar molhar pra receber o sol quando voltar.
Lembrará os dias que você deixou passar sem ver a luz.
Se chorar, chorar é vão porque os dias hão pra nunca mais.

Melhor viver, meu bem, pois há um lugar em que o sol brilha pra você.
Chorar, sorrir também e depois dançar, na chuva quando a chuva vem.
Melhor viver, meu bem, pois há um lugar em que o sol brilha pra você.
Chorar, sorrir também e dançar.
Dançar na chuva quando a chuva vem.

Tem vez que as coisas pesam mais do que a gente acha que pode aguentar.
Nessa hora fique firme, pois tudo isso logo vai passar.
Você vai rir, sem perceber, felicidade é só questão de ser.
Quando chover, deixar molhar pra receber o sol quando voltar.

Melhor viver, meu bem, pois há um lugar em que o sol brilha pra você.
Chorar, sorrir também e depois dançar, na chuva quando a chuva vem.
Melhor viver, meu bem, pois há um lugar em que o sol brilha pra você.
Chorar, sorrir também e dançar.
Dançar na chuva quando a chuva vem.

Step On; Happy Mondays

Happy Mondays are a British alternative rock band from Salford, Greater Manchester. Formed in 1980, the band's original line-up was Shaun Ryder on lead vocals, his brother Paul Ryder on bass, lead guitarist Mark Day, keyboardist Paul Davis, and drummer Gary Whelan. Mark "Bez" Berry would later join the band onstage during a live performance after befriending Shaun Ryder and served as a dancer/percussionist/chemist. Rowetta Satchell joined the band to provide backing vocals in the early 1990s.

--

"He's Gonna Step On You Again" (aka "Step On") was a hit single, written and performed by John Kongos in 1971.

It is cited in the Guinness Book of Records as being the first ever song to have used a sample, however according to the sleeve note of the CD reissue of the Kongos album, it is actually a tape loop of African drumming; and the use of tape loops and instruments using prerecorded samples such as the Mellotron and Optigan were well established by this time.

Happy Mondays covered the song, retitling it "Step On" in 1990. It was originally intended as a contribution to the Rubáiyát: Elektra's 40th Anniversary compilation for their US label Elektra, but they decided to keep it to release as a single, and instead covered Kongos's Tokoloshe Man for the compilation. The Happy Mondays version incorporates a short sample of three guitar notes from the original.

He's gonna step on you again, he's gonna step on you
He's gonna step on you again, he's gonna step on you
You're twistin' my melon man, you know you talk so hip man
You're twistin' my melon man

Hey rainmaker, come away from that man
You know he's gonna take away your promised land
Hey good lady he just wants what you got you know
He'll never stop until he's taken the lot
(Hey Hey he hey hey)

Gonna stamp out your fire, he can change your desire
Don't you know he can make you forget you're a man
Gonna stamp out your fire, he can change your desire
Don't you know he can make you forget you're the man
You're a man

You're twistin' my melon man, you speak so hip

Hey rainmaker he got golden plans I tell you
You'll make a stranger in your own land
Hey good lady he's got God on his side he got a double
Tongue you never think he would lie

(Oh he lied, oooh he's twistin' my melon man
(Oh he lied, oooh he's twistin' my melon man)

Gonna stamp out your fire, he can change your desire
Don't you know he can make you forget you're a man
Gonna stamp out your fire, he can change your desire
Don't you know he can make you forget you're the man
You're the man

He's gonna step on you again, he's gonna step on you
He's gonna step on you again, he's gonna step on you

Hey rainmaker, come away from that man
You know he's gonna take away your promised land
Hey good lady he's got God on his side he got a double
Tongue you never think he would lie

Gonna stamp out your fire, he can change your desire
Don't you know he can make you forget you're a man
Gonna stamp out your fire, he can change your desire
Don't you know he can make you forget you're the man
You're the man

You're twistin' my melon man, you know you talk so hip man
You're twistin' my melon man
(Hey Hey he hey hey)

He's gonna step on you again, he's gonna step on you again
He's gonna step on you again, he's gonna step on you again

Never Had No One Ever; The Smiths

THE SMITHS were an English rock band, formed in Manchester in 1982. Based on the songwriting partnership of Morrissey (vocals) and Johnny Marr (guitar), the band also included Andy Rourke (bass) and Mike Joyce (drums). Critics have called them the most important alternative rock band to emerge from the British independent music scene of the 1980s.

The band's third album, The Queen Is Dead, released in 1986, contains one whistling song: "Never Had No One Ever". This songs was explained by Morrisey and Marr and I found their explains in the weblog Smiths on Guitar:

"On The Queen Is Dead, 'Never Had No One Ever', there's a line that goes 'When you walk without ease/on these/the very streets where you were raised/I had a really bad dream/it lasted 20 years, seven months and 27 days/Never had no one ever'. It was the frustration that I felt at the age of 20 when I still didn't feel easy walking around the streets on which I'd been born, where all my family had lived - they're originally from Ireland but had been here since the Fifties. It was a constant confusion to me why I never really felt 'This is my patch. This is my home. I know these people. I can do what I like, because this is mine.' It never was. I could never walk easily."

- Morrissey

"I can never divorce that song from the emotion that inspired it, which is totally personal. It goes back to what I was saying before about where the sadness comes from. It's me, being in my bedroom, living on a housing estate, on a dark night, surrounded by all that concrete and trying to find some beauty through Raw Power and James Williamson. There's a certain kind of gothic beauty in 'I Need Somebody'. I wasn't looking to cop a riff; I was looking to cop a feeling. The atmosphere of 'Never Had No One Ever', and pretty much the whole LP, for everything that can be said about the pressure I was under at the time as Johnny in The Smiths in '85, really that music could have come out of my bedroom when I was 16."

"We had no manager, so me and Morrissey were trying to run the whole band, plus we were still on an independent label, but out of all that adversity we still managed to make this great album. A song like 'Never Had No One Ever' could only have come out of that mindset - fucked-up."

- Johnny Marr

When you walk without ease
On these streets where you were raised
I had a really bad dream
It lasted 20 years, 7 months, and 27 days
(I'm alone and I never)
Never had no one ever

Now I'm outside your house
I'm alone
And I'm outside your house
I'd hate to intrude
I'm alone, I'm alone
I'm alone, I'm alone
I'm alone, I'm alone
And I never, never, had no one ever
I never had no one ever
I never had no
No one ever
Had no one ever
Never, never...