Obscure Singles Heard at CVS

Roxy Music "Dance Away" at Walgreens

"19th Nervous Breakdown" at Fred Meyer. Not exactly obscure but I can't remember the last time I ever heard it.

"Hungry Like the Wolf," at my coffee shop, right now.

(I'm just live-blogging because the thread is up top. I have no use for "Hungry Like the Wolf" whatsoever.)

is "Hungry Like the Wolf" obscure in your neck of the woods, clem? Here it's the J'ran J'ran tune I'm most likely hear in the wild.

I even hear Ordinary World and Come Undone a lot

"Rio" too.

yeah "Ordinary World" is probably second.

this algorithm need SERIOUS adj. some posters don’t kno what obscure is. some posters don’t kno what a “single” was. some posters don’t know what a CVS is, or what a cvs-like venue is. frankly, i’m faced with a remove-bookmark situation and it fills me with woe. the rest of me is allegedly filled w lager but i deny

It’s basically now used for discussing music heard in public (for better or worse)

That's how I've been using it--that's something I always take notice of. I thought I clearly framed the Duran Duran post as a joke. I don't really think they're obscure.

to be clear— i use it wrong all the time! but i got that removal feel ha

I heard Mozart's trap song at Fuddruckers

(xpost) "Post Removal Machine"

There's a lot to unpack here, but at the very least using the term 'Single' as a qualifier doesn't quite apply to the way I've experienced music in retail environments. Growing up I first heard so many of what I later would discover were less-exposed album cuts from artists like Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell, and even the Beatles in fast food places after school or out with my mom and/or grandma at the grocery store. To leave stuff like that out is missing a major part of the experience.

For me, it's the qualifier of obscure that comes up short. My deepest connections with music in public settings are almost always with songs that are anything but obscure: "Every Picture Tells a Story" above, "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" in a record store a few weeks ago, mid-'60s Dylan anywhere, etc.

honestly feel like no one but c. grisso/mccain should post in this thread

unless someone actually hears benny mardones in the wild in the 2020s

From now every entry from me gets an oshcvs factor score which is—

Obscurity: 1-10 (did it chart? when? In adverts? When? Sdtrk? 10 is most obscure. Whatevs that means TO ME ,the poster.)

x (lol “times”)

Single: 1-3 (3 = an actual single, 2 = um, a b-side, 1= possibly fm radio album fodder)

x

CVS: (10= an actual cvs, 9=a pharmacy, .1 to .5= um any public place that is actually cool.)

unless someone actually hears benny mardones in the wild in the 2020s

This happened to me recently at Home Depot.

Can we all agree that this isn't the "Songs We Hear When We're in Public" thread?

Carry on--I think I'll start a thread for exactly that. Before I do, though, does one already exist? I tried a search on "public," and the closest I got was "Strange Music in Public Places." I don't need strange.

There is this one:
What music does your local supermarket play?

Thanks. I'll start a very general one that takes in any kind of music in any kind of public setting.

A Thread to Mention Random or Surprising Songs We've Recently Heard in Public

Good enough--that one will do when something catches my attention in the non-CVS world (which I've just now googled for the first time).

Songs I heard at Chuck E. Cheese today

I think it would make sense to make a list of all the different release types: singles, eps, lps, small press cassettes, soundcloud mixes, tik toks, etc, then make another list of all the major retail chains, and another for obscurity or familiarity degrees, and finally to make threads based on every conceivable combination of the three.

we should have a poll first though...

Preceded by nominations. And with a running Spotify playlist. And you're listening to the Spotify playist somewhere in public, that calls for a new thread.

rolling out my Moderately Well Known Flexidiscs Heard At Dollar General playlist

does anyone have a slide rule

I know where you can buy one.

The Traveling Wilburys: "Last Night" on a Pandora Oldies channel at a burger place.

Same place, today got "Heading For The Light" and whatever that Jim Croce song is about him walking to Georgia.

"Walking Back To Georgia", surprisingly.

His third biggest Spotify track for some reason.

wow. maybe on some Georgia playlists or something.

Ok well blancmange “don’t tell me” into ultravox “reap the wild wind” was a strain of 84 LIR heaven. at torchy’s centennial CO.

holy crap into gogos cant stop the world. tho i figger thw gogos to be more kroq than lir.

Ok now it’s fantastic day h100 they just know i’m here nm

Bowie “Suffragette City” in a dead small-town shopping mall.

Oh wait, now it’s “Shake and Finger Pop” by Junior Walker.

Translator “Everywhere That I’m Not” in a Goodwill in Venice, Florida

Nirvana ft Cris & Curt Kirkwood - "Lake Of Fire"

When the suction came off at the dentist... pretty deep cut for a dentist office (or nah?)

So are we okay again with using this as more of an all-purpose thread for music heard in public spaces? That seemed to be a topic of concern a few days ago.

yeah i'm pretty ok with that now thanks to the therapy here. i'm still a little iffy on defining obscure, but i've moved v significantly toward "if the hearer blees it obscure, it's obscure, hunt3r."

i mean, my lived experiences and those of millions now dying are not like some young pup's lived experience.

Reminded by the LZ II thread that they were playing Billy Squier - The Stroke at the grocery yesterday. I know it was a fairly popular song, but it's still pretty weird and embarrassing to hear it blasted while you're out food shopping.

it was even weirder when it was on like 2 AM and 6 FM channels, which was the entire universe of mobil music, riding in the car with yr parents, and everyone was pretending it wasn’t billy squire, singing the stroke. it was pretty great.

ha mobile

https://www.kxan.com/news/texas/h-e-b-employees-say-this-song-is-played-too-much-at-their-stores/

“I swear to God when I used to open for the produce department at 5 a.m., the playlist would be exactly the same every time… ‘Mambo No. 5’ would play at like exactly 5:10 a.m. [The song] legit gives me PTSD flashbacks.”

^^Reminds me about how most of the YT comments section for the music video to John Anderson's "Somebody Slap Me" is made up of Kroger employees talking about constantly hearing it at work.