HEY. IT’S “THAT SONG”

Anybody who likes music knows the phenomenon of hearing a song and just absolutely loving it, but not having the foggiest idea what it is, or even who sings it. This makes the process of trying to get your hands on a recording of said song just about impossible. It forever remains “that one song I like,” instantly recognizable, but never quite attainable. Unless you’re the sort of person who has nothing better to do than call up DJs or harass helpless record-store employees by singing a couple little snippets of a song and asking them if they recognize it. (Heck, they even made a whole episode of Married . . . with Children that hinged around Al’s attempts to figure out the name of a song he heard on the radio.)

Hopefully, if you’ve experienced that phenomenon (since it’s unnamed thus far, permit me to dub it ahymneia), you’ve experienced the parallel joy of finally learning just what “that one song” actually is. I had one such moment today, when I learned that a song I’ve enjoyed hearing on the radio for years is “Head On” by the Jesus and Mary Chain. Or the Pixies. They both recorded it, but TJAMC wrote it.

I mean, I could play this song on guitar, but I had no idea what it was. (You could play it, too; it’s only got three chords and they don’t change very often.) But now I’m free of that burden, and I can move on to that song I used to hear on the radio in Minneapolis whose chorus ended “All is fine behind the Vichy Line.” That one’s also puzzled me for a decade, and Google is no help, but somebody out there must know what that song is and who recorded it.

(Other episodes of ahymneia in the author’s life include Dishwalla’s “Charlie Brown’s Parents,” Beck’s “Tropicalia,” Neve’s “It’s Over Now,” and several others too embarrassing for a self-professed music snob to cop to.)