This is perhaps one of the most insensitive songspeaks in Matt’s and my history together, but I feel it’s a songspeak that must be told.

Some may remember that in 1991, Eric Clapton suffered the tragic loss of his son when his son fell out the window of a 53rd floor apartment. I’ll start out by saying there’s nothing funny about this. At all. Eric Clapton wrote the 1992 ballad Tears in Heaven for his deceased son, and it was getting major airplay at the time. It’s still on the playlist on many mix and easy listening radio stations, and I think of this songspeak whenever I hear it.

Matt and I used to share an office when we worked together, and we’d have the radio on all day. Tears in Heaven came on once, and we both knew the origin of the song. The lyrics begin, “Would you know my name…if I saw you in heaven?” Well, apparently these lyrics weren’t good enough for Matt, who very sincerely sang along, “Would you know my name…if you fell out a window?”. His rendition may sound insensitive, but people deal with tragedy in different ways. Our way is to use humor to try to make light of things. At this point, the song was 7 or 8 years old, and we had kind of been desensitized to the entire situation that surrounded it.

We’ve definitely matured in the past 10 years, and don’t make light of death in quite the same way that we used to, due to many personal trials and tribulations that we’ve been through. And now, with a daughter of my own, I can’t imagine that I would find this songspeak all that funny, the way I did when Matt first sang it.

Be that as it may, this is one of the more memorable songstories for me, so I feel compelled to share it. Please don’t think less of us. We already know we’re going to hell.

Saxophonist and founding member of Dave Matthews Band, Leroi Moore, died yesterday, August 19th, 2008 in Los Angeles.

In June, Moore severely injured himself in an ATV accident in Charlottesville, Virginia. Jeff Coffin, took his place for the remainder of the DMB tour. In July, Moore was re-hospitalized for “complications related to the accident”.

From the Dave Matthews Band official website:

We are deeply saddened that LeRoi Moore, saxophonist and founding member of Dave Matthews Band, died unexpectedly Tuesday afternoon, August 19, 2008, at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles from sudden complications stemming from his June ATV accident on his farm near Charlottesville, Virginia. LeRoi had recently returned to his Los Angeles home to begin an intensive physical rehabilitation program.

Read the obit at L.A. Times. Our thoughts go out to all the DMB fans, the band, as well as Moore’s family and friends.

I know we’ve been posting a lot about commercials lately here at Songspeak, but Subway has raised my ire like my ire’s never been raised before.

Last year, Subway ran a Scrabble promotion (similar to McDonald’s Monopoly promotion), and aired the following commercial for it:

This year, Subway is running the same promotion. However, since the last time, they now also have their Five Dollar Footlong promotion. Instead of coming up with a new ad campaign for this year’s Scrabble promotion, or even shooting a new commercial, Subway gives us this:

Do they think we’re not smart enough to realize it’s the EXACT SAME commercial? Or that they poorly photoshopped ads for five dollar footlongs all over the place?

We’re not stupid, Subway, so don’t treat us like we are. I would expect this kind of behavior from Arby’s, but not you.

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We love puns here at Songspeak, and we have to thank Comcast for the latest round of commercials with clever puns in them. There are quite a few: Everyone Loves Money, Save Big Bucks, More Bang For Your Buck, Don’t Pay Through The Nose, and many others. A commenter on AdFreak points out that Round Table Pizza, a chain on the West Coast, has similar types of ads (”Killer Pizza”, etc.)… See the Round Table Pizza ads here.

But here are a few of our favorite Comcastic pun ads in all their glory.

Everyone Loves Money

Save Big Bucks

A couple more after the jump…. (more…)

In an interesting move, the new AC/DC album, Black Ice will be released only at Wal-Mart stores and the band’s website. Way to stick it to the man, AC/DC.

I think what surprises me most is that over the years, Wal-Mart has banned albums by Sheryl Crow, John Cougar Mellencamp, The Goo Goo Dolls and books by John Stewart, George Carlin and others. These are products Wal-Mart considers to have the wrong values for their stores. And yet, AC/DC, a band who for decades has almost exclusively had songs about sex and booze makes the cut. Wal-Mart accounts for 10% of record sales domestically, so they have a huge influence. I wonder if AC/DC will sanitize this release.

AC/DC’s last album in 2000, Stiff Upper Lip, contained the brilliant Safe In New York City, a song which Jamie and I mock profusely for the number of times the words “I feel safe in New York City” are repeated.

Oh AC/DC. Like an old friend. If all their previous albums are any indication, I’m sure that this will fall under the category of good ol’ fashioned rock n’ roll. I doubt anyone will be surprised by what it sounds like.

Bill’s comment in my Ghostbusters post reminded me of a moviespeak that’s been a favorite for some time now. It originates from the Nutty Professor remake starring Eddie Murphy. In the scene, Professor Klump is out on a date at a comedy club. The comedian (played by Dave Chapelle in an early role) comes out and just starts telling generic stand-up-comedian type jokes about women shopping and such. During the act, the soft-spoken Klump leans over to his date (a pre-married Jada Pinkett-Smith) and says, “That is true, women do shop” (because most stand-up comedians are funny due to the “it’s funny because it’s true” law of comedy). When I first saw this movie when I was going to WPI, this line just struck us as funny. So we would always say it in every situation. And if anyone EVER said “that’s true”, we’d finish with “women DO shop”. I’ve been doing it for years now, and it’s caught on with most everyone I know.

Unfortunately, the scene takes a decidedly nasty turn for the worse when the comedian starts making fun of people in the crowd, and spies the rather large Professor Klump.

Below is said scene. It goes on for awhile, but I’ll be damned if Eddie Murphy wasn’t robbed by not receiving an Oscar for his performance here.

This past Saturday, August 16th, there was a big picnic at Nonotuck Park in Easthampton to celebrate mine and Kristen’s recent nuptials. For a photo project, Kristen’s friend Kelly suggested a group of us jump in sync while she set her camera on a timer. We must have jumped twenty or thirty times in order to get this shot.

My wisecracker cousin Chris came over and said, “What… did someone just get a toyota or something?”. He was referring to the Toyota commercials of the mid-80s, when Toyota’s slogan was “Oh what a feeling!” and commercials featured excited people jumping.

Does anyone besides me and Chris remember these?

John Cena played football for Springfield College in the late 90s with my cousin. Click to enlarge the pic.

Speaking of my cousin Chris, he attended Springfield College and played football there with WWE star, John Cena. You can’t see him? He’s top row, third from the left, number 57. My cousin Chris is bottom row in the middle, number 78.

Did you know that besides all the WWE stuff, and the Subway commercials John Cena has been in, he recorded a rap album with his cousin, Tha Trademarc in 2005? The first track, “The Time is Now” was even used by Cena as his entrance music.

My cousin Chris and I, however, have not yet recorded OUR rap album. Here’s to hoping it ‘drops’ soon, y’all.

Our Songspeak readers have been big fans of the FreeCreditReport.com commercials starring Canadian actor Eric Violette; The Car Song, The Pirate Song, and The Dream Girl Song. I saw a new FreeCreditReport.com commercial last night (while watching House Hunters on HGTV) featuring Eric and his band on bicycles talking about high gas prices. I believe it is called, appropriately, “The Bicycle”.

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Last night playing poker, I was watching the action after getting knocked out.  It was down to the final 5 players, and one of them went all-in.  The guy with the most chips called, and then the last guy, who had the least amount of chips, made a call that was mathematically correct, even though his cards weren’t really good at all.  Turns out the guy who didn’t have very good cards ended up with a full house, winning the hand and tripling up.  We were discussing the hand afterwards, and about how he had to call with garbage, beating two much better hands.  One of the guys said, “What are ya gonna do?”  and then the older lady who runs the tournament and was also watching burst out with, “Ghostbusters!” and started laughing.  She knew that technically, you’re supposed to say that after someone says, “Who ya gonna call?”, but she couldn’t help herself.

And, I mean, really…what child of the 80’s hasn’t songspoken this? Last night reminded me of that, and it also made me search for the original music video. I found it, and boy, had I forgotten what a gem it is. The celebrity cameos are amazing, and Ray Parker, Jr.’s creep factor is through the roof. So I’m gonna post it here. Know why? ‘Cause bustin’ makes me feel good.

Sadly, I didn’t grab a screen shot earlier, but MassLive.com had a total of FIVE songspeaks today. FIVE. FIVE SONG. FIVE SONGSPEAKS. Kudos must be given whenever kudos are due.

Showing here is a semi-chopped kind of screenshot showing 4 of the 5.

Here are the five. That editorial staff sure is clever.
Tattoo you - Rolling Stones

Careful with that Axe - Pink Floyd

Millions of Peaches - The Presidents of the United States of America

Wild One - Iggy Pop

Message In a Bottle - The Police (this story ran earlier in the morning)

Well done, MassLive.

Well.

Done.