Gotye "Eyes Wide Open"

So here's the follow up post . . .

After writing about Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know" as a "phenomenon" song, the follow-up question in the follow-up post is . . . what do we think of the follow-up song?

Phenomenon songs don't have a great track record.  By definition, they probably can't . . .

Songs like Dido's "Thank You" caught on due to forces much larger than the song itself.  And those forces aren't in play on the second single.  Eminem couldn't have sampled Dido's "Hunter" too (which was her follow-up single to "Thank You").

Many of the phenomenon songs that stick out in my mind, like One Eskimo's "Kandi" and Primitive Radio Gods' "Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand", relied heavily on guest vocals (in both of these cases, sampled vocals) for their weird phenomenonic charm.

And other phenomenon songs just struck a particular, peculiar emotional chord, like Yael Naim's "New Soul" or Des'ree's "You Gotta Be."

Both of these traits apply to the first (successful) Gotye song.

And then there are phenomenon songs that herald the beginning of a long career, not unlike Sheryl Crow breaking through with "All I Wanna Do."

Gotye could go either way, building on early, surprise, massive success . . . or, just fading away.

The only way to answer the question, I guess, is to listen to the song . . .


Hear the song on Youtube.

Primitive Radio Gods “Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand”

Sampling. Are you For It or Against It? This track from the 90s pretty much makes your case. For either side of the argument.

The biggest Argument against sampling is that it’s lazy. You’re not talented enough of an artist, to come up with your own memorable hook, so you are relying on the listeners’ memory and love of an old hook, to make an emotional attachment to your song.

To wit: Primitive Radio Gods’ follow-up single, released a few months after this one, was called . . . anyone? . . . anyone ? . . . I didn’t think so.

But on the For It side, you have to admit that this is a pretty cleverly deployed sample of B.B. King’s “How Blue Can You Get.” In the story of the song, having King’s actual voice fits in perfectly as another detail of the vignette. Paired with the specificity of the song title, and the mood of the tune, it makes perfect sense, and justifies its sampled existence.

So maybe it works. Are you For It or Against It?

Hear Primitive Radio Gods “Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand”

See the videos for the Sampler (PRG) and the Sampled (BB), here