wesbed Posted September 24, 2003 Report Posted September 24, 2003 I had to make a tech support call yesterday. While I was on hold, the tech company was playing an elevator-music version of Steely Dan's Monkey In Your Soul. I thought, "no, this song does not deserve such treatment. This is a tune that has a lot of funk and soul. This ain't the Becker/Fagan version." Anybody else heard good songs that seemed not-so-good when played in the style of an elevator, a dentist's office, or a tech support call? Quote
Joe G Posted September 24, 2003 Report Posted September 24, 2003 Lately our local Meijer's grocery store has started using smooth jazz background musak. I heard a psuedo-funk version of Naima that made my blood curdle. On the other hand, both Jim and I have heard a tune called "The Grinning Song" from Big Stuff, by Larry Goldings while grocery shopping in different stores. I'm sure we were the only ones in the place who knew what it was. Quote
wesbed Posted September 25, 2003 Author Report Posted September 25, 2003 I live in Tucson, Arizona. Until last weekend, I wouldn't have know what a Meijer's was. I went to visit a friend who lives in Columbus, Ohio. Alas, we stopped at the Meijer's on the way back to her apartment from the airport. Errr... no Meijer's in Tucson. Quote
Joe G Posted September 25, 2003 Report Posted September 25, 2003 There's like four of them in Lansing alone. Most people I know hate going to Meijer's, because it's soooo huge that it takes much longer to shop, and it's just a bit depressing overall, but you simply can't go a week without setting foot in one, because they have everything. Actually I think I could stay out longer than that, but my wife always wants food items that only they have. Quote
Daniel A Posted September 25, 2003 Report Posted September 25, 2003 The most absurd choice of music I've heard in a mall was a few years ago when I was shopping at Leclerc in Bergerac, France: They were playing the Dave Grusin soundtrack for 'Three Days of the Condor', a 1975 thriller with Redford/Dunaway/von Sydow as the top cast. Quote
A Lark Ascending Posted September 25, 2003 Report Posted September 25, 2003 I was in a slick shopping centre (that's a 'mall'!) in Oslo in August and they were playing Miles Ahead. The entire album as far as I could gather! Quote
BruceH Posted September 25, 2003 Report Posted September 25, 2003 While I was on hold, the tech company was playing an elevator-music version of Steely Dan's Monkey In Your Soul. That is just so wrong, not to mention bizarre. There's a grocery store here that used to play real, non-Muzak, jazz at a low background level. It was nice. I don't think they still do though. Maybe they got complaints that the music wasn't mind-deadening enough. Quote
Jad Posted September 28, 2003 Report Posted September 28, 2003 Judas Priest's "Green Manaleshi"(sp?) in a McDonald's here. Talk about weird! Quote
Sundog Posted September 28, 2003 Report Posted September 28, 2003 I recently heard a god awful version of "Stolen Moments" while having breakfast in a hotel resturant. Now that's wrong! Quote
GregK Posted September 28, 2003 Report Posted September 28, 2003 There's like four of them in Lansing alone. Most people I know hate going to Meijer's, because it's soooo huge that it takes much longer to shop, and it's just a bit depressing overall, but you simply can't go a week without setting foot in one, because they have everything. Actually I think I could stay out longer than that, but my wife always wants food items that only they have. What's wrong with Meijer? I don't see how it's depressing, and my wife and I never have any problem. In and out with all our groceries very quickly. The only problem with Meijer is the music they play. The one in Ann Arbor next to I-94 now has a Starbucks, so it can't be all that bad! Quote
Jazzmoose Posted September 28, 2003 Report Posted September 28, 2003 Confession time: I prefer the Muzak version of the Beatles Fool on the Hill to the original. There's just something almost satanic about that version... Quote
BruceH Posted September 28, 2003 Report Posted September 28, 2003 Confession time: I prefer the Muzak version of the Beatles Fool on the Hill to the original. There's just something almost satanic about that version... Satanic? I've got to admit, the last Muzak version I heard of "Fool On the Hill" (also at a grocery store) was soul-suckingly terrible. But maybe it was a different arrangement than the one you're referring to. Quote
sidewinder Posted January 9, 2008 Report Posted January 9, 2008 (edited) Not an elevator but over breakfast at a very low-key hotel in a UK backwater this morning at about 7.15 they were playing Hank Mobley's 'Soul Station' on the PA. I nearly choked on my tea and toast ! Edited January 9, 2008 by sidewinder Quote
BillF Posted January 9, 2008 Report Posted January 9, 2008 Surprised on walking into my local pharmacist's yesterday to hear the unmistakable sound of the Chet Baker Quartet with Russ Freeman on piano. In my case, probably more effective than most medicaments! Quote
The Magnificent Goldberg Posted January 9, 2008 Report Posted January 9, 2008 Not an elevator but over breakfast at a very low-key hotel in a UK backwater this morning at about 7.15 they were playing Hank Mobley's 'Soul Station' on the PA. I nearly choked on my tea and toast ! Which backwater was this? Enquiring and local minds want to know MG Quote
The Magnificent Goldberg Posted January 9, 2008 Report Posted January 9, 2008 One of the most awful hotels I've ever stayed in - in North East Wales - zero light bulbs and soap and towel in bedroom, lousy dinner, one of my colleagues had some kind of disater with the furnishing in her room - made Fawlty Towers look like paradise. But it had this incredible funky - I mean real funky, y'know - muzak in the bar. But some things are unforgivable, even for funky music. MG Quote
sidewinder Posted January 10, 2008 Report Posted January 10, 2008 (edited) Which backwater was this? Enquiring and local minds want to know Great Malvern, Worcestershire. Lovely town - the pearls and twinset blue-rinse/'disgusted of Tunbridge Wells' brigade rule the place but it would appear that they collect Hank Mobley CDs. As well as the music, breakfast was interesting. The electric bulb over my table was set at about 5W so I had to use the light from the Abbey frontage to read the paper. I know we have an energy crisis going on but what the hell ! Bring back 1974, the 3-day week and power cuts (well - as long as I can power the turntable. Hamster power?) Edited January 10, 2008 by sidewinder Quote
The Magnificent Goldberg Posted January 10, 2008 Report Posted January 10, 2008 Which backwater was this? Enquiring and local minds want to know Great Malvern, Worcestershire. Lovely town - the pearls and twinset blue-rinse/'disgusted of Tunbridge Wells' brigade rule the place but it would appear that they collect Hank Mobley CDs. As well as the music, breakfast was interesting. The electric bulb over my table was set at about 5W so I had to use the light from the Abbey frontage to read the paper. I know we have an energy crisis going on but what the hell ! Bring back 1974, the 3-day week and power cuts (well - as long as I can power the turntable. Hamster power?) Nice part of the country. Spa town. They're all the same. My mother and stepfather managed a hotel in Cheltenham in the early sixties; there was a record player there, feeding a quiet PA system, with some interesting items - as well as the Frank Sinatra stuff you'd expect, there was a Temperance Seven LP, Ahmad Jamal, Erroll Garner. Nothing to frighten people away, but interesting. Oh, and nothing to do with me, either - I was living in London. MG Quote
DTMX Posted January 10, 2008 Report Posted January 10, 2008 Not Muzak, but supermarket related: When I was working in the small podunk town of Honjo in Japan there was a grocery store (not the Apita store - the other one with the grocery store on the first floor, department store on the second and the bowling alley on the third. The one nearest the train station, over behind the MOS Burger. That one.) that played a single song on a loop for the entire calendar month - the same song, over and over. It was never a Japanese song and it was never classical, but occasionally it might be some jazzy instrumental or something. But the one song that inspired this post that was for the month of January the song was the Carpenters' Top of the World. On February first they changed to a different song: Anarchy in the UK by the Sex Pistols. I left town a week later and they were still playing it - I could hear it from the shopping center parking lot as I walked to the train station. Quote
robviti Posted January 10, 2008 Report Posted January 10, 2008 there's a furniture store in my area with three locations. they're huge really, with an imax theatre in two of them. anyway, while looking for new stuff for my condo, i noticed that different rooms had different types of music playing. needless to say, i spent more than enough time looking at the furniture in the rooms that were playing ella, miles, billie, etc. i'd be there sitting on a big leather sofa, staring into space, and a salesperson would come up and ask if i needed any help. i'd say, "no, i'm just diggin' the jazz you're playing." they were courteous, but unimpressed. what music would i like to hear in this store? how about anthony braxton's or maybe even the great imagine the kind of furniture they'd be selling in that room! Quote
sidewinder Posted January 10, 2008 Report Posted January 10, 2008 (edited) feeding a quiet PA system, with some interesting items Thinking about it, my ears perked up in the bar of this very hotel on my previous visit. Some sort of trendy jazz compilation was playing late night whilst I was sipping my Grolsch - it had Chet Baker/Russ Freeman on it plus tracks by Wynton M. and Jimmy Smith. Maybe this 'jazz for non-jazzers' tape was being replayed in the breakfast rooom. Of course, whilst this was playing in the background some salesman jerks came up to the bar and said "Nice" in a 'Fast Show' sort of way ( ) Can't believe that their staff actually went out and bought Hank's 'Soul Station' RVG CD but you never know.. Edited January 10, 2008 by sidewinder Quote
The Magnificent Goldberg Posted January 10, 2008 Report Posted January 10, 2008 Can't believe that their staff actually went out and bought Hank's 'Soul Station' RVG CD but you never know.. Nah... they probably did a vinyl drop of a DG mono... MG Quote
tonym Posted January 10, 2008 Report Posted January 10, 2008 (edited) But it had this incredible funky - I mean real funky, y'know - muzak in the bar. But some things are unforgivable, even for funky music. MG ...funky bed sheets, funky music.... I think I'd live without the music. The first one that sprung to mind for me was Getz/Gilberto's Girl from Ipanema. However, you have to be really lucky to hear it played on anything other than pan-pipes or a Stylophone. A nearby Pret-a-Manger recently had some Jackie Mac on ( a tune off Vertigo IIRC) but a cafe I often visit on my bike in the Dales plays nothing but Carpenters' tunes on B3. Maybe Jim's been moonlighting.... Edited January 10, 2008 by tonym Quote
Randy Twizzle Posted January 10, 2008 Report Posted January 10, 2008 I worked in 2 World Trade Center for 3 1/2 years and the elevators usually had low level smooth jazz playing. However once I actually heard an Art Tatum recording. It probably wasn't the best place to listen to Tatum but I appeciated it at the time. Quote
sidewinder Posted January 11, 2008 Report Posted January 11, 2008 A nearby Pret-a-Manger recently had some Jackie Mac on ( a tune off Vertigo IIRC) Whoahh !! Quote
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