And Now to Explode Your Head As You Head Off For the Weekend

I pretty much guarantee you that you won’t guess which well-known 80s song this is a cover of until at least a few lines of lyrics in. And when you do figure it out, blood will shoot from your temples.

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There’s more here.

Comments

  1. Homie Bear says:

    Wow. I hope he does Danger Zone too.

  2. willy says:

    the songs not loading for some reason! It may be on my end.

  3. Lauren Uroff says:

    Well, I was kind of dozy and thinking of a nap before dinner until I heard the “punch” line and woke straight up.

    Man, that’s NOT THE WAY I think of that song.

    My head go all esplody.

  4. John Scalzi says:

    Willy, if the song doesn’t load, just follow the link.

  5. willy says:

    ok thanks.

  6. woolcifer says:

    That was oddly touching. The story was very touching. Thank you.

  7. Dan says:

    Strangely cool. Of course, now I’m trying to imagine that version in the movie, and I can already hear my brain parts sizzling like Rice Krispies.

  8. Chris says:

    Wow, its like Roger Waters covers Kenny Loggins.

  9. PixelFish says:

    I like.

  10. Bryce says:

    Son. Of. A. BEECH! *head asplodey*

  11. Kelly Norton says:

    Ok, I listen to the whole awful, awful song and I still don’t know what it was supposed to be. Although I must admit I nodded off at least twice.

    I give, what was that supposed to be?

  12. Julia says:

    Oh, I knew it from the first line. (But that’s because the young lady I roomed with in uni had the movie and would watch it when she felt down to feel better. Which increased in frequency the higher we got in our degrees, of course.) Ahahahaha oh MAN.

    Dude, that is dragging me DOWN. *turns it off* You’ve heard Alanis’s emo take on Fergie’s My Humps, right? Now THAT is brilliant.

  13. John Scalzi says:

    Kelly Norton:

    Follow the link and all will be revealed.

  14. Jeff Hentosz says:

    Julia @12: As is Jonathan Coulton’s sensitive white-boy version of “Baby Got Back.” This, however — no … just, huh-uh. Ear floss, please!

  15. Glennis says:

    This is just horrible.

  16. D. says:

    Heh.

    Fair warning: The link gives it away.

  17. Julia says:

    Jeff @14: Frankly, I prefer his cover of Bills, Bills, Bills.

  18. JimR says:

    oh man….when i figured it out, my brain went all :reerreeerreeerr: like a swarm of cicadas…

  19. I had it from the first line, but only because I worked costume crew for that show a few years back. Before the run even began, we had to start telling people to quit singing that in the costume shop (that, and “Popular” from Wicked, which to this day gets stuck in my head every time I try to thread a serger).

  20. Jeff Hentosz@ 14: If you want a brilliant cover of “Baby Got Back,” try it Gilbert and Sullivan-style.

  21. Galen Mitchell says:

    I’m not sure I’m ok with that version of the song…

    However, Alanis doing “My Humps” is absolutely classic. It’s not really emo… But it’s hilarious to see “My Humps” in the whole “Alanis/Sarah McLaughlan (SP?)” brooding piano bit. Now, an emo version with someone like My Chemical Romance would be almost as good. It might even almost make me not hate My Chemical Romance for a few seconds. ALMOST.

  22. Huey says:

    Like the Aztec Camera version of Van Halen’s “Jump”, I think this suffers not from being too campy, but from not being campy enough. If this was recorded with Tom Waits-esque vocals, better drums, upright bass, and perhaps a sad trombone solo, now THAT would kick some ironic jazz ass.

  23. Julia says:

    Best cover of anything ever: Dylan Hears A Who. The worst possible thing the Geisel trust could ever have done for their rep was threaten to go after the creators. What a shame…

  24. Paula Helm Murray says:

    That’s just ill. I’ve heard so much weirdness in the name of music in my life that it didn’t make my head go all asplody.

    Though a couple of years ago, I watched a skinny little five-year-old girl perform all of Baby Got Back out in the lane in front of our KC RenFest booth. She had no back, she had no front. She was barely four feet tall.

    I laughed so hard I was nearly on the floor.

  25. --E says:

    When I heard the first few notes, I thought, “This will turn out to be ‘Born to Run’. Hilarious!”

    And then I caught the lyrics. Never in a million years would I have expected “Footloose.”

  26. Sean Eric Fagan says:

    Clapton is digging a grave so he can spin in it.

  27. watercolor says:

    Kinda creepy. Not nearly as good for cleaning house with…. heh.

  28. JD says:

    I too was just thinking it was some Springsteen song when I heard the word Footloose and realized what it was. I’m sure it wasn’t meant to be campy, and unlike the original song which I hated, I liked this version.

  29. Nathan says:

    I hadn’t a clue until “kick off yer Sunday shoes”. Even after that I needed a couple more clues.

    It’s not exactly what I’d call rolicking.

  30. Monica says:

    I had it from the first line, and don’t feel the need to explain myself. I believe I had most of the 45s from Footloose.

    And I’m still waiting to hear Tom Waits do “Careless Whisper,” which I think would be bitchin’.

  31. Jeff S says:

    I think I hurt something while listening. I didn’t care much for the original version but aaaaarrrrgh…

  32. willywoollove says:

    Monica @ 30 Hell ya that would be great!!!

  33. Fred says:

    This is either great or awful. Maybe both simultaneously.

  34. Adelheid says:

    I like the cover of Holding out for a Hero much better from this album.

  35. Michael Kranjcevich says:

    Oh that was horrrrrrible…..A+ for the effort, tho…..you have to admire an artist like that….where’s his take on I’m Alright???

  36. Jeff S says:

    So I followed the link to find out why this happened and am feeling a bit more charitable. It’s still not my cup of tea but the sentiment is in the right place.

    Monica @30 Tom Waits and Careless whisper? Ya know that could work for me too.

  37. Unfocused Me says:

    My wife got it very quickly, and I had to turn it off to keep her head from exploding (or to keep her from taking a crack at making MINE explode).

  38. jason says:

    I got it from the first line — Footloose was filmed just a few miles from my house, so it’s kind of a local classic and everyone who lived in these parts in the ’80s was required to see it 1,900 times — but none of that prevented the cranial detonation John warned of. Too weird…

  39. Estara says:

    That prediction unfortunately only works if you don’t know the song lyrics by hear, as I do. As soon as I could understand the mumbling voice I knew what it was. I quite like that version, too ^^.

    Thanks for making me aware of that.

  40. Mobyhead says:

    Oh, fooey. I thought it was Flashdance until he got to the chorus.

  41. Mike says:

    It’s like Susannah & The Magical Orchestra’s version of AC/DC’s It’s A Long Way to the Top.

  42. Pat J says:

    This made me think of Nina Gordon’s cover of Straight Outta Compton (warning: sweary lyrics).

  43. Pious Agnostic says:

    Ha! Nailed it in 4 words.

    Of course, you only have my word on this….

  44. Tim Walker says:

    I avoided blood-drenched temples . . . but only because of the mind-control techniques that I learned from my years with the Shaolin monks.

    Thank you SO much for that, John.

  45. Bruce A. says:

    I tried to play it directly from the buttons in your post, but all I got was “The Sounds Of Silence”.

    So I followed the link, and ended up spending the next fifteen to twenty minutes trying to unfreeze and re-boot the computer. That wasn’t supposed to happen, was it?

    I gather the song is “Footloose”, but I think I’ll just skip the experience.

  46. Maia says:

    From the first few words I thought Footloose and then I was like no way, it can’t be. But my sister and a couple of my friends were in a school production of Footloose a few years ago so I heard the song many many times.

  47. BigHank53 says:

    Those of you with surviving neurons may wish to locate a copy of the Yayhoos’ cover of “Love Train”.

  48. Tom says:

    I liked it, actually. but then again i disliked the original.

  49. Amie Stuart says:

    OMG….and I thought the song about riding your bike (completely unrelated) was weird.

  50. As I heard the music I was thinking it was a Kenny Loggins song. First line nailed which one.

    Head no asplody, but wow, that’s going to make for a surreal rest of the afternoon.

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