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Olivier Group: Super Admins Posts: 1865 Joined: Nov. 1999 Posted: Mar. 20 2009, 13:11 I love songs with countdowns, but I think I only know 2 of them: - Mike Oldfield Crystal Clear - David Bowie Space Oddity There is also Jean-Michel Jarre who often opens his concerts with countdowns. Perhaps some Enigma too? Any other song to satisfy my appetite for buildups by numbers? Back to top

The Thin Man Group: Members Posts: 151 Joined: May 2002 Posted: Mar. 20 2009, 14:56 Don't forget the over 20 seconds of countdown before the live version of Art in Heaven! Back to top

Holger Group: Members Posts: 1506 Joined: Feb. 2003 Posted: Mar. 20 2009, 15:41 Rush has a song called Countdown, though if I remember correctly, there is no actual countdown in that song... however that song conveys the atmosphere of a spacecraft launch very well I think. Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Mar. 20 2009, 18:28 Pet Shop Boys' hit "It's a Sin" starts with a voice saying "Twenty seconds and counting" and ends with the same voice saying "Zero". It's not strictly a countdown, but almost. There is also a countdown in a song by Swedish dance musician E-Type, sung by I-don't-know-who (maybe Nana Hedin?). At its start, straight after the first beatless chorus, E-Type's deep voice goes "Five, four, three, two, one, ignition!", after which the female voice sings "Here I go!" and the beat starts. -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

olracUK Group: Members Posts: 1683 Joined: June 2003 Posted: Mar. 20 2009, 18:40 "5,4,3,2,1"..... '60's hit -------------- The answer is 42 - but what is the question? Back to top

Scatterplot Group: Members Posts: 1980 Joined: Dec. 2007 Posted: Mar. 20 2009, 21:10 Roxy Music's version of "Midnight Hour", from Flesh and Blood. -------------- We raise our voices in the night Crying to heaven And will our voices be heard Or will they break Like the wind Back to top

Scatterplot Group: Members Posts: 1980 Joined: Dec. 2007 Posted: Mar. 20 2009, 21:14 Near the end of "As Falls Wichita So Falls Wichita Falls" from Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays, PM speaks a series of numbers, I never figured out what their significance is. -------------- We raise our voices in the night Crying to heaven And will our voices be heard Or will they break Like the wind Back to top

ex member 419 Group: Members Posts: 1177 Joined: April 2008 Posted: Mar. 20 2009, 21:19 The final countdown by starship...10, 9. 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...deb Back to top

Dirk Star Group: Members Posts: 1331 Joined: Sep. 2007 Posted: Mar. 20 2009, 21:54 Quote (Scatterplot @ Mar. 21 2009, 02:14) Near the end of "As Falls Wichita So Falls Wichita Falls" from Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays, PM speaks a series of numbers, I never figured out what their significance is. Yeah I was always puzzled by that as well.I think I always figured it to be survey/referance points on a map or something.But I could be miles off,..literaly. The Hugh Cornwell song Hot Cat On A Tin Roof counts down from 10-1 then "ignition" right at the intro.Coupled with some inspired playing behind it,it`s probably one of my favourite intros to a song,and album.I think some dance artist actualy sampled it quite famously a few years back,but their name escapes me for the moment. The chorus and intro to the Stray Cats song Blast Off is a rather frenetic 10-1 countdown followed by a simple "Blast Off".But is still very effective all the same..Yeah they do kind of stick in the head these things,good idea for a thread. Can`t think of any more "countdowns" off the top of my head,although there is  this song by Pulp.Plenty of songs I can think of with actual counting within them though..Blur:Advert..The Beatles: A Day In The Life(faintly in the bridge section)..Mike Oldfield : Pictures In The Dark..1.2.3..Songs with counting in are cool imo..Plus it makes it so much easier to remember all the words..Err yeah..Numbers I mean. Back to top

Dirk Star Group: Members Posts: 1331 Joined: Sep. 2007 Posted: Mar. 20 2009, 22:06 Quote (Ugo @ Mar. 20 2009, 23:28) Quote There is also a countdown in a song by Swedish dance musician E-Type, sung by I-don't-know-who (maybe Nana Hedin?). At its start, straight after the first beatless chorus, E-Type's deep voice goes "Five, four, three, two, one, ignition!", after which the female voice sings "Here I go!" and the beat starts. Ugo that`s possibly a sample of the Hugh Cornwell song I mentioned in my own post..I`m not 100% on that though,but I know it was definetly used in a dance track as I said. Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Mar. 21 2009, 10:57 Quote (Dirk Star @ Mar. 21 2009, 04:06) Ugo that`s possibly a sample of the Hugh Cornwell song I mentioned in my own post..I`m not 100% on that though,but I know it was definetly used in a dance track as I said. No, it isn't. I listened to the original song and the voice is not the same... E-Type's voice has a nasal tone which is not in Cornwell's voice, and on that song it's clearly E-Type speaking. It's entirely possible, of course, that there's a dance song which I'm not familiar with and that has sampled Cornwell's song, but it's not the one I mentioned. About "A Day in the Life", that's Mal Evans counting the bars from six to twenty-four. In that song, the bridge was originally left empty as Lennon hadn't made up his mind yet on what to fill it up with, and Mal Evans counted the bars to help the band come back at the appropriate point. As for PitD, the 1-2-3 marks specific points in the video where the images are duplicated. As far as I know, PitD and its video were meant to go together, like "The Wind Chimes". -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

Dirk Star Group: Members Posts: 1331 Joined: Sep. 2007 Posted: Mar. 21 2009, 11:30 @Ugo,I think you`re probably right on it not being the "sample" from Hugh`s song.Although it could well be that they copied it anyway rather than sampled it I can`t remember now.All I can remember is reading in Hugh`s autobiography that somebody "lifted it" for a dance record and it became a smash hit all over Europe.He didn`t sound too bothered about it in his book mind,although I don`t suppose you can really copyright counting backwards from ten and then saying "Ignition" at the end of it..At the end of the day if anybody should be up in arms about it,it should be those crazy dudes over at the NASA Space Station.. Houston we have a lawsuit.. I wish I could check it up in his book,but speaking of things being "lifted" I never got the bloody thing back after I leant it out to somebody..And Google is flippin` rubbish. Oh and I forgot about my favourite ever song with counting in it before..1.2.3.4.5...Senses Working Overtime..Or here`s a good one for you Ugo Driving Rain by Paul McCartney another 1-5 song..Maybe Andy Partridge should sue?   Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Mar. 21 2009, 20:54 @ Dirk: thanks for the tip about Macca and Driving Rain, that's an album I haven't played for quite a long time and it does deserve being brought back on my CD player's upside-down dish. Of course, if we talk about count-ins - as opposed to countdowns - there are lots and lots and lots of memorable examples... one of the most famous being, yet again, by the Beatles ("I Saw Her Standing There" - «One, two, three, FOUR!» ). Sting also has a good one in a live version of "Love is Stronger than Justice", which has a 7/4 beat: "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven... all good children go to Heav'n!" -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

wiga Group: Members Posts: 2113 Joined: Sep. 2008 Posted: Mar. 22 2009, 07:47 "Crystal Clear" sure is powerful - especially the "NOW!" moment at zero. Remember this "Motorway" counting song: 2-4-6-8 ain't never too late Me and my radio truckin on thru the night 3-5-7-9 on a double white line Motorway sun coming up with the morning light   -------------- Barn's burnt down - now I can see the moon. Back to top

Dirk Star Group: Members Posts: 1331 Joined: Sep. 2007 Posted: Mar. 24 2009, 05:50 The Police song Invisible Sun has kind of a count-in while the music`s fading in at the intro 1,2,3,4,5,6,,Or another Police song to feature counting.. Murder By Numbers..1.2.3..Or even just 1.2.3. itself the old Motown hit. What about songs titles that are simply made up of numbers alone..Such as 5705.."but there`s no reply"..Yeah I`m not surprised mate your trying to ring someone using only four numbers.You havn`t thought it through have you?..Sign of the times though really.5705 was released around 1978 or something.And then ten years later Squeeze released another phone number song entitled 853-5937..Basic math really.The song titles get longer in direct proportion to the increase in size of phone numbers.Give it another ten years or so and the next phone number song will have a chorus that lasts for about twenty minutes or something!? Now how did that Bloody Red Baron song go again?..10,20,30,40,50 or more...God I used to hate that thing. Back to top

Scatterplot Group: Members Posts: 1980 Joined: Dec. 2007 Posted: Mar. 24 2009, 12:05 re: The Pat Metheny/Lyle Mays "As Falls Witchita...." numbers. Last night at work, out of pure boredom, but a 27 year obsession with those "damn numbers".....Somebody(on the net) who said they knew PM and LM said the numbers are timing cues on the long title song, measured in seconds. Beyond that, they are deliberately not in sequence, spoken by Mays on the record, and it's just a bloody mystery I'll have to live with. In '89 about an hour before I saw "the PM group" I talked to Pat in the Bass concert hall parking lot, I should have asked, damn. Why do these little trivia questions eat away at people and better yet isn't it funny artists plant these Davinci codes in there to drive you nuts?     In an old review I found there is a reference to two words you all know:     "The first movement of "As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls" underscores sad, minor-key keyboard chording, an ominous bass and the clatter of wooden wind chimes with milling crowd sounds and atomic rumbling. A metallic guitar-and-autoharp encounter gives way to a lengthy, percolating passage that culminates in emphatic Tubular Bells-type riffing, churchy organ and heavenly harp. In the fourth and final section, the composition gradually "lands" on long lines of cloudy synthesized strings and ends with the eerie sound of children at play in some sort of sonic vacuum."     Damn, this guy Mike Oldfield gets around doesn't he? -------------- We raise our voices in the night Crying to heaven And will our voices be heard Or will they break Like the wind Back to top

bee Group: Members Posts: 1227 Joined: Jan. 2004 Posted: Mar. 24 2009, 16:32 This is a good thread! I too like to listen to countdowns...the thing about Crystal Clear for me is that I have always found that voice ever so slightly disturbing, it's such a fragile sound, a bit  like you would hear in a dream when you are unable to make something out properly...especially the way he says 7...it makes me feel a little uncomfortable but inspite of this I still love the track and feel the countdown is perfectly placed. You could also consider the finale of Tubular Bells with the introduction of each instrument as a count down to the  sound of the bells? And another 1234 by Feist  is good, though more of a count up and not quite perhaps what this thread is all about! I know there are many more, but can't remember them right now, will think on... -------------- ....second to the right and straight on till morning.... You heard me before Yet you hear me again Then I die Till I call me again Back to top

The Big BellEnd Group: Members Posts: 971 Joined: Jan. 2004 Posted: Mar. 24 2009, 18:10 Put on your headphones, turn up volume as loud as you dare. Numbers by Kraftwerk live, Minimum Maximum tour. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-XYuuhcXPQ -------------- I, ON THE OTHER HAND. AM A VICTIM OF YOUR CARNIVOUROUS LUNAR ACTIVITY. Back to top

ex member 419 Group: Members Posts: 1177 Joined: April 2008 Posted: Mar. 25 2009, 02:24 mike is a gypsy and hey why not? he worked hard to earn a decadent lifestyle...south of france, attractive young ladies, oh and another countdown, .1 2 1 2 3 4, nobody told me thered be days like these, john lennon, deb Back to top

3Wheeler Group: Members Posts: 828 Joined: Aug. 2007 Posted: Mar. 25 2009, 09:58 1234 - Feist      Havent got a clue what the song sounds like.. -------------- We're Flying Aeroflot, We've Got Reservations. Back to top

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