The unforgettable sound ... and it's also your Free Thread
July 22, 2024 12:00 AM   Subscribe

Describe, recollect, or muse upon, a significant sound or voice in your life - heard regularly, or just once, or historically in some way. Perhaps the first time you heard your partner or child, a piece of music, birdsong, a TV theme, a sound from a movie, or a sound or voice on a memorable trip, anything which has stuck in your mind ... Or write about whatever is on your mind, in your heart, on your plate or in your journal, because this is your weekly free thread. [Recentish]
posted by Wordshore (37 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
In 1992? 1993? I was in a van full of people driving from Melbourne to Perth [a multi-day drive, it's a 3419 km (2124 miles) drive.] (That's almost as far as New York to San Francisco - New York to San Francisco is 2906 miles.)

We only stopped for toilet breaks, we didn't stop at any motels or campsites. Which meant we were trying to contort ourselves into weird positions so we could sleep while the car was driving through the night.

There was a long night when I was lying on the floor of the van while it was in motion, trying to sleep. Everyone else in the van except the driver was asleep.

The engine of the van made the side of me that was pressed into the floor of the van painfully hot, which meant that I could only sleep for brief snatches of 20 or 30 minutes before the painful heat woke me up.

It was a long, very uncomfortable multi-day trip, and listening to English Rose by The Jam on repeat helped me cope with it.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 12:17 AM on July 22 [7 favorites]


Picking a single piece of music was near-impossible - my head is full of half a century of it - but if there was one extremely specific historical bit of music, it would be that bass line from Two Tribes (Frankie Goes to Hollywood, 1984).
posted by Wordshore at 12:36 AM on July 22 [4 favorites]




It's raining cats and dogs, or cobbler-boys as we say here. Seriously, we have seen lots of rain this year, but this is absurd. There is no wind, just a completely steady constant downpour that has been going on for three hours at least now. I wouldn't be going out anyway, because I have COVID for the second time this summer, and what I wanted to say is how soothing the sound is. I'm far out in the country, so there are no cars or other noises. The neighbors aren't harvesting anything and the people in summerhouses aren't cutting wood. Actually, they've probably gone back home to book a holiday in Spain. Just layers of water, pouring from the sky, dripping from the roof and from the leaves of the apple tree. I should perhaps be working a bit or vacuuming, but for now, I'll give listening to the rain a bit of my time.

In other news, I think the wolf is back after an extended holiday further south (but not in Spain). THere's a particular way the dog sniffs the air, and also he (the dog) barked a lot at bed-time last night. But the wolf lies low in the rain too.
posted by mumimor at 1:45 AM on July 22 [7 favorites]


For my birthday when I was...probably about 11-ish...my uncle gave me the soundtrack for Star Wars: A New Hope (and this being the 80's, it was on vinyl). I played it over and over and over again until, even now, I can recall almost every note perfectly. I'd put on dads huge over-ear Sony headphones and just send myself somewhere where I wasn't bullied at school, or awkward or anxious - just curled up out of the way in the good lounge room and staring out the window at nothing in particular.

Fast forward (heh) to today, and I have an "Epic" playlist that does almost the same thing - I put it on, zone out, and for 3 hours and 50 minutes (and growing) I am somewhere else instead of scrubbing dishes or vacuuming or whatever. Weirdly, I cannot listen to music when I'm writing because apparently I only imagine myself in other places SO HARD that I forget how to type. Brains are weird.
posted by ninazer0 at 3:05 AM on July 22 [3 favorites]


The "chuff chuff chuff chuff" sound made by the beating of a raven's wings as they pass just a bit over your head is not a sound that gets talked about a lot but in my opinion it's highly underrated.

Heavy rain falling on a metal cabin roof is probably not notably underrated, as sounds go, but it's an excellent sound nonetheless.
posted by Nerd of the North at 3:11 AM on July 22 [9 favorites]


In Peppa Pig, the way Grandpa Pig says the word "compost." I don't know why, but I think about it constantly.
posted by Literaryhero at 3:31 AM on July 22 [2 favorites]


Some white cockatoos are inspecting our trees. Their calls sound like someone dragging sheets of roofing iron around. So loud I had to close the windows.
posted by thixotemperate at 3:39 AM on July 22 [3 favorites]


On the "free thread" end of things, I am doing okay teaching myself to ride a longboard! I'm 51 and overweight and have never gotten on a skateboard before, but my wife got me a gift certificate for a local indie skate shop for my 50th birthday, I bought a longboard, then talked myself out of it for about a year.

I've recently been doing down to a local small park in the morning to training-wheels around the tennis court (great -- flat, literally made for people falling down a lot) and the small, curvy footpath that goes around the park. Building confidence! Going down the very gentle hill leading to the park -- you might not even know it's a slope if you're walking on it -- gets me picking up terrifying (to me) amounts of speed, though.
posted by Shepherd at 3:50 AM on July 22 [7 favorites]


I presented my Apple II hobby project at the convention last weekend, and it went well! The PCB I designed for it arrived in time. Well, it arrived a day late really, but I was able to delay leaving until it did. I had made only minor mistakes on the PCB despite the rush job, so I was able to integrate it and use it in the demo, rather than the hand wired prototype.

Now that the pressure is off, I can relax for a little bit and then get to work on next year’s design!
posted by notoriety public at 4:04 AM on July 22 [4 favorites]


The Ramones. December 6, 1979, at the Vogue in Indy. Like a non-stop aural buzzsaw. Loud. Hard. Loud. Fast. Loud. Incredible. Loud.

If your only experience with the Ramones is through their records, you really have never heard the Ramones. Live, they’re like a completely different band, in the absolute best way possible.

It was also the first concert I took my pretty-serious-but-not-yet-fiancee girlfriend to. I wasn’t real sure how it would go, but she loved it. I knew she was the one after that!
posted by Thorzdad at 4:12 AM on July 22 [2 favorites]


Our mother singing while she did housework. We didn't have a radio or anything, so she was the music in our house.
posted by pracowity at 4:52 AM on July 22 [4 favorites]


Copeland’s Appalachian Spring played live by a full orchestra. Second runner up is hearing Ravel’s Bolero played by the PSO.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 4:52 AM on July 22 [2 favorites]


At the age of around 6 or 7 I was at home from school sick with a cold. My father was playing classical music on vinyl. He built his own speakers and had a Heath Kit amplifier. This was the first time I remember listening to music lying on the couch.
posted by DJZouke at 5:01 AM on July 22 [1 favorite]


Heck yeah Shepherd! My husband and I started skateboarding in spring last year (both in our mid thirties, no prior experience) and we recently got a secondhand longboard for cheap. At the minute, my absolute favourite thing is just pumping the longboard on flat. It feels like absolute magic being able to generate speed without putting a foot down. It's also about the only thing on a board I have any aptitude for at all - it took me months to be able to just cruise along even slightly comfortably. And there's kids out there learning to ollie in a matter of weeks. (I still can't!)
posted by Dysk at 5:04 AM on July 22 [4 favorites]


When these big condo towers nears completion, the big tower crane on top of it has to come down. The usual way is by the big crane hoisting the parts of a smaller crane that is then assembled and then itself disassembles the big crane and lowers it down in pieces. The little crane then lifts up the roof crane that will live the rest of its life on the building to take care of maintenance, and which also disassembles and lowers the little crane.

Not the one out my window, though. Saturday morning an enormous red flower suddenly sprouted on Jarvis just south of Gerrard -- a truck mounted lattice boom crane literally 600 feet tall just yoinked the tower construction crane off the top, piece by piece, over a couple hours.

You think, well, those tower construction cranes are pretty big. Then they block a six lane road and this thing rolls up, squats down, puts its legs out wide, and just grows and grows and grows.

Anyway, that was fun.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:06 AM on July 22 [4 favorites]


The woodpeckers that live around here occasionally come to bang their heads on my metal roof gutters. The first time I heard it I about jumped out of my skin - it sounded like a machine gun going off. Now I'm used to it and just imagine the poor woodpecker thinking "Worst. Tree. EVER."
posted by Daily Alice at 5:13 AM on July 22 [5 favorites]


I still think back to a moment in church where I saw a boy who was a few years older than me standing as still as possible. He was trying to open a door without making a loud noise and disturbing the service. The resulting click of the latch was soft, yet clear to me. The hairs on the back of my head stood up, and I felt mesmerised.

Years later people gave this experience the pseudoscientific name "ASMR", and communities formed on youtube. But then it got taken over by roleplayers who tap loudly and harshly on microphones, and the wealth of relaxing mesmerising material has vanished once again.

But all I need to do is throw my mind back to that door in the 80s, and all is calm.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 5:14 AM on July 22 [4 favorites]


Pharoah Sanders was not happy with the sound system at Gilly's in Dayton. So he passed out percussion instruments so the crowd could jam with the band and sing along. It was a transcendent night. Like humans around a fire somewhere on Earth.

It was 1973. I was 21, and this was my first night in a jazz club. Turns out this was not the way an excursion to a jazz club usually played out, but I didn't know that!
posted by kozad at 5:16 AM on July 22 [3 favorites]


In 2001, I was living in an apartment on the Lower East Side; I was close enough to the Twin Towers that I could hear the impact of both planes as they hit.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:19 AM on July 22 [5 favorites]


Lore Sjöberg, whose work I've always followed avidly, made what may end up being the first in a series, where he illustrates Aarne-Thompson-Uther folktale types: Type 1538: The Boy and the Cow Thieves.
posted by JHarris at 5:24 AM on July 22 [1 favorite]


I was staying in a hotel in central Manchester (UK) last night and I woke up about 1am and went out for a smoke (my ability to shake off jetlag in a day seems to have disappeared when I turned 50)
There were some teenagers sitting in the gardens listening to music on their boombox - Mümin Sarıkaya - Ben Yoruldum Hayat.
I think I'll remember those beautiful sounds drifting across the grass while I try to tamp down the stress I feel for a very long time.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 5:33 AM on July 22 [2 favorites]


The first time I heard the mournful sound of a loon. Near Saranac lake in N.Y.
posted by Czjewel at 5:43 AM on July 22 [2 favorites]


At the moment the sound of my neighbor’s new small, yippy dog - barking for ten minutes straight about three feet from my head at 6AM, after I’d gotten back from Albany at 3AM, is the only sound I can hear. I am not someone who is a jerk about other people’s dogs, or dogs in general, or the sort to file noise complaints. But this is the fifth time in two weeks I’ve gotten three hours of sleep on a day where I need to write code, so I have finally reached my breaking point.

On less Ryvar-is-a-big-dog-hating-meanie topics: once every year or so Filter’s “Take A Picture,” a fairly anodyne grunge rock song, absolutely burrows into my skull like nothing else ever has before or since. I have to listen to it for 4, maybe 6 hours before it stops. This started in 2019 with by far the worst case of this where I was utterly compelled to listen to it (on headphones, obvi) looped for 24 hours straight. No idea why; it’s just an okay song, and listening to it that much hasn’t made me feel strongly about it. The very mild positive feelings I have towards it are perfectly balanced by annoyance with the sheer oddity of this compulsion. So, Filter’s Take A Picture: I have listened to this song looped for at least 44 hours and it’s okay I guess.
posted by Ryvar at 5:53 AM on July 22 [1 favorite]


Adam Clayton's bassline in Bullet The Blue Sky on U2's Rattle and Hum is forever in my head.
posted by tommasz at 5:55 AM on July 22 [3 favorites]


I have heard a lot of memorable sounds in my life, but the one that comes immediately to mind is the sound that ice on a freezing lake makes.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 6:00 AM on July 22 [2 favorites]


Last week I helped an eastern box turtle trying to cross a 55mph highway. Said turtle was trucking, and I had to run my ass off to get there in time to prevent a needless death. I got there, lifted Mr. Boxy, and waited for a break in traffic. I ran across the highway and put Mr. Boxy down in his direction of travel while he was still madly paddling and trying to make his own way in midair. When I put him down, that turtle actually snorted at me. I had never previously heard a turtle snort.

And that's my sound story.
posted by cupcakeninja at 6:04 AM on July 22 [5 favorites]


The beginning and ending credit themes to BoJack Horseman always reminds me of my drunken period. I love the series, but that music makes my heart hurt.

On the upside, I adore the first season opening to Delicious in Dungeon (Sleep Walking Orchestra).
posted by SPrintF at 6:18 AM on July 22 [1 favorite]


Decided to take a cycling shortcut through the woods on the way to work and rode through six spider webs.

Most of them were those mottled brown bug bum things that make the round webs, but one had long black legs and a slender turquoise thorax. It looked both deadly and delicious.
posted by CynicalKnight at 6:18 AM on July 22 [3 favorites]


If you were a kid visiting the Museum of Science in the 1980s/90s....

Who put the bomp
In the bomp bah bomp bah bomp?

posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:28 AM on July 22 [1 favorite]


The TV snow HBO intro always gets me in tune for the Sopranos opening theme, down a fifth.

As for significant voices in my life, I'm headed to NYC on Tuesday to see Billy Joel's final residency show at Madison Square Garden on Thursday. (My wife somehow pulled off that surprise for my 50th birthday.) We're also seeing Stereophonic and Hadestown while we're up there through Sunday.

We were going to be in New Orleans for my birthday back in May, but canceled those plans when my mom's health took a nosedive, so I'm really looking forward to this vacation. My mom would have loved knowing what we're going to do, since NYC was my parents' first home, Long Island was my first home, and our family saw some iconic Broadway shows in my youth.
posted by emelenjr at 6:39 AM on July 22 [3 favorites]


The sound of an electric typewriter powering up—a click and then the whirr of anticipation, as if the machine is saying “let’s get to work!” A sound close to my heart.

As an English major who could do 110 wpm, I edited and typed countless papers, theses, and essays for myself and others. My portable typewriter was a co-worker, creative outlet and income stream all in one beautiful package. I wore out one typewriter a year and always got a new one thanks to its warranty.

On a museum visit recently I beheld several old typewriters that visitors were welcomed to try.

When I rolled the switch on the Smith-Corona desk model, and heard (and felt!) that familiar hum, I had to dash to a rest room where I cried and cried. Oh, my old friend, how I have missed you.
posted by kinnakeet at 6:42 AM on July 22 [3 favorites]


Did a whole bunch of food prep yesterday--I'm trying to do that more on Sundays as I like being set up for the week with stuff--and best of all, I did it whilst being gently stoned. (I love doing chores while high; it's just..so nice.)

I made: vegan "egg" salad for sandwiches, granola for breakfast, fudge (using that stash of vegan mini marshmallows I told y'all about), roasted tomatoes for snacking, a new vegan "cheese" recipe for snacking/melting/slicing, and an ice cream base using a huge ripe papaya leftover from a food basket.

Upon the subject of sounds, I have a deep fondness for the clink of a spoon being tapped in a coffee cup. It reminds me of when I used to get up early as a little kid on my late grandparents' farm. They would have been up to feed the animals already and the doors would be open to catch that early morning Northern Florida coolness. Before I even saw them in the kitchen, I could hear them fixing their morning coffee. That sound is deeply connected to them for me and I miss them. But every time I hear it, either at home or in the wild, I think of them.
posted by Kitteh at 6:43 AM on July 22 [2 favorites]


Oh, and my weed plants that I planted directly in the yard? Holy shit, they are as tall as me now. I'm sold on planting in the ground; I've been doing potted grows for the past three years and they never got as huge as these sumbitches.
posted by Kitteh at 6:45 AM on July 22 [1 favorite]


Exciting sound memory from my youth: the 'Enterprise Attacked' incidental music from Star Trek: The Animated Series.

Terrifying sound memory from my adult life (hearing it now, over 17 years on, is chilling): the incoming fire attack sirens at Basra Air Station.
posted by Major Clanger at 7:01 AM on July 22 [3 favorites]


As for a memorable occasion hearing a recognisable voice...

About 15 years ago I helped out my late and much-missed friend Hugh Hancock do a recording session for a Machinima production. He had hired some pretty good voice talent (including Joanna Lumley and BRIAN BLESSED) and at one of the sessions we were waiting in reception of a recording studio in London for that day's talent to turn up.

Behind us a the door opens, and the receptionist says "Good morning!"

"Good morning!" comes the reply. Hugh and I stare at one another with instant recognition, scarcely even daring to turn round.

TOM BAKER.
posted by Major Clanger at 7:07 AM on July 22 [1 favorite]


A few months ago, I heard the pounding of a lot of fists on the first floor door of my apartment house, which was terrifying. I thought people were trying to break in. They weren't. My house was on fire and the alarm hadn't gone off. I'm very grateful to those neighbors and passersby who alerted us--all ten of us got out without time to spare because of them.
posted by pangolin party at 7:09 AM on July 22


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