Subways of Your Mind

"Subways of Your Mind"
Official artwork of the 2024/2025 digital/vinyl release
Single by Fex
Released20 December 2024 (official demo digital release)
Recordedc. 1984
StudioHawkeye Studio, Ganderkesee (studio version)
Genre
Length2:55 (studio/radio version)
3:54 (demo version)
4:25 (Practice Room Recording)
Composer(s)Ture Rückwardt
Michael Hädrich
Lyricist(s)Ture Rückwardt
Live single cover
Cover of the live single, released 26 December 2024.

"Subways of Your Mind" is a song by German rock band Fex, recorded in 1983. In the 2000s, a recording on a cassette tape from a radio broadcast in the mid-1980s was uploaded online and garnered significant attention. The song remained unidentified, even after being uploaded to the Internet, prompting a 17-year-long search to identify the artist and song title. During this search, the song earned the nickname "The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet".[note 1]

The song was recorded from a West German Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) radio broadcast sometime during the mid-1980s, likely in or around 1984.[1] In 2019, it became the subject of a viral Internet phenomenon, with many users of sites such as Reddit and Discord collaborating to identify the song and recording artist.[1]

In November 2024, the song was identified as "Subways of Your Mind" by Fex, a rock band from Kiel. Confirmation came with the release of a 1983 EP featuring a demo version of the song, as well as a recording of a 1985 live performance.[2][3][4] However, the 1/4 master tape containing the studio version of the song, which was the version broadcast on the radio, has yet to be found and may be permanently lost.[5]

Throughout the search, other unknown songs have been discovered. Users online have coined the term "lostwave" to describe songs of this nature.

Origin

List of songs on paper, with one entry, labelled as "Blind the Wind", and a question mark indicating that the artist was unknown
List of songs on the BASF 4|1 tape that includes "Subways of Your Mind" (mislabelled as "Blind the Wind") and a question mark indicating that the artist was unknown
The original demo cassette featuring "Subways of Your Mind", recorded c. 1983

A German teenager named Darius S. recorded the song from a radio program on the North German public radio station Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) in the 1980s.[1][6] He recorded the song on a cassette tape and made a mixtape, which also included songs from XTC and The Cure. To get clean recordings of songs, Darius purposely removed dialogue from the radio hosts, which is likely why the exact airplay date and the title were unknown.[7]

In 2004, Darius' older sister, Lydia H., bought him a website domain as a birthday present, which he used to raise awareness of the unidentified songs in his collection. He then digitized his radio recordings, saving the songs as .aiff and .m4a files, and uploaded them to his site, named Unknown Pleasures after the 1979 album of the same name by English rock band Joy Division.[8]

On March 18, 2007, Lydia began her online search for the song on a Usenet group, but later migrated to websites with song identification tools. She posted a 1:15 excerpt of the song to best-of-80s.de (a German forum devoted to eighties synth-pop) and to The Spirit of Radio (a fan site dedicated to Canadian radio station CFNY-FM).[1][6] The song slowly spread across the Internet, being uploaded to WatZatSong in 2009 and to YouTube in 2011. Spanish indie record label Dead Wax Records posted the excerpt of the song to their YouTube channel in 2017. This caught the attention of Gabriel Pelenson, a friend of Dead Wax owner Nicolás Zúñiga, who began searching for the song's origin in 2019.

Pelenson uploaded the excerpt of the song to his YouTube channel and many music-related Reddit communities, and eventually founded r/TheMysteriousSong.[9] Searchers made contact with individuals potentially pertinent to the search, such as NDR disc jockey Paul Baskerville, German performance rights organization GEMA, and YouTube channel "80zforever", which posts obscure music.[1] Baskerville agreed to play the song on his then-current radio show Nachtclub on July 21, 2019.[10] Although no new leads came of it, it did make Lydia and Darius aware of the new wave of investigation, and Lydia subsequently became involved with the Reddit community in August.[10]

Theories

Searchers generally agreed that the singer has some sort of European accent, but the specific type was unclear.[6] Some users had theorized that the Yamaha DX7 synthesizer, which was released in late 1983, was used in the leads.[10] This was later confirmed by Fex's keyboardist Michael Hädrich.[11]

There had been some speculation that the song was recorded in 1984, since most of the other songs on the cassette tape were released around that time. Further evidence for this is that the Technics tape deck which Darius S. likely used to record the song was manufactured that year.[1]

Radio disc jockey Paul Baskerville, who does not remember playing the song,[6] suspected that it was a demo recording that was played once by an NDR presenter and then thrown away.[12]

One article from March 2021 claimed that the song was likely written and performed by Viennese singer Christian Brandl and drummer Ronnie Urini in 1983, with both German and English versions. The song would have been recorded in the studio of the late Fred Jakesch on Mariahilferstraße in Vienna. Alto saxophonist Heinz Hochrainer said he was present for a planned saxophone element, but that was never recorded. A preliminary mix of the song then would have made its way to NDR Radio in 1984. Urini confirmed the story and also provided an old typewritten version of the German lyrics as evidence. However, this theory has since been debunked. Robert Wolf, Brandl's musical colleague and the frontman of their band Chuzpe, said that he did not recognize Brandl's voice in the song and that the drums sounded more like an electronic drum machine than Urini.[13] Following the discovery of the song's name and band, Urini claimed that the recordings that have surfaced are forged by AI, and that he doesn't want to do anything more about the search.[14]

Viral internet phenomenon

On May 27, 2019, Australian music news website Tone Deaf wrote the earliest article focusing on the song, with author Tyler Jenke discussing the preliminary stages of the search for the track and noting that the search was similar to a 2013 search for a song which was ultimately identified as "On the Roof" by Swedish musician Johan Lindell.[15]

Between 2019 and 2021, American YouTuber Justin Whang posted five episodes of his series Tales from the Internet discussing the song and the progress of the search. His videos further galvanized Internet users to contribute to the effort to identify the song.[6][9]

In addition, a number of covers and remixed versions of the song have been created,[8] including a cover by American band Mephisto Walz titled "Like the Wind" and released on their 2020 album All These Winding Roads.[16]

In March 2023, the song was used in MyHouse.wad, a Doom II mod posted to the Doomworld forums by the pseudonymous user "Veddge". As described in PC Gamer, "you can find it playing from the open door of a lonely car, several layers deep into the inception-style madness that plagues the mod". The song's cryptic nature led it to be widely associated with the "liminal space" internet aesthetic.[17]

Identification

On November 4, 2024, Reddit user u/marijn1412 claimed to have identified the song as "Subways of Your Mind" by the German band Fex. While researching bands who participated in Hörfest, an annual event highlighting lesser-known musical artists, the user contacted a Fex band member listed in an issue of the German newspaper Nordwest-Zeitung [de]. According to the user, the band member confirmed that Fex was the creator of the song and planned to re-release it.[18][19] One member of Fex, Michael Hädrich, confirmed the story to German tabloid Tz,[20][21] while the band's lead singer, Ture Rückwardt, participated in an interview with the Kiel newspaper Kieler Nachrichten, further corroborating the story.[22] On November 7, 2024, three of the four original members of the band, Hädrich, Rückwardt and bassist Norbert Ziermann, performed an acoustic version of the song for the German radio station NDR 1 Welle Nord [de] in Kiel.[23] The identification of the song occurred forty years after the recording date of the demo, seventeen years after the first known online attempt to identify it, and five years of general popularity on the Internet.

Personnel

  • Ture Rückwardt – composer, vocals, guitar[4]
  • Norbert Ziermann – bass[4]
  • Michael Hädrich – keyboards, vocals, guitar[4]
  • Hans-Reimer Sievers – drums[4]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Also known as "Like the Wind", "The Sun Will Never Shine", "Blind the Wind", "Check It In, Check It Out", "Take It In, Take It Out", and "Summer Blues" after lines in fan-interpreted lyrics. "Subways of Your Mind" was also correctly speculated to be the name. Sometimes referred to as "The Mysterious Song". Often acronymed as LTW, TMMS, TMS and TMMSOTI.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Browne, David (24 September 2019). "The Unsolved Case of the Most Mysterious Song on the Internet". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 25 September 2019. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  2. ^ Blistein, Jon (5 November 2024). "Case Closed: One of the internet's biggest musical mysteries has likely been solved". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 5 November 2024. Retrieved 6 November 2024. A 'lost' New Wave track stumping listeners for over 15 years was identified as 'Subways of Your Mind' by the German band FEX
  3. ^ Davis, Wes (5 November 2024). "Reddit sleuths track down the band behind the internet's most mysterious song". The Verge. Archived from the original on 8 November 2024. Retrieved 6 November 2024. Now we know that the song is called 'Subways Of the Mind' by a band named FEX. Here's a recording provided by Michael Hädrich, a 68-year-old former band member.
  4. ^ a b c d e Böhm, Markus; Kleinz, Torsten (5 November 2024). "Netzrätsel nach Jahren gelöst: Hinter dem »geheimnisvollsten Lied des Internets« steckt eine deutsche Band" [Internet mystery solved after years: A German band was behind the 'most mysterious song on the Internet'.]. Der Spiegel (in German). Retrieved 6 November 2024. Es ist ein historischer Tag. Nicht etwa wegen der US-Wahl. Sondern, weil etwas anderes geschehen ist, das sich für einige Menschen offenbar ähnlich weltbewegend anfühlt: Das Geheimnis um den »most mysterious Song on the Internet«, und damit eines der bekanntesten Netzrätsel überhaupt, ist gelüftet worden. Nach 17 Jahren. [It's a historic day. Not because of the US election. But because something else happened that apparently felt equally earth-shattering to some people: The secret of the 'most mysterious song on the Internet', and thus one of the most famous online mysteries of all time, has been revealed. After 17 years.]
  5. ^ Hädrich, Michael (12 November 2024). "1. This will be sort…". r/TheMysteriousSong. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
  6. ^ a b c d e Jones, Alexandra Mae (18 November 2019). "Help solve a decades-long mystery: What is the name of this mysterious 80s song?". CTV News. Archived from the original on 24 May 2023. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
  7. ^ Reeve, Tanja (30 May 2020). "Die Jagd nach dem Most Mysterious Song on the Internet". Braunschweiger Zeitung (in German). Archived from the original on 3 July 2020. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  8. ^ a b "The Most Mysterious Song – Wie die Suche nach dem geheimnisvollen Song aus den 80ern begann". Spontis (in German). 10 September 2019. Archived from the original on 12 August 2020. Retrieved 7 November 2024.
  9. ^ a b "This Mysterious Three-Minute Song Has The Internet Baffled". 2 Ocean's Vibe News. 29 July 2021. Archived from the original on 26 December 2021. Retrieved 25 December 2021.
  10. ^ a b c "Como el viento. La historia de la canción más misteriosa de internet". Multimedios (in Spanish). 3 May 2021. Archived from the original on 1 June 2023. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
  11. ^ Böhm, Markus; Kleinz, Torsten (5 November 2024). "Hinter dem »geheimnisvollsten Lied des Internets« steckt eine deutsche Band". Spiegel. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  12. ^ "Hamburg Journal: Der geheimnisvolle Song aus dem NDR Archiv". ARD Mediathek (in German). Archived from the original on 15 November 2020. Retrieved 9 December 2020.
  13. ^ "Plattentests.de exklusiv: Rätsel um The Most Mysterious Song On The Internet gelöst?". Plattentests.de (in German). 26 March 2021. Archived from the original on 17 December 2023. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  14. ^ Nussmayr, Katrin (12 November 2024). "Das Rätsel um den „Most Mysterious Song on the Internet" ist gelöst". Die Presse (in German). Archived from the original on 13 November 2024. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
  15. ^ Jenke, Tyler (27 May 2019). "Can you help some internet sleuths identify a mysterious song?". Tone Deaf. Archived from the original on 31 May 2023. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
  16. ^ "Mephisto Walz : «All These Winding Roads»". No BS: Just Rock & Roll! (in French). 12 September 2020. Archived from the original on 10 November 2024. Retrieved 6 November 2024.
  17. ^ Randall, Harvey (5 November 2024). "After 17 years, 'the most mysterious song on the internet', used in esoteric and rad Doom mod MyHouse.wad, has been found". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 26 November 2024. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  18. ^ Fraisse, Corentin (4 November 2024). "La 'chanson la plus mystérieuse d'Internet' a été trouvée !". Tsugi (in French). Archived from the original on 4 November 2024. Retrieved 4 November 2024.
  19. ^ Gault, Matthew (4 November 2024). "'The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet' Has Finally Been Identified". 404 Media. Retrieved 4 November 2024.
  20. ^ Blistein, Jon (5 November 2024). "One of the Internet's Biggest Musical Mysteries Has Likely Been Solved". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 5 November 2024. Retrieved 5 November 2024.
  21. ^ "Millionen rätselten: Globale Suche führt ausgerechnet zu Münchner – der zeigt sich „komplett überwältigt"" [Millions were puzzled: Global search leads to, of all people, Munich – appears to be 'completely overwhelmed']. tz (in German). 6 November 2024. Archived from the original on 5 November 2024. Retrieved 6 November 2024.
  22. ^ Metschies, Ulrich (6 November 2024). "Gelöst: Von wem ist „The most mysterious song on the Internet" wirklich?". www.kn-online.de (in German). Archived from the original on 12 November 2024. Retrieved 7 November 2024.
  23. ^ "'The Most Mysterious Song' von Kieler Band im Radio". www.ndr.de (in German). 7 November 2024. Retrieved 7 November 2024.

Read other articles:

PTENStruktur yang tersediaPDBPencarian Ortolog: PDBe RCSB Daftar kode id PDB4O1V, 1D5R, 2KYL, 5BZX, 5BUG, 5BZZPengidentifikasiAliasPTEN, 10q23del, BZS, CWS1, DEC, GLM2, MHAM, MMAC1, PTEN1, TEP1, phosphatase and tensin homolog, Phosphatase and tensin homolog, PTENbetaID eksternalOMIM: 601728 MGI: 109583 HomoloGene: 265 GeneCards: PTEN Lokasi gen (Manusia)Kr.Kromosom 10 (manusia)[1]Pita10q23.31Awal87,862,638 bp[1]Akhir87,971,930 bp[1]Lokasi gen (Tikus)Kr.Kromosom 19...

 

 

Erik Meijer Erik Meijer (lahir 5 Desember 1944) adalah seorang mantan politikus Belanda yang menjadi anggota Parlemen Eropa untuk Partai Sosialis Belanda, bagian dari Sayap Kiri Eropa, antara 1999 dan 2009. Dari Juli 2014 sampai Juni 2015, ia menjadi anggota Senat Belanda. Pranala luar Wikimedia Commons memiliki media mengenai Erik Meijer (politician). Profile at the EP group Profil pribadi Erik Meijer dalam basis data anggota Parlemen Eropa Templat:Declaration of financial interests of the 6...

 

 

William W. FraserLahir(1844-03-07)7 Maret 1844Burn Brac, SkotlandiaMeninggal9 Februari 1915(1915-02-09) (umur 70)CaliforniaTempat makamOdd Fellows Cemetery, Los Angeles, CaliforniaPengabdianAmerika SerikatDinas/cabangAngkatan Darat Amerika SerikatUnion ArmyLama dinas1862 - 1865PangkatKorporalKesatuanCompany I, 97th Illinois Volunteer Infantry RegimentPerang/pertempuranPerang Saudara Amerika • Pengepungan VicksburgPenghargaanMedal of Honor William W. Fraser (7 Maret 1844 ...

العلاقات الإريترية السورية إريتريا سوريا   إريتريا   سوريا تعديل مصدري - تعديل   العلاقات الإريترية السورية هي العلاقات الثنائية التي تجمع بين إريتريا وسوريا.[1][2][3][4][5] مقارنة بين البلدين هذه مقارنة عامة ومرجعية للدولتين: وجه المقارنة إري�...

 

 

Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3 Unit 2 atau Gwangmyeongseong-3 ho 2-hogi (Hangul: 《광명성―3》호 2호기[1]; Hanja: 光明星3號2號機; RR: Gwangmyeongseong-3 ho 2-hogi; MR: Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3 ho 2-hogi; Bahasa Inggris: Bright Star-3 Unit 2 atau Lodestar-3 Unit 2) adalah satelit pertama yang berhasil diluncurkan dari Korea Utara, sebuah pesawat ruang angkasa observasi Bumi yang diluncurkan pada 12 Desember 2012, 00:49 UTC, untuk menggantik...

 

 

Miss Universe 1998Tanggal12 Mei 1998TempatStan Sheriff Arena, Honolulu, Hawaii, ASPembawa acaraJack Wagner, Ali Landry, Julie MoranPengisi acaraK-Ci and JoJoPenyiaranCBSPeserta81Finalis/Semifinalis10PemenangWendy Fitzwilliam Trinidad dan TobagoPersahabatanAsuman Krause TurkiKostum Nasional TerbaikWendy Fitzwilliam Trinidad dan TobagoFotogenikVladimira Hrenovcikova Slowakialbs Miss Universe 1998 adalah kontes Miss Universe yang ke-47, diselenggarakan di ...

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station launch site Launch Complex 31Launch siteCape Canaveral Space Force StationLocation28°27′09″N 80°33′22″W / 28.45250°N 80.55611°W / 28.45250; -80.55611Short nameLC-31OperatorUS Space ForceLaunch pad(s)2 (incl. silo)Launch historyStatusInactiveFirst launchFebruary 1, 1960AssociatedrocketsMinutemanPershing 1a Launch Complex 31 (LC-31) is a former launch complex at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. It was built ...

 

 

Indian multinational home appliances and consumer electronics company Voltas LimitedCompany typePublicTraded as NSE: VOLTAS BSE: 500575 ISININE226A01021Industry Home appliances Founded1954; 70 years ago (1954)[1]HeadquartersMumbai, Maharashtra, IndiaArea servedWorldwideKey peoplePradeep Bakshi (MD & CEO)Noel Tata (Chairman)ProductsAir conditioningRefrigeratorAir coolerWashing machineAir purifierDishwasherWater coolerMicrowave ovenWater dispensersVoltage...

 

 

American politician (1933–2016) Senator Bennett redirects here. For other uses, see Senator Bennett (disambiguation). Bob BennettOfficial portrait, 2005United States Senatorfrom UtahIn officeJanuary 3, 1993 – January 3, 2011Preceded byJake GarnSucceeded byMike Lee Personal detailsBornRobert Foster Bennett(1933-09-18)September 18, 1933Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.DiedMay 4, 2016(2016-05-04) (aged 82)Arlington, Virginia, U.S.Resting placeSalt Lake City CemeteryPolitical partyRepu...

Cet article est une ébauche concernant la philosophie et la religion. Vous pouvez partager vos connaissances en l’améliorant (comment ?) selon les recommandations des projets correspondants. Sub specie æternitatis (en latin : « sous l'aspect de l'éternité » ou encore, d'une façon moins littérale, « de toute éternité ») est une notion à la fois religieuse et philosophique qui remonte à l'herméneutique de la Torah. Développée par Spinoza, cette...

 

 

Submachine gun Beretta Model 12 Beretta M12S displaying extended folding stock.TypeSubmachine gunPlace of originItalyService historyIn service1961–present[1]Used bySee UsersWars Vietnam War The Troubles Operation Marajoara[2] Afghanistan wars Lebanese Civil War[3] Iran-Iraq War Libyan Civil War[4] Production historyDesignerBerettaDesigned1950–1959[1]ManufacturerBeretta, Taurus, Defence Industries Corporation, MAS, PT PindadProduc...

 

 

American opera singer This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (October 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This biography of a...

Questa voce sull'argomento calciatori argentini è solo un abbozzo. Contribuisci a migliorarla secondo le convenzioni di Wikipedia. Segui i suggerimenti del progetto di riferimento. Joaquín ArzuraNazionalità Argentina Altezza170 cm Peso71 kg Calcio RuoloDifensore Squadra Ind. Rivadavia CarrieraGiovanili ????-2011 Tigre Squadre di club1 2011-2015 Tigre71 (1)2016-2017 River Plate13 (0)2017-2018→  Osasuna28 (0)2018-2019→  Almería11 (0)2019→  ...

 

 

Halaman ini berisi artikel tentang konsep etnokultural historis Tibet. Untuk wilayah administrasi sekarang, lihat Daerah Otonom Tibet. Untuk kegunaan lain, lihat Tibet (disambiguasi). Koordinat: 31°N 89°E / 31°N 89°E / 31; 89               Tibet Raya yang diklaim oleh kelompok eksil Tibet   Wilayah otonomi Tibet, seperti yang dideskripsikan oleh Tiongkok   Daerah Otonom Tibet, di Tiongkok Wilayah yang dikontrol Tiongkok,...

 

 

Cyclohexanol[1] Names Preferred IUPAC name Cyclohexanol Other names Cyclohexyl Alcohol,hexahydrophenol,hydrophenol,hydroxycyclohexane,NaxolHexalinHydralinHOCy Identifiers CAS Number 108-93-0 Y 3D model (JSmol) Interactive image 3DMet B00190 ChEBI CHEBI:18099 Y ChEMBL ChEMBL32010 Y ChemSpider 7678 Y DrugBank DB03703 Y ECHA InfoCard 100.003.301 EC Number 203-630-6 KEGG C00854 Y PubChem CID 7966 RTECS number GV7875000 UNII 8E7S519M3P Y CompTox Dashboar...

Military reserve of the Canadian Armed Forces This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find sources: Primary Reserve – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this message) Canadian Forces Primary ReservePremière réserve des Forces canadiennes (French)Reserve...

 

 

1946 Bengal Legislative Assembly election ← 1937 1946 1952 (West Bengal) → 1954 (East Bengal) → All 250 seats in the Bengal Legislative Assembly   First party Second party Third party   Leader Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy Sarat Chandra Bose Jyoti Basu Party AIML INC CPI Last election 43 54 32 Seats won 113 86 3 Seat change 70 32 29 Prime Minister before election Governor's rule Elected Prime Minister Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy AIML Legislative a...

 

 

هذه المقالة يتيمة إذ تصل إليها مقالات أخرى قليلة جدًا. فضلًا، ساعد بإضافة وصلة إليها في مقالات متعلقة بها. (مارس 2023)   لمعانٍ أخرى، طالع علي هزازي (توضيح). علي هزازي معلومات شخصية الاسم الكامل علي محمد عيسى هزازي تاريخ الميلاد 12 مارس 1998 (العمر 26 سنة) مركز اللعب لاعب وسط ال�...

Space curve that winds around a line This article is about the shape. For the shape of deoxyribonucleic acid, see Double helix. For other uses, see Helix (disambiguation). (l-r) Tension, compression and torsion coil springs A machine screw The right-handed helix (cos t, sin t, t) for 0 ≤ t ≤ 4π with arrowheads showing direction of increasing t A helix (/ˈhiːlɪks/; pl. helices) is a shape like the cylindrical part of a coil spring or machine screw. It is a type of smooth space cur...

 

 

يفتقر محتوى هذه المقالة إلى الاستشهاد بمصادر. فضلاً، ساهم في تطوير هذه المقالة من خلال إضافة مصادر موثوق بها. أي معلومات غير موثقة يمكن التشكيك بها وإزالتها. (نوفمبر 2019) كأس رابطة الدول المستقلة 2008 تفاصيل الموسم كأس رابطة الدول المستقلة  النسخة 16  البلد لاتفيا  التار...