Culture "The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet" has been found! The song is called Subways Of Your Mind by FEX.

OP | Archive


So here's the story in short:
About two weeks ago I came across an old newspaper article in the Nordwest Zeitung archive, while researching Hörfest bands. The article was about a band called FEX from Kiel, who won a talent contest in Bremen in Sep 1984 and their music was described as Rock with Wave and Pop influences. It also mentioned their members and one of them I recognised from a Hörfest 83 band called Phret. I managed to get in touch with him and asked him if he still had some old material from those bands. He then sent me some of the songs he made with FEX and Phret... and lo and behold, one of them was titled Subways Of Your Mind. It's a slightly different version from the one we know: https://vocaroo.com/19NFyeqYi7Zj
After I emailed him back that the song is actually quite a famous "lost song", he asked me not to go public with it until he spoke with his old band members. In the mean time though the song did get registered at GEMA and people found out about it. But I'm happy to say that the band members agreed for me to go public with it. So here it is.
I'm sure there will be a lot of questions and I hope the band can answer these themselves in the future. I'm just glad and relieved the search is over
EDIT (additional information):
https://preview.redd.it/x6lslr53jvy...bp&s=5d699794d26d8a0d998c3f9b7bee1a28b205ef7b
Heart In Danger: https://vocaroo.com/1kAK2RMZMO3T
Talking Hands: https://vocaroo.com/15IQ8yYROCAD

Spoiler: Subways Of Your Mind

Spoiler: Heart In Danger

Spoiler: Talking Hands

Spoiler: Image attached via the link in the edit

 

[George Lucas]

To be honest, now that the mystery is gone, can we admit the song... isn't very good? Like, there's a reason it was so obscure lol.

It's very middling, in my opinion. Considering the amount of good music that came out around that time I'm not surprised it faded into the background.

The original recording is better. The one in OP is too slow and mixed poorly. Neither are really good but the original on YouTube is a lot better:

The one in OP is supposedly a demo version while the one on YouTube is from an FM recording which means there was some level of professional work done on it.

 

[Beautiful Border]

Anyone remember the time there was a big search for a missing song like this for a song that was nicknamed "Stay (The Second Time Around)"?

And it was eventually discovered as being On The Roof by Johan Lindell:

I remember this one happening somewhat recently too, only in... wait, 2013? Over a decade ago? FFS.

 

[NickDigger]

Kill yourself

Lmao lost media cuck seething.

 

[WaveBreak]

So what is the next biggest catch? Everyone knows that - identified, how long will it take - identified, now this. I don't think there is something that big left.

The original tape of everyone knows that is still lost though

 

[The Backwards Man]

Not sure if it was posted already since the website is being dead and gay for me and giving cant-be-loaded errors right now, but there's also a live rehearsal that was found:

Edit: This was posted already. I am late and gay. Disregard.

 

[Dante Alighieri]

I don't get it

 

[Bunny Tracks]

So what is the next biggest catch? Everyone knows that - identified, how long will it take - identified, now this. I don't think there is something that big left.

As others have said, it's the original unedited Jeff the Killer photo, and footage of the Christine Chubbuck on-air suicide (only the audio has been found).

However, other big contenders are Owen Hart's death tape, London After Midnight, the full eight-hour cut of the movie Greed, the Basement Tapes, and the early seasons of Doctor Who.

 

[Vecr]

and the early seasons of Doctor Who.

Those are probably just gone. The magnetic tapes were reused and/or discarded after becoming too worn, and back then you needed really expensive equipment to record TV off the air. You would need some massive coincidence with a rich TV recording hobbyist who didn't get their tapes thrown away after they died.

 

[The Cunting Death]

Lmao lost media cuck seething.

Kill yourself.

 

[itogi]

Those are probably just gone. The magnetic tapes were reused and/or discarded after becoming too worn, and back then you needed really expensive equipment to record TV off the air. You would need some massive coincidence with a rich TV recording hobbyist who didn't get their tapes thrown away after they died.

Magnetic tapes are not the only means of video archival of 1960s-70s TV productions, some Doctor Who episodes were found on kinescope copies (recordings of TV screen with 16mm film camera), there is still a chance of recovering at least some of 97 currently missing episodes.

 

[Ashkenazi Porn Actress]

the Basement Tapes,

The Klebold and Harris tapes? Aren't these known to be destroyed and only known from partial transcriptions, which is where the "K&H were edgy psychos but were sent over the edge after being raped by a crooked cop" theory came from?

 

[Procopius]

Everyone prefers the version of a song they heard first. I thought ORGY was rad on the Family Values '97 CD,

You think that's bad? The first version of Smells Like Teen Spirit I heard, and still the definitive one was this

 

[purpleflurp]

I'm not a huge lost media nut, but I definitely think it's a net positive for preservation whenever we can find a source for stuff like this.

Now all they need to do is find the origin of the Jeff the Killer image. I think Mutahar still has a bounty out on that one.

Those are probably just gone. The magnetic tapes were reused and/or discarded after becoming too worn, and back then you needed really expensive equipment to record TV off the air. You would need some massive coincidence with a rich TV recording hobbyist who didn't get their tapes thrown away after they died.

IIRC, a few of the recovered episodes were in the possession of employees of rebroadcasting stations that essentially just walked off with the reels. While I doubt anyone gives a shit now, there's likely a few that probably never came forward because they didn't want to admit they're in possession of "stolen property"

There's also the fact that there's plenty of media preservationists with the Byuu mentality of "Fuck you, got mine." That being either 1.) They don't want to put these out there because they're worried they'll get sued, or 2.) The lost episodes are special because they're the only ones who have them, and if they're released to the public they won't be as valuable.

 

[SFINAE]

I'm glad it was found, but I like the recorded version better than the original TBH. The synths are better and it sounds more melancholic.

 

[Oliver Onions]

I wonder how it must feel to learn a random demo you laid down 40 years ago has been an obsession of the Internet for 5 years, all the while it's been sitting on a cassette in your attic.

I don't think this is quite as cool as the Backrooms photo being sourced (mainly because it was hiding in plain sight the whole time) but I'm happy I finally have the full version to listen to instead of the scuffed part that's been doing the rounds forever.

 

[Juan But Not Forgotten]

As others have said, it's the original unedited Jeff the Killer photo, and footage of the Christine Chubbuck on-air suicide (only the audio has been found).

However, other big contenders are Owen Hart's death tape, London After Midnight, the full eight-hour cut of the movie Greed, the Basement Tapes, and the early seasons of Doctor Who.

I was talking more about music lost media, but your cases are legit too. To me the biggest piece of these are the lost Boards of Canada tracks and albums, including those they played on the premiere event for Tomorrow's Harvest. Sadly, I feel like these are lost forever.

 

[Roland TB-303]

This song is pretty shit, I don’t get the hype to be honest. It’s probably just some autistic shit that I’m too well intentioned to understand. Internet genres baffle me.

 

[The Hardest R]

I love the fags demanding a reason to care about a 17 year old internet culture meme.

This is Kiwifarms, thats all we care about lol

Agreed. Imagine getting 3edgy5me about a lost song now found and not wanting to kill yourself from the shame of holding such a retarded viewpoint.

 

[pro drivor]

The Klebold and Harris tapes? Aren't these known to be destroyed and only known from partial transcriptions, which is where the "K&H were edgy psychos but were sent over the edge after being raped by a crooked cop" theory came from?

The FBI supposedly has some of the tapes iirc

This song is pretty shit, I don’t get the hype to be honest. It’s probably just some autistic shit that I’m too well intentioned to understand. Internet genres baffle me.

It sounded better with the reverb from the radio recording.

 

[TheRaptorJesus]

Sounds pretty good, I think i'll save em.