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So for those of you who haven't heard, Typophile is DJing the Saturday night "Digikana" event at TypeCon San Francisco. And while we've been doing our best to amass a pile of tunes that will please the discerning typographer, we're left with a question:
What are the must-have tunes to please a Typecon crowd?
Mind you, I'm not fishing for "what's your favorite song?" here - I'm looking for specific songs that mention type, alphabet, fonts, letters, etc etc. Spoken word or musical.
Any links to downloadable MP3s of typographers speaking (or something similar) would also be welcome here.
thanks-
jb
12 Jul 2004 — 6:38pm
"ABC" - The Jackson Five
"Number Song" - DJ Shadow, from Endtroducing
"Everyday I Write the Book" - Elvis Costello, from Punch the Clock
12 Jul 2004 — 6:58pm
Very few songs have typeface names, that namecheck the title. here's two:
CALEDONIA, what makes your big heart so hard?
(Louis Jordan wrote it, but also recorded by many others)
GEORGIA, sweet Georgia.
(Hoagy Carmichael wrote and recorded it, Ray Charles did a classic version)
How about:
1-2-3 by Len Barry
(Includes the line "ABC, falling in love with you was easy for me..") At least I think it does -- I haven't heard that song for 40 years!
German Bold Italic by Towatei, of course.
12 Jul 2004 — 7:05pm
Towa Tei - GBI (German Bold Italic)
http://www.discogs.com/release/240102
Wiliam Caslon Experience
http://americanbacon.com/html/music.html
Futurismo Soundtrack to a Font
http://www.p22.com/records/futurismo.html
(shameless plug)
The sound of lettering
http://www.basichip.com/tony_schwartz/ts000.htm
12 Jul 2004 — 7:48pm
R-E-S-P-E-C-T, Give it to me! Respect, just a little bit.
Aretha Franklin did the JAGUNDA hit from the Otis Redding R&B masterpiece.
Also anything by the "Lettermen": "When I Fall in Love," "Theme From A Summer Place," "Put Your Head on My Shoulder," "Hurt So Bad," and "Shangri-La" (50s frathouse crooning quartet)
http://www.thelettermen.com/home.html
12 Jul 2004 — 7:52pm
25 Greatest Hits
12 Jul 2004 — 8:07pm
Cake - ALPHA BETA PARKING LOT - Prolonging the Magic
:D
12 Jul 2004 — 9:39pm
La Marcha de las Vocales by "Cri Cri". Maybe not very suitable for the task.
http://www.cri-cri.net/mp3/ca091.mp3
12 Jul 2004 — 9:47pm
"A" by the Barenaked Ladies, off of "Maybe You Should Drive"
<http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/barenakedladies/a.html>
13 Jul 2004 — 1:37am
'Ondine' by They Might Be Giants
'Olympian' by Gene
'Sign o the Times' by prince
'Sale of the Century' by sleeper
'wide open spaces' by Mansun
13 Jul 2004 — 3:38am
Any rap where they say "Word"

13 Jul 2004 — 4:11am
I'm loving 'Alphabet Street' : )
How about design from the WORD UP (say Cameo)
Bit of a stretch, but 'Line up in line' by Elastica?
13 Jul 2004 — 5:08am
Maybe off-topic, but it is gorgeous:
Breezin' by George Benson.
13 Jul 2004 — 6:08am
"Feel like a number", good rock by Bob Seger.
13 Jul 2004 — 6:44am
The Fish Cheer, by Country Joe and the Fish (it's the intro to Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die Rag: "Gimme an F...")
D-I-V-O-R-C-E, by Tammy Wynette (kinda goes with R-E-S-P-E-C-T?)
Tea for Two, by Tony Bennett (Picture U upon my knee, just T 4 2 and 2 4 T")
I kern C for miles, by the Who
I shot the serif, by Bob Marley
13 Jul 2004 — 7:10am
Pixies Monkey Gone To Heaven
Sex Pistols EMI
Naughty by Nature OPP
Tocotronic K.O.O.K.
DJ Vadim The Terrorist
13 Jul 2004 — 7:43am
"DWYCK" by Gangstarr (1994)
13 Jul 2004 — 7:45am
A B & C - Death By Chocolate
A Is To B As B Is To C - Boards Of Canada
PWEI Is A Four Letter Word - Pop Will Eat Itself
A Red Letter Day - Pet Shop Boys
Molten Lead - Homescience
She's Actual Size - They Might Be Giants
Then I Learned The Alphabet - Lenola
Broken Typewriter - The California Oranges
The Outdoor Type - The Lemonheads
13 Jul 2004 — 8:12am
Type Slowly -- Pavement
Sex Type Thing -- Stone Temple Pilots
13 Jul 2004 — 8:18am
cut in audio clips from old typesetting films with the songs
http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php?collection=prelinger&collectionid=00503
13 Jul 2004 — 8:32am
I'm That Type Of Guy -- LL Cool J
She Looks All Types A' Good -- James Brown
The Bold Type -- Ken Bierschbach (Never heard this, it came up in a search on Amazon and sounds like a great title)
13 Jul 2004 — 1:48pm
I vote for this song!
http://www.pancakemountain.com/tvev.html
13 Jul 2004 — 2:05pm
More Shopping from Bran Van 3000's album Discosis rhymes "Body type by Letraset" with "ipsum lorem dolor sit amet".
13 Jul 2004 — 2:20pm
maybe this tune is linked above/ ... it's not mentioned
in the end credits ... JFP?
http://www.porchez.com/images/readingworkshop/ReadingWorkshop2003web.mov
13 Jul 2004 — 2:43pm
Justified and ancient, The KLF
13 Jul 2004 — 3:07pm
* Jon Young
> I vote for this song!
Super! Thanks for link.
* Nick Shinn
> Justified and ancient, The KLF
Cool! I still have the vynil of "What Time Is Love,"
black cover with grey Helvetica Black Oblique.
Blow Up.
13 Jul 2004 — 3:36pm
From Blackalicious there is "Alphabet Aerobics" & "A2G"
both of which can be heard here:
http://www.blackalicious.com/tuner/tuner.html
13 Jul 2004 — 4:04pm
Yves, good catch with the Stem/Long Stem!
13 Jul 2004 — 4:48pm
CC Rider
by Big Bill Broonzy
C C Rider, see what you done done
C C Rider, you see what you done done
You C C Rider, you see what you done done
You done made me love you and now your man done come
http://www.ccrider.tv/
C.C. Rider
Traditional - as by Mississippi John Hurt,
C.C. Rider, see what you done done
You made me love you, now your man done done (3)
There ain
13 Jul 2004 — 5:11pm
Maybe for the Type ID Board:
Pearl Jam's Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town
I seem to recognize your face, haunting familiar yet i cant seem to place it /
Cannot find a candle of thought, to light your name
(counter, face, name)
16 Jul 2004 — 10:24am
i was ashamed that i had nothing to contribute, but luckily for me stuart forgot this one:
"friend is a four-letter word" by cake
16 Jul 2004 — 10:59am
Something Spanish (and I mean Spain): "Carta de Amor" by Los Manolos (on their "Pasion Condal").
It's a reading of a love letter where they speak out the punctuation too. It's sort of a loungy track (they specialize in Spanish-Sinatra-style, actually), but pretty cool, I think. I can bring the CD with me if you like.
hhp
16 Jul 2004 — 11:08am
The Letter
by Alex Chilton
& The Boxtops.
16 Jul 2004 — 11:22am
oh and
"letters" by stroke 9
16 Jul 2004 — 12:46pm
> Bow Wow Wow -- C30 C60 C90
I think this refers to blank cassette tape lengths, not cyan values. But hey, whatever fits.
17 Jul 2004 — 7:37am
'1976' by RJD2
'Space Oddity' Bowie
'Sugar 5' and 'B-line' Lamb
'Space Monkeys' Dust Brothers (fight club ST)
'Dictionary' Hooverphonic
17 Jul 2004 — 8:58am
Prelude and Fugues, book 1 and 2, J.S. Bach
One in each key signature as in A, A minor, B, B flat minor, etc.
32 Variations, Beethoven (each variation in a different key)
17 Jul 2004 — 12:06pm
4 Ever 2 Gether - ABC
A To Z - ABC
Font Crimes - North of America
Freak Type Thang - Baby Yo
Typesetter's Song - Monarques
American Typewriter - Braid
I Typed for Miles - Jets to Brazil
Pica - John Beltran
Tracking - DJ Q
Kern River - Merle Haggard
ABCDEFJAM - Grip Grand
17 Jul 2004 — 6:06pm
All together now - The Beatles
12 Jul 2004 — 9:21pm
Candy Chang's seminal work, "Typography," including suchditties as "Bravo Futura" and "The Letterpress Express."
www.redantenna.tv/candychang/audio/index.htm
13 Jul 2004 — 12:30am
It's common knowledge that Prince has a thing for letters, especially the "U" (I Would Die 4 U, Take Me With U, U Got the Look)... he waxes melodic about letterish locales (Alphabet Street, Graffiti Bridge)... but could we expect any less from a guy who renamed himself an unpronounceable glyph?
13 Jul 2004 — 4:35am
Sheila E and Prince's "A Love Bizarre", the hit single off
of Romance 1600 opens with "A, B, A B C D" instead
of the usual "1 2 3 4". Maybe?
13 Jul 2004 — 4:37am
Don't you have a DJ friend who can put some beats under this?
13 Jul 2004 — 4:43am
As electro is back in style, why not play Freeez's I.O.U.?
It sure was a floor filler in my breakdancing days.
13 Jul 2004 — 5:00am
From my "Dope On Plastic" collection from React
(highly danceable grooves'n'breaks):
Red Snapper "Area 51" (Dope On Plastic 2)
Turntable Terranova "29" (Dope On Plastic 3)
Funky Fresh Few "89" (Dope On Plastic 3)
Runaways "P.E.A.C.E." (Dope On Plastic 7)
Capoeira Twins "4x3" (Dope On Plastic 7)
13 Jul 2004 — 5:04am
"A Zed And Two L's" by Fila Brazillia on Maim That Tune.
13 Jul 2004 — 5:07am
"66" by Afghan Wigs on 1965
13 Jul 2004 — 5:12am
Lissenup, I'm gonna check my CD collection at home tonight
and get back to you. Give me a little time tho (600+ CD's).
13 Jul 2004 — 7:01am
> I kern C for miles, by the Who

I hope you don't mind Nick, but
13 Jul 2004 — 1:16pm
"The End Of Biters-International" by Prefuse 73 on One Word Extinguisher
contains samples cut up in such a way they become separate letters.
Killer hip hop track.
13 Jul 2004 — 3:15pm
Anything by _"Badly Drawn" Boy_
Beastie Boys' _"Licensed" to Ill_
Space -- The Beta Band -- Heros to Zeroes
Squares -- The Beta Band -- Heros to Zeroes
Pacific 202 -- 808 State
B+A -- The Beta Band -- The Three E.P.'s
Tangent -- Beth Orton -- Trailer Park
Anchor Song -- Bj