Typophile Breaks/Tunes

Jared Benson's picture

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

marcox's picture

"ABC" - The Jackson Five
"Number Song" - DJ Shadow, from Endtroducing
"Everyday I Write the Book" - Elvis Costello, from Punch the Clock

Nick Shinn's picture

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.

kegler's picture

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

dezcom's picture

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

dezcom's picture

25 Greatest Hits

Diner's picture

Cake - ALPHA BETA PARKING LOT - Prolonging the Magic

:D

rs_donsata's picture

La Marcha de las Vocales by "Cri Cri". Maybe not very suitable for the task.

http://www.cri-cri.net/mp3/ca091.mp3

Thomas Phinney's picture

"A" by the Barenaked Ladies, off of "Maybe You Should Drive"

<http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/barenakedladies/a.html>

typofoto's picture

'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

magnus_gaarde's picture

Any rap where they say "Word"
:-)

typofoto's picture

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?

as8's picture

Maybe off-topic, but it is gorgeous:
Breezin' by George Benson.

Ignacio's picture

"Feel like a number", good rock by Bob Seger.

Nick Shinn's picture

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

magnus_gaarde's picture

Pixies Monkey Gone To Heaven
Sex Pistols EMI
Naughty by Nature OPP
Tocotronic K.O.O.K.
DJ Vadim The Terrorist

as8's picture

"DWYCK" by Gangstarr (1994)

Grant Hutchinson's picture

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

andyclymer's picture

Type Slowly -- Pavement
Sex Type Thing -- Stone Temple Pilots

andyclymer's picture

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)

calam's picture

More Shopping from Bran Van 3000's album Discosis rhymes "Body type by Letraset" with "ipsum lorem dolor sit amet".

beejay's picture

maybe this tune is linked above/ ... it's not mentioned
in the end credits ... JFP?

http://www.porchez.com/images/readingworkshop/ReadingWorkshop2003web.mov

Nick Shinn's picture

Justified and ancient, The KLF

as8's picture

* 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.

mitchell's picture

From Blackalicious there is "Alphabet Aerobics" & "A2G"

both of which can be heard here:
http://www.blackalicious.com/tuner/tuner.html

andyclymer's picture

Yves, good catch with the Stem/Long Stem!

dezcom's picture

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

andyclymer's picture

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)

pablohoney77's picture

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

hrant's picture

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

ruberic's picture

The Letter
by Alex Chilton
& The Boxtops.

pablohoney77's picture

oh and
"letters" by stroke 9

Grant Hutchinson's picture

> Bow Wow Wow -- C30 C60 C90

I think this refers to blank cassette tape lengths, not cyan values. But hey, whatever fits.

kennmunk's picture

'1976' by RJD2
'Space Oddity' Bowie
'Sugar 5' and 'B-line' Lamb
'Space Monkeys' Dust Brothers (fight club ST)
'Dictionary' Hooverphonic

dezcom's picture

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)

Grant Hutchinson's picture

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

myoung's picture

All together now - The Beatles

tamye's picture

Candy Chang's seminal work, "Typography," including suchditties as "Bravo Futura" and "The Letterpress Express."

www.redantenna.tv/candychang/audio/index.htm

tamye's picture

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?

Bald Condensed's picture

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?

Bald Condensed's picture

Don't you have a DJ friend who can put some beats under this? :-)

Bald Condensed's picture

As electro is back in style, why not play Freeez's I.O.U.?
It sure was a floor filler in my breakdancing days.

Bald Condensed's picture

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)

Bald Condensed's picture

"A Zed And Two L's" by Fila Brazillia on Maim That Tune.

Bald Condensed's picture

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).

Bald Condensed's picture

> I kern C for miles, by the Who

I hope you don't mind Nick, but

Bald Condensed's picture

"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.

Miss Tiffany's picture

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

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