The Patterico Music Project: “Was It Really You?” Performed by Ken Stringfellow
It’s time for Song #9 in the Patterico Music Project. If you are a long-time reader, you are familiar with the idea. Over the years, I have asked some of my favorite musical artists to record cover versions of songs I have written. Most of those songs, I wrote in the early 1990s — about 28 years ago.
Without further ado, here is the song, performed by Ken Stringfellow of the band The Posies. Just click the link at the bottom of the tweet to hear it on Spotify:
New performance by @KenStringfellow of @theposies: "Was It Really You?" by Mangled Grapes. It's a song I wrote around 1992, and I'm thrilled to see it performed by one of my favorite musicians of all time. https://t.co/s0OjVXXzGH
— Patterico (@Patterico) July 11, 2020
If you’re at all familiar with 1990s power pop music, you’ve heard of Ken Stringfellow and his band The Posies. One of their more famous songs is “Solar Sister” from their album “Frosting on the Beater” which also featured “Dream All Day” and “Flavor of the Month.” They also had a hit with “Golden Blunders” off their “Dear 23” album, which is the sort of music I was listening to when I wrote this song back around 1992 or so.
I usually include a SoundCloud embed for these songs, but this is the first one I have ever released on Spotify, and if possible I’d like you to listen to it on Spotify. The song benefits from people listening to it on Spotify and putting it on playlists. Also, if you’re on Twitter and if you’d be willing to retweet the above tweet, I’d appreciate that.
In a week or so I’ll put up a SoundCloud embed. If you’re determined to listen on it SoundCloud, here is the link.
It’s a little weird calling this “Song #9” in the project because you’ve heard a version of this song before, done by Jay Semko of The Northern Pikes. Jay’s version, which I also love, was an acoustic performance. This is a full band with drums, electric guitars, bass, and multilayered vocals. It’s almost like they’re two different songs. As a reminder, here is a link to Jay’s version which also contains the lyrics. (Note that the lyrics are a little different in Ken’s performance because he tightened up the song a little bit.)
Let me know what you think!
Happy Saturday!
Patterico (115b1f) — 7/11/2020 @ 11:12 amIt’s got a good beat, but I can’t dance to it. (Inside joke there, for the rest of you readers.)
Good song, good arrangement. I could see it being the title song to a movie starring Winona Ryder, Brenden Fraser, Kristy Swanson, and Ethan Hawke. Set in a coffee shop in St. Louis.
JVW (ee64e4) — 7/11/2020 @ 12:13 pmOk, I signed up for Spotify to listen to it and it took me a Herculean 6x to prove I wasn’t a robot before being allowed to hit play. The sacrifices I make!
Anyway, I enjoyed this with a band more than the acoustic version. I think it added depth and layering that made it a richer song and brought the chorus home more effectively. Good beat, and yes, JVW (& P), it’s a good dance tune!
For me though, the lyrics are the most interesting part of the song. We can all relate to a break-up story, whether we did the breaking up, or whether we were the one whose heart was broken. It’s a well told story, and I appreciated that The Hero, like so many of us, was left wondering if the person they thought they were in love with was just an image or the real deal.
Dana (25e0dc) — 7/11/2020 @ 1:10 pmThere’s a lot of confusion that happens when a relationship ends, and what once seemed so clear and unquestionable suddenly becomes muddied in emotion, and especially muddied by memory. All of which makes me ever so glad to be out of those chaotic dating years.
It sounds catchy! I can imagine hearing this on the radio in the 90s.
Dustin (b62cc4) — 7/11/2020 @ 1:36 pmHeh.
Patterico (115b1f) — 7/11/2020 @ 1:49 pmThanks for signing up for Spotify to hear it. Sorry it was so difficult.
Being out of dating is the best.
Patterico (115b1f) — 7/11/2020 @ 1:52 pmTrigger warning! Bug-in-the-hindquarters opinion ahead! Trigger warning.
Thanks for the soundCloud link! So lazy am I! I liked the tune, but “too many notes” for me. Actually, the notes were fine – there were too many drum fills for my ornery taste. It had too much of an upbeat feel, from start to end, for a break-up tune. Give me Jay’s version, especially the ending.
Thanks for sharing this with us, Patterico.
felipe (023cc9) — 7/11/2020 @ 1:54 pmThanks Dustin. There’s no getting around the fact that it’s a 90s feel. It was written in the 90s so it can’t help it. I just think it’s too bad that this sound doesn’t appear to be popular anymore.
Patterico (115b1f) — 7/11/2020 @ 1:56 pmY’know, a smart (aleck) fellow might take that as a polite way to say that the song sounded “dated” (pun intended)!
felipe (023cc9) — 7/11/2020 @ 1:58 pmIt totally sounds dated. That’s honest feedback and I take it as a compliment.
Patterico (115b1f) — 7/11/2020 @ 2:14 pmI definitely like the song lol. That’s when I was in high school so that’s what good times are supposed to sound like.
Dustin (b62cc4) — 7/11/2020 @ 2:45 pmFun fact: the distribution service I used uploads the music everywhere, including services I never heard of — but one of them is Shazam. Go ahead and Shazam it. It works! (But maybe wait for the vocals. I tried it at the very beginning of the song and Shazam thought it was some awful dance track called “Freak Out” by the Supadelics (?).)
Patterico (115b1f) — 7/11/2020 @ 2:49 pm