Songs with Morse code references. - Page 3 - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum

SiriusHardware · 2nd Feb 2021, 7:37 pm

Looking further around, I found a reference to 'Lucifer' from 'Eve' by the Alan Parsons Project having some Morse in it. It does, briefly, from about 50 seconds in, and then there is a repeated Morse-like motif in the passage immediately afterwards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9e9tp3_PE8

Someone makes the point in the comments that the Morse - like motif spells 'Eve', the name of the album, although I didn't pick up on that.

Dave Moll · 2nd Feb 2021, 7:58 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by merlinmaxwell

Not quite songs but a ditty sent by old Nokia 'phones when a text was received, it was COMMUNICATION in morse, heard it in a pub years ago.

Even less song-like, but I remember many mobile 'phones using a ... -- ... sequence of bleeps to announce the arrival of an SMS text message.

G6Tanuki · 2nd Feb 2021, 8:10 pm

In the early-1990s I rented-out [unfurnished] the top-floor of my house; we were within-range of the Buxton "Harpur Hill" 2M repeater.

The tenants had a microwave-oven whose beepiness sent "HH" in Morse when it finished cooking.

Cue confusion!

emeritus · 2nd Feb 2021, 9:50 pm

Edwin Starr's SOS has been mentioned, but not I think Abba's different song with a similar title.

Another more obscure one: ' I'm in a dance band on The Titanic ' that has a verse about the radio operator sending out an SOS, with a brief SOS burst by one of the instruments. Not sure who that is by as I only have it on tape in a recording from AFAIR a Capitol Radio late show circa 1980 that I made when soak testing a new cassette recorder and never taped over.

emeritus · 2nd Feb 2021, 10:43 pm

"Telegraph" by Orchestral Manoevers In The Dark, 1983. Has some morse-like riffs and ends with a few seconds of actual morse.

There was also the '80's group "S.O.S. Band" who I had never heard of until just now when I looked things up in my "Guiness British Hit Singles" book. They never got very high up in the charts and none of their record titles are morse-like.

Graham G3ZVT · 2nd Feb 2021, 10:55 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by merlinmaxwell

Not quite songs but a ditty sent by old Nokia 'phones when a text was received, it was COMMUNICATION in morse, heard it in a pub years ago.

Not quite.
One of the optional ringtones was "CONNECTING PEOPLE" in Morse.
The default text alert was SMS ... -- ...

Graham G3ZVT · 2nd Feb 2021, 11:11 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by emeritus

There was also the '80's group "S.O.S. Band" who I had never heard of until just now when I looked things up in my "Guiness British Hit Singles" book. They never got very high up in the charts and none of their record titles are morse-like.

I'd not heard of them ether, but their debut track isn't half bad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heyJFweapqU
(Warning, Pollard Syndrum

)

emeritus · 2nd Feb 2021, 11:27 pm

There was a 1970's Japanese musician whose name I forget who recorded classical musical works played on a synthesiser. His version of "Mars" from Holst's "The Planets" suite includes a few bars of morse at various places. A friend who emigrated decades ago had several of his LPs.

SiriusHardware · 2nd Feb 2021, 11:33 pm

I think that would have to be Tomita

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isao_Tomita

emeritus · 3rd Feb 2021, 1:54 am

Thanks, yes Tomita looks like the one.

martin.m · 3rd Feb 2021, 3:07 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by rambo1152

Quote:

Originally Posted by g4aaw pete

Golf Girl by Caravan has the word 'osters' sent in morse at 1m25s.
No, I don't know what it means!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hsp-C6mQGo
I can't hear it myself.

The YT link is a live performance. The Morse code can be heard on the studio version. I have had this album since the early 70s and never noticed it before.

Radio Wrangler · 3rd Feb 2021, 5:39 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by G6Tanuki

The tenants had a microwave-oven whose beepiness sent "HH" in Morse when it finished cooking.

My old one did too. AEG Micromat Combi was the model. A *very* inappropriate thing to send considering where it was made. For a period in history, that country's Morse transmissions were required to sign off with 'HH'. Afterwards, amateur stations changed to '55' to avoid the connotations as a sort of localised version of '73'.

The manufacturer's software folk had to be unaware of the historical connotations.

David

Paul_RK · 3rd Feb 2021, 5:50 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by emeritus

Another more obscure one: ' I'm in a dance band on The Titanic ' that has a verse about the radio operator sending out an SOS, with a brief SOS burst by one of the instruments. Not sure who that is by ...

Not too obscure, it's Harry Chapin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkSRF-uHlWk

Paul

Oliver35 · 3rd Feb 2021, 11:02 am

An obvious contender would be ‘Morse Code Melody’ by the Alberts, with Professor Bruce Lacey;

https://youtu.be/derTJ_xS1f0

Paul_RK · 3rd Feb 2021, 11:43 am

There's Wreckless Eric's unforgettable "Semaphore Signals", the lament of a poor boy with no other way to achieve nightly contact with a girl whose Green Belt home was off limits to the likes of him: "I'm up all night sending signals/ Tapping out love in Morse code..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnvN1LEtUUw

From the agreeably ridiculous to something else, Peter Hammill's "Flight" offers a twenty-minute meditation on life as a doomed venture into the skies: something like that, anyway. "The White Cane Fandango in Morse code" is an early line. The sequence of events does get a tad confusing as, while quite early on ""The radio is dead/ every valve blown open", in the next section the aeronaut is "reeling out the Maydays in the hope of being saved/ but the radio ham's out giving blood -/ no, no, no, he's not listening". Can't but wonder whether PH was consciously conflating a couple of the best known Hancock episodes there, a little playfulness wasn't / isn't beyond him.

Paul

Courtney Louise · 3rd Feb 2021, 12:28 pm

The opening track to Roger Waters album, Radio Chaos uses morse at the start of the track and also the cover has all of the track titles listed in morse code.

emeritus · 3rd Feb 2021, 3:50 pm

Thanks for the Harry Chapin link, that's the one I recorded. He's another performer I was unaware of.

Junk Box Nick · 3rd Feb 2021, 4:14 pm

Beaten to the punch on Reparata and the Delrons. Was out about the time I started building one transistor circuits that appeared in Practical Wireless.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ms660

Edwin Starr....SOS, had the record and saw him live in Crewe:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WJZFTE3Mjo

Lawrence.

Great entertainer. I had a ticket to see him at Kings Hall, Stoke. Sadly, he passed away suddenly a few months before. I remember that he was recording in Birmingham in the 1990s. My 45 of SOS is the Ric-Tic release.

19Seventy7 · 3rd Feb 2021, 5:50 pm

London Calling by The Clash ends with SOS fading out at the end. I'm sure there's another but I can't think of it at the moment

'77

G6Tanuki · 3rd Feb 2021, 8:11 pm

I always thought The Police's "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" on their 'Zenyatta Mondatta' album was a Morse reference...

"De do do do de da da da
Is all I want to say to you"

But what was Sting trying to say?

2nd Feb 2021, 7:37 pm	#41
SiriusHardware Dekatron Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: Newcastle, Tyne and Wear, UK. Posts: 11,570	Re: Songs with Morse code references. Looking further around, I found a reference to 'Lucifer' from 'Eve' by the Alan Parsons Project having some Morse in it. It does, briefly, from about 50 seconds in, and then there is a repeated Morse-like motif in the passage immediately afterwards. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9e9tp3_PE8 Someone makes the point in the comments that the Morse - like motif spells 'Eve', the name of the album, although I didn't pick up on that. Last edited by SiriusHardware; 2nd Feb 2021 at 7:42 pm.

2nd Feb 2021, 8:10 pm	#43
G6Tanuki Dekatron Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Wiltshire, UK. Posts: 14,005	Re: Songs with Morse code references. In the early-1990s I rented-out [unfurnished] the top-floor of my house; we were within-range of the Buxton "Harpur Hill" 2M repeater. The tenants had a microwave-oven whose beepiness sent "HH" in Morse when it finished cooking. Cue confusion!

2nd Feb 2021, 9:50 pm	#44
emeritus Dekatron Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Brentwood, Essex, UK. Posts: 5,345	Re: Songs with Morse code references. Edwin Starr's SOS has been mentioned, but not I think Abba's different song with a similar title. Another more obscure one: ' I'm in a dance band on The Titanic ' that has a verse about the radio operator sending out an SOS, with a brief SOS burst by one of the instruments. Not sure who that is by as I only have it on tape in a recording from AFAIR a Capitol Radio late show circa 1980 that I made when soak testing a new cassette recorder and never taped over. Last edited by emeritus; 2nd Feb 2021 at 10:16 pm. Reason: Typos

2nd Feb 2021, 10:43 pm	#45
emeritus Dekatron Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Brentwood, Essex, UK. Posts: 5,345	Re: Songs with Morse code references. "Telegraph" by Orchestral Manoevers In The Dark, 1983. Has some morse-like riffs and ends with a few seconds of actual morse. There was also the '80's group "S.O.S. Band" who I had never heard of until just now when I looked things up in my "Guiness British Hit Singles" book. They never got very high up in the charts and none of their record titles are morse-like. Last edited by emeritus; 2nd Feb 2021 at 10:59 pm. Reason: Further ref added, typos

2nd Feb 2021, 11:27 pm	#48
emeritus Dekatron Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Brentwood, Essex, UK. Posts: 5,345	Re: Songs with Morse code references. There was a 1970's Japanese musician whose name I forget who recorded classical musical works played on a synthesiser. His version of "Mars" from Holst's "The Planets" suite includes a few bars of morse at various places. A friend who emigrated decades ago had several of his LPs.

2nd Feb 2021, 11:33 pm	#49
SiriusHardware Dekatron Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: Newcastle, Tyne and Wear, UK. Posts: 11,570	Re: Songs with Morse code references. I think that would have to be Tomita https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isao_Tomita

3rd Feb 2021, 1:54 am	#50
emeritus Dekatron Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Brentwood, Essex, UK. Posts: 5,345	Re: Songs with Morse code references. Thanks, yes Tomita looks like the one.

3rd Feb 2021, 11:02 am	#54
Oliver35 Pentode Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Halesworth, Suffolk, UK. Posts: 188	Re: Songs with Morse code references. An obvious contender would be ‘Morse Code Melody’ by the Alberts, with Professor Bruce Lacey; https://youtu.be/derTJ_xS1f0

3rd Feb 2021, 11:43 am	#55
Paul_RK Dekatron Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Fakenham, Norfolk, UK. Posts: 4,257	Re: Songs with Morse code references. There's Wreckless Eric's unforgettable "Semaphore Signals", the lament of a poor boy with no other way to achieve nightly contact with a girl whose Green Belt home was off limits to the likes of him: "I'm up all night sending signals/ Tapping out love in Morse code..." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnvN1LEtUUw From the agreeably ridiculous to something else, Peter Hammill's "Flight" offers a twenty-minute meditation on life as a doomed venture into the skies: something like that, anyway. "The White Cane Fandango in Morse code" is an early line. The sequence of events does get a tad confusing as, while quite early on ""The radio is dead/ every valve blown open", in the next section the aeronaut is "reeling out the Maydays in the hope of being saved/ but the radio ham's out giving blood -/ no, no, no, he's not listening". Can't but wonder whether PH was consciously conflating a couple of the best known Hancock episodes there, a little playfulness wasn't / isn't beyond him. Paul

3rd Feb 2021, 12:28 pm	#56
Courtney Louise Octode Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Welshpool, Powys, Wales Posts: 1,327	Re: Songs with Morse code references. The opening track to Roger Waters album, Radio Chaos uses morse at the start of the track and also the cover has all of the track titles listed in morse code. __________________ *33, 45, 78, around and around they go...*

3rd Feb 2021, 3:50 pm	#57
emeritus Dekatron Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Brentwood, Essex, UK. Posts: 5,345	Re: Songs with Morse code references. Thanks for the Harry Chapin link, that's the one I recorded. He's another performer I was unaware of.

3rd Feb 2021, 5:50 pm	#59
19Seventy7 Octode Join Date: Jun 2018 Location: Essex, UK. Posts: 1,307	Re: Songs with Morse code references. London Calling by The Clash ends with SOS fading out at the end. I'm sure there's another but I can't think of it at the moment '77

3rd Feb 2021, 8:11 pm	#60
G6Tanuki Dekatron Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Wiltshire, UK. Posts: 14,005	Re: Songs with Morse code references. I always thought The Police's "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" on their 'Zenyatta Mondatta' album was a Morse reference... "De do do do de da da da Is all I want to say to you" But what was Sting trying to say?