4 ms·

This reminds me of the search for Q Lazzarus. She and her band are famous (or maybe some would say notorious) for writing the song played during Silence of the

by Vaslo 7y ago

This reminds me of the search for Q Lazzarus. She and her band are famous (or maybe some would say notorious) for writing the song played during Silence of the Lambs when Buffalo Bill does his infamous "dance" in front of the camera. For decades, folks couldn't find any information on her and weren't even sure that she was still alive. Jonathan Demme, the director of Silence of the Lambs happened to be in her cab one night and she played some of her music and he really liked it. He put it into several of his films. It's someone's dream to be discovered like that - and then to fall almost faster back into obscurity? https://www.stereogum.com/2009727/mysterious-goodbye-horses-singer-q-lazzarus-breaks-her-silence-30-years-later/news/ https://www.stereogum.com/2009727/mysterious-goodbye-horses-...

whatshisface 7y ago
Why wasn't she in the movie credits?
- tylersmith 7y ago
  I believe she is, as "Q Lazzarus". She did not continue performing or using that name so nobody knew who she actually was.
joegahona 7y ago
"Goodbye Horses" is such an interesting blend of styles and emotions. Parts of her singing sound influenced by The Smiths. The whole thing is in a major key yet manages to sound melancholy or even ominous. Maybe some of that is its association with "Silence of the Lambs" or the mystery around Q Lazzarus, but I've always enjoyed this song and it never gets old for me. There are many cover versions out there too.
tosser0001 7y ago
When I was a teenager in Massachusetts in 1982 I bought the album "Tragic Figures" by a band called Savage Republic on a lark, based solely on the hand-printed album cover. It turned out to be very strange post-punk industrial music. I almost fell out of my chair at the movie theater watching "Silence of the Lambs" when the song "Real Men" from that album came on.
- twic 7y ago
  There's an amazing demo called 'A Mind Is Born': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWblpsLZ-O8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWblpsLZ-O8 Amazing principally because the whole thing is 256 bytes: https://linusakesson.net/scene/a-mind-is-born/ https://linusakesson.net/scene/a-mind-is-born/ I never meet anyone who has even heard of the demoscene, let alone come seen this particular work. I was at a film festival watching a programme of short films, one of which was the well-made AI-box escape romp 'Watch Room': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th5uJNB7VU8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th5uJNB7VU8 And similarly found my interface with my seat disrupted by the closing credits using the music from 'A Mind Is Born'. This being a festival, the director was there, so i could tell him how much i appreciated the reference!
  - throwaway_pdp09 7y ago
    Sadly Andrey Kolmogorov is dead. Because I'd loooove to see his face. Fantastic, solid thanks for that, I love it for what it is. Edit: technical question for audiologists. The underlying pulsing heartbeat of this track, which is most clear right at the start, has a kind of 'furry' quality to it. How is this done? I guess it's a sample of a ~60Hz sine wave but I'm just guessing.
    - egypturnash 7y ago
      It’s a c64, there are no samples*. https://linusakesson.net/scene/a-mind-is-born/ https://linusakesson.net/scene/a-mind-is-born/ has a full breakdown of what is going on. What you call the “heartbeat” is, I think, what Linus thinks of as “drums”, and is a rapidly descending tone in (probably) a rectangular wave - the c64 cannot generate sine waves, just sawtooth/triangle/pulse, and random noise (and some combinations of these that were not intended by the sound chip’s designer). In addition all three voices of the sound chip are being pushed through its subtractive filter, which is a hard-to-emulate bit of analog circuitry that gets noisier and noisier if you out more than one voice through it. If you really want a close look at what’s going on you could download the “SID tune” version of it and run it through a c64 music player, most of these have oscilloscope views and the ability to selectively mute voices.
lidHanteyk 7y ago
The Bill & Ted films are similar. Some guitar sounds and solos are now credited to Stevie Salas (the first film) and Steve Vai (the second film), but many of the BGM clips on radios and PA systems are still unsourced and uncredited, lost forever in a sea of glam metal.
finnthehuman 7y ago
>It's someone's dream to be discovered like that - and then to fall almost faster back into obscurity? Obscurity can be nice. I'm a stay-backstage kind of person. Even when I do work in creative public-facing endeavors my goal to make the product enjoyable without needing any non-monetary benefit. I work for a company that purposefully makes sure our name is on very little. It's not the same, of course. We obviously have to be visible enough to get clients. But it's got a comfort that suits me. You've almost certainly used one of our products, but even if I could tell you what it is you'd never know it from the branding on it.
mirimir 7y ago
There's a similar discovery by chance story (not that I remember what it is) about "East Hastings" by Godspeed You! Black Emperor in the film "28 Days Later".
kelseychapstick 7y ago
Since I'm getting messages about this as the quoted source in the Stereogum article (they never contacted me for permission or to clarify btw, just took that Facebook post and ran with it), here is the fully researched article I wrote for Dazed after my experience. Hopefully it can give some more insight for anyone who's been trying to reach me to inquire more about it! https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/43946/1/where-is-q-lazzarus-goodbye-horses-mystery https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/43946/1/where-is-...
ctdonath 7y ago
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/q-lazzarus/279810501 https://music.apple.com/us/artist/q-lazzarus/279810501

by Vaslo 7y ago

whatshisface 7y ago

Why wasn't she in the movie credits?

tylersmith 7y ago
I believe she is, as "Q Lazzarus". She did not continue performing or using that name so nobody knew who she actually was.

joegahona 7y ago

"Goodbye Horses" is such an interesting blend of styles and emotions. Parts of her singing sound influenced by The Smiths. The whole thing is in a major key yet manages to sound melancholy or even ominous. Maybe some of that is its association with "Silence of the Lambs" or the mystery around Q Lazzarus, but I've always enjoyed this song and it never gets old for me. There are many cover versions out there too.

tosser0001 7y ago

When I was a teenager in Massachusetts in 1982 I bought the album "Tragic Figures" by a band called Savage Republic on a lark, based solely on the hand-printed album cover. It turned out to be very strange post-punk industrial music. I almost fell out of my chair at the movie theater watching "Silence of the Lambs" when the song "Real Men" from that album came on.

twic 7y ago
There's an amazing demo called 'A Mind Is Born': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWblpsLZ-O8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWblpsLZ-O8 Amazing principally because the whole thing is 256 bytes: https://linusakesson.net/scene/a-mind-is-born/ https://linusakesson.net/scene/a-mind-is-born/ I never meet anyone who has even heard of the demoscene, let alone come seen this particular work. I was at a film festival watching a programme of short films, one of which was the well-made AI-box escape romp 'Watch Room': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th5uJNB7VU8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th5uJNB7VU8 And similarly found my interface with my seat disrupted by the closing credits using the music from 'A Mind Is Born'. This being a festival, the director was there, so i could tell him how much i appreciated the reference!
- throwaway_pdp09 7y ago
  Sadly Andrey Kolmogorov is dead. Because I'd loooove to see his face. Fantastic, solid thanks for that, I love it for what it is. Edit: technical question for audiologists. The underlying pulsing heartbeat of this track, which is most clear right at the start, has a kind of 'furry' quality to it. How is this done? I guess it's a sample of a ~60Hz sine wave but I'm just guessing.
  - egypturnash 7y ago
    It’s a c64, there are no samples*. https://linusakesson.net/scene/a-mind-is-born/ https://linusakesson.net/scene/a-mind-is-born/ has a full breakdown of what is going on. What you call the “heartbeat” is, I think, what Linus thinks of as “drums”, and is a rapidly descending tone in (probably) a rectangular wave - the c64 cannot generate sine waves, just sawtooth/triangle/pulse, and random noise (and some combinations of these that were not intended by the sound chip’s designer). In addition all three voices of the sound chip are being pushed through its subtractive filter, which is a hard-to-emulate bit of analog circuitry that gets noisier and noisier if you out more than one voice through it. If you really want a close look at what’s going on you could download the “SID tune” version of it and run it through a c64 music player, most of these have oscilloscope views and the ability to selectively mute voices.

lidHanteyk 7y ago

The Bill & Ted films are similar. Some guitar sounds and solos are now credited to Stevie Salas (the first film) and Steve Vai (the second film), but many of the BGM clips on radios and PA systems are still unsourced and uncredited, lost forever in a sea of glam metal.

finnthehuman 7y ago

>It's someone's dream to be discovered like that - and then to fall almost faster back into obscurity? Obscurity can be nice. I'm a stay-backstage kind of person. Even when I do work in creative public-facing endeavors my goal to make the product enjoyable without needing any non-monetary benefit. I work for a company that purposefully makes sure our name is on very little. It's not the same, of course. We obviously have to be visible enough to get clients. But it's got a comfort that suits me. You've almost certainly used one of our products, but even if I could tell you what it is you'd never know it from the branding on it.

mirimir 7y ago

There's a similar discovery by chance story (not that I remember what it is) about "East Hastings" by Godspeed You! Black Emperor in the film "28 Days Later".

kelseychapstick 7y ago

Since I'm getting messages about this as the quoted source in the Stereogum article (they never contacted me for permission or to clarify btw, just took that Facebook post and ran with it), here is the fully researched article I wrote for Dazed after my experience. Hopefully it can give some more insight for anyone who's been trying to reach me to inquire more about it! https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/43946/1/where-is-q-lazzarus-goodbye-horses-mystery https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/43946/1/where-is-...

ctdonath 7y ago

https://music.apple.com/us/artist/q-lazzarus/279810501 https://music.apple.com/us/artist/q-lazzarus/279810501