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Mary Schmich's “Wear Sunscreen”, which turned into an unlikely 90s hit (2019)
- papandada 4y agoEvery graduation at the time had to either reference or parody this song.
- aidenn0 4y agoCan confirm; I graduated '99 and the speaker led with "A graduation speaker is like the body at an Irish wake; you can't have the party without him, but nobody really expects him to say anything important" then segued into "So what should I say; should I tell you to wear sunscreen?" Less than a decade later he won the Nobel Peace prize. Probably not for those jokes
- wodenokoto 4y agoI recently watched "Elvis" in cinema, and was constantly reminded of this music video. That movie has a lot of unnecessary swipes and camera fly-arounds, picture in picture and mosaics, and somehow is a better movie for it.
- jonathanbull 4y agoThe song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ7AzBIJoI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ7AzBIJoI
- TheChaplain 4y agoHad totally forgotten about that one, what a nostalgia trip. Now 20 years older (and wiser?), I can say it is shock-full of good advice.
- bertil 4y agoThere’s something endearing about someone famous saying that their talent isn’t fit for what people want them to do, and still, somehow, nail it anyway.
- celticninja 4y agoChock-full
- bitexploder 4y agoMostly it makes me think about high school and how difficult and uncertain my life was at that point. I didn’t even really know my life was all that difficult and uncertain, but I really disliked high school :)
- marban 4y agoThe race is long and in the end it is only with yourself
- s_Hogg 4y agoPlayed this at my wedding, wonderful song that manages to be sentimental but not cheesy
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- kristiandupont 4y agoThe words "do something every day that scares you" had a tremendous impact on my life. After a bad breakup, I decided that those were important words and that I needed to make an effort to get out of my comfort zone. So I wrote down a long list of things that scared me, all from eating weird foods, talking to strangers to traveling to new places and starting companies, and I started deliberately doing them. That became the start of a 7 year digital nomad adventure with several experiences that I feel could be movies. It came at a cost as well, but nothing that I regret.
- Jordanpomeroy 4y agoWhere did you roam? What was the best place to be a digital nomad? How sustainable is that lifestyle?
- iso1631 4y agoWhile an EU citizen can at least roam in the EU fine, and a US citizen can roam the 50 states, seems that roaming outside of that would be exceedingly difficult and expensive to get appropiate visa (if they exist)
- glenngillen 4y agoWhat makes you say that? Admittedly most of my backpacking-like travel days are long behind me, but border crossings typically aren't that difficult or expensive. EU is probably the hardest (almost certainly needed the visas before you arrived). Most of SE Asia and Africa you'd just hand over a few USD at the border, get a stamp, and keep moving.
- presentation 4y agoProbably depends a lot on your citizenship. As an American it’s easy to get at least a 3-6 month visa basically anywhere except for embargo nations; many other countries that have visa holiday systems make 6 month stays pretty easy too. not so for my Indian friends for instance.
- madeofpalk 4y agoI've never heard the original, but i remember my had occasionally listening to the (Australian) parody Not the Sunscreen Song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YwqFz14xY4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YwqFz14xY4 when i was a kid. The line "never go to Adelaide - it's a hole" is stuck in my brain.
- nailer 4y agoAdelaide isn’t a hole but don’t tell anyone before I buy a house there.
- taneq 4y agoClearly you listened to the Adam and Wil segment "Adelaide: It's OK" back in the day. :P
- badcppdev 4y agoYou just beat me to posting a link to Safran's song. But most of all, don't aim too high, You're probably only suited to an office or factory job
- dmitriid 4y agoThere's also "No Sex (In the Champagne Room)" https://youtu.be/j9yBPcn8IqU https://youtu.be/j9yBPcn8IqU
- nailer 4y agoUncensored: https://open.spotify.com/track/4f7i5mGkpmjORhoN77kSch?si=0f3e518b95c14d0a https://open.spotify.com/track/4f7i5mGkpmjORhoN77kSch?si=0f3...
- jacksonkmarley 4y ago> never go to Adelaide - it's a hole It's funny because it's true.
- blowski 4y agoIt's amazing how every so often, I gain new insight into a line from this song. I recently hit 40, and "be kind to your knees, you'll miss them when they're gone" is starting to make sense in a way that used to be more abstract.
- dsego 4y ago38 here, things just don't heal as fast and tend to ache for weeks or months.
- gonzo41 4y agoDon't let age slow you down. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9iuSVnfisI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9iuSVnfisI
- dsego 4y agoChristoph Strasser (born 1982) just won the Transcontinental, a bicycle race of 4000km across Europe. https://dotwatcher.cc/race/tcr-no8?post=34p4cOKwoPRSffwYwnBwfN#posts https://dotwatcher.cc/race/tcr-no8?post=34p4cOKwoPRSffwYwnBw...
- brabel 4y agoThanks for posting something positive here... the other comments are really depressing for someone who's in their early 40's :(
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- magicalhippo 4y ago"Banged my knee, guess I'll get used to that pain" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jhNRDygjvg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jhNRDygjvg
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- hwestiii 4y agoMary Schmich was the speaker at my graduation from North Central College in Naperville IL in June 2000. She gently prefaced her remarks with the clarification that she, and not Vonnegut was the source is the song’s text.
- patwolf 4y agoIn high school before I had even heard the song on the radio, we went on a field trip to local pharmaceutical lab. One of the chemists there had printed out copies of the lyrics for us from an email that had it mislabeled as being from Kurt Vonnegut. That was during the era where people of a certain age, even a scientist in a chemistry lab, would believe anything sent to them in an email.
- aceazzameen 4y agoAh yes. Chain emails were where meme-like disinformation used to spread before Facebook made it even easier. At least I don't have people forwarding garbage into my inbox anymore.
- subpixel 4y agoCount yourself lucky. FWIW these are still a thing in older crowds.
- geerlingguy 4y agoBut they're often disseminated through Facebook and Instagram now.
- johnla 4y agoAlso via email still. source: I get them
- pavon 4y agoHah, according to Wikipedia[1] Luhrmann himself got the lyrics from that misattributed Vonnegut chain email, and only when trying to secure rights discovered it was actually from a Mary Schmich article. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everybody%27s_Free_(To_Feel_Good) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everybody%27s_Free_(To_Feel_Go...
- kelnos 4y ago
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- gilleain 4y agoBrings back memories, but also reminds me of the more recent 'Ring' by Mint Royale: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziRaY2FJR_0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziRaY2FJR_0
- codeptualize 4y agoAdded to my playlist! I love this song. It has had tremendous impact on me. It somehow just takes the pressure off, especially in moments where you are stressed, depressed, or anxious.
- codeptualize 4y agoListened to it. Great podcast. I was positively surprised that they got Baz Luhrman and Mary Schmich to tell their story about the song and how it came to be, really cool story as well. From the podcast as well as the reactions here it seems this song/speech touched if not changed a lot of lives for the better. How powerful music and words can be is astounding. And how wonderful that this song with so much impact has such a history of random events and lucky moments.
- codeptualize 4y agoOriginal column by Mary Schmich: https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/chi-schmich-sunscreen-column-column.html https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/chi-schmich-sunscreen...
- Overtonwindow 4y agoMary Schmich is awesome. I enjoyed her columns in the Chicago tribune
- littlecranky67 4y agoDo not ready beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly. More true than ever in an Instagram world.
- sideshowb 4y ago"Do not use Strava, it will only make you feel slow"
- fuzzylightbulb 4y ago"The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself"
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 4y agoKeep old love letters
- jgrahamc 4y agoI think this is very good advice. I have boxes of love letters from long since lost lovers and although I never read them I know they are filled with happiness.
- pnut 4y agoI followed this advice, thinking it was great, and then my wife found the box.
- rr888 4y agoPrint out your text messages...
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 4y agoLove letters are a dying art. I only wrote and received them during my time in boot camp in 2009. I've been watching the Ken Burns doc about the Roosevelts and it is incredible how much we can know about people from physical letters they leave behind. What will survive us in 100 years? Almost all of my creative output is in digital form.
- nailer 4y agoOooh good timing. Born in 81, this came out when I was 18-ish, I'm 41 now. I got married, got divorced, did a bunch of things, some worked out, some didn't, but I know myself, I'm healthy and I'm thankful for what I have.
- neogodless 4y agoAlso useful history on the column and misattribution. https://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/mary-schmich-is-world-famous-but-you-may-not-know-her/ https://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/mary-schmich-is...
- dang 4y agoThanks! I've changed the URL to that from https://switchedonpop.com/episodes/everybodys-free-to-wear-sunscreen-avery-trufelman-baz-luhrmann https://switchedonpop.com/episodes/everybodys-free-to-wear-s.... More here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32334595 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32334595.
- nimphoenix 4y agoThis song gives me goosebumps every time. Not a lot of people I know appreciate it's meaning.
- dosman33 4y agoLol, I never knew this song but I knew a similar song by Sean Kennedy called Wear Body Armour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUq6YotwOIo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUq6YotwOIo
- andruby 4y agoI almost always tear up when I hear this song. I was 13 when it came out. It brings out a mix of nostalgia and “wisdom of life”, if that’s a thing. Every decade the lyrics have new meaning. I believe our generation genuinely wears more sunscreen :)
- aidenn0 4y agoI graduated high school the year this was most popular, so the graduation speaker at my high school made a reference to it. The closest thing I can think of to a hit as a precedent for it is maybe I'm too sexy by Right Said Fred. It was a gimmick song and everybody knew it was one, but it was fun.
- lysergia 4y agoReminds me of ‘Fitter Happier’ by Radiohead. Some loose guide on how to succeed in life, although the Radiohead lyrics are more cynical. Here’s the lyrics: "Fitter Happier" Fitter, happier, more productive Comfortable (Not drinking too much) Regular exercise at the gym (Three days a week) Getting on better with your associate employee contemporaries At ease Eating well (No more microwave dinners and saturated fats) A patient, better driver A safer car (Baby smiling in back seat) Sleeping well (No bad dreams) No paranoia Careful to all animals (Never washing spiders down the plughole) Keep in contact with old friends (Enjoy a drink now and then) Will frequently check credit at (Moral) bank (hole in wall) Favours for favours Fond but not in love Charity standing orders On Sundays ring road supermarket (No killing moths or putting boiling water on the ants) Car wash (Also on Sundays) No longer afraid of the dark Or midday shadows Nothing so ridiculously teenage and desperate Nothing so childish At a better pace Slower and more calculated No chance of escape Now self-employed Concerned (But powerless) An empowered and informed member of society (Pragmatism not idealism) Will not cry in public Less chance of illness Tires that grip in the wet (Shot of baby strapped in back seat) A good memory Still cries at a good film Still kisses with saliva No longer empty and frantic Like a cat Tied to a stick That's driven into Frozen winter shit (The ability to laugh at weakness) Calm Fitter, healthier and more productive A pig In a cage On antibiotics
- widdershins 4y agoDoesn't the final sentence suggest that the list is more than slightly cynical? To me it seems like Radiohead are sneering at this safe middle-road existence.
- Joeboy 4y agoAs far as I know it's unrelated, but William Burroughs did a similarly themed but much more cynical thing called "Words of Advice for Young People". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS_X1Y_X8sg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS_X1Y_X8sg
- shagie 4y agoPoppyfields filk version of it - Everyone's Free (to document their system) http://www.poppyfields.net/filks/00281.html http://www.poppyfields.net/filks/00281.html > If I could offer you one tip for the future, documentation would be it. The long term benefits of a well documented system, with FAQs, RFCs, and man pages, have been proven time and again by systems administrators everywhere, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own miserable experience... I will dispense this advice now > Enjoy and appreciate the well behaved and polite users. Oh, nevermind, by the time you figure out who the well behaved and polite users are, you'll have wasted all of your available time on the ones who are not. But believe me, in 20 years you'll look back at photos of some users and recall in a way you can't grasp now, how much time and energy you wasted on those other whiners. > ...
- edmcnulty101 4y agoCode IS documentation!
- EvanAnderson 4y agoLike how a recording of a performance is the same as the sheet music.
- edmcnulty101 4y agoHaha that's a great analogy. I'm going to use that when someone gives me that BS line that code is documentation.
- dwringer 4y agoLots of music is performed first, and only later transcribed (often from a recording). In all cases, a music performance contains more data than sheet music (although there's no guarantee that the performer played their sheet music accurately to the page, if they had any). However, in many cases it's much more productive to learn a song by listening to a recording. Paul McCartney famously didn't use sheet music at all. I guess sheet music is like documentation, but just like documentation it's often incomplete, wrong, confusing, misleading, or worse than nothing at all. Sometimes it's the only ground truth we have, such as with classical music where we can't know what the composer truly had in mind, so in cases like that I'd say the sheet music is effectively the source code.
- guender 4y ago
- VyseofArcadia 4y agoInteresting! I am the age when I should have come across this song, but I never did. Never saw the music video, never heard it on the radio, never heard anyone talk about it at school. The advice is timeless, but I don't know that the song has aged particularly well. If you can call it that. It's less a song and more an essay read over a very 90s beat, and not 90s in a way that makes me nostalgic either.
- kcarter80 4y agoI'm 41. I just asked 6 friends who are my contemporaries and each of them knew this song well. It was also, of course, extremely popular, as the link points out. Can you introspect a bit about what may be unusual about you so that you were never exposed to this song?
- VyseofArcadia 4y agoFor starters, at 35 I am a bit younger than you. That's certainly a factor, but I still should have been exposed. For radio play, I was living in rural Alabama at the time. Wouldn't shock me if the local station never played it because someone's church had some kind of issue with it. (Famously my mother once called in to request a Billy Idol song and was refused because the DJ claimed that Idol was a satanist.) For the music video, my dad was the unrelenting Master of the Remote Control, and he didn't care for music videos (although he loved rock music. I have his record collection. Go figure.) My brother and I did get to watch stuff, but my brother is younger still. At the time, we would have been watching programs suitable for both of us, which was mostly cartoons, as he was the right age range and I wasn't quite too old. I definitely had friends and classmates who were watching music videos and talking about them at school. I remember that much, but don't remember any details. I probably tuned them out since I wasn't paying attention to music videos anyway.
- pavon 4y agoEarly forties, grew up in NM, never heard the song until today. I wasn't personally into hip hop but I seemed to have been exposed to most of the other hip hop songs on the Billboard top 100 in 1999 when the song peaked.
- gadders 4y agoI just went down a rabbit hole and ended on the wikipedia page when I saw this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Schmich#'Wear_Sunscreen' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Schmich#'Wear_Sunscreen' >>The column was circulated around the Internet, with an erroneous claim that it was a commencement address by Kurt Vonnegut, usually at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the misattribution became a news item when Vonnegut was contacted by reporters to comment. He told The New York Times, "What she wrote was funny, wise and charming, so I would have been proud had the words been mine."[15] What a mensch Kurt Vonnegut was.
- rel2thr 4y agoThe first of ‘meaningwave’! if you like this song I can’t recommend Akira the Don enough
- bombcar 4y agoSomewhat reminds me of Deteriorata - also filled with useful advice - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey6ugTmCYMk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey6ugTmCYMk
- sailfast 4y agoEverybody always forgets the last line: “Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth. But trust me on the sunscreen”
- xbar 4y agoActually, that's the line I most often reference when giving advice to my adult children.
- silisili 4y agoWow, what a blast from the past. I haven't heard this song in 20 years, when it was on the radio, and mostly just ignored it then - when I was young and powerful, to quote the song. Hearing it now was oddly relieving. It's like every line tells/assures you of things you think about, realize, or worry about - suddenly making it all just seem perfectly normal and OK. Especially for someone without parents or mentors to give you such advice. I guess I was just too young and 'allknowing' to relate to it or appreciate it when it came out.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- happyopossum 4y agoI remember listening to this song over and over as they played it in heavy rotation on KROQ when I was in my 20s. Some of those words I wish I’d taken to heart. Laying in bed the day after ACL reconstruction, the advice about your knees is particularly poignant.
- purpleblue 4y agoI had not heard this song (or the original column) until my 30s, after my divorce. My close friend sent me this song, and it was the anthem for my next couple of years, regardless of how cheesy that sounds. It really did help me out of a bad place, and it's filled with absolute wisdom and actually did change the trajectory of my life.
- dbbk 4y agoI first heard this on Radio 1 when they were playing it next to a similar modern song, Self Esteem's I Do This All The Time. Both of them are incredible. "Getting married isn't the biggest day of your life, all the days that you get to have are big."
- mhd 4y agoI agree, and it's not like the 90s weren't full of unlikely novelty hits... Peaches, Blue, How Bizarre, Mambo No. 5 etc.
- devmunchies 4y agoMaybe don’t take this advice. Been a few recent discoveries of chemicals in sunscreen causing cancer. - https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1553488459855167491?s=20&t=vCR02VPq4g9BUW1xzKe8Yw https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1553488459855167491?s=20&t... - https://www.axios.com/2021/10/02/coppertone-sunscreen-recall-cancer-risk https://www.axios.com/2021/10/02/coppertone-sunscreen-recall... coppertone and banana boat issuing recalls. The advice of protecting skin is still valid, don't get burned.
- flerp 4y agoI love Avery Truffleman
- fritztastic 4y agoThis song has a special place in my memory, very specifically we used to listen to that exact CD in the first years when we came to America. I remember feeling something very deep and profound from the words, even when I didn't at first understand the words or what the song was really saying- I could tell from how it sounded, even as a child, that it came from a place of sincere caring. In contrast with much of everything else in music before and since, it really stands out. Knowing the story behind it is really nice, it's whimsical, heartwarming, and unlike most things inspired by internet culture... genuinely wholesome. Thanks for sharing this!
- throwaway98797 4y agobut is it good advice? how can it be tested? it sounds nice, but i struggle with knowing if it’s actually good
- dang 4y agoThe original submitted URL was https://switchedonpop.com/episodes/everybodys-free-to-wear-sunscreen-avery-trufelman-baz-luhrmann https://switchedonpop.com/episodes/everybodys-free-to-wear-s.... Since this is a podcast without a transcript, it probably makes sense to change it to the most informative text article on the topic. So far, that looks to be the URL mentioned by neogodless here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32330624 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32330624. Those interested can still listen to the podcast!
- whycombinetor 4y agoThe comments here feel weird now, after changing the target link of the post to an article not focusing on the song, when the majority of the top level comments are about the song. The new link barely mentions the song twice.
- dang 4y agoWe trust readers to be smart enough to figure things out. Anyone interested enough in the comments to read through them will soon put the pieces together. Eventually we'll have better software support for this, so related links won't need to be scattered across various comments, possibly pinned.
- filmgirlcw 4y agoI was in high school when this came out so I can recite this song word-for-word because in 1999, it was all over MTV, the radio, and most importantly, on Napster. I remember the original 1997 edit (even though I first heard it in 1999), because that was the version I downloaded off of Napster as a 15 year old. Even back then, there were all sorts of weird attributions to it (I think that my Napster copy had a Kurt Vonnegut credits, though the author was Baz Luhrmann in the meta data) and conspiracies about it. But I remember learning fairly early that it was some newspaper column. The other part of this is that the 7:10 version has the “Everybody’s Free” sample from Luhrmann’s “Romeo + Juliet” — which like every other 13 year old girl in 1997, was a soundtrack I knew backwards/forwards/upside down/verbatim. Like the people on the podcast, this has remained a weird earworm that I can just recall instantly in weird places. What a weird but great song. And as I am now in my late 30s, the advice is good!
- sircastor 4y agoI was also inundated with this song late in highschool. It was one of the songs that made it from whatever illicit file-sharing system into my personal library as "Baz Luhrman - Everybody's Free (to wear sunscreen)." I also remember the discovery process of learning that he didn't write the words. Learning that he didn't speak the text either. Learning that it was speech given to a graduating class. And learning that it wasn't a speech to a graduating class, but a column written. We still have a library full of mislabeled music like that. I'm in my early 40s, "Be kind to your knees, you'll miss them when they're gone" comes to mind not infrequently.
- NonNefarious 4y agoThe misattribution to Vonnegut was indeed pervasive, and stupid. You have to be a maladjusted no-lifer to get your jollies from "pranks" like that.
- tomrod 4y agoI mean, you just described 99.99999% of the population, especially those that participate in a discussion of a 25 year old pop song on a technical community board, or more broadly, teenagers. More jollies and harmless pranks, I say! But on a serious note, I reflect a lot on that song and empathize with being kinds to knees (I broke mine at 18 and decades later still feel it).
- jader201 4y agoTitle should include “(2019)”.
- rr888 4y agoIronically wearing sunscreen is advice that isn't always agreed by scientists in 2022.
- jessaustin 4y agoI am a pasty Scots-Irish hillbilly from a long line of same. I lived on the equator for years, and have also lived elsewhere in the tropics. At all times, I have enjoyed a variety of outdoor activities and performed a variety of outdoor tasks. I have applied sunscreen perhaps twice as an adult? I wear a hat when I think I need to, a shirt when I think I need to, and I stand in the shade when it makes sense. I've gotten a mild sunburn maybe a half dozen times. In my late forties, I conclude that the leathery oldsters who insist on the sunscreen advice were crazy about sunbathing. Don't be like that, but rubbing random cheaply-acquired chemical potions over one's skin on a regular basis also doesn't seem wise. The portion of the spectrum that gives us skin cancer is not the one that causes sunburns. The primary defense against covid infection is vitamin D. Humans lived outside for tens of millennia. This week a bunch of this sunscreen crap has been recalled for containing benzene. Good grief.
- kelnos 4y agoStrange that your experience is so different. I'm light-skinned, but by no means pasty. If I'm out walking in the sun or doing work outside for a couple hours without sunscreen I'll end up burned. Sure, wearing a hat helps, but there's always something that gets exposed. I do know a couple red-haired folks with Irish ancestry and very light skin, and they burn even more easily if they don't wear sunscreen. I agree that sunbathing is pretty bad for you, even with sunscreen. Unless you are ridiculously fastidious, you are always going to miss some spots, and re-apply a bit later than you should. > rubbing random cheaply-acquired chemical potions over one's skin on a regular basis also doesn't seem wise. Do you use soap and shampoo? Shaving cream or after-shave? Hand cream or another moisturizer? Anything like that? Have you examined the ingredients of all those as well, and chosen ones that have ingredients you deem safe? If so, there's nothing stopping anyone from doing the same with sunscreen; it need not be "random" or "cheaply-acquired". > Humans lived outside for tens of millennia. Human skin adapted over millennia based on local conditions. It shouldn't be surprising that places with more and stronger sun tend to have more native darker-skinned people. We of the light skin have outpaced evolution by moving all over the globe, including places with strong sun. Then we have more recent issues like ozone layer damage, climate change, etc. Can't really compare today's situation with that of a thousand years ago. > The primary defense against covid infection is vitamin D. At best there's a correlation, and it's possible that people with a vitamin D deficiency are more susceptible (which does not mean that "more vitamin D" meaningfully helps), but "primary defense" is an unsupported overstatement.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- strmchsr 4y agoIs this really Baz Luhrmann singing or is it someone else?
- kelnos 4y agoAccording to [0], it's Australian voice actor Lee Perry. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wear_Sunscreen#Baz_Luhrmann_version https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wear_Sunscreen#Baz_Luhrmann_ve...
- iancmceachern 4y agoThis song has the best advise I've ever heard. Every single line. I remember hearing it when it first came out, and I remember thinking of it many times throughout my life.
- DubiousPusher 4y agoCritically missing though, never get under a vehicle which is supported only by a jack.
- iancmceachern 4y agoThis is also very, very good advice!
- kbelder 4y agoHad a car drop off the jack five seconds after I rolled out from underneath it. Jesus Christ that was frightening. Gave me the shakes. Now I never work on them without stands.
- justinzollars 4y agoI remember this song.
- wizofaus 4y agoMeant to ask this earlier, but how odd does the accent of the narrator sound to native-US ears? (when I first listened at very low volume I just assumed he was an American, but listening carefully at full volume it's fairly obvious he's not)
- djur 4y agoNothing about it jumps out to me as obviously "not American". It's not a distinct regional accent to me but that's very common. It sounds mannered, like a TV presenter who has worked on developing a recognizable voice. What stands out to you? EDIT: The voice actor who performed it is Australian. I'm not hugely surprised to learn that. Australians seem to be pretty good at credible American accents.
- wizofaus 4y agoNothing "stands out", but as an aussie myself I could hear particular vowel sounds (especially the 'ee' in sunscreen, after "One tip for the future") that were a giveaway.
- coolspot 4y agoRussian cover of this song: https://youtu.be/1h34a3CpkIc https://youtu.be/1h34a3CpkIc