Dream Academy's "Life In A Northern Town" on King of the Hill - best use of music on a television show EVER?

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I never even liked that song - but the scene where Luanne is jumping on the trampoline with Buckley's angel in slow motion, and the scene goes on WAY longer than you think it will - it's so affecting in a weird, very surreal way. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

― Cocaine is good for washing dishes (Roger Fidelity), Sunday, 19 February 2006 23:27 (twenty years ago)

Are you talking about the Soderbergh film or the cartoon?

― cnwb (cnwb), Sunday, 19 February 2006 23:51 (twenty years ago)

Yes. I know what you are talking about, and it is the best use of music in a cartoon ever. KotH is like that sometimes. Much more affecting than it should be or you'd have any reason to expect.

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Monday, 20 February 2006 00:16 (twenty years ago)

I never understood why they used that song. It's not really about dead people. KotH is far removed from being based in a northern town. That whole scene seemed more like a writer saying, "boy, I sure do like that northern town song. let's work it in somehow!" than anything that would be affecting.

I have held this opinion for a long while without saying it to anyone. It took an internet thread entitled Dream Academy's "Life In A Northern Town" on King of the Hill - best use of music on a television show EVER? to bring out the hate.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Monday, 20 February 2006 00:30 (twenty years ago)

> I never understood why they used that song. It's not really about dead people. KotH is far removed from being based in a northern town.

All true. There's no good reason why it should work so well, and yet it does, and is all the more brilliant for it.

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Monday, 20 February 2006 00:39 (twenty years ago)

unless the northern town is HEAVEN

― gear (gear), Monday, 20 February 2006 00:43 (twenty years ago)

eh?

― gear (gear), Monday, 20 February 2006 00:43 (twenty years ago)

where's your messiah now?

― gear (gear), Monday, 20 February 2006 00:43 (twenty years ago)

With JFK and the Beatles.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Monday, 20 February 2006 00:45 (twenty years ago)

i always thought they were maybe in north texas (they're cowboys fans thru and thru and they went to that art gallery in dallas) but they're always making quick jaunts to mexico so that's probably not true.

― j blount (papa la bas), Monday, 20 February 2006 00:51 (twenty years ago)

Depending on the needs of a particular episode's plot, Arlen seems to move around a bit.

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Monday, 20 February 2006 00:53 (twenty years ago)

-- Pleasant Plains
Pop songs are used in movies and tv shows all the time without the lyrics having any literal relationship with what's happening in the narrative context. You might be overestimating the importance of lyrics in general. I mean, in the case of "Life in a Northern Town," the song was a hit in the U.S. (and used in commericals for a long time after) because the world-music influenced chanting in the chorus and ethereal production conveys some concept of beauty to people; most people couldn't tell you what it's about actually. Which is why I can imagine the music cue as a clever and sweet way of conveying Luanne's concept of utopia or hope even though I haven't seen this episode of the show.

― theodore (herbert hebert), Monday, 20 February 2006 05:57 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, I didn't intend for my above post to be in italics. I am sloppy.

― theodore (herbert hebert), Monday, 20 February 2006 05:59 (twenty years ago)

i didn't see this, but is it better than the episode of malcolm in the middle where dewey and bea arthur tango to "fernando"?

― joseph (joseph), Monday, 20 February 2006 06:42 (twenty years ago)

Sorry, dude. The "Magnum, PI" theme song is the best use of music on a television show, ever.

Promise.

― vartman (novaheat), Monday, 20 February 2006 10:05 (twenty years ago)

Miami Vice theme song, yo. Maybe.

― gspm (gspm), Monday, 20 February 2006 13:24 (twenty years ago)

So what IS "Life in a Northern Town" about? My friend Dave* has long felt that it's about post-industrial brain-drain though there's nothing in the lyric to directly (or maybe even indirectly) support that.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Monday, 20 February 2006 17:42 (twenty years ago)

Supposedly about Nick Drake, though I never understood how or why.

Sez Wikipedia, anyway.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Monday, 20 February 2006 20:12 (twenty years ago)

Just came up from downstairs, where the History Channel's bit on the Presidents is on, this one about the Quincy Adams/Jackson election. While they're talking about the effect it had on Jackson's wife (killed her), the soft strains of the bassline to Faith No More's "We Care A Lot" are clearly audible.
What the fuck, History Channel?
I thought "ILM must know!"

― js (honestengine), Monday, 20 February 2006 20:21 (twenty years ago)

three years pass...

unless the northern town is HEAVEN

― gear (gear), Sunday, February 19, 2006 5:43 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

eh?

― gear (gear), Sunday, February 19, 2006 5:43 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

where's your messiah now?

― gear (gear), Sunday, February 19, 2006 5:43 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

With JFK and the Beatles.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Sunday, February 19, 2006 5:45 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

― I X Love (Abbott), Sunday, 3 January 2010 01:03 (sixteen years ago)

All the songs on their s/t sound like they were made for a Martin Rosen animated film based on a Richard Adams novel. Or, conversely, both "Bright Eyes" and "Time and Tide" would fit on this album smoothly.

― I X Love (Abbott), Sunday, 3 January 2010 01:18 (sixteen years ago)

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