Music: Compare and Contrast: Portishead vs. SCTV

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mojo-photo-mojo.jpgOkay, I know I’ve been talking a lot about the Portishead album, which I love more and more with each passing second. But while my adoration for Third is nearly boundless, I’m not blind to its more, shall we say, “mockable” aspects. Case in point: listening to track two, “Hunter,” today, I was suddenly reminded of another piece of music that it resembles. A long-buried German cabaret number? An obscure album track from the soundtrack to an early Bond film? Norwegian funeral dirges? No, no, no: “Hunter” seems to have borrowed its dramatic piano melody and swerving chord changes from the theme to SCTV’s brilliant soap opera parody, “The Days of the Week.” After the jump, compare and contrast for yourselves. Hmm, maybe we should also be looking for hidden references to “The Great White North,” or perhaps the organ sounds came from Tex and Edna Boil’s Organ Emporium?

Portishead – “Hunter”

SCTV’s “Days of the Week” (starts about 30 seconds in)

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