A Radio Ghost Song Becomes an Internet Mystery

Can you identify this music?  It appears nobody else can.  I came across a link this morning and it mentioned a mystery 3 and a half decades old.  It starts with a kid in Germany taping songs from radio to cassette.  Years later, reviewing the cassette, the guy couldn’t remember who the DJ identified as the musician or musicians.  The DJ long ago scrapped his playlists and isn’t sure if the song is among his massive record collection or was mailed from behind what was then called the Iron Curtain.

The song eventually made its way to YouTube, where it has become a mystery for music fans worldwide.  No credible individual has provided any evidence he is the artist.

It’s possible it was a garage tape and the artist is now dead.  The song was heard on radio between 1982 and 1984 and we’re talking a long time in the lifespan of most human beings.

It’s called post-punk and has a haunting sound, although.  Nobody considers it a great work of art.

To some degree I do know the frustration.  There are old songs I still can hear in my head (not repetitively) but can’t identify.  A few years ago I heard one on a TV show and the next morning a Google search identified the band, which ceased to exist almost 50 years ago.  I ordered one of their few albums and discovered two other pieces of music I enjoyed as a child but also couldn’t identify by name.

I tried an app that would quickly identify a song.  It was great if I had the app open but usually the phone wasn’t handy when I heard some music and wanted to quickly get identification.

Meanwhile, the song recorded by the German boy in the early 80s remains like a ghost ship bobbing on the seas.