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Music That Makes Me Answer the Phone
Once cell phones began to move beyond merely being able to place calls and became able to store more and more data, we began to see the rise of ringtones. Beyond the novelty ringers, now everyone could have a ringtone for different callers.
My first phone allowed custom rings, but you had to program in each note. This was difficult for someone who is close to tone-deaf. I eventually got a better flip phone that had a decent system for downloading low-quality ringtones, but the selection was very limited. Once I got my first smartphone (a Palm Pre +) I could really innovate. All of my most common callers would get their own ringtone. It took some work because, by default, my phone was unable to play them at sufficient volume. I had to boost the volume with audio editing software, which hurt the dynamic range and sound quality, but they were loud enough to get my attention. Some uploading later, I had an ample array of ringtones.
Dad got a song from Christian Rock band the 77s:
Mom got the William Tell Overture (she was often telling me to hurry up)
One of my roommates (we’ll call him Silence) got what I consider to be the perfect theme for him “A Fistful of Nickels”- a spaghetti western style remix of a theme from the video game Final Fantasy VI.
Another roommate (call him RWS), the IT guru and wacky economist, got a section of the excellent Techno/Trance track “Keep it in the Family” by Hybrid. This is notable as one of the few themes that I listen to enough on its own that I don’t immediately go for the phone when I hear it.
A former roommate, a big James Bond fan, got Exercise at Gibraltar from the Living Daylights, which was one of his favorite Bond movie soundtracks. This is the very beginning, with the gunbarrel and such.
My good friend and somewhat adopted little sister, who is still a tomboy at heart got a plucky and optimistic theme.
My old high school friend, a lover of classic fantasy turned biologist, turned ordained minister, turned safety professional got a classic theme from a game we played in high school.
There were others I considered, but it was not worth the drama of my old boss finding out that I was using the Imperial March as his ringtone was not worth the amusement. Now, my father rapidly got in on this ringtone game, since his music library is gargantuan. Everybody got their own theme. So when I call my dad, he hears this on his cell phone:
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Published in Group Writing
This is a fill-in for a missing day of the June Group Writing project – Music that makes me…
What custom ringtones do you use?
OK, on my way to look up “The Seventy Sevens.”
I hate ringtones – my phone is always on vibrate – but the best ringtone I ever heard someone use? Easy.
(The ringer was the chorus.)
P.S. I promise my upcoming entry will not be Hip Hop.
The Seventy Sevens is a band that has been playing for my entire life. They have been described as “Too radio for church, too Christian for radio.” Some of their music is straight up love songs and does not reference God, others are really interesting Christian music, but they always prioritize musicianship.
I try not to give out my cellphone number. Also, it’s an old flip phone. I do have a few that are customized, but I couldn’t tell you much about them without going to look them up. On the other hand, not having a “smart” phone, I just choose from a list that’s available on the phone menu.
Reflecting my age, my ringtone has been “White Wedding” for 20 years. It seems to annoy people enough to make them move away, which is exactly what I want when I’m on the phone.
My wife has a variety of ringtones to distinguish friend from foe. Me? Ringers make me twitchy, so I keep my phone on mute, otherwise whenever I hear a tune now a tone I think of the ringer instead of the singer and jump up to answer the speaker.
From the day I got my first smart phone, I knew what the ring tone had to be. There could be no other.
If you know an IT guru who is a wacky economist, I’m assuming that you’ve already gotten him or her to subscribe to Ricochet? If not, the IT guru/wacky economist caucus here will get up a collection for him or her, enough to cover a one year subscription. Like speakers of many isolated languages, we are, sadly, a cherished but threatened population.
RWS is actively hostile to talking about politics. He’s likely to leave the room if I am talking politics. I trust you can see the problem with a Ricochet subscription?
I went a long time without a ring tone, using only vibrate. The main reason was due to work – cell phones ringing during meetings was verboten. The other reason was because I found them irritating. Even the land line phone ringing drives me nuts because it’s usually Spam or a robocall.
However, I rarely get calls on my phone, so I finally decided to get one. It’s the theme song for Nuka-Cola World from the computer game Fallout 4. I only used the first few measures, but here’s the entire song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGPaeCR2F30
Funniest stanza:
“A park with every minimum acceptable safety standard met.”
We’ll just get one of our IT gurus to write a JavaScript filter for him. He’ll only see wacky economics threads, plus fine non-political essays by the Deans of Ricochet.
I’m lazy, so I only have one ringtone on my phone for everyone (also young enough that my phone is used 95% for texting or FaceTime), and it’s Winston Churchill’s “Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat” speech set to music. I love it, but it has lead to some problems. When I was in high school, I used to have a two and a half hour dance class from 7-9:30 on Monday nights, and I always just threw my phone in my shoe bag at the start and left it in the changing/waiting room. Well, one day, without my knowledge it started to ring and completely panicked one of the other girls, who could hear a muffled man’s voice coming from God knows where and thought that there was a pedophile murderer stashed in the bathroom coming to get us, so she ran to get the teacher. All was resolved when we realized where the sound was coming from, and I explained to her that Winston Churchill was neither in the room nor had come to watch anyone change. And the last time I was home for break in December, I accidentally left it in my Jeep and didn’t notice until my mom had driven away. The same thing happened, and she had to pull over because she thought there was some kind of manic serial killer hidden in the back of the vehicle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TlkN-dcDCk
(Just this with some instrumental music added)
ive used Atomic Dog for myself
I use Butterfly for my wife
A snippet of the sax solo from Careless Whisper for my son the sax player
a snippet of Lumina for my daughter (I filked the song to her name)
now I use Barracuda for myself
The 77s are legends!!! I listened to them all the time; All Fall Down, Sticks and Stones, and the two albums you posted. I feel like almost no one has heard of them.
Funny story re: ring tones that I love to tell:
I worked at an aerospace company in IT for 15 years. The CFO was always hassling the VP of Sales to get payments out of the customers. This particular CFO loved the movie Get Shorty. He particularly loved this scene (language warning):
So when it became a “thing” to do custom ring tones, he put me on a mission. I was to get the clip of Denis Farina saying “Where’s my [expletive] money”, steal the phone of the VP of Sales, and load the clip as the ring tone for whenever the CFO called him. Well, I did accomplish my mission, and it was fantastic when that VP was sitting in a meeting, and his phone started saying that over and over again.
That’s a good one.
I waited years to get my first smartphone. I already had the perfect ringtone in mind last year, when I bought one for my 70th birthday. One of the first new apps I downloaded from the Apple App Store was a free “ringtones” app that lets you easily create ringtones from music already on your device. The first one I created used the obvious piece of classical music.
Mozart’s G-Minor Piano Quartet, First movement:
The nickname for this quartet?
Answer the Telephone.
This is actually a great performance. Mine is off a CD of the Mozartean Players.
My mother doesn’t respond to the usual cues on a phone ringtone. She had to record her own. It is her saying, “(Her very unusual first name), answer the phone!”
Nice.
I have to get you and my father to meet up, @exjon. Seriously, a pair of nuclear navy veterans (he was on the USS Enterprise) and classic rock buffs with somewhat similar politics.
Are you saying Jon is an old geezer?
I’m saying he reminds me of my hero (aka my dad) which is very appropriate considering tomorrow.
At the least, I’m geezer-adjacent :)
I’m not exactly getting younger at the moment, either.