Swedish Rhapsody

[gareth71]

Dunno if anyone's ever noticed - but on "Closer To The Sun", about 6m40s in, very faintly in the right channel if you're listening on headphones you can hear the tune "Swedish Rhapsody" in the background. Anyone got any idea whether there's any significance to this? I wondered whether it might be an obscure reference to short-wave 'numbers stations' (one infamous instance of which uses that tune as its signature).

[JimD]

I don't know about significance in terms of the rest of the song, but it is the Swedish Rhapsody and just after it there are "numbers" in the left hand channel, so it's more of a quotation I guess than a reference?

Some info about the Swedish Rhapsody station is here - http://www.simonmason.karoo.net/page13.html

[gareth71]

just after it there are "numbers" in the left hand channel

So there are! I only just heard the Swedish Rhapsody tune while I was listening on headphones while washing the car (!) the other day, but totally missed the numbers in the other stereo channel. I guess that confirms that it's definitely something to do with numbers stations. I don't think it's a direct recording of one of the stations, as the quality of the Swedish Rhapsody tune sounds too good to have been taken off-air from a shortwave transmission. I guess the numbers might be an off-air recording, though?