If you’re decently online and love 80s music and/or lost media, you’ve probably come across the story of “The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet.” This song, perhaps first referred to online as “Like the Wind” because of its opening lyric, is just one of many “mystery songs” found on the web, tracks whose artist and even title, remain unknown to most of their listeners, just waiting to be rediscovered by the right person. One day in 2007, a fella named Darius found this song on a tape and uploaded it onto YouTube, and look, there’s a ton of video documentaries out there talking about the song’s history. That’s not really why I’m here today.

A while back, the artist and title were discovered; they were a German new wave act called FEX, and the song a little ditty titled “Subways of Your Mind.” At least there was one bright spot in 2024. I’m not a great fan of the “lost media” obsession because people have diluted the term so badly that it drives me nuts. But in this case, I’ll put away my cynicism. “Subways of Your Mind” is, source quality aside, an excellent song (and really, can’t that source quality be pinned on it being an old tape recorded off the radio?) that deserves to be remembered and I sincerely hope everyone involved with every version of it gets some sort of recognition and possibly enough money to live comfortably.

And now it has a music video.

It’s been forty years since this song’s release. Its journey of disappearance, rediscovery, and identification is a bit of a roller-coaster, and this video makes me think one thing: FEX are incredibly glad to have had this happen to them. Darius and his legendary tape even cameo (and apparently even a tape deck of the same model as he probably recorded it on), and although this version appears to be of a different source, a few snippets of that original recording have made their way into the audio track here. (I’ve also been informed that the video was recorded on actual 16mm film; that’s pretty neat. In general there’s a ton of touches here to make the presentation be excellent-quality.)

The video depicts lead singer/guitarist Ture Rückwardt, at home, forty years later, playing guitar and scribbling lyrics, intercut with clips of Darius listening directly to him via his very 80s headphones, and of course, scenes of the group performing it in the studio… nowadays. The group got back together for this (except drummer Hans-Reimer Sievers). That’s really cool. The general vibe feels kind of wistful in a way, like a look back to what it was like making the song. Reliving a youth once thought lost forever. It gets me kind of choked up, if we’re being honest. It’s bittersweet, I guess would be the term I’d use. I’m feeling things right now and am bad at words, though.

I think it fits, though. Keyboardist Michael Hädrich gave an interview last year where he talked about the song as inspired by the oppressive mood of the Cold War era, but still with an uplifting spirit. “It’s a tough fight, but happiness has to be fought for,” and all that. Maybe it’s a lesson we all need right now. The walls are closing in around all of us. I don’t know who you are, reader, but there’s a very high chance that that applies specifically to you. Fascism has arrived in full force in many parts of the world - not even just my home country of America. In many countries, various minority groups are becoming less and less safe as governments roll back or even merely threaten to roll back protections. Truth as we know it is being actively dismantled by rich technology fetishists, most of whose fortunes probably were earned very directly by crime. The world looks bleak. Even the indomitability of the human spirit doesn’t feel like something worth looking up to. But there is still something beautiful, something worth fighting for among all the horrors. It’s not easy, but we can’t give up. What I’m saying is, maybe “Subways of Your Mind” is the exact song we need right now.

...I can’t help but also think about how, in some way, that’s what the search for the song’s source was like in and of itself. This was a happy ending that had to be earned, and in the end, I think we’re all glad it was. Funny how that works out.

This release makes me happier than I can easily explain, and the video, more so. Absolutely perfect.

You know, I kinda wonder if anyone in the band ever played MyHouse.wad (which also features the song).