25-year-old viral “mystery” X-Files song gets a full release
The truth was, in fact, out there, as "Staring At The Stars" got a full release less than a week after internet detectives put themselves on the case
Aux News Mystery
A win for the humble internet detective tonight, as a 25-year-old musical TV mystery has now been solved—complete with a full release of the song in question. That’s “Staring At The Stars,” by Dan Marfisi and Glenn Jordan, a song previously available only to a very limited audience—i.e., people paying extra strong attention to the background music of a 1998 episode of The X-Files. (Specifically, “Dreamland II,” the second episode of a sixth-season two-parter that sees David Duchovny’s Fox Mulder and Michael McKean’s government agent Morris Fletcher swapping bodies.)
As reported in a number of outlets at this point—most notably The Washington Post, which interviewed pretty much all involved for a story on the search this week—the song caught the attention of Twitter user Lauren Ancona, who was perplexed to find that she couldn’t seem to track down the provenance of the music used in the scene. This kicked off a viral surge of interest that produced a day-long online investigation, which eventually spat out the answer: The song was an original, never-released commission for the show created by songwriting partners and L.A.-based musicians Marfisi and Jordan, who were apparently given all of four hours to put together a song that “could be about an alien or a human being.” Now (after finding the original version of the song on a 25-year-old CD) the pair, who still put out music as JonesHouse, have released a lyric video for the song, which does, indeed, merge lyrics about heartbreak with lines that could just as easily be about extraterrestrials.
It’s pretty easy to hear why the song caught the attention of Ancona and other X-Files viewers over the years: There’s a sweet quality to the tune, and Jordan’s vocals, that belies its status as potential filler material for a single episode of a long-running TV show. And given how well mysteries on the mothership series usually don’t go for the people investigating them, it’s also a treat to have an incident where the truth that was out there turned out so decidedly pleasant for all involved.
14 Comments
I have waited for what seems like a light year for an answer to this mystery.
All right. I’m gonna be that guy…
Yeah, that lyric had to be an inside joke.
And isn’t a parsec not only a unit of distance but one only used on Earth? And a millennium a unit of time that only makes sense in Earth’s base-ten numbering system? And a falcon a bird that exists only on Earth? Luke and Obi-wan should have said “I don’t know what any of the words you just said mean”.
In the novelization Obi-Wan at one point tells Luke “Still, even a duck must be taught to swim” and Luke says “What’s a duck?”
That was written by Alan Dean Foster (the king of novelizations) even though George Lucas was credited on the cover. Foster always had a wry sense of humor.
One line from that book I think is funny in retrospect is the line that precedes Obi-Wan telling Luke how his father died: “Unlike Owen Lars, however, Kenobi was unable to take refuge in a comfortable lie.” I think it’s funny how the book is trying to sell his explanation as the no-bullshit God’s honest truth now that we know it was another “comfortable lie.”
Dreamland’s such a fun two-parter.
Gotta post this one, simply to give folks an earworm.
But yeah, along with some amazingly deep performances by Gillian, Duchovny, Mitch Pileggi, and so many others, Michael McKean as Fletcher was just amazing.
Come one, post the best bit…
So many underrated moments from that series!
I loved that one.I didn’t realize that was the one they were talking about.