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How the Song was First Discovered

The cassette tape image above is a representation of what first kicked off this whole musical mystery. We suspect it is a fabrication because it was never confirmed as authentic by the original finder. But whatever its origins, it perfectly conveys the anonymous, mysterious beginnings of the LTL search.

In the mid 1980s, an L.A. teenager came upon a box of cassette tapes in a cupboard, in an abandoned office. He took them home and gradually listened through them all. He later explained he did nothing with them until around 2000, when he digitised all his old tapes to mp3. That's when he threw out the tape. He then did nothing further with them until he uploaded just one of the songs to YouTube in Sept 2019 "for a bit of fun and curiosity".

At that time, some 34 years after finding it, he told the online community:

"I found it in a box of tapes, in a cupboard, in an abandoned office in LA. I don't remember exactly what year or the address. It had something like 'Demo - Listen Today' written on it".

Immediately, a small group of the song's fans started trying to identify the singer. But soon after, the tape-finder was accused of faking the song and his finding-it-story for publicity of his YouTube channel and his own band.

He was offended and saddened by the controversy, and removed the song from his YouTube channel, but not before others had copied it. So that's how come we still have evidence of this song ever existing. The finder then withdrew from the matter completely.

In 2024 -- yeah, some 40 years after he found the cassette -- I made a last ditch effort to find out more about the tape's origins. I had a personal email exchange with the guy, and I believe he is totally sincere and his story is authentic. These were his final words on the matter:

"I honestly know nothing more about it than I have already said to the online communities.  Even if the song's artist isn't identified, it's nice to know their work has found an appreciative audience, which it has always deserved and I imagine it never had in its time. And it enriches people's lives, its mysteries only empowering its magic. I wish I had more information but I don't. Sorry."

So that's a closed door for any further investigations.

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Subsequent Search Efforts

I've been working on this project for some 6 years. Others were involved even before me, back when the Reddit, Discord and the Lostwave Forums Spreadsheets began investigating the song. Soon after its uploading, it was voted "The Third Most Mysterious Song on the Internet". But now that #1 and #2 have been solved, that promotes Light the Lanterns to The #1 Most Mysterious Song on the Internet! And it's certainly living up to its name!

The thing which makes LTL such a worthy project -- more so than just its mystery singer -- is its maritime folk history and its catchy musicality. There have been over 200,000 accumulated YouTube listens to it over its 6 years of anonymity. Now that's an unclaimed hit song!

In 2022 a false claim to ownership of the song was made against the most popular YouTube channel hosting a recording of the  original LTL recording, which had amassed some 50,000 listens in just a few years, and it was taken down. But it's still up there on many channels. People love it. Thousands want the singer found.

In Dec 2023, a specific Subreddit was created for specific lovers and searchers for this song. Many many singers have been suggested. But despite every guess, hunch, google search, song-registry search, song-matching AI, email sent, letter written, no confirmed links have yet been found to identify the songwriter or the demo tape players.

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Years of Unproductive Dead Ends

For most fans of the song, identifying the singer is the primary goal. For 6 years now the primary search methodology has been what I call the stab-and-hope mindset, arising from "it sounds like ... ".

But when faced with this veritable needle in a haystack, many have nothing better than magnet on the end of broomstick, randomly stabbing into the vast haystack of 50 years of American popular music, hoping to hit one obscure independent artist. Or else they imagine it's "early work" from some presently famous artist. The Lostwave Forums frequently contain posts such as:

• What about so and so? She has a voice like that. (But after comparing, you realise why some people should only ever sing in the shower).
• Has anybody contacted Linda Ronstadt, Carly Simon, Carol King? (Dear Linda, Is this your song from the 70s or 80s? Love Phoebe).
• It sounds like Jangle Pop, it's definitely Paisley Underground. They were LA, early 80s. (I suggested -- Well, if that's your belief, write 20 letters to its contemporary luminaries to find out. Never heard any more about it).
• Sounds a bit country. Could be from Nashville. (Maybe, but Nashville is famously short on lighthouses and shipwrecks).
• My uncle says he remembers hearing it in Germany in the 70s. (Ja, vee haff vays of lighting da lanterns).
• Just last week another claim surfaced about a new copy of the tape being found in a bookshop in Scotland! (Hmm, possibly a Glaswegian cover version).
• I really hope this girl is found. (Well, so do 200,000 others. So how can you actually help).

Just so much unfocused speculation. And no results from any such wishful thinking has proven constructive. There is even a database spreadsheet with hundreds of collated futile efforts. And all this has caused the most common comment in the forums -- "I don't think we'll ever solve this".

But I disagree. It's just been the wrong methodology -- and waaay too shallow. Tricky problems require deep research.

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The Latest Search Efforts -- The Bigger Pcture

For me, the singer's identity -- now either around 80 years old or passed on -- is only one part of this mystery song and its enigmatic backstory. I see it as a whole big jigsaw puzzle, coming together via the following threads:

• Interpretation of the lyrics;
• Establishing the period of the story;
• Establishing the location of the story;
• Establishing the period of recording;
• Establishing the location of recording;
• Establishing the relationship of the story's characters;
• Profiling the singer and her musical milieu;
• And of course, recognition of the singer's voice, and possibly the distinctive lead guitar and fretless bass work.

Each of these pieces interconnects to each other in the puzzle. If we can get some hard facts in any one area it can lead into other areas, exactly as it has already done for my own research thus far. And hence my alternative research took shape by firstly decoding the lyrics.