List of most unusual/original songs
 

Following a conversation we had on Lindsey's thread, we thought (Amber and I :o ) it would be fun to post here all the songs we believe that are somehow unique, really original or unusual. It doesn't necessarily have to be about songs we like, just songs that we believe that do not resemble any other song ever written.
I already have some on my list:

"Tusk" (by FM of course)
"Innuendo" (Queen)
"The Weeping Song" (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds)
"All Tomorrow's Parties" (the Velvet Underground) - I've had that on my list for ages.
I also said "Edge of Seventeen" :o
If I come uo with some more, I will come back.

The trouble is, I don't know that many songs. :laugh:
I'll think of one, though. It's still a good thread. :woohoo:
I think I'll bring Down Under over from the other thread. And your list.

Blondie Rapture, or how about some of the **** off of Autoamerican, Hunter or KOO KOO!

Pat Benatar Red Vision

What's that God awful song Tammy Wynette did with that Euro dance group in the early 90s. As if she didnt need the $ to re furnish her tourbus lol!

"Echoes" by Pink Floyd
"House Of The Rising Sun" by The Animals
"Staying Alive" by The Bee Gees
"Play In The Rain" by Lindsey Buckingham
"Feel Good Inc" by Gorillaz
"Rock Me Amadeus" by Falco
"Biko" by Peter Gabriel
"Burning Of The Midnight Lamp" by Jimi Hendrix
"God" by John Lennon
"The Importance Of Being Idle" by Oasis
"Leaving Beirut" by Roger Waters
"Sunset" by Tan-Hauser Gate ;)


:wavey:

Indeed! And while we 're on Pink Floyd, may I also say that I would include many Roger Waters songs in that list (some songs of the "Amused to Death" album).
And Madformac, lol about the Falco song. It's hilarious, but it is certainly unique.:lol:

I was also thinking about Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit", I don't know if you agree..
And "With or Without you", U2

I'm not sure I understand the criteria here. What makes any of the songs mentioned more or less "unique" than anything else?

"White Rabbit," for example, is a fairly traditional march, and the lyrics are based on Lewis Carroll's Alice books.

It seems as though any song is written in the context of a certain tradition and is bound to have some similarities with things that have come before. And even if something is largely new at the time of its inception, there almost always arise later works which try to mimic or expand upon that original composition, so few things stay truly "unique" forever. (As an example, The Beatles' "Revolution 9" was certainly unique at the time it was released, but there have been plenty of pretentious musicians who have since done similar things with tape loops. Or look at David Byrne and Brian Eno's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, which was just reissued. It was a groundbreaking electronic record at the time, but now there are hundreds of artists who make similar music.)

I agree on Roger Waters. There are so many I could mention but I thought Echoes (although I chose this predominantly for the Gilmour/Wright work on it) and especially his newer work such as Leaving Beirut are very unique pieces.

White Rabbit yes indeed another example. With Or Without You is a reasonably interesting choice too.

I think a lot of Abba's work is in this area too. Super Trouper is a classic example of a unique song.

Jyqm, I don't know what the criteria are either:shrug: And I agree with you about "White Rabbit' being a traditional march and the lyrics are very obviously based on "Alice in Wonderland". I just think it's a very exciting and powerful song, pretty much different than other songs of that period, even from the same band.

My initial idea of a list didn't have to do with whether we understand or not understand where the inspiration came from (sometimes it is very clear what a song is about)- Tusk is pretty explicit IMO, and certianly all the "jungle" sound is not something that LB first came up with, however it is sort of unique, in the sense that it is not a typical song by a rock band, or something that you expect a band of this sort to write.

That's pretty much what I meant. When it was first released, nothing sounded like it.

I 'm not sure if I make any sense (again, hard to explain yourself in a language other than your own *sigh*), but then again it is not so important. I guess it's all about songs that strike to us as unique, or unusual. (And as to your question what makes a song less or more unique than others: most Pulp or Suede songs are very good and fun to listen to, but IMO, if it weren't for Roxy Music in the 70's, I don't think that those two groups would have been what they are, in terms of style and sound).

Dreamboat Annie - Heart

I think the style was cool for that time period and the sound of the waves and driving beat made it unusual.

Gold Dust Woman - the structure of that song is so esoteric at times that it almost is not like it is a song, then they and she bring it back to the three part harmony - then the sublime ending - I know of no other way to say that :laugh:

Many of his songs could be in this category. His songs are strangely beautiful and unique.

you took the words out of my mouth.

oh god! I know that song...something ancient...it's going to bug me till I figure it out.

Ancient and Justified? is that it?

It is by KLF - and called "Justified and Ancient"

I LOVE it and used to dance my a$$$ off to it in the very early 90's - I guess you had to be there :cool:

All bound for Mu Mu Land
All bound for Mu Mu Land
(hey)
(hey hey)
All bound for Mu Mu Land (justified)
(hey hey)
All bound for Mu Mu Land
(Bring the beat back!)

They're Justified, and they're Ancient,
And they like to roam the land.
(just roll it from the top)
They're Justified, and they're Ancient,
I hope you understand.
(to the bridge, to the bridge, to the bridge now)
They called me up in Tennessee
They said "Tammy, stand by The Jams"
But if you don't like what they're going to do,
You better not stop them 'cause they're coming through
(bring the beat back)

(Hey hey)
All bound for Mu Mu Land (justified)
(Hey hey)
All bound for Mu Mu Land (justified)
(Ancients of Mu Mu)

Mu Mu Land
Mu Mu Land
All bound for Mu Mu Land

They're Justified, and they're Ancient,
And they drive an ice cream van.
(just roll it from the top)
They're Justified and they're Ancient,
With still no master plan.
(to the bridge, to the bridge, to the bridge now)
The last train left an hour ago,
They were singing "All aboard"
All bound for Mu Mu Land,
Then someone starting screaming "Turn up the Strobe"
(bring the beat back)

(Hey hey)
All bound for Mu Mu Land (justified)
(Hey hey)
All bound for Mu Mu Land (Ancients of Mu Mu)
(Bring the beat back)

Justified and Ancient, Ancient and a-justified,
Rocking to the rhythm in their ice cream van
with the plan and the key to
enter into Mu Mu
Vibes from the tribes of the Jams

I know where the beat is at,
'cos I know what time it is
Bring home a dime,
Make mine a "99"

New style, meanwhile, always on a mission while
Fishing in the rivers of life
Fishing in the rivers of life (hoi)
Fishing in the rivers of life (hoi)
Fishing in the rivers
Fishing in the rivers
Fishing in the rivers of life (hoi)

Voo-va-voolie
Za-shi-va-zom
Voo-va-voolie
(Bring the beat back)

(Hey hey)
All bound for Mu Mu Land (justified)
(Hey hey)
All bound for Mu Mu Land (Ancients of Mu Mu)

They have travelled the world
With the ice cream van
Their voyage, the bottom of time
They have entered the place
with the Mu Mu mate
And their children so pride
Mine as a "99"
(Bring the beat back)

Mu Mu Land (Ancients of Mu Mu)
Mu Mu Land (Ancients of Mu Mu)
All bound for Mu Mu Land

Mu Mu Land (Ancients of Mu Mu)
Mu Mu Land (Ancients of Mu Mu)
All bound for Mu Mu Land

Mu Mu Land
Mu Mu Land
All bound for Mu Mu Land

http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/k/klf7...tte272876.html

"Tales Of Brave Ulysses" by Cream. I think this was the first real mainstream use of a wah pedal, before Hendrix was known for it. A very original song IMO.

damn. I astound myself.

I like it in a very camp kind of way too. not sure if I'd dance (seriously) to it, but I like it. ;)

The times were soooooo different then. People danced to fun, happy songs from Erasure (BLLLUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUEEEEE SAVANNAH SONG - CHASING ACROSS THE DESERT AT 100 MILES AN HOUR - OMD (BORN IN KANSAS ON AN ORDINARY DAAAY!!!! (sighes) ) - not to the pots and pans tribal shiitte of the last ten years :laugh:

lol.

my favorite new dance songs right now are Craving by Amuka and Nice Day by Persephone's Bees.

Lol! Were Erasure popular in the States?

They were, especially in the early to mid 90's - they were never huge though. I LOVED them and still do, esp. Blue Savannah, which is one of my all time fav.'s :cool:

A few...
 

songs I consider unusual and/or original:

"Lavatory Love Machine" Edguy
"I'm Going Slightly Mad" Queen
"Lavdate Dominvm" Helloween
and of course
"Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence" Dream Theater

Word!
 

I'd say...the entire album, Travel in Twos, but I'm kinda sorta biased. Heh.

Surely something by Kate Bush would make this list. But what?

I guess something like "The Dreaming" (the title song).

I would have to vote most songs by the Crash Test Dummies.

But especially:

I Love Your Goo


It very well could be the only song I know of about necrophillia.

Just about anything by Kate Bush could make this list.


I vote for 90% of Lindsey's Tusk material---especially Not That Funny and The Ledge. Those songs, to me, are insight into the mind of a man on the verge of a nervous breakdown :laugh: :shocked:

I was just about to suggest that a heap of Kate songs could be included here. Off the top of my head:

There Goes A Tenner
Babooshka
Wuthering Heights (maybe)
Hammer Horror
Coffee Homeground
Waking The Witch

I'd also add Beethoven (I love to listen to) by Eurythmics to the list of unusual songs.

Forgot to add...
 

the infamous/hilarious "The Audience is Listening" by Steve Vai-Dont know how that one escaped by mind.

I was listening to some Tusk songs earlier on and I was thinking the exact same thing ! It's not just that he's angry, frustrated or disappointed (actually if I had to choose one word to describe his feelings in some of the songs, I'd say "hatred:o )..It sounds like he was indeed on the verge of a nervous breakdown! And I don't know if it's just the songs or the lyrics or what, there is something in the way he sings. Kept thinking what in the world was his problem back then..He was a very famous artist of a very famous band, doing things his own way..:shrug:
Anyway, didn't mean to fo off-topic.

I agree with the previous poster about some Eurythmics songs

I feel a serious threadjack coming on :laugh: but yeah, the thing is, I think Lindsey felt very angsty (almost to the point of anger) due to the fact that he felt that his creativity was being reigned in a bit, (if not stiffled) during the making of Tusk. He had creativity and ideas oozing from every pore and I'm sure the other members of the band were like, "you wanna do what?" when he presented all that amazing, crazy, mixed-up **** to them :laugh: And then there was all that responsibility of producing the album and his ongoing job of helping to shape and craft the other songwriters' songs as well as his own. I really think he was feeling his oats and just kind of lost his mind a bit. I think the other members of the band had their own periods of insanity too, but it seems like Tusk was Lindsey's.

okay, end of 'jack.

He has always said that the 1978-1979 time period was a very happy time for him, & that working on Tusk was one of the best recording experiences he ever had with Fleetwood Mac--probably his emotional high point of working with them.

Which isn't to say that the songs themselves don't connote anger or despondency, but I think for Lindsey himself it was a very happy, liberating, explorational, adventurous time for him & he was having a ball.

Tomorrow Never Knows
A Day In The Life

I don't get what's so unusual or original about many of the song mentioned actually.

That's interesting because his songs on that album were downright manic and emotionally unstable. They certainly don't reveal the musings of a happy, well-adjusted guy :shrug:.

But he didn't feel that way at that time. He felt just the opposite. His ideas were not being squashed at that time. He was jumping headfirst into his weirdness & that was the album! I think you guys are conflating the recording of that album with FM albums that followed (when his adventuresomeness was squashed to some degree).

But that wasn't really happening at that point. Lindsey had one interesting "meeting" with Mick early on (which he has periodically alluded to) where he presented his agenda to Mick & Mick gave him a guarded go-ahead. Lindsey told Mick he wanted to personally handle more instrumentation, & Mick told him to go ahead with it but to remember that other people's feelings were at stake (in other words when you're in a band & you play instrument X & someone else says he's going to record your instrument X himself on a band track).

But apart from that early meeting, I think the recording of Tusk went very much Lindsey's way & he has said that the other members (meaning Mick & Christine) were very on board with him at the time. Mick especially was probably totally jazzed with Tusk during the recording. It was only after the album was released & was sort of lukewarm on the charts five or six months after its release that, according to Lindsey, Mick chilled somewhat on the whole agenda--he felt it was deliberately alienating fans. I think that's when Lindsey started to sour on being in the band, especially when the 'backlash' set in in 1981 when they went to record Mirage. Mick & Christine & even probably their respective managers probably made it very clear to Lindsey that they weren't going to continue to, in their words, alienate fans.

Ok, I take your word for it. :)
I always like to believe that reality is far more complex than we tend to make of it, I mean it's too simplistic to say that "oh, he sounds angry in that song, he must have been mad at Stevie when he wrote it". The whole singing style on Tusk might have as well been triggered by something else and not depression or unhappiness. Perhaps it was part of the explorational and experimenation period of his.
(PS sorry, but what does "despondency" mean?)
Once again, sorry for the off-topic posts!

No, but which group of his songs does?

He was very happy during the recording of Out of the Cradle & very excited about his future & quite relieved to be rid of the millstone around his neck (the band), & yet his songs connote a lot of pain & despondency.

He just writes like that. :thumbsup:

If you look at that Village Recorder footage that we have so much of, you get a better picture of Lindsey's state of mind & the other members' states of mind than you do from song lyrics, which are fictive constructions largely.

Think of that footage with him & Christine getting into the groove of singing together, recording doo-wop vocals for "Walk a Thin Line," laughing & having fun, exploring the musicical intricacies together. That's a real creative spirit in that footage, a real team spirit, a real joy.

I don't say that anger didn't trigger some of those songs. It took a year to record Tusk. Who on earth doesn't get angry over the course of a year? Maybe anger did trigger the writing of "What Makes You Think You're the One" or "The Ledge" or "Not That Funny"---it sounds like it to me. But my point is that this was in general a very happy time for Lindsey, according to Lindsey himself. He was certainly enjoying his relatively newfound creative freedom in the band, & certainly enjoying his time spent with Mick (the Mick-Lindsey relationship is one of the least focused-on & least understood of all the relationships in the band, but I think that it was the most important). Mick was Lindsey's musical soulmate in so many ways (none of the other members thought that using a tissue box for a kick drum was anything more than a novelty, but Mick & Mick alone got behind Lindsey's adventuresomeness & really dug it at the time). It was Mick turning against Lindsey in later years--against Lindsey's music & his ideas--that probably did more to send Lindsey on a souring spiral on the whole concept of what Fleetwood Mac had become (far more than the ridiculous Lindsey & Stevie **** that fans still peddle as if that had something to do with Lindsey feeling claustrophobic & hamstringed creatively within the band---Stevie wasn't even THERE most of the time, so how the hell could that have mattered?).

Just because you're happy doesn't mean you're necessarily going to write happy songs, though. Lindsey's songs on Tusk represent such an overwhelming burst of creativity and imagination. I imagine it felt incredible and empowering to come up with those songs and put them all together and have the band on board and being supportive of them. It was probably the first time he felt like he was achieving his true potential as an artist, doing something brave and new that he'd always wanted to do. That's always a great feeling, no matter what the content of the actual art.

I don't think Lindsey's songs on TUSK sound very unusual. They may have been created in an unusual way, but they sound pretty normal to me. :shrug: Except TUSK.

But anyway - Atomic.
Also I think Thriller is unusual. Thank you, Vincent Price.

An excellent addition. :)

I tend to agree here. I also think part of that reason is that IMO LB's most sublime work on Tusk was for Stevie's Sara and Storms. Hearing the demos and the mid production work compared to the final product is breathtaking to me. The music in Sara is full of hidden, almost breathless hooks and the musical yearning in Storms positively palpable. None of LB's Tusk songs display that, save perhaps for Save Me a Place.

Then, he gets to Mirage and he crafts Gypsy with the same brilliance and Hold Me as well. None of his songs display that level of thought IMO.

So, I can see where he came from when he got angry that he was using his best stuff on "their" work, which was really the band's product if you think about it - but that ole team effort died IMO with the advent of the production of Rumors.

Um....no Parliament here? Odd.