FOT Forum
FOT Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: JonFromMaplewood on October 10, 2011, 03:34:31 PM
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I suggest that "Macarthur Park" (#2 in the U.S.) and "Tusk" (#8 in the U.S.) are the weirdest, the former for its lyrics (soaked cake = failing relationship), the latter for its orchestration (marching band + barking dogs + chants).
Are there weirder ones?
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Paul Hardcastle - Nineteen
Paul Hardcastle - Nineteen (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byCCmBwRjGw#)
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"They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!", #3 in August 1966.
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"One Night in Bangkok"
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Bubbled under the billboard top 100 at #106: Devo - Peekaboo (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1ymyx)
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"Tusk" has odd instrumentation but a propulsive rhythm and earwormy hooks, and "They're Coming to Take Me Away" is a novelty song, which were wild cards on Top 40. I would say that a weirder one is Bob Dylan's "Rainy Day Women #12 and 35." At least the brass band on "Tusk" is tight; what's a drunk Salvation Army Band doing running a song up to #2? Especially with a particularly atonal lead vocal by a voice many people notoriously can't stand, intoning lyrics that aren't funny exactly, more just weird and mildly unpleasant? It's not like Dylan was an established hitmaker as a recording artist; he'd had only two Top-10 singles prior to this and would have only two more ever, and "Like a Rolling Stone" was his only single that ever charted higher, and then only marginally: http://www.expectingrain.com/dok/cd/dylancharts.html. (http://www.expectingrain.com/dok/cd/dylancharts.html.)
The song did get some publicity from being called out for drug references, but a lot of people must have liked it for something more than the chance to hear a singer say "get stoned" out loud.
(Full disclosure: Bob Dylan is by some distance my favorite popular musician ever. "Rainy Day Women #12 and 35" is one of only a small handful of songs he recorded prior to 1969 that I just don't like much.)
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Bubbled under the billboard top 100 at #106: Devo - Peekaboo (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1ymyx)
This video scared me as a teenager.
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C.W. McCall - Convoy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWO_AIh8drk#)
When I saw this topic, this song was the first thing that came to mind.
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C.W. McCall - Convoy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWO_AIh8drk#)
When I saw this topic, this song was the first thing that came to mind.
One of Clay Pigeon's favorite artists.
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'Batdance' went to number one.
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Bubbled under the billboard top 100 at #106: Devo - Peekaboo (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1ymyx)
This video scared me as a teenager.
I saw them perform it on a TV show in I think 82 or 83. The 'ha ha ha ha' guy jumped out when it was time for his line. It was some wonderful TV.
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'Batdance' went to number one.
It deserved to chart even higher.
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'Batdance' went to number one.
It deserved to chart even higher.
I NEVER UNDERSTOOD WHY "EROTIC CITY" WASN'T THE SINGLE!!!!!!?!!!?!
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In the vein of 19 (on the other end of the spectrum) we have SSgt Barry Sadler's 'Ballad of The Green Berets'. I got that record at a thrift store. It's a real downer.
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Good Morning Starshine
Charted #1 in June of 1969
Good Morning Starshine (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVNy1Miw18Y#)
This is Beverly D'Angelo's take on it, and 15 seconds into the clip and whatever is going on in the chorus is how my skin feels trying to watch it.
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Weird, yet attractive...
Lene Lovich - Lucky Number (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnIJOO__jVo#)
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Things Get a Little Easier (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH8go6bj-Y4#)
Think. "Once You Understand" was a charting U.S. single in early 1972.
It was meant to be a novelty "social criticism" song at the time, but now it's some of the best ahead-of-its-time comedy ever.
Exact that last part, which was sampled in a well known techno song.
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A*Teens--Dancing Queen charted in the US, barely. How many other tribute bands can say the same?
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Things Get a Little Easier (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH8go6bj-Y4#)
Think. "Once You Understand" was a charting U.S. single in early 1972.
It was meant to be a novelty "social criticism" song at the time, but now it's some of the best ahead-of-its-time comedy ever.
Exact that last part, which was sampled in a well known techno song.
Whoa. Hard to top that.
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Things Get a Little Easier (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH8go6bj-Y4#)
Think. "Once You Understand" was a charting U.S. single in early 1972.
It was meant to be a novelty "social criticism" song at the time, but now it's some of the best ahead-of-its-time comedy ever.
Exact that last part, which was sampled in a well known techno song.
Whoa. Hard to top that.
That twist at the end was devastating. Knocked the wind out of me. If only they had understood Robert!!
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Don't know if any of you were into the club/rave scene in the early 1990s, but this song was a staple. You'll immediately recognize the intro sample now:
4 Hero - Mr Kirk's Nightmare (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THCj2AJuNVE#)
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And unsurprisingly, WFMU wrote about "Once You Understand", the 4 Hero track, and the full Think album "Encounter" on their Beware blog back in '07. You can preview the whole album here:
http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2007/01/365_days_18_thi.html (http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2007/01/365_days_18_thi.html)
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Things Get a Little Easier (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH8go6bj-Y4#)
Think. "Once You Understand" was a charting U.S. single in early 1972.
It was meant to be a novelty "social criticism" song at the time, but now it's some of the best ahead-of-its-time comedy ever.
Exact that last part, which was sampled in a well known techno song.
Oh man, that was horrifying. Between this and Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer it's clear adults were real a-holes in the 60s and early 70s.
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The comments to that "Beware of the Blog" piece are amusing. What must be the same guy posting under about a dozen different names keeps going on about how Bobby Susser, the composer of "Things Get a Little Easier," is a giant of the business and is on his way to an unstoppable comeback featuring a musical based on the song and a new powerhouse album of incredibly timely hits for kids AND adults that are going to blow everyone away, run the table at the Grammys, etc. etc.
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The comments to that "Beware of the Blog" piece are amusing. What must be the same guy posting under about a dozen different names Bobby Susser keeps going on about how Bobby Susser, the composer of "Things Get a Little Easier," is a giant of the business and is on his way to an unstoppable comeback featuring a musical based on the song and a new powerhouse album of incredibly timely hits for kids AND adults that are going to blow everyone away, run the table at the Grammys, etc. etc.
Gotta be, yeah?
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Yeah, I think so. My favorite is when somebody points out that the song was sampled by De La Soul and the guy, whoever he is, says something like "Who cares who sampled it? The point is, Bobby Susser was a total genius, my nieces and nephews listen to his songs all the time!"
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I love this:
Jerry, I just heard the new Bobby Susser CD All Roads Lead To Home too. A kid in my nursery class just brought it in.
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It sort of plays out like a Newbridge call.
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"Seasons in the Sun" is pretty weird.
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Oh, man, that is great. I want to meet Bobby Susser now.
All these rumors about Bobby Susser are extremely possible. However, since I am in the children's book and audio-video business, I always hear things about work that Bobby Susser is doing. The two big rumors are that he's finishing a new collection of children's songs, and that his work should be out on a new label soon. Ofcourse, any other things may be possible because when you're in the children's audio-video business you will hear things about Bobby Susser on a regular basis. He may not always announce things he's doing until it's all done, but it's for sure that Bobby Susser is surely doing something, and that something is usually working on children's songs in one way or another.
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Susser is a long time resident of Long Island and lives by the bay with his wife, Jan , who is a school teacher. Susser has one married son, two married daughters, and eight grandchildren. He loves baseball and watches the New York Yankees whenever he can.[28]
I'm pretty sure he also updates his own Wikipedia page.
Thank you so much for this. I've never heard it before.
Does anyone else think the vocalist who bookends the song sounds a lot like the dude from Belle & Sebastian?
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This made it to No. 3 on the billboard charts. Dumb song, dumb concept.
Mr. Roboto- Styx (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cShYbLkhBc#)
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I'VE GOT A SECRET