Titling Instrumentals

[AndyM]

The Booker T footage on another thread set me thinking about the titles of instrumentals.

Where do they come from? Who decides? Which ones work and don't work? Do they connote moods or images? Are they bits from unsung lyrics (you can sing 'time Is tight' during 'Time Is Tight', if you see what I mean)?

Albatross ?
Peaches En Regalia ?
Blue Monk ?
Green Onions ?
Egyptian Reggae ?
Papa's Got A Grand New Pigbag ?

Thoughts !?

[Rob Hall]

I always thought that the Beatles' "Flying" was quite evocative of, well, flying. Similarly, if you're so inclined, you can quite easily visualise the beating of a large bird's wings to the loping beat of "Albatross".

Then there's "You Can't Sit Down", which is a pretty frantic dance number:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cv03fD6Ux0

[Chris P]

I can't help reading this as Titling, pronounced like whittling. I hope there isn't a Freudian explanation instrumental in this

[Hugh Weldon]

This reminds me of the old joke 'Are you into jazz? - 'No I don't like instrumentals' - jazz, especially in its more modern forms, being responsible for some of my favourite titles of all time.

Parker's 'Klactoveedestene' (which I've probably misspelt) being the top. A more skilled semiologist than I could have fun teasing out all the resonances and associations of that.

The Softs' 'Slightly All The Time' or 'Fletcher's Blemish'. (What the heck is a Fletcher's Blemish? you could imagine asking Mike Ratledge, and him probably replying 'I don't know. I just made it up'. But it provokes the imagination. Is is something akin to a baker's dozen, or more like a dog's breakfast?)

There's a thin line between surrealist inventiveness and pretentious twaddle of course. All those bloody suites/ That Mike Gibbs Orchestra record supposedly inspired by Macbeth - 'To Lady Mac - In Memory'...puhleassse

[Hugh Weldon]

Of course I couldn't help youtubing a memory of 1974 - the album I referred to above turns out to be a Mike Gibbs/Gary Burton collaboration, and it does have quite a nice track with the title 'The Start Of Something Similar'

Now that's a bit more like it..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuWtShbJ ... ure=relmfu

[Chris P]

Parker's 'Klactoveedestene' (which I've probably misspelt) being the top. A more skilled semiologist than I could have fun teasing out all the resonances and associations of that.

The Softs' 'Slightly All The Time' or 'Fletcher's Blemish'. (What the heck is a Fletcher's Blemish? you could imagine asking Mike Ratledge, and him probably replying 'I don't know. I just made it up'.

I seem to remember that Klact-oveeseds-tene was just how Parker's tune sounded if you tried to say it*. Mike Ratledge almost certainly wouldn't know much about Fletcher's Blemish - it's Elton Dean's freaky free-form noise piece that disrupts Soft Machine 4 (depending on what mood one's in). Neo-Caliban Grides is another good opaque Softs title, that I think I might have had some insight into once, but is so obscure & tangential to enjoying the music, and indeed the elusive mystery of the title, that I've clean forgotten

* Edit: I see there's a lot more theory, mystery & controversy to Klactoveesedstene than I thought, although didn't Bird himself say "It's just a sound"?

[gary booth]

Didn't Booker T say when asked - "I called it 'Green Onions' because they're the horrible ones that you throw away." Which still leaves me scratching my head.

[Adam Blake]

I see there's a lot more theory, mystery & controversy to Klactoveesedstene than I thought, although didn't Bird himself say "It's just a sound"?

Yep.

I never know how to title instrumentals. I just put a track of mine up on Soundcloud called "Instrumental in Ab" which gives you some idea of my imaginative powers in this area. I remember wanting to title a Lunar Dunes track "Fred's Shoes" and the bassist threatening to down tools on the spot. It eventually got called something obscure like "Herzegovina" or "Svalbard" or some other bollocks, I can't remember.

[Rob Hall]

Dammit. About an hour ago I wrote a mini-essay on jazz tune titles, referencing Monk, Mingus, Ellington & Strayhorn, and rounded it off with a wonderfully pretentious reference to Ian Hamilton Finlay.

I either dreamed it or I hit the wrong key: either way, it never got posted.

[AndyM]

I remember wanting to title a Lunar Dunes track "Fred's Shoes" and the bassist threatening to down tools on the spot. It eventually got called something obscure like "Herzegovina" or "Svalbard" or some other bollocks, I can't remember.

Personally I think 'Fred's Shoes' is a great title. What a diva bassist!

Shame we missed your essay, Rob!

[Chris P]

bringing news of those Softs tune titles via Aymeric Leroy:

Fletcher's Blemish: Fletcher: a reference to one of the Fletcher brothers (with, I understand, links to the mob) whom Elton used to play pool with, who claimed he didn't have a blemish on his body - "so I gave him one" explained Elton

Neo-Caliban Grides: "raucous sounds from wild demonic mythical tribes", in Elton's e-mail to me in 2005; a reference to Caliban from Shakespeare's "Tempest"

Slightly All The Time: titled by Lyn Dobson's girlfriend at the time...

Kings and Queens: was a pub Hugh remembered passing by frequently on his back to/back from gigs

[Adam Blake]

titled by Lyn Dobson's girlfriend at the time...

My old sitar teacher!! He was in touch the other day. Back from a lengthy sojourn in Spain. Wants to do some gigs with me. I am very flattered. The man is a legend (in a very small but select circle...)