Weird song titles

[CantSleepClownsWillGetMe]

While I was cruising around looking for physics related songs I made a couple of interesting discoveries. One was somebody called Leo Badgerbasher who has a song entitled 'Quantum Bleep' (I didn't investigate), and this album by 'Forever Einstein' called 'Racket Science'. Track listing below:-

1. How Come the Wrong People are Always in Charge
2. You're Living in A World of Make-Believe - with Flowers
3. It's A Good Thing I Don't Have Super Brain Powers
4. They're Portable They're Annoying and They Cost
5. I'm Trying to Contain an Outbreak Here
6. It's Almost Impossible to Concentrate in this Cafe
7. God Has A Plan for Me and it Involves Puppets
8. I Wish I Had Me Some of Them Miracle Smart Pills
9. I Got My Picture Taken - I Got Forty Dollars
10. There's Some Milk in the Fridge That's About to Go Bad
11. Every Word Out of Your Mouth is Like A Turd Falling in My Drink
12. He Looks Interesting (and by Interesting I Mean Weird)

These have to be some of the weirdest (and longest) song titles I've ever come across. Does anyone know of any that are weirder, or indeed longer?

June

[Gordon Neill]

I'd love to hear some of those songs. Anyone who write something called 'Every Word Out of Your Mouth is Like A Turd Falling in My Drink' can't be all bad.

I know size isn't everything, but Doug Sahm's 'You Never Get Too Big And You Sure Don't Get Too Heavy, That You Don't Have To Stop And Pay Some Dues Sometime' is possibly the longest ever song title. It might also be funny, but I'm too sure what it actually means.

[Dominic]

Track 2 reminds me of Beware of the Flowers (Cos I'm Sure They're Gonna Get You, Yeh) by John Otway (& Wild Willy Barrett?).

Country & Western is a good source - off the top of my head (I can check the artists later):

My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink & I Don't Love Jesus

and

Dropkick Me, Jesus, Through the Goalposts of Life

[Rob Hall]

Kevin Ayers did "Whatevershebringswesing" and "Oleh Oleh Bandu Bandong". The Bonzos did "My Pink Half of the Drainpipe" and "11 Moustachioed Daughters". Zappa had loads of wierd titles, as did Capt Befheart.

[Charlie]

Ray Stevens had a couple of strange titles.

One was "Jeremiah Peabody's Polyunsaturated Quick-Dissolving, Fast-Acting Pleasant-Tasting Green and Purple Pills".

[CantSleepClownsWillGetMe]

Thanks for that everyone. However the 'Forever Einstein' weirdness continues. All of the tracks I listed above are instrumentals!

Dominic, I'd completelly forgotten about 'Beware of the Flowers' - I loved that song. Wikipedia says this about John Otway's last 'hit' single 'Bunsen Burner' (another Physics & Chemistry song?):-

"To encourage fans to buy more than one copy each of the single, he released three different versions. The flip side of "Bunsen Burner - The Hit Mix" was a cover of "The House of the Rising Sun" recorded at Abbey Road Studios, and featured 900 of his fans on backing vocals, each of whom was credited by name on the single's sleeve" ..!

Is that the longest list of credits on a single d'you think, or is that a whole 'nother topic?

[Dominic]

...John Otway's last 'hit' single 'Bunsen Burner' (another Physics & Chemistry song?)...

I was going to post some sample lyrics, but felt unable to edit them, so here they are in all their glory:

I'm an Alchemist baby
I can turn heavy metal .... into gold
I can make unstable compounds of mercury explode

I can make you glow
I can make you phosphoresce
I can burst your bubble
I can make you effervesce

Science tells you love
Is just a chemical reaction in the brain
Let me be your bunsen burner baby
Let me be your naked flame

You're going to turn bright red
When I do my litmus test on you
Acid it was, acid it is
And what acid was true

Check out what's in the test tube baby
You're my little pipette
The favourite piece of apparatus
In my chemistry set

Science tells you love
Is just a chemical reaction in the brain
Let me be your bunsen burner baby
Let me be your naked flame

You're the kind of carbon I can date
You're the element that makes me passionate
There's a chemistry experiment
I want to try in my brain
So come close to the Bunsen Burner
Feel the Heat of the naked flame


I'd recommend Otway's autobiography Cor Baby That's Really Me! (Rock & Roll's Greatest Failure). It's out of print & a bit expensive on amazon, but well worth searching out.

Can't find an original 70s clip of Flowers, but here's a later one with a ridiculous guitar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v38af7DXv0

Nor can I find the classic Cor Baby That's Really Free from the Old Grey Whistle Test - Otway fell off an amp & nearly neutered himself according to the book - but here's one from Top of the Pops: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkYOZyNocrw (Beware, contains Dave Lee Travis)

[Ronald]

I always thought that "The eggplant that ate Chicago" by Dr. West's Medicine Show & Junk Band was a weird title.

[Hugh Weldon]

Jazz people, though they really don't do 'songs' often come up with the most bizarre titles. I used to get the impression that they made up the tune first then came up with the wackiest or most surreal title as an afterthought. Soft Machine were a good example, 'Slightly All The Time', 'Dedicated to You but You Weren't Listening', 'Stanley Stamp's Gibbon Album' etc etc

[Dominic]

'Dedicated to You but You Weren't Listening'

This is such a beautiful song. Robert Wyatt sings Hugh Hopper's nonsense lyrics as if they were the most moving words ever written.

Famous parabolic versions
Songs that promise
Beauty, sleep, love, sadness.
Do I dream that something's missing?
Hungry, thirsty, open off-peak mind
Give me the truth, give me the truth,
give me the truth, tell me...

Songs and verses,
Handy captions,
Photographs of
Real-life action, horror, madness.
Can it be that something's happening?
Wash me, paint me, but please don't taint me
Give me a chance, give me chance,
give me a chance...

When I was young, the sky was blue
And everyone knew what to do
But now it's gone, the telly's here
Mass media, the sewer too

Universal maximillian
Eight rare cases
Chickenpox and crawling gladness
Seemingly it's nothing happening
Cure my doctor
Don't swallow him down
Give me the cure, give me the cure,
give me the cure...

The night was cool, the moon was bright,
The air was clear with oxygen
The stars were there, and in my eyes
Were thousands of chrysanthemums

Don't use magnets -
Geophysics carry you back
Wholesome, healthfood, homepride
Satisfied
Something outside gives out hunger
Face my mirror
Electricity...

[Dayna]

I think Purple People Eater is so common on the radio, you don't really think of how weird it is.