Dr Schlockenstein was talking to a friend about some strange music he'd just found, when the friend suddenly demanded to know, "But what kind of music do you really like?" Dr Schlockenstein was taken aback, and muttered, "But I really like this music," and the friend persisted, "You really like this? This is what you like? This is you?"
Dr Schlockenstein pondered this question many nights, in the few minutes before dropping into troubled sleep in a sagging bed with short blankets. He finally decided to respond to his friend by opening wider the door of his demented dungeon. This time he offers you a wider selection of music, and you can almost hear the trepidation in his welcoming voice. Perhaps he is worrying that your laughter is now at his expense instead of at the music. But that's all right with the Doctor, as long as you're entertained. He's made a practice of finding his amusements where he can. I see he's already wandered off into the great moldy dungeons of Salvation Army stores in search of more musical treasures for his next production.
And now, the roll call:
I suppose this is one of those "guilty pleasures", but this song makes me laugh because of its incongruity. I also have no idea why the Jim Henson puppets are selling hard rock, but then again, maybe they know who their real audience is.
Run C&W is a joke band, of course, a take off on RUN DMC, one of the earliest rap groups to become noticed. Run C&W plays soul music with a country sound, and we're talking blue grass here. Their joking biography claims that they were five little brothers living in the mountains when their daddy hitched up the pickup and took the family to Detroit in search of work, where they found their musical roots. I've had quite a few people find this music tedious or distasteful, and yet I find it amusing at least, and very often (as in this selection) poignant.
OK, the idea of playing a Beethoven symphony using only brass just intrigues me. The band plays this selection pretty straight, although their CD has some other songs that they have some fun with.
Apparently, this song is as it appeared on an episode of the Flintstones, and has since been used in various obnoxious restaurants to serenade customers so foolish as to report that they are celebrating their anniversary.
Of all the songs I put onto tape, this is the one that has been going around and around in my head ever since! One of its charms for me is the failures of pronunciation and stress that slip into the singer's careful performance. The more I listen to this song, the more I'm convinced she's singing "On De Top of De Word".
Meanwhile, the musical performance is very attractive, something of a surprise for me, since I only knew that Shonen Knife was a Japanese girl group band with a cult following. I bought one of their albums with songs like "Green Stuff Soup" but didn't find anything to like. Now I'm happy, of course.
Here's a song which I remember hearing on the radio back in 1960, in one of its first outings as a popular hit. It's been done by the Weavers, the Kingston Trio, the Tokens, the Nylons, that I know of. It gives the lead singer a lot of work, but the really impressive versions are those that are entirely vocal.
Yes, this is Madonna's ex-girlfriend, and also Jerry Lewis's co-kidnapper in "The King of Comedy". I wasn't too sure she could sing at all, but I was really surprised at what she did with this song, not a promising tune by any means.
A Led Zeppelin tribute band is one thing, but when the lead singer is an overweight Elvis impersonator, and everything they do is given a Reggae beat, you have to admit they've gone over the top.
Bobby McFerrin will forever be known as the "Don't Worry, Be Happy" man, but he's actually an accomplished singer who loves to experiment. This selection is from an entire album of collaborations with Yo-Yo Ma.
This song was composed for Henry V, (you know, Kenneth Branagh), after the victory at Agincourt.
Believe it or not, ALL the sounds on this song are made entirely by the singers, using no instruments of any kind. That includes the drums, the "swishing" sounds, and the bagpipes! This song was taped from the radio 10 years ago. I have an extensive collection of the Swingle Singers music, but this song hasn't appeared on any official release that I have found.
"Classiks on Toys" is a collection of classical pieces played on an orchestra of toy instruments. The CD includes the prices of all the items used, which come to a total of about $330. Most of the toys sound pretty good, but luckily there's no way to hide a toy piano, which is featured on this selection.
By the time John Lennon released the second version of "Revolution" on an LP, he had second thoughts about the angry, energetic 45 version. He wasn't prepared to rewrite the lyrics, but he slowed down the tempo and played the song with a "good time" feeling. John Lennon's softening of his song is carried to absurdity by this Brothers Four version, which has nothing to offer musically, and which reduces the embittered, skeptical lyrics to something that Polonius could spout in an elevator.
Someday I will have chestnut brown hair down to my waist, a set of romance novels "authored" by me, a video tape of an intimate date with me, and a fragrance. Until then, we'll have to rely on Fabio to educate us as to the importance of moozik in setting de romandik mud. (Not that HE'S going to sing, of course! He just chats on his CD, in between cuts of real singers. He does know his occasional limits.)
I know nothing about the singers of this song. I picked up a giveaway cassette in our local store and was grimly listening to one boring song after another, when I heard what sounded like a Big Band from the Forties with a thundering drum set and a lead singer from the punk rock era. I happened to be rollerblading back and forth to school a lot at the time, and I enjoyed the song so much that I tried to arrange for it to come on when I was about to go down a hill very fast.
This selection is from the CD "Stay Awake", which gathered a diverse group of artists (Sun Ra and his Arkestra, Sinead O'Connor, and Yma Sumac!) to sing Disney songs, with occasional remarks by Mr "Word Jazz", Ken Nordine. The resulting songs were often moody, dark, and mysterious. This example is all that, plus almost impossible to decipher. If you didn't know the words already, you'd never learn them from this version! Tom Waits turns the cheerful anthem of the chubby dwarves into a thundering industrial anthem played in an underground steam tunnel.
This song has a special meaning to me, since it was one of three on Dave Barry's "Worst Rock Song of All Time" contest that I couldn't find despite a year of searching. I finally accidentally ran across it when I received a tape of a Dr Demento radio show from 1989 from someone I "met" on the Internet. As I was falling asleep in bed, listening to the tape, I heard those fateful words "I'm looking for a song sung in the early 60's called 'Hooty Sapperticker'" and I sat right up, or at least opened one eye to try to stay awake, and heard it for the first glorious time. It's a wonderful song; the singers really seem to think they're onto something here, having a good time, and making no sense at all. And yes, it's pretty much what Dave Barry said it was going to be, Barbara saying "Howdy" and the boys saying "Hooty Sapperticker". But there's a little more to the story than that.
Yes, this is THAT Julie London, the one who was married to Jack Webb (who has his own very strange LP to answer for). Julie London recorded a string of mood music albums in the 50's. Her career was faltering in the 60's and her manager thought she should tackle some of the newer hits, to appeal to a younger audience. Judge for yourself.
The Bobs mention in their liner notes that "they don't make lyrics like these anymore!". This version of the song may help you forget the insipid Joel Grey version included on the "Golden Throats" album. Again, this is a purely acoustic version, with a fascinating collection of "special effects".
I just had room to get a few verses of this song on the tape. The song is by "They Might Be Giants", a group that bears checking out on its own merit.
John Burkardt, 20 October 1994.