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Whistling: só un-rock'n-roll..


JumboXL

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I just heard Guns 'n Roses' Patience on the radio. Nice song, until the whistling starts.

It suddenly struck me that songs that have whistling in them really are no good.

Brian Ferry ruined Jealous Guy by whistling at the end.

The whistling in the opening tunes of The Scorpions' Gorky Park automatically triggers my finger at the remote control.

Is there ever any whistling done in rock 'n roll that can be approved of?

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Top Posters In This Topic

Jungle Love - Steve Miller (this is tuneless dog-whistling, like "Walk The Dog" and "Me And Julio"... I don't think the original poster's point holds at all for this kind of whistling)

Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay - Otis Redding (super cool!!!)

The Stranger - Billy Joel

Games Without Frontiers - Peter Gabriel (spooky whistling)

Centrefold - J. Geils Band

Generals and Majors - XTC

And let's not forget that John Lennon's original version of Jealous Guy featured him whistling. It wasn't just some weird thing that Roxy Music decided to throw in.

LBBBbb

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The whistling in the opening tunes of The Scorpions' Gorky Park automatically triggers my finger at the remote control.

Is there ever any whistling done in rock 'n roll that can be approved of?

the song's called "Wind of Change" and it's their biggest hit here by far ;)

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I just heard Guns 'n Roses' Patience on the radio. Nice song, until the whistling starts.

It suddenly struck me that songs that have whistling in them really are no good.

Brian Ferry ruined Jealous Guy by whistling at the end.

The whistling in the opening tunes of The Scorpions' Gorky Park automatically triggers my finger at the remote control.

Is there ever any whistling done in rock 'n roll that can be approved of?

Sorry, but like most people here, I disagree with everything you said there. :P

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In a way, this thread has illustrated the point of the original poster (whoever that was; I forget), in that we have provided lots of examples of whistling in songs, but almost all are from pop, soul, etc. (i.e relatively "lightweight" musics); very little from the "rock" genre, and even less that amply demonstrates the ability of whistling to enhance the song.

However, The Circle Jerks were a punk band, and no mistake. Punk, as I understand it, is a strain of hard rock. Argue, if you will.

Here- "Wonderful"- the Circle Jerks use whistling to great effect. Without it, the song would just be...nowhere near as good.

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btw, wasn't there some Meat Puppets song with whistling?

Yes, there's a few Meat Puppets songs with whistling. There's the Whistling Song, surprise surprise, but that's not very rock. "Maiden's Milk" is much rockier, basically an instrumental, from my favourite MP album, Up On The Sun. I've got to go listen to that album now...

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