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Favorite Obscure Songs


bazooka

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Someone mentioned Tommy Bolin's "Post Toastee," which is wonderful. Some of my favorite obscure songs:

  • Never Met a Dog--Vinegar Joe--Robert Palmer on vocals, and it makes no sense at all, but it's a smooth tune!

  • Every Step of the Way--Steve Walsh--Kansas's lead singer on his own. Schemer Dreamer a tough album to find.

  • Hey, St. Peter--Flash & the Pan--Great tune that would sound fresh even today.

  • Blue Mist--Mama's Pride--A regional band out of St. Louis, the Pride had a great little tune with this one.

  • Roll the Dice--Couchois--Just something a little funky and a little cool about this song.

  • Hollywood--Shooting Star--Another regional band, this one out of Kansas City, that never really got its due. "Hollywood" is a phenomenal track.

Kent I do believe you must be a midwestern boy! Mama's Pride, Shooting Star, even Steve Walsh of Kansas (never as big outside the midwest as they should have been). I know all these! Great picks! :thumbsup:

Mama's Pride... :rockon:

may as well mention (again) Pavlov's Dog ~ Julia. :bow:

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Kent I do believe you must be a midwestern boy! Mama's Pride, Shooting Star, even Steve Walsh of Kansas (never as big outside the midwest as they should have been). I know all these! Great picks! :thumbsup:

Mama's Pride... :rockon:

may as well mention (again) Pavlov's Dog ~ Julia. :bow:

Lucky,

Most certainly from the midwest, and I have most of these songs in a collection of KSHE classics from the vaunted St. Louis radio station. Btw, Pampered Menial by Pavlov's Dog (which contains "Julia") is sitting on my desk at home. :cool:

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Lucky,

Most certainly from the midwest, and I have most of these songs in a collection of KSHE classics from the vaunted St. Louis radio station. Btw, Pampered Menial by Pavlov's Dog (which contains "Julia") is sitting on my desk at home. :cool:

KSHE95.... real rock radio (for 40 years)! :)

Kent, you rock!! :D

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  • 1 year later...

"Ooh Look, There Goes Concorde Again" - And The Native Hipsters

As Douglas Wolk describes the track in a recent Boston Phoenix:

".....("There Goes Concorde Again") pivots around a jazz bass that doesn’t walk so much as trudge, note by exhausted note. Bells and faint, woozy guitar effects attempt with limited success to follow it where it’s meandering. Eventually, Nanette Greenblatt, a/k/a Blatt, starts rambling in a dazed sing-song about fat women walking up a hill and thin women walking down. "What do they do down there that results in such an increase in size and weight?" Her voice is squeaky and wobbly, the voice of a dithering matron, not a singer; her timing is distracted and irregular. Then she spies something she likes: "Oooo, look! There goes Concorde again! Oooo, look, there goes Concorde again!" She remarks on the Concorde’s appearance over and over. She pauses for a minute (as the bells and whooshes hover uncertainly) before repeating everything she’s said, from the beginning. Then she does it again, trying to understand what she’s just said....."

This song was just on the radio. I googled the lyrics and result #3 was Songfacts. 'This has to be B-F', thought I. Nutty track, what were they on?

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  • 5 months later...

In this thread, a couple of years ago, I waxed lyrical about one of my favourite obscurities: "Edward Fox" by Smack. In the interim, a similarly-minded person has put a home-made vid of Edward Fox on youtube, which I'd love to share with you.

"Edward Fox"

Below: my original review.

"Edward Fox" - Smack is a bizarre beauty of a single, which my children have grown to love as much as I do. Even though, in its year of release, it ranked at #45 in the NME's "Best Singles of 1980 (as voted by our journalists)" - that's one place above The Police's "Don't Stand So Close To Me"- I tend to think that any single meriting less than a dozen Google hits is pretty obscure by most people's standards.

To refer to Smack / "Edward Fox" as post-punk as Wikipedia does (in its profile of the famous British actor Edward Fox) is true only insofar as it was not "punk", but came out in that exciting couple of years after punk, when things went off at tangents. It certainly isn't in the style of Joy Division, PIL, Magazine or whatever else "post-punk" normally describes. Whilst the music is, in some ways, reminiscent of fairly standard pub-rock/rhythm'n'blues with a vaguely new-wave flavour (think Dr Feelgood meets early XTC), there is a definite quirkiness about this song. It takes as its lyric a biography of the actor Edward Fox, originally published in the New Manchester Review. The verses are all spoken word, narrated in suitably plummy, aristocratic tones: "Edward Fox has charm; not the sticky transatlantic variety, nor the hammy continental strain, but rather a uniquely English charm of old hounds, tweed jackets, unobstrusive courtesy and a complete lack of condescension" begins the first verse. "I wouldn't live anywhere else" he said,when we spoke of the old country,"I like this country, don't you? I like the people: bit dull sometimes, but so what? I also think the best things in theatre happen here..." The mob choruses of "Edward, Edward, Edward Fox! Edward, Edward, Edward Fox!" are a joyous punctuation to the slightly rambling narrative of the verses. Then , for no obvious reasons, the vocalist asks "What do the police think?" before imitating a siren "Nee-nar, nee-nar, nee-nar, nee-nar..etc" over what might otherwise have been a serviceable guitar solo. Then there is a reasonably serviceable guitar solo. Then the narrative resumes with a series of philosophical and insurrectionary treatises about the human condition, the indomitable spirit of ordinary people and the possibility of a proletarian revolution: "Anarchy should be a joyous thing: it should take place in the heart and mind, and speak to the heart and mind", "I think vandalism is poetic, as it's an expression of one human being's otherness", "I think human beings are incredibly tolerant; if they really sat down and thought about how they are mistreated, then there really would be a revolution..." etc. etc. Quite frankly, I find it hard to believe that Edward Fox (the actor) espoused such views, but then again, I've never been to one of his dinner parties.

This single (apparently the only one Smack ever released) never made the National Charts, but it did make the Top 10 of the "new-concept-at-the-time" Independent Chart, so it must have sold at least a few hundred copies. To me, it is an absolute joy.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 11 months later...

Thanks very much for your transcription of the lyrics of this great song. I was very happy to have it, since I'm not a native speaker and some parts were difficult to understand. Meanwhile, however, I came across a copy of the interview (which was included with some of the releases of the single), fittingly called "Fox - A Gentleman and an Anarchist"! So here is a slightly corrected version:

Edward Fox has charm. Not the sticky, transatlantic variety, nor indeed the hammy continental strain, but rather the uniquely English charm of old houndstooth jackets, unobtrusive courtesy and a complete lack of condescension.

"I wouldn't live anywhere else," he said, when we spoke of the old country. "I like this country, don't you? I like the people. Bit dull sometimes, but so what? I also think the best things in theatre happen here."

[Edward, Edward, Edward Fox! Edward, Edward, Edward Fox!]

[What do the police think?]

[siren.]

"Anarchy should be a joyous thing. It should take place in the heart and mind, and speak to the heart and mind. A social revolution in thought. It should be possible ..."

"I think vandalism is poetic, because it's an expression of how a human hates ugliness."

"I think human beings are incredibly tolerant. If they really sat down and thought about how they are mistreated, then there really would be a revolution."

[Yes, indeed, there really would be a revolution. In fact, there really would be a revolution.]

[Edward, Edward, Edward Fox! Edward, Edward, Edward Fox!]

The first part (about the charm) is by the interviewer, most of the rest (except for some repetitions, the imitation of the siren, the chants etc) really are verbatim quotations of Mr Edward Fox himself - including the views on anarchy etc.!

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Regrettably, the video is not available anymore. It was this video that made me aware of the song, and I enjoyed it very much. It began with a scene from QUARTERMAINE'S TERMS and then continued with a slide show of pictures to accompany the song.

Since I am a great fan of Edward Fox myself, I made a tribute of my own, also using this song, but clips instead of still images:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDCYVGOipiI

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I believe the following tune/s should receive an A plus for being so danged obscure and a Grammy for having a style all their own!

When the music stops, keep listening because another will come. And don't mind the occasional "this song is not permitted"

Because of copyright issues this masterpiece of an album cannot be played in its entirety but most of the tracks slip through. I mean, who knows? Tomorrow these songs also may be gone, too.

Obscured ~ Pink Floyd

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Thanks very much for your transcription of the lyrics of this great song. I was very happy to have it, since I'm not a native speaker and some parts were difficult to understand. Meanwhile, however, I came across a copy of the interview (which was included with some of the releases of the single), fittingly called "Fox - A Gentleman and an Anarchist"! So here is a slightly corrected version:

Edward Fox has charm. Not the sticky, transatlantic variety, nor indeed the hammy continental strain, but rather the uniquely English charm of old houndstooth jackets, unobtrusive courtesy and a complete lack of condescension.

"I wouldn't live anywhere else," he said, when we spoke of the old country. "I like this country, don't you? I like the people. Bit dull sometimes, but so what? I also think the best things in theatre happen here."

[Edward, Edward, Edward Fox! Edward, Edward, Edward Fox!]

[What do the police think?]

[siren.]

"Anarchy should be a joyous thing. It should take place in the heart and mind, and speak to the heart and mind. A social revolution in thought. It should be possible ..."

"I think vandalism is poetic, because it's an expression of how a human hates ugliness."

"I think human beings are incredibly tolerant. If they really sat down and thought about how they are mistreated, then there really would be a revolution."

[Yes, indeed, there really would be a revolution. In fact, there really would be a revolution.]

[Edward, Edward, Edward Fox! Edward, Edward, Edward Fox!]

The first part (about the charm) is by the interviewer, most of the rest (except for some repetitions, the imitation of the siren, the chants etc) really are verbatim quotations of Mr Edward Fox himself - including the views on anarchy etc.!

Regrettably, the video is not available anymore. It was this video that made me aware of the song, and I enjoyed it very much. It began with a scene from QUARTERMAINE'S TERMS and then continued with a slide show of pictures to accompany the song.

Since I am a great fan of Edward Fox myself, I made a tribute of my own, also using this song, but clips instead of still images:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDCYVGOipiI

Cheers,mate. :thumbsup: You've brought some cheer to what has been an otherwise kinda sad day. (I learnt of the death last evening of Poly Styrene of X Ray Spex, whose "Germ Free Adolescents" album has had a special place in my affections ever since I first got into punk rock as an impressionable teenager in the late 70s.)

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