? rare topics in songs

[Garfield And Friends]

I'm interested in hearing some good songs with lesser-featured lyrical themes.

Of course there's an abundance of dittys on the many facets of romantic love (love found/lost/unrequited/etc), wanting to dance/partaaaaayy, being angry or self-pitying, and many other well-trodden mainstream themes. But I'm sure there's numerous good tunes out there with uncommon lyrical matters too.



Here's three good 'uns with unique meaning to get it started:


"The Bully" by Sia

"Help The Aged" by Pulp

"I Wanna Be A Lifeguard" by Blotto




The Sia track is interesting because it is from the perspective of the bully in question. Now grown up and remorseful.

The Pulp track works both as a paean to thoughtfulness for senior citizens, and as a selfish don't-leave-me-alone consideration too.

The Blotto track is pure silliness. About: wanting to be a lifeguard. "White stuff on my noooooooose!"

[An tSaoi]

A song from a sheep's perspective:

ADRIAN MUNSEY - The Lost sheep (1979)

Oh, you said good songs.

[biggytitbo]

A song about cleaning and washing? Or is it...
Kate Bush - Mrs. Bartolozzi

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Don't The Decemberists have a penchant for writing songs about semi-obscure historical events? I know hardly anything about them so I'm only going off what someone has told me.

[Utter Shit]

Craig David - Johnny

Mos Def - New World Water

[Garfield And Friends]

Craig David - Johnny

Mos Def - New World Water

Some elucidation please? What do they talk about?

[boxofslice]

British Sea Power - Oh, Larsen B

About the Antarctic ice shelf.

[An tSaoi]

Boney M have some odd topics.

[Serge]

They Might Be Giants - 'James K. Polk'
Tells you everything you need to know about the little known 11th President of the United States in just under three minutes.

[Marty McFly]

most things by Jonathan Richman:

You're Crazy For Taking The Bus
Jonathan Richman - You're Crazy For Taking The Bus
Reno
Hey There Little Insect
Abominable Snowman In The Market
Give Paris One More Chance
Chewing Gum Wrapper
Fender Stratocaster
Ice Cream Man
Vincent Van Gogh
Government Center
Pablo Picasso

etc, etc, etc...

[buttgammon]

'Outdoor Miner' by Wire is about a small insect called the serpentine leaf miner, which the band members heard about in a radio documentary.

[sirhenry]

Penguins on the moon is a rare topic, no?
Sack Trick - Penguins On The Moon

[Danger Man]

Farmers underpaying casual labour...

The Housemartins - Me And The Farmer


Most Housemartins songs fit this topic, to be honest.

[Jemble Fred]

I think a song about the number of bicycles in Beijing is quite unusual.

[boxofslice]

The Long Winters-the commander thinks aloud

A song about the Space Shuttle Columbia accident.

[Captain Crunch]

Nice thread, the first few that leap to mind for me are:

'I Fell Asleep On My Arm' by The Aquabats, a song about those few minutes of panic you experience when you fall asleep on your arm and it goes numb.

'The Wanking Song' -  Preparation H, a song about wanking.

'London is the Place for Me' – Lord Kitchener, London is great and here's why.

'The Sideboard Song' by Chas & Dave.  I'm not really sure what this song is about but he's got more beer in the cupboard so I'm sure it's all in good fun.

'The Gift' by Velvet Underground, about misadventures in postage.

There's also a stoner song about how much the guy is looking forward to having a big fat steak after the show, I'll try to find that tonight. 

EDIT:  found it, it's 'El Morocco' by Mark D, that was quick. 

[ziggy starbucks]

Bob Miller did an excellent song about a prison fire in Ohio, with a powerful spoken word section when a mother identifies her dead son's "poor charred body"

I know for a fact that its one of sirhenry's favourite songs, he plays it a lot on his cab radio show on Thursday

download it here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/2xqh9z

[sirhenry]

I know for a fact that its one of sirhenry's favourite songs, he plays it a lot on his cab radio show on Thursday

Please stop dragging me into Ohio prison fires, I have arsonists of my own to promote.
McCalmans " House Full" 1976 Tim McGuire

The above was written by Leon Rosselson, a regular on That Was The Week That Was, who writes songs on all sorts of unusual topics.
Such as Stand Up for Judas

[dredd]

Half Man Half Biscuit - Bad Losers On Yahoo! Chess

[Johnny Yesno]

The Fall - Wings

Time travel.

[Serge]

'London is the Place for Me' – Lord Kitchener, London is great and here's why.

Excellent choice, which reminded me of my favourite calypso number, 'Zombie Jamboree' by Lord Jellicoe, which is about zombies having, er, a jamboree. Includes a classic line about someone stepping on a zombies foot, so 'the zombie raised up his finger to warn/ watch out mister, you stepping on me corn'.

There's also a Lord Kitchener one called 'Doctor Kitch' or something, which is essentially about anal sex.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Ray Davies of The Kinks has written quite a few.

Victoria - Wasn't the Victorian Empire marvelous! (although as ever with Davies, there's a cynical subtext, and in any case he's writing in character. But an unusual subject nonetheless)

Art Lover - possibly the only tender pop song written from the perspective of a paedophile (or is he?)

Permanent Waves - getting a perm won't improve your life

There are loads of other Ray Davies songs which could be deemed unusual in subject matter, but I appreciate there's a difference between "interesting character studies" and "utterly unique subject matter." Otherwise the list would be endless.

[SavageHedgehog]

Buckner and Garcia, the duo who released an album entirely about old (then new) arcade games with songs like Do the Donkey Kong and the US Top 10 hit Pacman Fever and went on to release songs like Mr. T and E.T., I Love You, might qualify for inclusion.

[Tom Pynchon's Photo]

Syncronicity and Syncronicity II - The Police

In case you don't know, Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events that are causally unrelated occurring together in a meaningful manner. To count as synchronicity, the events should be unlikely to occur together by chance.

The concept does not question, or compete with, the notion of causality. Instead, it maintains that just as events may be grouped by cause, they may also be grouped by their meaning. Since meaning is a complex mental construction, subject to conscious and subconscious influence, not every correlation in the grouping of events by meaning needs to have an explanation in terms of cause and effect.

real catchy tunes 'un-all

[DJ One Record]

A song about shapes:

Linda Perhacs - Parallelograms

A song about broccoli:

Coil - Broccoli

[phantom_power]

lenny valentino by the auteurs is about lenny bruce dying of an overdose and being transported back in time into the body of rudolph valentino at the time of his funeral. apparently.

see also: lots of auteurs songs (child brides, light aircraft on fire, junk shop clothes)

[Serge]

Or indeed the entire 'Baader Meinhof' album.

[homesickalien]

scott walker's cover of "Next" by Jacques Brel about an army soldier recounting his visit to an army whore-house

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q_T0jehqpQ

[Small Man Big Horse]

Hefner's Alan Bean explores what it's like to have been the fourth man on the moon.

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

Caught by the Fuzz and National Express also spring to mind when it comes to jaunty indie pop.

[Blue Jam]

YMCA and In The Navy by the Village People. They dressed as gay male stereotypes and sang songs celebrating institutions from the YMCA to the US Navy... What the fuck were they about, eh? Who came up with the idea of manufacturing such a band, and where can I get hold of whatever drugs they had taken?