The Bruce Hornsby thread currently getting some posts reminds me of a thread I wanted to post.
I attend a LOT of live performances, both big names, and shows where I’m one of 20 people there. One of the things I love about live shows is that artists sometimes throw out unexpected bonus goodies, like briefly jumping to another song in the middle of a song. Now, to be clear, I’m not talking about sampling, I’m talking about an entirely different song inserted, usually with a nice transition into and out of the inserted song.
So, here is what I’m interested to see other examples of:
[ul]
[li]Artists performing his/her own song[/li][li]Transition to another artist’s song[/li][li]Then transition back to their song.[/li][li]has to be at least one or two verses and or chorus[/li][/ul]
If you want to jump to the transition into Comfortably Numb, about 3:45 is a good point, but listening to the entire song sets it up better.
Apparently he did this combo decades ago at a show, and it became so popular that it is now a staple at his shows. He has also performed the combo on stage with Roger Waters, who is a huge fan on the hybrid song.
Led Zeppelin would throw some half-songs in the midst of interminable live versions of “Dazed and Confused” and “Whole Lotta Love” – typically hommages to rockabilly or rhythm-and-blues predecessors like Eddie Cochran or Elvis Presley. I wouldn’t quite call them “medleys,” though.
Here’s a good one for this time of year: Jethro Tull, on their fine 1978 live album Bursting Out, play “A New Day Yesterday,” but in the middle (after a flute solo) they play God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. I guess it is more of a medley than a song-within-a-song, because they return not to “A New Day…” but rather end with “Bourrée,” but maybe it fits the OP well enough.
Dream Theater does this a ton.
Here’s “Peruvian Skies” which includes excerpts from “Have a Cigar” (@1:28) and “Enter Sandman” (@6:54)
Here’s “A Change of Seasons” which mixes the guitar solo with a bunch of instrumental bits, including the Simpsons theme (around 12:00 or so)
This performance of “Surrounded” seamlessly segues into Marillion’s “Sugar Mice”
Here’s a “Pull Me Under/Master of Puppets” mashup.
Billy Joel does it a lot with “River of Dreams”. After the second chorus, when the band stops for a second, he usually goes into a completely different song before coming back around to the third verse. On the 2000 Years album (the Y2K show he did in Times Square) he goes into “Land of 1,000 Dances” (although I admit I had to look up that title) and on the Last Play at Shea album (which I was at, btw) he goes into “Hard Day’s Night”.
I wouldn’t call it a medley either, because there’s a clear stop before and after the song in the middle.
I was going to say “And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda” by Eric Bogle. It segues into a little bit of “Waltzing Matilda” at the end. However, it doesn’t go back to the original song, so perhaps that doesn’t count.
Fountains of Wayne used to play an extended version of Radiation Vibe with a nice medley of 70s/80s hits* thrown in.
*Depending on the night, Jet Airliner/Do You Feel Like We Do/Carry On Wayward Son/Jet/Double Vision/Another Brick In The Wall/Everybody Wants You/White Wedding/Mad World, etc
