I’m looking for some music I can only classify as Freaky Circus Music.
I quite like They by Jem and the start of the song especially appeals to me because of this freaky circus feel.
Any other songs anyone know that are similar?
“Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite” by the Beatles.
I don’t know the song you mention, but when I read your description, I immediately thought of this group:
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/sfmetro/11.96/clubfoot-orch-96-11.html
“Everybody Loves a Hero” from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “Aspects of Love” definitely qualifes.
“Circus Contraption” sounds like exactly what you’re describing. I believe they have a couple albums available.
Danny Elfman’s film music would qualify. This is a good compilation, with the 2 Pee Wee tracks, Beetlejuice and Face Like a Frog in particular having a circusy feel.
I immediately thought of Danny Elfman also.
I also remember a track from the Lost Boys soundtrack that had a circus/merry-go-round theme to it.
Ephel Duath’s demo has a definite circus feel to it, and you can find it tacked on to the end of Rephormula. Arcturus’ La Masquerade Infernale defintely qualifies and may be much more to your liking.
Breakfast At The Circus, by David Wilcox?
Seconded.
There have also been a couple of spinoff bands from Circus Contraption: A Midnite Choir, which I cannot recommend highly enough, and The Bad Things (not as good, but still worth a listen). There’s also the band “Rubber Chicken Lollipop”, but I’m not sure if they have a web site. See also Baby Gramps (I can’t stand him, but a lot of people seem to like him.)
If you’re looking for old-school, there’s always the album New World’s Fair by Michael Moorcock and the Deep Fix. (Yes, that Michael Moorcock.)
And then there’s the Residents…
Several songs on Harry Nilsson’s album “Pandemonium Shadow Show” have a weird circus-y sound to them.
Thankyou to all, I’ll look them up.
Try Carny by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. It’s very dark, and over-dramatic, but fun. It has that sort of swirling circus organ sound to it.
I think On the Coattails of a Dead Man by Primus would suit the “Freaky Circus” idea.
It’s got Tom Waits in it too. My favourite Primus song.
“Brighter Day” by Jellyfish, off of the LP Spilt Milk. Circusy music, paired to lyrics that uses the circus as an extended metaphor for our ordinary lives. Great song, great album, great band.
The band Mr. Bungle also came to mind, although that’s more like a seedy carnival sideshow/sweatshop outfit on acid. Bad acid. And evil, cackling clowns…
MonkeyGrinder. They even have free music downloads on the website.
Might I add that they are a hoot live. Each band member has an onstage persona, one of which is a pirate with and honest-to-god peg-leg. During one song he did a little jig using his peg-leg. Well you had to be there, but it was a great time!
Apologies in advance for coming off like the Dope’s resident XTC geek, but here’s a few more, all by XTC:
“Dear Madam Barnum,” off of Nonsuch (1992). Musically, it only gently references the “circus” oeuvre, although it smartly opens with a snare drumroll. Lyrically, the narrator compares himself to a put-upon clown who’s had enough and leaves his “Madam Barnum” wife. (IRL, Andy Partridge was about to go through a nasty divorce after his wife left him for another man.)
“Holly Up On Poppy,” from the same. Lightly circus-like musically (esp. in the keyboards at the end); the lyrics are AP’s love song to his young daughter, beginning with the image of helping her up on her rocking-horse, Poppy. (Daddies also give “horsey rides” to little kids, but this was actually inspired by a rocking horse.)
“Then She Appeared,” also from Nonsuch. Musically very circusy, with a deft touch of caliope-like lines (probably synthesized). Lyrically, it’s universally allusive, to any and all inspirational female characters: Boticelli’s Venus, a woman in an early photographic linotypes (“Fox Talbot’s gel”), the Marianne (also Partridge’s then-wife’s name) figure of the French Revolution, and so on.
“Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her, Kiss Her,” from the The Big Express (1984). This song is set on a boardwalk (or quayside, pier, or wharf, but let’s not revisit that thread!) at an English seaside resort, shut down for the winter. The theme-park mellotron and chorus-like vox effects sound heavy, oppressive, and mocking, but that’s appropriate to the theme and setting, and weather. The narrator is an inexperienced young lad who’s trying to work up his courage to flirt with a girl; in his febrile emotional state, even the waves, seagulls, and resort features seem to be egging him on, but to no avail, as he has failed to approach her before the song ends. The circus elements are therefore bitterly ironic; there is no lighthearted joy to be had, and the boy’s depressive state is anything but childlike. “He who hesitates is lost…”. Not a happy ditty, but powerfully evocative, and showcases some of the best lyrics Partridge has ever written (and that’s saying a lot!).
Delving into the classics here, there’s “Karn Eval 9” by Emerson, Lake & Palmer, “Circus of Heaven” by Yes, and “She’s a Beauty” by the Tubes (ok, the video was more circus-y than the actual song, but it’s still in that freak-show vein.)
Also - “Tonight Is The Night I Fell Asleep At The Wheel” by Barenaked Ladies. “Life is a Carnival” by the Band, maybe?
look at the album ‘the ugly organ’ by cursive.