Today, I was cruising around and heard “tie me kangaroo down, sport”. This reminded me of the good old days of Dr. Demento.
This is one of the dumbest songs ever, but I caught myself singing along ( badly). I’ll leave it to you older dopers to remind me of others.
“Hello mother,hello father”
“There coming to take me away”
and of course," The purple people eater"
What’s-a matter you? Hey! Gotta no respect
What-a you t’ink you do? Why you look-a so sad?
It’s-a not so bad
It’s-a nice-a place
Ah
Shaddap-a you face!
I’m fond of John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt, even if I can’t find it.
Also Convention 72 by The Delegates.
Does “Senator Bobby” covering Wild Thing count?
Another: Prisencolinensinainciusol. Allright!
Irving the 142? Fastest Gun in the West by Shel Silversteen who also wrote A Boy Named Sue.
I’m particularly fond of vocal records that decide that language is a barrier to communicating, and it’s best to do away with most of it.
e.g.:
Mule Skinner Blues - The Fendermen (first heard it when I was five, affected my perception of what music should be ever since)
No More Hot Dogs - Hasil Adkins (I dare you to find a more menacing laugh. Warning: nonsensical violence)
She Said - The Cramps (but written by Hasil Adkins). The words you can figure out sound like they’re sung through a peanut and butter jelly sandwich.
But to confirm that dumb songs can be some of the smartest. I think I started my first thread on the SDMB about The Call of the Wighat. The song makes no literal sense, but it is a work of absolute beauty. Lux and the Cramps thoroughly understood that Rock 'n Roll was at its best when it went to that place that you only understand on an animal level.
Short People (one of my favs actually)
Disco Duck
Disco Rilla
Bubba Shot the Juck? Box Last Night.
Bubba Wanna Moon Pie Moon Pie…
Whip Me Beat Me Call Me Edna
I was eating in a restaurant in San Francisco last weekend and the guy at the table next to me had this on the display of his phone.
They are all great songs and bring back many memories. I saw that Amazon has a lot of Dr. Demento CD’s. They really take me down memory lane.
See, I’d put that on my list of clever songs. Now, you want a dumb song, how about “Neanderthal Man” by Hotlegs (which became 10cc, quite a clever band).
The Ramones did a lot of really good dumb songs, like “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue”. Which brings us to Iggy Pop and songs like “1969”… and the Dictators, whose first LP raised (ironic) dumbness to an art form on songs like “Two Tub Man”.
Some silly songs are intentionally kind of dumb, like Donovan’s “I Love My Shirt” or Help Yourself’s “Molly Bake Bean”.
Then there are songs like Syd Barrett’s “Dark Globe” and Wild Man Fischer’s stuff, which are kind of in a different category since they are the result of mental problems.
Fish Heads
“Eat them up, yum!”
You beat me to Syd. I stopped by to mention The Effervescing Elephant.
A few songs featuring some hilarious moments of dumbness:
“Highly Illogical” by Leonard Nimoy
“Ode to a Dandelion” by Friend & Lover
Then there’s the Mothers’ sly take on dumb pop, “Wowie Zowie”.
And the question of whether Ed Sanders’ “The ABM Machine” is dumb or brilliant is left as an exercise for the listener.
These are all good ones and today I heard another blast from the past. The " Martian Hop" I forgot about this one.
We say today’s music is strange, but this proves that music from any age has it’s weird songs.
MacArthur Park is a dumb song. Don’t Worry, Be Happy is a dumb song.
What Does the Fox Say?
Who Let the Dogs Out?