Caballo Negro by Nico Gomez
El Hambo, by the Tapiola Choir.
Todd Snider with Talkin’ Seattle Grunge Rock Blues
It’s a pretty darn spot-on and funny look at the surge of grunge. It’s a classic, if only for the line:
“We went right out there and refused to do acoustical versions
of the electrical songs that we had refused to record in the first place.”
I’ll bet everyone is waiting for me to come up with something like Fido is a Hot Dog Now, or Lovin’ Sam, the Sheik of Alabam’, but I’ll throw you a curve and say Les Sans Culottes’ Teenie Weenie Boppie (1999).
I know you asked for songs, but off the top of my head I can’t come up with a specific song, so I’ll give you two bands:
The most obscure for me would be my former guitar teacher’s band, Freak Party. Their first cd was available only at shows, that’s probably my favorite. Their second, “Paint Yourself Green” was commercially available, I bought it off of some online store, but I can’t find it now… They were a funk-rock band, kind of chili peppers meets faith no more, but with two trumpet players and lots of weird samples (their drummer is also a sound engineer, had a rack case behind his kit with a computer running all the samples, weird sound effects…)
The second most obscure is the band Echolyn. They were a prog band from PA, put out one album, “As The World”, on a Sony label before being dropped due to poor sales, I think maybe 50,000 copies sold… and then broke up. I also managed to find an indie release by them, “Suffocating the Bloom” from before they got signed to sony.
Hmm…just did a search and it appears that they’re still around and have more albums than I knew! May have to go spend some money now…
From John Forster’s album Entering Marion, I like several songs that no one I know seems to have heard of:
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Zev Steinhardt
Here’s another one. I really like Rasputina. They did a real nice version of “Why don’t you do right?”
Oh man, in my quest for a decent version of this poem put to music I heard what could very well be the most sloppiest version ever, it seems to be the earliest one though. Which is weird since it comes from a poem which he should have had written down before him. Written in English by an Englishman named Percy French. Alas.
truculent became trussculent
Mamaluk became Babaluk
Czar Petrovich became Star Hecklevich
This is Ponderous, Spaz Attack, and Frank’s Chair by 2nu (but I know I’ve seen Nardo Polo around here somewhere…)
I have the Frank Crumit version, c1930. Too short by half—to fit onto a 78 rpm record—but still pretty definitive. Dammit, now I’ll never get it out of my head . . . “Sons of the prophet were brave men and bold and quite unaccustomed to fear . . .”
. . . Oh, by the way, here’s an Abdul Abulbul Amir link . . . The lyrics certainly hit home today more than ever!
Another song, probably the most popular of the lot I’ve put forward so far. “Burning Bridges” by the Mike Curb Congregation. I don’t know why but it tickles me in just the right way.
Hmm, that would put Crumit first then. The messed up one was 34. Idiots!
Did you know Crumit wrote 2 sequels? The return of Abdul Abulbul Amir and The Grandson of Abdul Abulbul Amir?
But oh I still would like the Looney Tunes version.
Bop Girl by Pat Wilson. Took me forever to find a cassette of it. OTOH, one of the bridesmaids in the video is now one of the most famous actresses in the world. I have most of the video on tape, but at least it’s on Beta so it’s kept well.
Come Back Little Sheba from Patti Smith’s new Land collection. Recorded in 1995(?); the only one (?) of her “Appalachian Songs” ever released.
Haunted by Atlanta Girl Group “Amanda Jones”. I only heard it once on GSUs station. Have never found it on any media. A cover of the Pogues’ tune.
Most obscure record I regularly play: Linoleum by Swivel Arm Battle Grip. They’re an Ohio band, seem to have split up now.
The track appears on a compilation called ‘Burnt and Bent’ which I got for £1 at the indie record store in Newcastle. It’s the undisputed highlight. It consists of a driving guitar backing with a strong female vocalist.
Would Be’s - I’m Hardly Ever Wrong
Serum - The Know How
Imperial Racing Club - Big Day Out
Dover - The Hitter
Since I’m a fan of folk music (quit throwing things at me!), I’ve got a few.
By Stan Rogers: (decisions, decisions, decisions)
**Pharisee
Barrett’s Privateers, the live, 4 part harmony version off of Home in Halifax – it makes me glad to be a heterosexual female!
**Idiot
45 Years From Now – the first time I heard that song, it led to me accepting a marriage proposal. Of course, he followed it with Idiot.
By Christine Lavin:
*Piranha Women of the Avocado Jungle of Death on the cd Getting In Touch With My Inner Bitch – you should see the album cover!
Finally, to get really obscure, Osiris, there’s a guy named Moe Keale who used to perform at the Sheraton Moana Surfrider one evening a week. He did a song called Father and Son which I still remember fondly and which I forgot to get a copy of before I moved! 
CJ
Little Potato by Metamora. A lullaby with hammered dulcimer. Very sweet.
And cjhoworth, you like Stan Rogers, but fail to mention Northwest Passage. Tsk, tsk! Four-part screaming male harmony. What’s not to like?
A friend from uni has a little band called Blue Dawn who do one of the best damn live pub shows I’ve ever seen (and trust me, I’ve seen lots of pub bands). My favourite track of theirs is called The Mistake.
I don’t know if this counts as obscure, but as part of the soundtrack to the movie Empire Records there’s a song by a garage band called Queen Sarah Saturday - I intend to track down their album so I can have a copy of the song since it’s not on the soundtrack album. The song is called Seems, and it’s awesome. Any fan of the movie probably knows it as “the M&M song”. 
… the word is out, it hit the polls,
Claimed a place along with the rest of
Today’s new things and last night’s shows,
The have-you-heards and the did-you-knows…
I’ve got some pretty obscure songs amongst my favourites, but the most obscure one is Tien Tang by Tenger, a Chinese Mongolian artist…
The Collector by Twelfth Night. Not only is it very obscure, I also think it’s quite possibly the best rock song ever written.
When I’m angry, Bruise Violet by Babes in Toyland.
When I need a laugh, Batman or Death by Cholestrol by Mucky Pup.
Since I know every song ever written by Andrew Lloyd Webber, I’m another Doper who could listen about a thousand. Especially since I know his early songs, and the scores from ** The Likes os Us ** and ** Cricket **. If that ain’t enough to make me barf, I also know the foreign language translations of several of his shows. I can’t hear an instrumental song from Starlight Express without singing it in German.
I also know the entire score to ** Blondel **, which is one of the unknown gems of musical theatre. Had the CD on my shelf for 2 1/2 years before playing it, and just fell in love with it. I managed to get a CDR of the Austrian version, which was done once. Now that’s obscure.