I’d say that a good third of The B-52’s songs is about silly stuff. Off the top of my head…
Butterbeans (yes, it’s dedicated to butterbeans)
Big Bird (all about a big bird flying over their house)
Chicken Bone
By Yoko Kanno and the SeatBelts
a couple of lyrics:
I like, you like, he likes, she likes chicken bone…
Everyone loves like a crazy chicken bone…
My dog, my cat, my mouse want chicken bone…
I left my head over the chicken bone…
and a link
“King Kong Song” - ABBA - about the big ape
How about all of The Flaming Lips’ songs?
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Psychiatric Exploration of the Fetus with Needles
She Don’t Use Jelly
Just to name a few.
Oh, and I forgot Frank Zappa.
Who are the Brain Police?
Help! I’m a Rock
Baby, Take Your Teeth Out
Frogs With Dirty Little Lips
Again, just to name a few.
And who can forget:
Ben by Michael Jackson - back when he was a black man.
It’s a song about a rat!
One of the top 100 songs of 1972.
The winner of the 1966 Eurovision Song Contest, a cute little song about a girl who loves aniseed lollipops. The girl who sang it never suspected the hidden meaning, and was very upset when someone explained it to her.
When I was a teenager my big sister was really into The Kinks, she played Lola frequently. I once tried to explain to her what it was really about, but she didn’t believe me.
Bedouin, you’re tribe’s ascending
From the egg in to the flower
Alpha information sending
States within the heaven shower…
Slip Inside, Thirteenth Floor Elevators
Detachable Penis by King Missile. A dude wakes up one morning and finds his penis missing again (“it happens all the time”) and goes looking for it.
The Submarine by 2Nu. A guy builds a submarine, named The Great Adventure, out of empty beer cans he finds in his back yard. (Actually, almost every 2Nu song is about strange things.)
Die Welt Gehört Mir by Blümchen. A girl sings about her drivers license and the freedom it opens up for her. Maybe not all that strange, but I found it an odd, though catchy, tune.
“Fish Heads” by Barnes and Barnes is odd. Look up Dr. Demento for others like that. “Detachable Penis” is very memorable, I LOVE that song.
peter morris I can see 2 possible “hidden meanings” to that song, can you clarify please? (Really curious now.)
“Down at the End of Your Road” by Jethro Tull is about a real estate agent who terrorizes a neighbor by doing things like leaving dog poop in his mailbox, in order to get him to sell his house.
“I am your neighbour, I seem most respectable–
But underneath I’m an iniquitous toad…”
SpectBrain
You’re a Ray Stevens fan? Nice to see you’ve got cultcha. Talk about strange things in songs there’s (actual title)
“Jeremiah Peabody’s Polyunsaturated, Quick-Dissolving, Fast-Acting, Pleasant-Tasting, Green and Purple Pills”
And another one from Mr Stevens:
“I Saw Elvis In a UFO” (He was sitting there with Howard Hughes"
Eve
Interesting record collection you have there. I find it amazing that the time period it represents coincides with a much-discussed topic here at SDMB.
Did you know the original title of “Yes We Have No Bananas” was
"Yes We Have No 1920’s Style Death Rays" ?
A sampling from Kate Bush:
“The Thing”-Phil Harris. Guy finds a box containing something that nobody want and causes him to be shunned by the whole world.
http://www.leoslyrics.com/listlyrics.php;jsessionid=3A85D4A67CCEC1C28891CD2B2E9F27C3?hid=Ch9BJHrPdiE%3D
Runner
I like that song too.
I think Rolf “Tie Me Kangaroo Down” Harris also did a version of that.
Seems that link didn’t work. So let’s try:
http://www.leoslyrics.com/listlyrics.php?hid=Ch9BJHrPdiE%3D
“Detachable Penis” was the first one that I thought of but I see peritrochoid beat me to it.
Several from Presidents of the United States of America’s first album: “Peaches”, “Boll Weevil”, “Kitty”, and “Dune Buggy”.
Leonard Nimoy’s infamous “Balld of Bilbo Baggins” (it’s been linked enough times on this board you should be able to find the clip)
Denis Leary’s “Asshole” song.
“Camel Walk” by Southern Culture on the Skids
“Oh Yeah” and “Domingo” by Yello
Just about every song by Sigue Sigue Sputnik
Do You Like Boobs A Lot? - The Holy Modal Rounders
“Birdhouse in Your Soul” by They Might Be Giants, about a nightlight. Plenty of others by TMBG, but it’s late and that one popped into my head.
How about John Trubee’s Peace & Love (Blind Man’s Penis).
Or Tom Lehrer’s Poisoning Pigeons in the Park.
No one has mentioned “Tennessee Birdwalk”!
(Something like, “think of me, my darlin’, when spring is in the air, and the baldheaded birds are whispering everywhere, you can see them walking southward in their dirty underwear, it’s the Tennesse Birdwalk (cheep cheep).”
By Jack and Misty somebody or another.
Also, “The Eggplant That Ate Chicago” which featured a lovely kazoo solo.