Genesis – The Return of the Giant Hogweed
About killer (giant) hogweed invading England. Contains lines like: “Strike by night, they’re defenceless, they all need the sun to photosynthesize their venom!”
As a matter of fact, most early Genesis songs would be worthy nominations. Prog rock is good for unusual topics, but since that’s one of the features of the genre, in context most aren’t that weird.
How 'bout Metallica’s “Creeping Death,” a song about Passover.
Sweater by Eskimo Joe, about a sweater inherited from his grandfather.
Thematically…
Where’s me jumper? by Sultans of Ping F.C., about losing his new sweater (jumper) at a disco.
[URL = YouTube] Dr. Worm by They Might Be Giants, about a worm that plays the drums (“I’m not a real doctor but I am a real worm, I am an actual worm”).
Memory, a song about remembering.
Just to throw Warren Zevon into the mix:
Werewolves of London
Excitable Boy
Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner
There are probably more.
Nitpick: It’s either “photosensitize their venom” or “photosensitize their victims”. The song is actually based on a true story; the sap of thegiant hogweed(Heracleum mantegazzianum) contains a chemical that causes photosensitization of the skin (i.e., hypersensitivity to sunlight) that can last for months.
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My favorite Robyn Hitchcock built a decades long career with song on unusual topics. . . He just stumbled a bit on the subject matter.
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I know this is shooting fish in a teacup, but see also Where are the Prawns? (turns out they’re “down by the sea”)
Leppo and the Jooves I’m fairly sure that Robyn doesn’t approve of this guy Leppo, but aprt from that I’m really not sure what this is about.
Queen of Eyes Part woman part insect(?) femme fetale I don’t think he likes her much either.
Trams of Old London Actually is about trams, in London, in the old days.
Uncorrected Personality Traits About what happens to spoilt babys, but I’m pretty sure he’s wrong about Marylin Monroe being a man.
Shocked, *shocked *that no one has mentioned The Presidents of the United States of America. They love non-sequitur songs about animals and stuff. Mean cats, lizards that get trapped in your house, boll weevils, etc. Some of it might be kinda euphemistical (c.f. “Peaches”) but not all.
Same era: the Propellerheads’ decksandrumsandrockandroll. My favorites are “Velvet Pants” (about people-watching and the music scene, I think) and “History Repeating,” which is just as pomo as pomo gets (“They say the next big thing is here / That the revolution’s near / But to me it seems quite clear / That it’s all just a little bit of history repeating”)
and also from around then, Pizzacato Five, with “Twiggy Vs. James Bond” on “Made in USA”, and most of their “The Sound of Music”, and most of the rest of what they do. A lot of it’s in Japanese, but if the translators aren’t lying to me, it’s only occasionally about luuuuurve etc.
If you’re willing to go for more obscure folk music and old music hall stuff, I know a song about cucumbers one about garden pests, and one of my favorites is about the joy of working in sewers. Lots more where those came from.
:smack:
I knew that. I really did. Thanks for correcting my brainfart.
Chloe (1935) is a song about loving a girl even though she’s lost in the Great Dismal Swamp. Remade memorably by Spike Jones.
(hope this isn’t too late to bump)
“I found a wallet, I found a wallet, inside were pictures of your small family…” - Regina Spektor
(About rifling through a found wallet, how she carries her own money, and how she takes the wallet to Blockbuster for them to call the guy.)
“My head is a box filled with nothing, and that’s the way I like it… They don’t play me on the radio, and that’s the way I like it…” - Ben Lee
(Happy, but not all the lines make sense, and the chorus to cheer you up includes “Open your heart and catch my disease.”)
“Cigarettes and chocolate milk:these are just a couple of my cravings…” - Rufus Wainwright. (Exactly what it says on the tin… at least at first.)
“City of New Orleans” by Steve Goodman is about a train.
Excerts From a Teenage Opera Keith West, about a small shopkeeper who has a heart attack so doesn’t open his shop.
My Lady D’Arbanville by Cat Stevens, apparently about a mans dead g/f who he won’t admit to himself that shes lying dead next to him.
Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath which is about a …guess!
Yeah, you could fill the thread with their songs. Another is ‘Joy Division oven Gloves’.
Also, what about Spizz Energi’s “Wheres Captain Kirk?”, where the singer is unexpectedly being beamed aboard the Enterprise, and getting introduced to all of the crew, expect Captain Kirk, who is missing. At the end, the singer realises that he IS Captain Kirk
Gruff Rhys, of Super Furry Animals and a few solo records, is right up there with weird subjects for songs.
Hometown Unicorn is about the first person in the UK to claim he had been abducted by aliens.
Sidewalk Surfer Girl is about a woman who falls into a coma and, in the meantime, misses all the technological advances of 10 years, so wakes up to find that the internet and mobile phones exist.
Sarn Helen is a song, entirely in Welsh, about the old Roman road that ran through Wales and how they’ve not had as good infrastructure ever since.
Inaugural Trams is about a town planner creating an integrated trasnport system in the image of his lover’s face.
Skylon! is a 14 minute epic, telling the story of how he wound up sitting on a plane next to an actress whose work he doesn’t like, foils a hijacking of the plane and winds up marrying her (obviously based on his own life story)
The whole of his collaborative album with Boom Bip, under the name Neon Neon, is about John Delorean’s life story.
Gruff is weird. Good. But weird.
I immediately thought of these ones from Back in the Day:
Streetband - “Toast”: Streetband - Toast - YouTube
BAMFF - “Crevice Tool”: www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQZegdcTHfc
(Apologies if the links don’t work, youtube is blocked at my work so I can’t check 'em.)
The late Tommy Thompson of the Red Clay Ramblers wrote “Regions of Rain”–the chorus of which goes…
And the verses describe being in deep shit, very far from home.
The Ramblers played Old Time Music, sometimes verging on the ragged edge of Ragtime. But they also did theater & wrote some wonderful songs that went beyond the usual subject matter…
Peter Himmelman’s Woman with the Strength of 10,000 Men, about a woman locked-in by ALS.
Earlier this year I really got into the Acid House Kings and on one of their EPs they have a guy called Don Lennon sing one of their songs. So I checked him out and he is great for this sort of thing.
Personal highlights:
“What SNL Stands For”
Basically, his views on Saturday Night Live
“Last Comic Standing”
A discussion on the validity of various forms of comedy and the trials of being a standup comedian.
“John Cale”
A dream where he believes he is John Cale from The Velvet Underground
“Matthews Comes Alive”
Done in character as Dave Matthews about when the Dave Matthews Band had their first gig.
I like Spin B’s “Pop Song for Vegetarians to Sing”. It only has four words, repeated over and over again for 3 minutes. I suspect it was inspired by Queens Of The Stone Age’s “Feel Good Hit Of The Summer.”
What? It even has “pop song” in the title.