In Dolly Parton’s song ‘9 to 5’, written on set for the movie of the same name, she used her acrylic fingernails to imitate the sound of a typewriter. It sounded so good the producers recorded it and included it in the soundtrack. Her nails were credited, along with Darling (her nail tech) in the album liner notes.
“Music Must Change” by The Who: Moonie couldn’t deal with the 6/8 time so Pete used footsteps in the place of drums .
“Wake Up” by Roy Wood uses a “watersplash bucket” as percussion.
The Bonzo Dog Band had “Trouser Press,” with a solo played on a dry cleaner’s trouser Press. One of their jazz instrumental has a slide whistle solo and they used fireworks and robots in their stage shows. There’s also a solo on the “electric shirt collar” in “Shirt,” but I’m not sure what they used for it.
The Pogues used a slide whistle and gunshot (à la Spike Jones) to kick off the main melody of “Fiesta.” At live performances, the whistle player also bangs a beer tray against his head.
I think a slide whistle would count as an instrument, anyway also Dylan’s “Highway 61” famously starts with one.
Yes, but I’ll give them the gunshot.
Members of Yes collected a bunch of old car parts, mounted them on a rack, and banged on them (and pushed the rack over to create a loud crash) while recording “The Gates of Delirium.”
The fade out of “The Logical Song” by Supertramp features the sounds of a Mattel Electronics Football game.
Speaking of which, they’re all over Strauss’s “Hunting Polka”:
I don’t know if it qualifies as a “song”, but in this video Frank Zappa and Steve Allen play bicycles.
I don’t know how I forgot about this one, because my school’s band played it at a concert last fall. But there’s a piece called “Truckasaurus”, apparently inspired by a Simpsons episode, where one of the instruments is “many large pieces of metal”.
The above-mentioned Peter Schickele (as “P.D.Q. Bach”) wrote a piece for “bagpipes, bicycle, and balloons.” He’s also written for tuned lassos, pickles played as “dill piccolos,” and worse.
And his “Sandpaper Ballet,” which uses the sound of sandpaper sheets rubbed rhythmically together.
I remember a video, perhaps part of HBO’s Video Jukebox, where the entire thing was done with records- breaking them, hitting them, etc. I seem to remember it was called “Playing Records” or maybe “Breaking Records”. I couldn’t find it anywhere. Anyone else remember it?
Brian Wilson’s “Caroline, No” has a background echoing loud drum-like boom punctuating the music. An empty water cooler jug struck from the bottom with a mallet was used to get the sound.
One of the fun things about the peacetime Army is that their traveling band likes to play that. With real modern cannons firing “blanks” = propellant charges only.
Hobbes: “Those are cannons.”
Calvin: “And they perform in crowded concert halls? Gee, and I thought classical music was boring!”
Spike Jones did it all the time, using gunshots, sirens, and much else.
There’s also the Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, which uses a washboard extensively.
Actually an Acme Siren Whistle:
but yes considered a musical instrument.
Ah, thanks for the correction, interesting.