# Songs with anomalous parts **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 16, 2011, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-anomalous-parts/596559 "2011-09-16T21:38:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2011, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-anomalous-parts/596559/21 "2011-09-17T16:38:55Z")
Harry Chapin got famous wistfully narrating his semi-autobiographical story-song with a bit of a world-weary growl in TAXI, which I like to think involved audiences shrugging off the brief weird falsetto interlude from Chapin’s bassist about flying and crying and dying. ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2011, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-anomalous-parts/596559/22 "2011-09-17T16:46:56Z")
“Down With the Sickness” by Disturbed has a big chunk, a rant by lead singer David Draiman against his “mommy”, that doesn’t fit with the rest of the song. “The Battle Of Epping Forest” by Genesis interrupts the “battle” portion of the song to tell the story of “the Reverend” before returning to the “battle”. ---
**Author:** ![C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C.Montgomery_Burns)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2011, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-anomalous-parts/596559/23 "2011-09-17T17:34:12Z")
Jay and The Americans’ version of “This Magic Moment” has a part in the middle with a brass fanfare for no reason. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2011, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-anomalous-parts/596559/24 "2011-09-17T18:06:07Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Aside from that, one “anomalous part” I can think of that doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of the song is the slow introduction to the Beach Boys’ “California Girls.” And in “God Only Knows” an ethereal ballad is interupted by an instrumental break that starts like a rumba lesson. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2011, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-anomalous-parts/596559/25 "2011-09-17T18:41:24Z")
“Blow” by Kesha (in my opinion, the best song of the year) has a very strange bridge. The music changes quite drastically, and she starts chanting, “go insane, go insane, throw some glitter, make it rain on 'em. Let me see them hands, let me let me see them hands.” Also, the way she says “hands” is indistinguishable from “Hanes” (as in Hanes underwear). The video also has a bizarre conversation about Muenster cheese between Kesha and James van der Beeck (who she calls “James van der Douche.”) ---
**Author:** ![tripthicket](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripthicket/32/297_2.png) [@tripthicket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tripthicket)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2011, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-anomalous-parts/596559/26 "2011-09-17T18:54:13Z")
ELO’s _Evil Woman_ has a searing orchestral strings moment or two about two-thirds of the way through. Completely at odds with the rest of the song, but I guess it’s been in my memory so long that it would seem odd (wrong?) to have it left out. One can almost see the villainess, in a black-and-white movie made before the addition of sound, caught in the sudden floodlight of discovery, her heinous deeds exposed, her face panicked as she cowers before turning to flee. Uhm…so I’ve heard. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2011, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-anomalous-parts/596559/27 "2011-09-17T19:37:50Z")
Several Guns N Roses songs seem to change into something different near the end. For instance, November Rain. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2011, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-anomalous-parts/596559/28 "2011-09-17T21:05:04Z")
> [@Sam\_A.Robrin](#): > > Was that on all released cuts of the song? I noticed the resemblance to the Ajax Laundry Detergent jingle at the time, but not that the line was actually sung over the notes. If I remember correctly, it’s inaudible on the old 45rpm version, audible on all others. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2011, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-anomalous-parts/596559/29 "2011-09-17T21:45:39Z")
Yardbirds “for your love.” Clapton quit part way through the recording, so the middle is all filler. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2011, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-anomalous-parts/596559/30 "2011-09-17T22:36:42Z")
The “[James Bond](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQU-FHE8nSw)” intro to the Beatles’ “Help” ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2011, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-anomalous-parts/596559/31 "2011-09-17T23:29:58Z")
> [@LaurenIpsum](#): > > There’s “Tainted Love,” which for some reason ends with a few lines from “Baby Where Did Our Love Go.” The original release by Soft Cell segued into “Where Did Our Love Go”. ---
**Author:** ![C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C.Montgomery_Burns)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-anomalous-parts/596559/32 "2011-09-18T02:35:21Z")
“You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me” by Dusty Springfield opens with a bombastic orchestra and chorus before settling into the song proper, which is considerably softer. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-anomalous-parts/596559/33 "2011-09-18T03:54:22Z")
> [@tripthicket](#): > > ELO’s _Evil Woman_ has a searing orchestral strings moment or two about two-thirds of the way through. Completely at odds with the rest of the song, but I guess it’s been in my memory so long that it would seem odd (wrong?) to have it left out. At least part of that string passage is a backwards track – it’s a measure from _Nightrider_, the next track on the album (“Face the Music”), played backwards. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-anomalous-parts/596559/34 "2011-09-18T18:02:28Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > If I remember correctly, it’s inaudible on the old 45rpm version, audible on all others. That’s gotta be it. Having noticed the similarity, I’d have heard if they were stepping on what I thought of as MY punchline! Here, incidentally, is the ad: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/EFZK5VkQes4/hqdefault.jpg "Ajax Stronger Than Dirt #1") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFZK5VkQes4) ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-anomalous-parts/596559/35 "2011-09-18T19:18:15Z")
**Wild Thing** , the Troggs. What fits better into a super primitive rocker than an ocarina solo? Hell does a ocarina solo fit in _any_ song? **Whole Lotta Love** , Led Zeppelin. That weird midsection of theremin and studio trickery has nothing to do with the the primal blues of the rest of the song. Yet somehow when it’s edited out the song loses a lot of power. Although this doesn’t perfectly fit, Jethro Tull stuck a goofy little kids’ story “The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles” right in the middle of its epic album length song “A Passion Play”. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-anomalous-parts/596559/36 "2011-09-18T19:25:55Z")
There are songs that entirely consist of anomalous parts, the one that springs to mind is _The Most Unwanted Song_ (youtube this 22-minute long monstrosty [I mean that in a good way!] if you don’t know it already.) > [@minlokwat](#): > > Anyway, two thirds into the song, you get a hard left turn into bouncy, electro, disco beat which is a 180° departure from the first part of the song. While not a weepy-romantic song, this reminds me of _Memorial Day_ by Carly Simon. At the end of each chorus of this medium-slow song, the music veers from epic light rock (if such a thing can be imagined) into orchestral fast paced disco music, only to die back down again by the next verse. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-anomalous-parts/596559/37 "2011-09-18T22:10:38Z")
This was never very popular, but I’ve always liked Rick wakeman. On his _Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table_ album, his composition _Merlin_ mixes some very different music styles, starting with a chanting chorus, going to soft keyboard, then rock. But it REALLY gets weird just short of 5 minutes into it, when it goes into full Looney Tunes mode for about 40 seconds, then goes back to what it had been doing, lulling you into a false sense of security so it can surprise you with Looney Tunes at the end again. https://www.youtube.com/embed/CJYPut_Yrg8?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&list=AVGxdCwVVULXdnVGfdtbC24kqCO4gZFuQX ---
**Author:** ![Docta\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@Docta\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Docta_G)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2011, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-anomalous-parts/596559/38 "2011-09-19T01:13:40Z")
> [@Peanuthead](#): > > Don’t know if that’s the right word. What I mean is songs that have some part that just doesn’t seem to fit. For instance, yesterday I heard the old Don and Juan song “[What’s Your Name](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrZf3vRHmkw)”. A nice soulful ballad all the way through and then at the end they come out with - _ **shoo dee oo bop a daaa.** _ How the hell did that get in there? And that reminded me of the Doors’ [Touch Me](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UEVyIyibD8&feature=related) where they end with the line _ **stronger than dirt** _. Which in turn reminded me of Blue Swede’s version of [Hooked on a Feeling](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OnMd47ZfWQ) with the Ooga Chaka, Ooga Chaka. > Can you come up with some more songs with quirky parts? Everything ever recorded by Rush. ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2011, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-anomalous-parts/596559/39 "2011-09-19T01:38:23Z")
> [@Docta\_G](#): > > Everything ever recorded by Rush. But the best example has to be Roll The Bones, which has a passage in the middle which is … a RAP! ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2011, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-anomalous-parts/596559/40 "2011-09-19T07:01:39Z")
> [@installLSC](#): > > **Wild Thing** , the Troggs. What fits better into a super primitive rocker than an ocarina solo? Hell does a ocarina solo fit in _any_ song? How about the kazoo ensemble in “Johnny Get Angry”? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-anomalous-parts/596559.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-anomalous-parts/596559.md?page=3)