Also, George Harrison has a song called “Blow Away”. Does anyone know if this song says “blow
away, blow away, blow away” kinda like Enya’s “Sail Away, sail away, sail away”? I always thought he
was saying “go away…” —Jinx
I remember that song!
I believe it is “blow away”…
It had lyrics kind of like this:
“All it’s got to take is the want (?) to make it blow away, blow away, blow away…”
That, and “Crackerbox Palace” came out in the late 70’s/early 80"s
thanks, I’ll now begin to hunt it down.
Shel Silverstein penned a number of notable *songs, but one that I’ve never met anyone who’s ever heard of is “Comin’ After Ginny” by Tex Ritter. It has kind of a “High Noon” theme to it, but with a surprise ending. I remember hearing it on the radio constantly when I was a kid–then not again for 30 years, when I was able to find a copy.
*Better known offerings include “The Boa Constrictor Song” by various artists, “A Boy Named Sue” by Johnny Cash, “The Unicorn” by the Irish Rovers, “Put Another Log on the Fire” by Tompall Glaser, and “The Cover of the Rolling Stone” and the heart-rending “Sylvia’s Mother” both by Dr. Hook.
hmm… “Ft. Worth Blues” by Steve Earle, “Twin Rocks, Oregon” by Shawn Mullins, “She Knows” and “Do Anything You Want To” by Thin Lizzy are a few… I tend to like the “deeper” cuts…
Gail, I have that album, Rough Cut. It also contains the hit “My Baby Gives It Away,” and “Nowhere to Run,” and “Keep Me Turning.” Awesome, awesome stuff.
How about “The Mask” by Roger Glover?
Man. You had to go and get me started.
~97% of Devo’s catalog. That is to say, stuff outside of their greatest hits. Speed Racer, Puppet Boy, and Mexican Radio come immediately to mind.
Abba Zaba by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band. Also from the same album, Zig-Zag Wanderer.
The late Wesley Willis.
Great King Rat by Queen.
And a large number of obscure bands.
There are two songs that I heard once and never again on WHFS-FM:
–I Kicked Batman’s Ass, which is some black guy singing “I Kicked Batman’s Ass” over and over again a capella.
–The Ballad of Woody and Soon-Yi; Sample lyric: “Woody had a boat and he put it in the water/Woody had a woody and he put it in his daughter.”
Krokodil-That was probably Wesley Willis singing I Kicked Batman’s Ass. He has a couple of other songs, “I Whupped Spider-Man’s Ass” and “Birdman Whupped My Ass”
Oh, let’s see, for any of you 45-ish Canadians, here are some memories - unless I was the only one listening at the time:
“Dickens” by Leigh Ashford
“Who Can Stop Us Now” by A Foot In Coldwater
“I Can Smell That Funky Music” by Eric Mercury
“Brand New Sunny Day” by James Robert Ambrose
“Bondi Junction” by Peter Foldy (or his followup - “When I Am So In Love”)
“Rock And Roll Band” by Billy Mysner
“Band Bandit” by Tundra
“Throw A Rope” by Joshua
“We’re Dancin’ 'Til It Blows Over” by Michel Pagliaro under the name Second Helping
“Dancin’ On A Saturday Night” by Bond
“This Is Your Song” by Don Goodwin
“Touch Of Magic” by James Leroy
“Can You Give It All To Me” by Myles & Lenny
“Queen Jealousy” by Mood Jga Jga (Greg Leskiw - ex-Guess Who)
“Mexican Lady” by Steel River
“Happy Dreamer” by Jack Cornell
“Linda Put The Coffee On” by Ray Materick
“Light Up Your Love” by Ronney Abramson
“Walk That Walk” by David Clayton Thomas
“Hey Girl Go It Alone” by The Big Town Boys
“Satchel Of Joy” b/w “Possession Illegal” by Bloo-J
“Make It Better” by Jericho
“It Wouldn’t Have Made Any Difference” by Tom Middleton
“Kagie” by Buxton-Kastle
“Come And Join Us” by The Dublin Corporation
OK, I’ll stop now!
“Mexican Radio” is by Wall of Voodoo, not Devo. It’s far from obscure as well.
Back in the 1960s a friend of mine had a 45 of a song called Shake, Baby, Shake by Jesse Lee Turner. (You might guess who he was trying to be a clone of.) We played it about a thousand times.
“Shake-uh, baby, shake, as you dance across the floor.
Shake-uh, baby, shake, till you cain’t dance no more.”
OK, we were teenagers, but it was still a good song. :rolleyes:
‘Kayleigh’ was by Marillion (not Merillion) and was released as a single here in the UK. It was their most popular hit, which isn’t actually saying much as they rarely troubled the singles charts or, to be fair, wanted to.
The ‘Blow away, blow away, blow away’ song by George Harrison is from his 1979 album simply titled ‘George Harrison’, and the track itself is called… er… ‘Blow Away’.
As for the OP, I could go on all night. I seem to have a rich treasure house of specific songs that no-one else I know has ever heard of, let alone heard.
An obscure and not terribly successful band called ‘Moon’ released a not-very-good album which contained one diamond gem called ‘I’m Leaving You’, being a soulful, touching and heart-warmingly track as gorgeous as anything else in popular music. I think I still have it on vinyl somewhere, although I have no machine to play it on, and it deserves to be more widely heard.
1970s prog rock dinosaur Mike Oldfield once released an album called ‘Platinum’. On side 2 (in those days, kiddies, they had sides) there was a song called ‘Sally’, which was gloriously silly and playful. The album, silly song notwithstanding, duly went on sale. However, the record company objected to the puerile silliness of the song, and insisted MO replace the silly version with a more ‘normal’ version. He did so, and the album was duly relaunched. Only myself and a few other die-hard MO nuts at the time snapped up the album before the ‘silly’ song was replaced, and consequently very few people have ever heard it. This is a shame only because it is so deliciously silly and entertaining, and a stark antidote to the rather morose and serious profile Oldfield had at the time.
When Alex Harvey was in traction in hospital with a badly injured back, the other four members of ‘The Sensational Alex Harvey Band’ recorded an album called ‘Fourplay’. Rather mediocre dreck for the most part, but one track, ‘Love You For A Lifetime’, was actually very good. I’ve enjoyed listening to it for years, and it’s a very good Valentine song as well.
I could go on… but I won’t.
From Genesis, a song entitled “Pigeons.” The lyrics start out something like, “Who put fifteen TONS of s**t on the guv’nor’s roof…” I found a CD single of this at a record show in Chicago a while back.
Don’t nobody move, this is a heist.
It was some white guy semi-rapping. I heard it only about twice on some TV video show, and I think the singer was Canadian.
When I was a kid (ca 1971), my sisters had gotten a record player for Christmas. It came with a huge stack of 45s. One of the records was called “99 Years” or “Ninety-Nine Years” (I’m not sure which way it was spelled). I don’t remember the artist or any of the lyrics other than “Give me 99 years of your lovin’”. It was about a guy going to prison for, well, 99 years.
I wish someone else HAD heard this song so I could get a copy.
Caravan of Love by The Housemartins. It came as a separate 45 single inside the LP The People Who Grinned Themselves to Death. Different, in that it’s an a capella song. Really quite pretty song.
I have this on a mix CD somewhere. Good tune.
For me, it’s an accordion and violin ditty called “Maginot Line,” by a man named Geoff Berner. I heard it once, late night on the CBC, and went out and tracked down his wonderfully-titled album We Shall Not Flag or Fail, We Shall Go On Till the End. Sample lyrics:
It wasn’t very long at all
Before Mr. Hitler came to call
He said “Boys, this line is strong and sound;
Lucky for us, we can just go around.”
The stout defenders fought their best,
But their turrets faced east,
and the Germans were west.
Soul City by the Partland Brothers (1987)
11811: Is the song you speak of Scooby Snacks by The Fun Lovin’ Criminals? Sounds like the spoken-word intro to that song. It was quite a big radio hit in the UK.
rexnervous ‘Caravan Of Love’ was a smash hit in the UK in (IIRC) 1986. It made Christmas Number 1 in the singles charts.
On the other hand, I’d like to nominate ‘As Cool As I Am’ and ‘Alleluia’ by Dar Williams. I gather she’s quite well known in the US, but few people over here have heard of her.
For really obscure tracks, possibly the most upbeat song I’ve ever heard; ‘High In The Morning’ by Astrid, a Scottish indie-pop band.
You’re a Bitch (and an asshole too) by Late as Usual. It’s a silly little songe but it takes me back to some fun years.
Nothing Ever Happens by Del Amitri.