Talking parts of songs: all timers

Cafe Society
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There is a thread in this section featuring containing talking songs of the 80’s, in which songs feature a speaking section. This thread will cover songs from all of time.

Here is the criteria, modified from the 80’s thread:

The idea for this thread is that the spoken word is formal or conversational and generally non-rhyming, or, if there is rhyming involved, it is underemphasized, like a good poetry or dramatic reading. Also, the spoken part should be integral and unique to the song–so no shout outs, or giving chanting or cheering instructions to the crowd. It could be idle chatter or everyday speech.

Some recordings, such as “Tonight is The Night That You Make Me A Woman”, by Betty Wright, has a very famous live version containing spoken word discussion about the song. So does the Bruce Springsteen and the E Strret Band’s live version of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”. Those songs can be included.

Note the non-rhyming part of the criteria. This thread will not include straight up rap music unless it fits in the criteria. “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, which at the end features the guys talking and then getting busted, would fit.

Some songs featuring all-timer spoken word parts:

“Are You Lonesome Tonight” by Elvis, featuring his rendition of “Life is but a Stage” soliloquy by Shakespeare.

“Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”–Diana Ross established herself for a time as queen of spoken word pop music.

Escapade by Janet Jackson features her query “Is this the end?”

“Won’t You be My Neighbor?” by Fred Rodgers==“I like you just for being you”.

“Mama Told Me Not to Come” by Three Dog Night–the verses, though they rhyme, were spoken dramatically as opposed to rhyhmically, so it qualifies. So does “Kim” by Eminem. That song is way harsh.

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We could start by going back to Woody Guthrie’s “talkin’ blues” in the 1930s. And Cab Calloway talking about the reefer man.

In the 1950s, talking over the music was big. A lot of songs had that—the slow, sappy songs. “Why … does my heart … go on beating …” I’m not an expert on '50s music, but I know I’ve heard a lot of that (and quickly forgotten it).

The Beatles, “For You Blue”, I think it was during a Billy Preston piano solo, George says, “Elmore James got nothing on his fingers.” The only other Beatles songs where they talked over the music were: “You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)”
—Everybody, let’s hear it for Rick O’Dell!
—Good evening.
John Lennon mumbling something in pseudo-French at the very end of “I’m So Tired.”
And who can forget the infamous “Cranberry Sauce!” in “Strawberry Fields Forever.”
Does tuning the radio to Shakespeare’s King Lear act IV, scene vi, lines 249-259 in “I Am the Walrus” count as talking?
Got one, got one, everybody’s got one
I’m not counting “Revolution 9” because that wasn’t exactly music!
I’m not counting “Two of Us” I dig a pygmy by Charles Hawtrey and the Death Aids! Phase One, in which Doris gets her oats (Huh?) because that talk came before the song started.
The bit in between “Dig It” and “Let It Be,” That was “Can You Dig It” by Georgie Wood, ad now we’d like to do All the Angels Come, was in between tracks so we won’t count it.

In the 1970s, hmm, let’s see, somebody already quoted the entire spiel from “What Do You Want from Life.” How about the Stones’ “Emotional Rescue” — no, wait, that was 1980 or 81. “Here I come on a fine Arab charger, coming to your emotional rescue.”

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The “Hey, do you know what paradise is?” bit from Never Been to Me.

Not that I like the song.

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Oh yeah, from the 70s. The Tubes again. “Don’t Touch Me There!” It used the voiceover because the song was a campy 50s parody. “…The rivets on our blue jeans sending sparks into the night…”

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I’ve always enjoyed Ana Ng from They Might Be Giants where this, “I don’t want the world, I just want your half.” is spoken.

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“Move over rover and let Jimi take over.” – Fire

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basically all early folk (talking songs) fit.

Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant”

Bob Dylan “Brownsville Girl”
“Talkin’ John Birch Blues”
“Talkin WWIII Blues”
“Talkin’ Bear Mountain Massacre Blues”

Sublime “40 oz. to Freedom” (small talking interlude)

Add N to (x) “Steve is Going To Teach Himself Who is Boss”

Ween “Spinal Meningitis”

that is all I can think of now
colin

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Then there was Jimi Hendrix in “If 6 Was 9”, saying those haunting words

I’m the one that’s got to die when it’s my time to die. So let me live my life the way I want to.

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Well, it’s no “Move over rover” Mojo. :slight_smile:

Still, the all time #1 is, in fact, Are You Lonesome Tonight.

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That’s a great song, as is Talkin’ NY and Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream; which based on OP rules don’t fit the criteria.

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As a rule, I really like the conversational introductions you find on a lot of songs.

My All-Time Favorite Conditional Discharge / Don’t Try to Lay No Boogie-Woogie on the King of Rock & Roll. By ”Long” John Baldry
You know I remember, a few years ago. Some funny things used to happen to me. About 1956-1957. At that time there was no blues scene, or ah, not really any kinda scene in London. I used to go out and play my guitar in the streets and sing things with a pass in the hat brow. Well I remember one particular night I was playing my guitar in a little alleyway off of Waldorf Street in SOHO. And ah, I got busted by the police. This policeman came up and dragged me and my guitar and my hat full of pennies off to the police station. Anyway the next day I had to appear in Marlborough Street police court. And ah, it was quite a day.
Police office giving his evidence, “I was proceeding in a southerly direction my lord, when I heard strange sounds coming from Waldorf Place me lord…A sort of boogie-woogie music was being played. On further investigation, I saw the defendant standing there with guitar and an old hat on the floor collecting pennies. Well I decided that ah, he was contravening a breach of the peace there, as there was a traffic jam about 5 miles long down Waldorf Street; wondering what all the fuss was about. So then I arrested the defendant.”
“Ah, just one moment, officer. What is this boogie-woogie music here you were talking about?”
“Well me lord,” said the officer getting out his notebook (obviously he’d been doing up his homework) “Is a kind of jazz-rhythm music peculiar to the American Negro.”
“Oh, what was the defendant doing playing this kind of music there In Waldorf Street”
Anyway, I got off with a caution. A years conditional discharge. But I’ll aways remember that policeman and his boogie-woogie.
So don’t try to lay no boogie-woogie on the king of rock ‘n roll.

For Those, I’m in an Insane Mood Days Fanfare / Fire Poem By The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown
And I was lying in the grass by a river. And as I lay the grass turned to sand and the river turned to sea. And suddenly the sea burst into flames and the sand was burning. And I breathed in, and there was smoke in my lungs and there was FIRE in my brain. And I looked around me under all these shapes being sucked into the flames. And they were writhing and trying to escape. And I knew that I had to get out. And I looked above me and I saw a shape that was smiling down at me and beckoning saying, “come on home”. And I raised myself, and I tried to get out of the flames. And I was getting higher and higher and higher and higher. And I reached out; I reached out towards the shape. But as I reached out the shape changed and my hands were empty. And I was falling, I was falling, falling, falling. I was falling into the flames. And I knew that I was gonna burn. I was gonna burn. Oh God, it’s so hot in here, let me out please…I AM THE GOD OF HELLFIRE AND I BRING YOU….FIRE.

Runners Up[ul][li] Ballad of the Sandman – Mike Agranoff[/li][li] Emotional Weather Forecast Intro & Eggs & Sausage Intro – Tom Waits Come to think of it, the whole damn Nighthawks at the Diner is great.[/li][li] Mother Earth & Spill the Wine Intros – Eric Burdon & War[/li][li] Love in an Elevator / Going Down Intro – Aerosmith[/li][li] You’re boned like a Saint, with the consciousness of a snake (From the Revenge of Vera Gemini) - Patty Smith w/BOC[/li][li] Wow to you oh and sea for the devil sends the beast with wrath…(From Number of the Beast) - Iron Maiden[/li][li] Ladies & Gentlemen, we have here for you something very special this evening…(From Cantaloop) – US3[/li][li] I’m not exactly in the mood for Mozart and all those kinds of goings on (From Peace & Love Inc.) – Information Society[/li] Who are You? And Who Do You Love? Without further ado, It’s time to start running (From Temple of Dreams) – Messiah with Richard Dawson samples[/ul]

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Does the spoken part of Little Darlin’ by the Diamonds count? It had some rhyme.

Leader of the Pack would be one of my all-time choices.

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Here’s some more:

I am the Walrus and Revolution #9 by the Beatles.

It’s Raining Men by Weather Girls: “Leave your umbrellas at home.”

Oh yeah, “Little Darlin” counts, as well as Boyz 2 Men’s "End of the Road.

'Fingertips" by Stevie Wonder does not count because the “What key?” part of the drummer’s was in the background barely heard, and not integral to the enjoyment of the song.

Hmm…hey mods is it possible to merge this thread with the 80’s talking songs thread?

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"Dead Man’s Curve" Jan & Dean

"Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive" Bing Crosby & the Andrews Sisters

"Purple People Eater" Sheb Wooley

doesn’t really count, but gotta:

"Ringo" Lorne Greene

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Jim Morrison, The Doors, “The End” –

The killer awoke at dawn. He put his boots on.
He chose a face from the ancient gallery on the wall
and then he walked on down the hall.
He went to the room where his sister lived
and then he …
paid a visit to his brother.
And then he…
He walked on down the hall!
And he came to a door
And he looked inside.
“Father ?”
“Yes, son ?”
“I want to kill you.”
“Mother…
I want to …”

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Lou Reed’s “Street Hassle” killed me the first time i heard it. .The story’s mega-creepy, particularly the center section with two guys talking about a girl that died at a party, and how one of them suggests:

To my relatively innocent mind, this was cold.

But the spoken part that got me was what followed:

That still seems to apply to some people I knew who have since stepped on the rainbow.

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Well, my favorite is a Lyle Lovette tune.

In an intro to one song, which I don’t have anymore due to my CD collection being ripped off, he waxes poetic for a minute or two about a major decision he has to make. At the end he says…

Wait for it…
Wait for it…
Wait for it…

“Make it a cheese burger”

Slee

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Thela Hun Ginjeet and Indiscipline by King Crimson.

Muffin Man by Frank Zappa.

The Gumbo Variations by Frank Zappa.

Thing Called Woman by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins.

Atlantis by Donovan.

Yellow Brick Road by Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band.

Martian Boogie by Brownsville Station.

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Patti Smith’s three-part song (track 7) on Horses. Powerful. I’ll say no more.

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Rasputina has a song called “The Donner Party” which is entirely spoken. It consists of her theory that there is so much in common with the situation of the Donner party and that of the Pilgrims that cannibalism must have been rampant with the Pilgrims.