The Toadies’ “Possum Kingdom” has alternating measures of 7/4 and 8/4. Or really big measures of 15/4.
Yes’ The Fish, which follows Long Distance Runaroundon the Fragile album is in 7/8.
And, Hey You, I think you mean Led Zeppelin’s The Crunge.
That must be the one. Just had a listen. This one’s all over the place.
Intro: 4/4, 4/4, 4/4, 2/4
Versie: 5/4, 5/4, 5/4, (some combination of meters that adds up to 9/4)
etc…
This is definitely the one you’re thinking of.
Yes :smack: Has anybody seen the bridge?
Lots of Sting songs fit in here.
“Murder By Numbers” (with The Police)
“Straight To My Heart”
“Love Is Stronger Than Justice (The Munificent Seven)”
“Seven Days” (I think)
There’s also Living In The Past by Jethro Tull, in 5/4.
Where is that confounded bridge?
Does “Holiday Song” by Pixies have anything interesting going on time-signaturewise? I’m pretty sure that at least it switches time signatures between the verse and the chorus.
Drum Dances by John Psathas! He’s a NZ composer. I couldn’t keep up with the piece even with the score right in front of me. Oh, and this is my first ever post by the way. 
There’s not really anything in the Firebird with particularly unusual time signatures - certainly nothing like the Rite. The finale has a section in 7/4, arranged 3+2+2 | 2+2+3, which doesn’t sound anything like as complex as that makes it seem.
Can anyone else say Gang of Four ?
…or for that matter Mission of Burma?
Wonky time signatures all over the place.
Dream Theater has a ton of stuff with odd signitures.
According to Wikipedia some of DTs stuff has the following sigs.
“Learning To Live” includes 7/4, 13/4, 11/8, 14/8, 15/8.
“Metropolis Part 1: The Miracle and the Sleeper” contains 5/8, 12/16, 13/16, 5/16, 13/8, 7/4, 9/8, 18/16, 7/8, 9/16, 7/16, 3/16, 10/16.
“Home” by Dream Theater has parts in 31/16 (played as 6/4 + 7/16) and, at the end, 19/16.
“The Dance of Eternity” incorporates an incredible amount of time signature changes (in order, each entry written once): 4/4, 7/8, 3/4, 13/16, 15/16, 17/16, 14/16, 5/4, 6/8, 2/4, 5/8, 11/4, 9/4, 7/16, 6/16, 5/16, 10/16, 9/8, 15/8, 12/16, 16/16 (3+3+3+3+2+2), 3/8.*
I saw DT not too long ago and they pull off that stuff live amazingly well.
Slee
*I snipped the time sigs from Wikipedia. I don’t have the patience to sit down and count out some of that stuff.
I love that song (that bit and the whole thing). Every time I hear it I try to keep up with the beat
bom bom bom - bam
bom bom - bam
bom - bam
bom bom bom - bam
bom bom - bam
bom - bam
bom bom bom - bam
bom bom - bam
bom - bam
and on and on
I can keep up in my head for about 15 seconds. If I tap the boms on a table with one hand and the bams with the other, I can keep up for about 30 seconds, then I just get lost in the music, give up and enjoy it. It’s very cool though.
Here’s a video on YouTube that uses that bit from the song.
If you’re into heavier music at all:
Dillinger Escape Plan
Meshuggah
Dream Theater
All You Need Is Love is 7/4 during the verse and 4/4 during the chorus.
We Can Work It Out is the one that’s 4/4 with a bar of 3/4 in the chorus.
I once (ias part of a choir) sang part of Mozart’s Requiem that was in 12/8 but that’s not all that odd compared to all these one people are coming up with.
No, it’s not. It’s 4/4, with the last line being in 3/4.
Yes, there is a section of 3/4 in there, too. The Beatles have done the 4/4 to 3/4 shift a lot, but I still think there’s another song I’m thinking of. For some reason, I’m thinking there’s a Beatles song which does this in the verse: three bars of 4/4, one bar of 3/4.
12/8 is extremely common. Pretty much all of swing/blues/etc is 12/8, although it is often notated as 4/4.
“Woke Up Laughing” by Robert Palmer sounds like an odd time signature. In the liner notes, he wrote something about superimposing two others that explains it, but I can’t remember it at the moment, and I’ve long since lost those liner notes.
Actually, “All You Need Is Love” is the song I was thinking of. I guess you can say it’s 7/4 in the verse, but I’ve always thought of it as alternating 4/4 and 3/4. It goes: (4/4 - 3/4), (4/4 - 3/4), (4/4 - 4/4), (4/4 - 3/4). At any rate, if you’re looking at it as 7/4, it’s not a constant 7/4 as there’s two measure of 4/4 thrown in there. I look at it as 4/4 and 3/4.
I agree - the 3/4 bars are a compression of what one expects to be a 4/4 bar. And if you get someone to sing it from memory, they’ll often sing a straight 4/4 version.
Two of my favorites are both by Rush: “Subdivisions” (7/4) and “Losing It” (5/4), both from “Signals”