# Unusual sound effects in popular songs **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 21, 2000, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307 "2000-01-21T22:22:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Flypsyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@Flypsyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flypsyde)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2000, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/21 "2000-01-26T19:46:00Z")
> [@](#): > > How about Adam Sandler’s “Ode to My Car”? The version Dr. Demento played on the air is chock-full of bleeps… And no wonder, dougie, since it’s about 25% swearing. My kind of album. Were you wondering about _how_ they made these sounds, or just the lyrics? As to the how, I would hazard a guess that they simply recorded various car noises (beeps, engine revs, engine turning over, etc.) and put them in at various points. For some real weird stuff, try listening to The Art of Noise’s _Close to the Edit_. Power tools and other odd things galore. Cool stuff. * * * He weathered a firestorm of agony and did not break. And while Yori raged against his unbending courage, we took Kyuden Hiruma back. His loss is great, but so is the gift his suffering brought. -_Yakamo’s Funeral_ ---
**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2000, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/22 "2000-01-26T19:48:00Z")
Einstuerzende Neubauten is a german industrial band that has 2 albums called “Strategies Against Architecture 1 & 2”. all the songs are played by banging on items inside buildings and construction sites. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Thin\_Skin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@Mr\_Thin\_Skin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Thin_Skin)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2000, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/23 "2000-01-26T19:57:00Z")
There’s some sort of strange dog howling in the Titanic song _My Heart Will Go On_ (I think that’s the title, I’,m usually wrong on such things however…) ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2000, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/24 "2000-01-26T20:38:00Z")
Hey, Flypsyde: perhaps _you_ might be able to answer my original question about _how_ they made the sound effects in “Overjoyed,” “Theme from _M_A_S_H,”\* and “Goodbye Cruel World?” Nobody else seems interested in doing so… Thanks very much. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![neuro-trash\_grrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3ab097/32.png) [@neuro-trash\_grrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neuro-trash_grrrl)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2000, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/25 "2000-01-26T23:35:00Z")
And while we’re on the subject of Einstürzende Neubauten, let’s not forget the piece “Maifestspiele”, which incorporates the sounds of one of the annual Berlin May Day riots, recorded by one of the band’s members at great risk to life and limb. There’s even a tear gas canister going off right next to him at one point. * * * An infinite number of rednecks in an infinite number of pickup trucks shooting an infinite number of shotguns at an infinite number of road signs will eventually produce all the world’s great works of literature in Braille. ---
**Author:** ![Persephone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@Persephone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Persephone)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2000, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/26 "2000-01-26T23:39:00Z")
MrThinSkin: That’s Celine Dion. But you were just waiting for that one, weren’t you? 😉 * * * “The quickest way to a man’s heart is through his ribcage.” --anonymous redhead ---
**Author:** ![Boris\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@Boris\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boris_B)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2000, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/27 "2000-01-28T06:59:00Z")
The balloon-on-hair instrument described in the OP sounds like a _cuica_. I haven’t seen M_A_S\*H in forever, but this instrument is a friction drum - a drum not struck but played by running a moistened finger on a stem which is attached at right angles to the drum head. Can you picture that? Anyway, the point is, it sounds like a bird call, or a person with a WEIRD voice talking, or running a balloon across your head. It’s featured, IIRC, in Brazilian and other South American music. Just a WAG though. ---
**Author:** ![George\_Gray](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8edcca/32.png) [@George\_Gray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/George_Gray)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2000, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/28 "2000-01-29T01:17:00Z")
In the Beastie Boys’ song “3 Minute Rule” (from Paul’s Boutique, one of the best albums ever made), the sound of a Ping-Pong ball bouncing can be heard at the beginning. Geniuses, I tell you. * * * “The world is everything that is the case.” --Ludwig Wittgenstein ---
**Author:** ![Torgo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@Torgo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torgo)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2000, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/29 "2000-01-29T02:54:00Z")
U2’s early hit, “I Will Follow”, features the sounds of bottles being dropped and broken during the instrumental break. Not the band’s brainchild, but the idea of innovative producer Steve Lillywhite. * * * “My hovercraft is full of eels.” ---
**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:** [January 29, 2000, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/30 "2000-01-29T03:48:00Z")
More: That neat little “sniff” at the start of the Dead’s “Casey Jones.” The airplane landing in “Back in the U.S.S.R.” * * * “East is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does.” – Marx Read “Sundials” in the new issue of Aboriginal Science Fiction. [www.sff.net/people/rothman](http://www.sff.net/people/rothman) ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2000, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/31 "2000-01-31T19:27:00Z")
Thanks, Boris 🙂 Now, can someone identify the sound effects in “Overjoyed” and “Goodbye Cruel World”? ---
**Author:** ![Inkz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecb155/32.png) [@Inkz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inkz)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2000, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/32 "2000-01-31T19:50:00Z")
Can anybody tell me what the weird “Squinch” noise is in the Journey song “When the lights go down in the city”? Placed between the lyrics: "…yeah I wanna’ be there by my city by the bay-aa-aaaaaaay. Ooohhohhh, oh oh oh… Squinch! …" Or for that matter confirm that im not the only person who’s wondered about it? Inky ---
**Author:** ![Milossarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Milossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milossarian)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2000, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/33 "2000-01-31T19:59:00Z")
The Aerosmith song “Rag Doll” (one of their worst, IMHO) includes members of the band playing the ‘flesh bongos,’ slapping with their hands on the bare asses of some willing female-type groupies. You may be able to discern it as the song is fading out. I always liked in “The Logical Song” by Supertramp how they use the interception sound from the old Coleco Pocket Quarterback. That’s what our video games were like, ya young whipper-snapper, and we were THANKFUL! * * * “In much wisdom is much grief; and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.” - Ecclesiastes 1:18 ---
**Author:** ![Sweet\_Basil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4bbf92/32.png) [@Sweet\_Basil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sweet_Basil)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2000, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/34 "2000-01-31T20:28:00Z")
The technique is called “music concrete”. “Concrete” is pronounced “con-CRET”. Using it makes you sound very hip… John Cage and Edgard Varese were among the very first to use this device. Although it is not really the same thing, the earliest non-traditional sound in a Rock & Roll song that I can think of is Buddy Holly’s “Every Day”. The drummer is playing the percussion part on his lap (or on a vinyl chair, depending on the story you believe). Sweet Basil ---
**Author:** ![Cabbage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@Cabbage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabbage)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2000, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/35 "2000-02-01T06:46:00Z")
> [@](#): > > I always liked in “The Logical Song” by Supertramp how they use the interception sound from the old Coleco Pocket Quarterback. And don’t forget “Rock the Casbah” by The Clash, which uses the touchdown or kickoff sound (can’t remember which). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307.md?page=1)