# What is the oddest song/piece of music you've ever heard? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 24, 2016, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oddest-song-piece-of-music-youve-ever-heard/775524 "2016-12-24T11:04:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![somepumpkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@somepumpkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/somepumpkin)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oddest-song-piece-of-music-youve-ever-heard/775524/81 "2016-12-29T21:41:03Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Aw, shucks! I’m gonna go ahead and take that as a compliment! Thanks, **shunpiker**! > > \. Straight from the heart, **Bo**. 😃 Though, you’ve some strong \*competition \*in here. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2016, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oddest-song-piece-of-music-youve-ever-heard/775524/82 "2016-12-30T05:12:33Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Somewhat reminds me of Locust… Awesome, dude - of the trillions of live bands I’ve seen and played with, The Locust (aaawwww…[http://www.kindamuzik.net/gfx/locust-live2-0404.jpg](http://www.kindamuzik.net/gfx/locust-live2-0404.jpg)…) are one of the most abominably insane live acts I’ve seen. When I saw them in 2002, I thought they mopped the stage with Dillinger Escape Plan, and if you know DEP, that’s sumpin. PLAY ALL THIS SHIT AS LOUD AS POSSIBLE… [Not-Quite-Mary-Had-A-Little-Lamb’isms on the keyboard here will get you punching walls and picking fights in no time.](https://amydenio.bandcamp.com/track/origins-of-phlegm) - quite singable. [James Chance and the Contortions](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=contort+yourself) - NYC no wave classic. [The Longshoremen](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiKhY5Sys-g) - pissed that I could not locate ANYWHERE:( _Cindy The Shack Girl_, which is, unequivocally, their greatest song. [Death Grips](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Orlbo9WkZ2E) - like to see these guys but apparently they can’t get past the border. [For those in a fast mood, I give you Braindrill](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV4n8fJGip0) - drummer not quite as crazy as he normally is - a bit laid back, here. really - you _don’t_ want me to get started. That shit’s easy listening compared to other shit. fine as expected offerings, **Snowboarder Bo**. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2016, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oddest-song-piece-of-music-youve-ever-heard/775524/83 "2016-12-30T05:23:02Z")
missed edit window - the James Chance link - just pick the top video _Contort Yourself_ when you get to that youtube page. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2016, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oddest-song-piece-of-music-youve-ever-heard/775524/84 "2016-12-30T05:45:33Z")
Years ago I became aware of one extreme case of electronica where even the voice is artificial. Double odd, in the sense that it is an artificial singer and weird music: I thought it was odd to have an artificial singer, and I though that just trying to replicate a singer’s voice was odd, but not so extraordinary. But then some of the guys using the vocaloid tool figured out that they had an artificial singer so they should use it to do bits that would be impossible for human singers. I like 2 examples: [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC-zPJAFfXY) The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku Perfect for the end of the world background music when all communications around the world fall silent IMO. Hatsune Miku - "裏表ラバーズ(Two-Faced Lovers) Drama between lovers, unintended pregnancy, described at 100MPH (How an android/artificial being like Miku gets pregnant is not explained :) ) ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2016, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oddest-song-piece-of-music-youve-ever-heard/775524/85 "2016-12-30T05:47:47Z")
[Noises of Russia](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vgMWZxgKMFM&itct=CBAQpDAYASITCOuJ5ryZm9ECFWiznAodmqIDejIHcmVsYXRlZEiX0MflkfLgv2g%3D) ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2016, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oddest-song-piece-of-music-youve-ever-heard/775524/86 "2016-12-30T06:04:00Z")
I can’t believe that I, or anyone else here, hadn’t thought of this sooner. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/qB-nGVqNciE/hqdefault.jpg "STYX - Don't Sit Down On the Plexiglass Toilet") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB-nGVqNciE) Styx’ “Plexiglass Toilet Choir”, a song people usually do not believe exists until they hear it, and maybe not even then. 😛 It was a “Dr. Demento” favorite for many years. ---
**Author:** ![Philliam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/philliam/32/3011_2.png) [@Philliam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philliam)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2016, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oddest-song-piece-of-music-youve-ever-heard/775524/87 "2016-12-30T06:14:33Z")
Juan Munoz/Gavin Bryars Ensemble: _A Man in a Room, Gambling #8_ Wonderfully odd and oddly soothing on a dark, rainy night. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2016, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oddest-song-piece-of-music-youve-ever-heard/775524/88 "2016-12-30T09:14:33Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Freestyle jazz is often indistinguishable, to someone not familiar with it, with children playing instruments before having had any lessons. > > In terms of the oddest thing I’ve ever heard that is identifiably a song, though - that is, something that is not just nonsense, or experimental, or MEANT to challenge one’s assumptions of what a song could be, something that actually got played a lot on the radio - you’re going to have to go pretty far to top the B-52s’ “Rock Lobster.” Of all the songs that most people at least 30-40 years old will recognize, that is surely the weirdest. The song is meant to follow the pattern of a conventional pop song, and it does, but it’s just weird. It has a weird arrangement, weird vocals, and weird lyrics. Everyone involved in it is weird, and they play and sing weird. You hit on something very important here. The weirdest stuff is the stuff you can almost recognize, which is familiar enough to draw you in and keep you engaged but which is off somehow. It’s similar to the uncanny valley effect: If something is a random agglomeration of parts, there’s nothing to it. It isn’t scary. It’s just a mess. However, if something is mostly human-like, but moves in fits and starts, or unnaturally smoothly, and has recognizable eyes which just… never… blink or look away, it’s going to keep you up nights. Similarly, music which a music theorist finds weird because it has reticulated sevenths in every place a normal, sane composer would use an arpeggiated inverse chord with twenty-thirds, well, to the normal, Clapton-fearing, non-music-theoretical person, that’s just going to sound like a piano being fed to a wood chipper. It won’t have enough of what that average person would recognize as structure to sound like anything at all, let alone anything notably weird. It’ll be as normal as road construction, and about as musical. OTOH, the B-52’s are a pop band. They make pop songs. They make pop songs with weird musicianship and bizarre vocal qualities and singular lyrics, but they still have something for the average person to hang their head on. Similarly, [Wall of Voodoo’s cover of “Ring of Fire”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS_CQkPavyc) isn’t nearly as experimental as Stockhausen, but it’s weird as opposed to unintelligible. ---
**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:** [December 30, 2016, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oddest-song-piece-of-music-youve-ever-heard/775524/89 "2016-12-30T12:50:20Z")
As I remarked in this thread ( [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=726870&page=2](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=726870&page=2) ) > [@](#): > > You want weird? > > **Stargazing** by Donald Erb, a piece in several movements. > > “The Stars Come Out” had various instruments producing apparently random brief notes, but the number and concentration increased as the piece progressed, duplicating the appearance of the stars in the evening. “Comets, Meteors, and Shooting Stars” gave us appropriately swooshing sounds. “The Surface of the Sun” featured a lot of flutter-tongued brass notes, I suppose to duplicate solar prominences and flares. taped electronic music backed up my high school symphonic band when we played this. > Here’s one description: > > "Combines traditional and non-traditional elements with electronically produced sounds to uncover a new world of band sonorities. “Each of its three movements concerns itself with exploring a different sound sphere. The first movement employs a quasi-aleotory technique to build tension through increasing density; the second movement is a scintillating interplay of brief chromatic fragments; the third movement throws bright stabs of light against an ominously rumbling background. The taped sounds add a unique dimension to the work.” (Taken from program notes) > > [http://www.und.nodak.edu/instruct/knorman/521/new.html](http://www.und.nodak.edu/instruct/knorman/521/new.html) > > Someone told me that, as he walked off the stage (to uncertain applause) our bandmaster remarked “That’s my joke on the high school.” > > Here’s some other school doing it. : > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyycdNQildQ](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyycdNQildQ) > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlJFOYr2GaM](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlJFOYr2GaM) In a completely different vein, I think that Charles Ives’ _Variations on “America”_ is wonderfully off-the-wall. He basically takes “My Country 'tis of Thee” and – how to put this – makes it sound like other pieces of music. He apparently composed it when he was 17. He said that they wouldn’t let him play it very often, because it made people laugh, and it got stored away until organist E. Power Biggs rediscovered it in 1949. The original piece was for organ, but it was later orchestrated. > **[Variations on "America"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variations_on_%22America%22)** > > Variations on "America" is a composition for organ by the American composer Charles Ives. > Composed in 1891 when Ives was seventeen, it is an arrangement of a traditional tune, known as "America (My Country, 'Tis of Thee)" (words by Samuel Francis Smith), and was at the time the de facto anthem of the United States. The tune is also widely recognised in Thomas Arne's orchestration as the British National Anthem, "God Save the King", and in the former anthems of Russia ("The Prayer of Russians", f... [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ivWut4jfC4c/hqdefault.jpg "Ives - Variations on "America"") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivWut4jfC4c) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/-UZq09F9RR4/maxresdefault.jpg "Ives: Variations on "America" (1891) - E. Power Biggs") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UZq09F9RR4) Walter/Wendy Carlos did something similar with _Pompous Circumstances_, which take the Elgar classic and forces it into the form of other familiar pieces, including the opening to “Also Sprach Zarathustra” from _2001_. All played on the synthesizer, of course. It’s on his album _Water Carlos, by Request_ > **[Wendy Carlos, By Request](https://www.wendycarlos.com/+br.html)** > > Notes, reviews and information on the remastered By Request edition. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2016, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oddest-song-piece-of-music-youve-ever-heard/775524/90 "2016-12-30T16:49:11Z")
This oddity just came to mind. You won’t want to waste your time listening to the whole immemorable song, but cue into 1:10, and listen to the little bridge, where the singer harmonizes her voice with a screechy instrument, to give the effect of a voice synthesizer, which I though was wonderfully clever. https://www.youtube.com/embed/RV-OYBBP_r4?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&list=PLA34046A4B9425E66 ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2016, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oddest-song-piece-of-music-youve-ever-heard/775524/91 "2016-12-30T17:24:35Z")
Just remembered [Chickenwolf](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrzylHjYP5Q). ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2016, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oddest-song-piece-of-music-youve-ever-heard/775524/92 "2016-12-30T17:40:35Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > [Mr. Bungle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ_3F93hgZw) is pretty damn strange whilst remaining mostly listenable, and sometimes downright catchy. Mike Patton released an “album” of himself grunting, screaming, and other vocal nonsense, followed by a more musical but still quite abstract album of strange, atmospheric soundscapes, followed by an album of covers of Italian pop songs from the 50s and 60s, backed by a 40-person orchestra and 15-member band. Not to mention his half-dozen other bands and side projects. He is one very talented and very strange man. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Krupe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ebca7d/32.png) [@Leo\_Krupe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Krupe)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2016, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oddest-song-piece-of-music-youve-ever-heard/775524/93 "2016-12-30T18:04:37Z")
the weirdest I personally have come across is Emil Richards: New Sound Element _Stones_ (1966). It was at the beginning of the synthesizer movement, and features offbeat beats. The album was given to me by a friend when I was about 12, and there was a sticker on the shrinkwrap that said “3/$1.00”. Even 45 years ago, it was in the cheapest of the cheap bargain bins. https://www.youtube.com/embed/TcRbeKbsmxA?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&list=PLqvBoiqXslshheKx-bVJfG4uU7kD2y-dR ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2016, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oddest-song-piece-of-music-youve-ever-heard/775524/94 "2016-12-31T04:01:36Z")
My brother gave me a vinyl LP years ago featuring Stuart Margolin (Angel from “Rockford Files”) crooning several songs. I couldn’t make it past the first track. ::shudder:: ---
**Author:** ![Major\_Matt\_Mason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@Major\_Matt\_Mason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Major_Matt_Mason)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2016, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oddest-song-piece-of-music-youve-ever-heard/775524/95 "2016-12-31T11:49:28Z")
I’m partial to [The Pretty Little Dolly](https://youtu.be/G0xq2K-ut8U?t=23), myself… ---
**Author:** ![Plumpudding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Plumpudding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plumpudding)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2016, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oddest-song-piece-of-music-youve-ever-heard/775524/96 "2016-12-31T13:58:18Z")
I imagine this one is pretty well known, but I love it. [Butthole Surfers - Lady Sniff](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fW0xpoGmEk). ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2016, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oddest-song-piece-of-music-youve-ever-heard/775524/97 "2016-12-31T17:36:30Z")
> [@Plumpudding](#): > > [Butthole Surfers - Lady Sniff](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fW0xpoGmEk). One of the most profoundly “making me see the light” songs of the 80s for me. The Nihilist Spasm Band (London, Ontario) has been doing their thing for a while now. They’re really into home-made instruments, like taking a kick pedal and connecting it to a bracket that can hold loud, clangy things like stop signs for the pedal to slam against. (Its ensuing racket, I can assure you, is fucking annoying, hence ironically entertaining.) [https://weirdcanada.com/2015/11/inferred-views-the-nihilist-spasm-band/](https://weirdcanada.com/2015/11/inferred-views-the-nihilist-spasm-band/) [I like how in the lower (colour) photo everyone’s beaming, but in the upper one (in an earlier incarnation) everyone’s all hipster serious, except for possibly those two smirkers on the far right.] > [@](#): > > Music historians are hard pressed to pin down other groups tapping similar musical veins as far back as 1965, and even early Canadian innovators such as multi-disciplinary artist Michael Snow and Toronto avant-garde group Intersystems were still a few years away from making their marks in sound at this early crest of the ’60s subcultural tidal wave. “We were all greatly influenced by **kindergarten rhythm bands and Guy Lombardo** ,” admits Pratten, when I ask him what they were listening to at the time. bolded for the thumbs up. To further qualify that quote - sure, there were _individuals_ well before '65 experimenting musically, but definitely not in a co-op context like these guys. [possibly topical lyrics @ :019](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ERTEtZB8Iw) [gigging with the hippest](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzpUz57DUYQ) [this should make you more or less swoon](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ66AzWlPXE) ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2016, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oddest-song-piece-of-music-youve-ever-heard/775524/98 "2016-12-31T18:36:20Z")
Man, I just knew someone would beat me to [Who’s Afraid](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZF_JPHYBAU) by The Art of Noise. Long a favorite of mine. Ignore the video. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2016, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oddest-song-piece-of-music-youve-ever-heard/775524/99 "2016-12-31T20:06:53Z")
[_Anhedonia_](http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XdF_ib2VPGc)– Andrew Liles ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2016, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oddest-song-piece-of-music-youve-ever-heard/775524/100 "2016-12-31T22:45:39Z")
cows with guns … its a sort of parody of the “cowboy balladeer” but I thought it was funny as hell for a while …and I request it on a lot of country stations but only one station ever played it for me and that was because the morning guy was mainly comedy skits and such [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oddest-song-piece-of-music-youve-ever-heard/775524.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oddest-song-piece-of-music-youve-ever-heard/775524.md?page=6)