A random scattering of more drollery, of the non-definitive and incomprehensive kind:
B-52s: “Private Idaho,” “Rock Lobster.”
Elvis Costello: "Waiting For The End Of The World,” The World And His Wife.”
The Dickies: "Manny, Moe, and Jack."
Ian Dury and the Blockheads: “Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll.”
Bob Dylan: “Highway 61 Revisited,” “Tight Connection To My Heart,” “Stuck in Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again.”
Fountains Of Wayne: “Utopia Parkway,” “Leave The Biker,” "Valley Of Malls,” "Bright Future In Sales.”
John Hiatt: “You’re My Love Interest.”
Dan Hicks And His Hot Licks: “The Laughing Song.”
Jan and Dean: “The Anaheim, Azusa, and Cucamonga Sewing Circle, Book Review, and Timing Association.”
The Kinks: “Alcohol,” “Apeman.” “Australia.”
Lovin’ Spoonful: “Jug Band Music,” "Did You Ever Have To make Up Your Mind?"
Nick Lowe: “Switchboard Susan,” “Half A Boy And Half A Man.”
Nellie McKay: “Change The World,” “Inner Peace,” “Toto Dies.”
Replacements: “Androgynous,” “Gary’s Got A Boner.”
Steely Dan: “Showbiz Kids,” “Throw Back The Little Ones.”
Loudon Wainwright III: “Nocturnal Stumblebutt,” “Rufus Is A Tit Man.”
Tom Waits: “Step Right Up.”
Weezer: “Buddy Holly,” “Hash Pipe.”
Paul Westerberg: “Mannequin Shop.”
Warren Zevon: “Excitable Boy,” “Even A Dog Can Shake Hands,” I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead,” "Disorder In The House.”
"A sinister cabal of superior writers."
Article comments
1 - J. P. Spencer
Great compendium. Isn't the Paul Westerberg song called "Mannequin Shop"?
How can any funny list exist without Jonathan Richman? "Abominible Snowman In The Market", "Dodge Veg-O-Matic", "I Was Dancing AT The Lesbian Bar". Great stuff.
I'll also add "Smiffy's Glass Eye" & "I'll Regret It All In The Morning" by Richard & Linda Thompson. I love the verse in "..Regret"
"The Years have left their mark
Your skin feels smooth as bark
As we shiver in the dark
I'll regret it all in the morning"
The hangover song to beat all hangover songs.
2 - Lisa Hoover
Great list, GoHah. And here I thought I was the only person alive who knew the skunk song. I used to listen to it on a compilation LP I had in the 70s. It played right after "It Never Rains in Southern California" and right before that damn someone-left-my-cake-out-in-the-rain song. Seriously.
3 - GoHah
JP--great suggestions, and yes I stand corrected: it is "Mannequin Shop."
Lisa: I've run into the same "wha??" reaction to Dead Skunk even though it was at least a mid-sized hit--unfortunately I don't think it gets much play on the oldies stations. The absurd "MacArthur Park," melting cake and all, is also a good candidate.
4 - Vern Halen
Dead Skunk unknown?!? I think even my parents knew that song, it was so big.
5 - larry
i cant convince my m gran grandkids this was was really a hit song! larry
6 - Vern Halen
Oh right - what about those Jim Stafford classics - My Girl Bill, Wildwood Weed, Swamp Witch, Spiders & Snakes?
7 - Baronius
Oh Billie it's fresh in my memory
The night that it had to be done
You with your pick axe and scissors
And you with your shovel and gun
And I liked your late husband Donald
But such torture his memory brings
All sliced up and sealed tight in baggies
Guess love makes you do funny things
- Alice Cooper, "Millie and Billie"
8 - Temple Stark
I used too loveher, but I had too kill her
I used to love her, but I had to kill her
I had to put her
Six feet under
And I can still hear her complain
I used to love her, but I had to kill her
I used to love her, but I had to kill her
I knew I miss her
So I had to keep her
She's buried right in my back yard
I used to love her, but I had to kill her
I used to love her, but I had to kill her
She bitched so much
She drove me nuts
And now I'm happier this way
I used to love her, but I had to kill her
I used to love her, but I had to kill her
I had to put her
Six feet under
And I can still hear her complain
I always thought that Guns N Roses song was funny, with a dark undercurrent, of course.
9 - GoHah
Baronius & Temple: both of your great contributions reminded me of "Happy Boy" by the Beat Farmers (dark humor could and should be a category of its own--hmmm...). Anyway, a little of "Happy Boy":
My little dog spot got hit by a car
Hubba hubba hubba hubba hubba
Put his guts in a box and put him in a drawer
Hubba hubba hubba hubba hubba
CHORUS
Well I'm a happy boy (happy boy)
Well I'm a happy boy (happy boy)
Oh ain't it good when things are going your way, hey hey?
I forgot all about it for a month and a half
Hubba hubba hubba hubba hubba
I looked in the drawer and started to laugh
Hubba hubba hubba hubba hubba
CHORUS
10 - gonzo marx
from the album "Rock and Roll" by Motorhead, there is a spoken word bit done by Michael Palin...
"oh Lord,who has made the blades of grass, and the little tiny things that creep therein...
who has made the cricket bats, and hanky's...
who has made....
......
......
ALL things...
bless thou these people from Motorhead,
so they may verily endow the people of this world with such Pleasure and Enjoyment that they may increase fourfold their already large sums of loot,
and thus enable them, in this lifetime, to buy at least one other pair of trousers each...
oh Lord, who has looked upon the trouserless, and had compassion...
thank you"
Excelsior!
11 - Temple Stark
OMG - never heard that one.
Gee-whiz as they say LOL.
Life, Sex Death from CD "The Silent Majority" (which I still own)Some fuckin' shit ass stole my money
Some fuckin' shit ass
It ain't funny
Well they'll take your soul if you let them and they'll take your money too
Don't you go, don't you let 'em
Cause they'll split your pride in two
So help me
What will it take to feel love instead of hate/pain
What will it take to make peace the word for today
Some fuckin' shit ass
Thinks he's godly
Some fuckin' shit ass
Crashed my party
'Cause there are no morals or ethics and there's just no getting through
Don't engage in their methods
'Cause they'll split your pride in two
So help me.
12 - Temple Stark
11 referring to #9
Course there's all the Spinal Tap songs, funnier than Dr. Domento andf Weird Al (!) combined.
13 - Matthew T. Sussman
So we're going down the "funny song" route?
Henry Phillips, help me out!
14 - GoHah
gonzo & Temple: interesting twists on sanctimonious sources--I can see Palin assuming reverent tone, and I like the "Life, Sex, Death" use of the Carole King lyrics from "You've Got a Friend" ("They'll hurt you and desert you/Well they'll take your soul if you let them")altered and used for a more skewed purpose.
15 - GoHah
Matthew: major oversight on my part. I feel culturally deprived.
16 - Scott Butki
Good list. Thanks for pointing me to it.
I saw Nellie McKay live at South by Southwest two years ago and she is just as deadpan brilliantly funny in person.
It was a live show in a record store and she had a sing along then intentionally had everyone move out of harmony - sort of orchstrated chaos. Very cool.
Did you hear the controversy about her album - the label doesn't want to put it out?
17 - GoHah
Scott--about Nellie McKay, I read something about the issue being the length of the album. But I thought that the record company won out and is releasing it at about ten minutes shorter than Nellie desired (turn around fair play?: she's the one who won out on her first release and persuaded the company to put it out on two discs even though it probably could've been packed on one CD). Sorry I can't remember the details, but, being too cheap on a particular day, I hastily scanned the story in a music mag at the newstand without buying it. But there is a review of the new CD--with a "great" four-star review--in the new Blender, if that's any indication of its release status.
18 - Rodney Welch
Well, I went to the doctor
I said, "I'm feeling kind of rough"
"Let me break it to you, son --
Your shit's fucked up."
I said, "My shit's fucked up?
Well, I don't see how--"
He said, "The shit that used to work--
It won't work now."
I had a dream
Ah, shucks, oh, well
Now it's all fucked up
It's shot to hell
Yeah, yeah, my shit's fucked up
It has to happen to the best of us
The rich folks suffer like the rest of us
It'll happen to you
That amazing grace
Sort of passed you by
You wake up every day
And you start to cry
Yeah, you want to die
But you just can't quit
Let me break it on down:
It's the fucked up shit
--Warren Zevon, circa 2000, accurately predicting his demise three years later.
19 - GoHah
Rodney--and from 2002:
I was staying at the Westin
I was playing to a draw
When in walked Charlton Heston
With the Tablets of the Law
He said, "It's still the Greatest Story"
I said, "Man, I'd like to stay
But I'm bound for glory
I'm on my way
My ride's here..."
20 - Scott Butki
There was a story in the New York Times this week with McKay saying that while there are copies avaialble already to the media (i.e. Blender) the label was balking on the album's full release.
Apparently she had just about had her way with
getting it released to the satisfaction of her and the label.. then there was label reshuffling and the result was they said we're not gonna play games with you anymore, little girl.
So it's back in doubt.
I'll try to find a link for more details if you are interested.
21 - Sara
wtf?
22 - Scott Butki
Ah,
I think this could be like the Fiona Apple thing where there's two versions resulting - one on the
web and one official.
Personally that makes me want to hear both copies and compare - something I've been meaning to do with Apple's.
23 - GoHah
Scott, thanks for the startling update--I think Columbia will regret their decision. To be continued...
24 - diana hartman
tom lehrer is the best...glad to see he got mention...
my favs are the "irish ballad" and "the vatican rag"...
25 - Scott Butki
you're welcome. I just hope we get to hear the full thing