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Anyone a Bob Dylan fan? What in the Blue Blazes is 'Jokerman' about???
Fortean Music
- Thread starter mikelegs
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Fortean songs..
John Lennon: Nobody Told Me....with the lyrics, "There's UFO's over New York and I ain't at all surprised!".
And I think there are about thirty million heavy metal songs with Fortean related subjects and various '60s psychedelic songs specialising in UFOs. Oh, and The Beatles song FOOL ON THE HILL is about Paul's encounter with a man who vanished!
John Lennon: Nobody Told Me....with the lyrics, "There's UFO's over New York and I ain't at all surprised!".
And I think there are about thirty million heavy metal songs with Fortean related subjects and various '60s psychedelic songs specialising in UFOs. Oh, and The Beatles song FOOL ON THE HILL is about Paul's encounter with a man who vanished!
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How about The Strawbs' 'The man who called himself Jesus', a true story apparently...
Beer turning into blood.
'Jesus' scaring little children.
Beer turning into blood.
'Jesus' scaring little children.
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"The Happening" by The Pixies is about a UFO landing on the strip in Las Vegas....
sureshot
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Steve Winwoods "Hole in My Shoe" always seemed really bizarre to me.
Made even more so by the cover of it done by Neil from the Young Ones.
This song has, for me, the most memorable line of any song. I was only young when Neil's version was released, but I can still remember the first time I heard:
I looked to the sky
Where an elephant's eye
Was looking at me
From a bubblegum tree
This is one definitely Fortean song.
Made even more so by the cover of it done by Neil from the Young Ones.
This song has, for me, the most memorable line of any song. I was only young when Neil's version was released, but I can still remember the first time I heard:
I looked to the sky
Where an elephant's eye
Was looking at me
From a bubblegum tree
This is one definitely Fortean song.
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Nick Cave - lots of scary-goodness, murders, ghosts, carnies (?) and such like
no UFOs though........(makes mental note to check lyrics at home, just in case)
no UFOs though........(makes mental note to check lyrics at home, just in case)
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Its there a Chris De Burgh one about UFOs that they always play in BHS at christmas? or am I mishearing the lyrics?
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Do not read if easily offended
The gothic metal band Type O Negative have done some stuff that may be construed as Fortean. Song titles include "The Green Man", "Be my druidess" and others I forget. The most memorable is Wolf Moon on their October Rust album. The story behind the lyrics is *gross bit coming up* of two lovers, the male performs oral sex on the female during her period which leads them both to turn into werewolves.
I've found Portishead to be Fortean in their sound, if not in their lyrics. Kind of abstract I know, I guess that's a personal thing.
The gothic metal band Type O Negative have done some stuff that may be construed as Fortean. Song titles include "The Green Man", "Be my druidess" and others I forget. The most memorable is Wolf Moon on their October Rust album. The story behind the lyrics is *gross bit coming up* of two lovers, the male performs oral sex on the female during her period which leads them both to turn into werewolves.
I've found Portishead to be Fortean in their sound, if not in their lyrics. Kind of abstract I know, I guess that's a personal thing.
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whyteowl said:
Yes, I believe it's called 'A Spaceman Came Travelling'.
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C'mon! What kind of record collections do you people have???Cursed said:
You got the title right. It's about how the star of Bethlehem was a spacecraft and the 'angel' was an astronaut...my family have owned a copy since I was knee-high to an earthworm.
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"All I Want For Christmas Is An Alien" by Fountains Of Wayne
sureshot
sureshot
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Almost anything by Clutch... see also 'Fortean Muzak' thread.
especially:
Texan Book Of The Dead
Escape From The Prison Planet
Spacegrass
Animal Farm
pretty much the whole 'Pure Rock Fury' album
And definitely the 'Bay City Rollers.' Oh, no, wait. I must have been thinking about something else...
especially:
Texan Book Of The Dead
Escape From The Prison Planet
Spacegrass
Animal Farm
pretty much the whole 'Pure Rock Fury' album
And definitely the 'Bay City Rollers.' Oh, no, wait. I must have been thinking about something else...
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BeeGees Mining Disaster 1941 or whatever it was called... Ties in with a thread on UL/FL about people buried alive in accidents. "...Or have they all gone home to bed, thinking that those who once existed must be dead"
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??????? Gross just isnt as gross as it used to be.
tastyintestines
Justified & Ancient
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good fortean music
what about tool and killing joke, also mudvayne deal with the effect that mushrooms will have on our evolutionary process. nile is a great one they've done a ton of research of egypt put to a brutal pulse!!!
what about tool and killing joke, also mudvayne deal with the effect that mushrooms will have on our evolutionary process. nile is a great one they've done a ton of research of egypt put to a brutal pulse!!!
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While not really imbued with any forteana, the song that puts me in a very Frtean frame of mind is "The Beast" by the Virgin Prunes.
Actually, any Virgin Prunes song off of "Heresies" or any of the "New Form of Beauty" discs will do! Even "If I Die, I Die..." with it's reference to the "Walls Of Jericho" will do.
Has anyone mentioned any Bauhaus songs? "Hollow Hills" "God in an Alcove" "Stigmata Martyr" "Of Lillies and Remains" to name a few.
Siouxie/Banshees= just about anything they did!
Suede's "My Darkstar" about a female Messiah from a third world country.
Any thing by Dead Can Dance can put one into a Fortean frame of mind.
Plus my king favorite Fortean song [Fortean in the impact it had on people when it was released]
Billy Holiday "Gloomy Sunday"
Actually, any Virgin Prunes song off of "Heresies" or any of the "New Form of Beauty" discs will do! Even "If I Die, I Die..." with it's reference to the "Walls Of Jericho" will do.
Has anyone mentioned any Bauhaus songs? "Hollow Hills" "God in an Alcove" "Stigmata Martyr" "Of Lillies and Remains" to name a few.
Siouxie/Banshees= just about anything they did!
Suede's "My Darkstar" about a female Messiah from a third world country.
Any thing by Dead Can Dance can put one into a Fortean frame of mind.
Plus my king favorite Fortean song [Fortean in the impact it had on people when it was released]
Billy Holiday "Gloomy Sunday"
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Psychic TV - Godstar. Does my head in.
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Off the top of my head:
Iron Maiden: Number of the Beast and Wicker Man
Rolling Stones: Sympathy for the Devil
Rush: Xanadu, Madrigal, Cygnus X1 and probably dozens of others.
Iron Maiden: Number of the Beast and Wicker Man
Rolling Stones: Sympathy for the Devil
Rush: Xanadu, Madrigal, Cygnus X1 and probably dozens of others.
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Hawkwind's "Space Ritual" always does the job for me; songs like "Lords of Light" & "Orgone Accumulator", Robert Calvert's mad space poetry, otherworldly synth noises and Lemmy providing powerhouse bass!
A couple of albums on, they even had Michael Moorcock reading some of his stuff through a dalek voice-changer thing. Wonderful stuff, and despite being denigrated as a bunch of hippies by my mates, their stuff has worn a lot better than the likes of Yes or ELP.
Pink Floyd's "Saucerful of Secrets" has got lots of stuff about UFOs, such as the title track, "Let There Be More Light" and "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun", which is about a suicidal flying saucer pilot. I think the sad tale of Syd Barrett is pretty Fortean in itself too, and "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn" is pretty essential listening for anybody who wants to hear what he was capable of before the acid frazzled his brain. His first solo album, "The Madcap Laughs" makes for compulsive but harrowing listening; there's evidently something seriously wrong with him throughout, and it's almost as if he was making the record under duress.
Not exactly Fortean in content, but the sequence of albums the Rolling Stones made between 1968-71 have a sinister atmosphere to them. Everything about the Stones seemed to have a whiff of evil about it around this time; the studio mysteriously catching fire whilst recording "Sympathy For The Devil", Brian Jones' death, Altamont and scary songs like "Gimme Shelter", "Midnight Rambler" and "Sister Morphine". The last one still makes me shiver when I hear the line "Why does the doctor have no face?"
A couple of albums on, they even had Michael Moorcock reading some of his stuff through a dalek voice-changer thing. Wonderful stuff, and despite being denigrated as a bunch of hippies by my mates, their stuff has worn a lot better than the likes of Yes or ELP.
Pink Floyd's "Saucerful of Secrets" has got lots of stuff about UFOs, such as the title track, "Let There Be More Light" and "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun", which is about a suicidal flying saucer pilot. I think the sad tale of Syd Barrett is pretty Fortean in itself too, and "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn" is pretty essential listening for anybody who wants to hear what he was capable of before the acid frazzled his brain. His first solo album, "The Madcap Laughs" makes for compulsive but harrowing listening; there's evidently something seriously wrong with him throughout, and it's almost as if he was making the record under duress.
Not exactly Fortean in content, but the sequence of albums the Rolling Stones made between 1968-71 have a sinister atmosphere to them. Everything about the Stones seemed to have a whiff of evil about it around this time; the studio mysteriously catching fire whilst recording "Sympathy For The Devil", Brian Jones' death, Altamont and scary songs like "Gimme Shelter", "Midnight Rambler" and "Sister Morphine". The last one still makes me shiver when I hear the line "Why does the doctor have no face?"
JamesWhitehead
Piffle Prospector
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Has nobody mentioned seventies Japanese Moog classic-pop
synthesist Isao Tomita?
His 1979 album The Bermuda Triangle - pinched mainly from
Prokofiev - was awash with Fortean themes: - Agharta, The
Earth as Hollow Vessel etc. etc.
It even contained a hidden coded message in TARBEL format!
The truth is all on the Web somewhere. And the album has been
in my slush-pile for two years, unheard. But I do know the cover-art was
nicely seventies kitsch!
synthesist Isao Tomita?
His 1979 album The Bermuda Triangle - pinched mainly from
Prokofiev - was awash with Fortean themes: - Agharta, The
Earth as Hollow Vessel etc. etc.
It even contained a hidden coded message in TARBEL format!
The truth is all on the Web somewhere. And the album has been
in my slush-pile for two years, unheard. But I do know the cover-art was
nicely seventies kitsch!
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Anonymous
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and little baby did I tell you... God is your father...
Damn! How could I have forgotten Nina Hagen?
Damn! How could I have forgotten Nina Hagen?
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wulfloki said:
Here's snopes page about "Gloomy Sunday". Might be of some interest....
http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/gloomy.htm
sureshot
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You Must Be Certain of the Devil...
Great page, thanks for the info. The gloomiest version of the song is probably the rendition performed by Diamanda Galas, whom I also forgot to name as a fortean musical inspiration.
Great page, thanks for the info. The gloomiest version of the song is probably the rendition performed by Diamanda Galas, whom I also forgot to name as a fortean musical inspiration.
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Fortean Songs
Well, all of them - but especially 'Escape From the Prison Planet' and 'Animal Farm.' Sadly, many of their links are broken.
Well, all of them - but especially 'Escape From the Prison Planet' and 'Animal Farm.' Sadly, many of their links are broken.
I can't believe anybody else in the US has heard of Virgin Prunes!
Humble Pie, of all people, had a b-side called "Big Black Dog." Yes, that was with Peter Frampton.
And let us not forget "Do what thou wilt; so will be the mote of the law" (or somesuch) written on the out-groove of Houses of the Holy.
I'm particularly fond of Syd Barrett and Robert Wyatt, who for a while was in The Soft Machine. It was this band, with Wyatt behind the kit, that "backed" Barrett on "The Madcap Laughs." Wyatt tells of every song being played differently, and when the band, for example would ask for the key, Syd would only laugh or say "yes."
Sea Song off of RWs heartbreaking 2d solo record "Rock Bottom" has these lyrics:
"You look different every time
You come from the foam-crested brine
It's your skin shining softly in the moonlight.
Partly fish, partly porpoise, partly baby sperm whale
Am I yours, are you mine to play with?
Joke in a park
When you're drunk, you're terrific
When you're drunk
I like you mostly late at night--you're quite all right
But I can't understand the different you
In the morning when it's time to play at being human for awhile..."
Fantastic.
Humble Pie, of all people, had a b-side called "Big Black Dog." Yes, that was with Peter Frampton.
And let us not forget "Do what thou wilt; so will be the mote of the law" (or somesuch) written on the out-groove of Houses of the Holy.
I'm particularly fond of Syd Barrett and Robert Wyatt, who for a while was in The Soft Machine. It was this band, with Wyatt behind the kit, that "backed" Barrett on "The Madcap Laughs." Wyatt tells of every song being played differently, and when the band, for example would ask for the key, Syd would only laugh or say "yes."
Sea Song off of RWs heartbreaking 2d solo record "Rock Bottom" has these lyrics:
"You look different every time
You come from the foam-crested brine
It's your skin shining softly in the moonlight.
Partly fish, partly porpoise, partly baby sperm whale
Am I yours, are you mine to play with?
Joke in a park
When you're drunk, you're terrific
When you're drunk
I like you mostly late at night--you're quite all right
But I can't understand the different you
In the morning when it's time to play at being human for awhile..."
Fantastic.
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Originally posted by JackSkellington
Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft by the Carpenters
that the one?
Music Nerd Mode On (Blip!)
The freakin Crapenters? :cross eye Calling Occupants was originally done by Klaatu, whom we can thank for other prog-rock brain throttling sound experiences like 'Anus of Uranus' and the determinedly nuts 'Sir Bodsworth Rugglesby III'.
Critics thought Klaatu were The (reformed) Beatles for a while.
As for Kate 'when's the lazy cow going to release a new album' Bush. Strange Magazine #13 featured an excellent little article about her music and Forteana, and to summarise:
'Experiment IV' is about sonic weapons, obviously. (Maybe Dr Wallauschek and his mates at Lofer? Or Zhirinovsky's Elipton thing.)
'Houdini' No prizes there, but the phrase 'Rosabelle, believe' is a distorted version of the message H said he would communicate to his wife from 'beyond the grave'.
'Cloudbusting' is about Reich.
'The Dreaming' is about nutball expressionist dancing with 1980s laser beams and sand and stuff like that. I think. It had Rolf Harris on it, and that's more than enough for me-e-e-eee-eee.
Music Nerd Mode Off.
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Do the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (The KLF, Disco 2000, etc.) count?
Not necessarily Fortean music (if you discount the pilfering of Robert Anton Wilson's books), but I do miss their escapades.
Getting (fake) threatening letters from the Illuminati, burning a million quid for a laugh, machines guns at The Brits.
Can't imagine today's boy blands doing stuff like that.
I miss 'em...
Not necessarily Fortean music (if you discount the pilfering of Robert Anton Wilson's books), but I do miss their escapades.
Getting (fake) threatening letters from the Illuminati, burning a million quid for a laugh, machines guns at The Brits.
Can't imagine today's boy blands doing stuff like that.
I miss 'em...
Spookdaddy
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There is a not dissimilar thread to this one here but then you probably already know that.
The only piece of music I can think of that actually contains what could be described as a fortean event is Eno and Byrne's Jezebel Spirit from the album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. This track is built around a recording of an exorcism performed, I think, in New York sometime in the 70's.
The only piece of music I can think of that actually contains what could be described as a fortean event is Eno and Byrne's Jezebel Spirit from the album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. This track is built around a recording of an exorcism performed, I think, in New York sometime in the 70's.