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Fortean-Themed Albums, Songs & Music

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":D
 
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!!!
 
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"
 
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.
 
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?":eek:
 
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! :D
 
and little baby did I tell you... God is your father...

Damn! How could I have forgotten Nina Hagen?
 
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.
 
Fortean Songs

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.
 
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. :p

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.
 
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... :(
 
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.
 
"Space is the Place"

Has anyone mentioned Sun-Ra yet? He and his "Arkestra" blew my mind when I was a little kid.
 
PoRNo FoR PYRo'S

PeTS

'will there be another race to
come along and take over for us?
maybe martians could do
better than we've done
we'll make great pets!'

:spinning

BaBYLoN Zoo

SPaCeMaN

'Spaceman
I always wanted you to go
Into space man

It's time to terminate the great wide world
Mordid fascinations television takes control
Decimation diffrent races fall
Electronic information tampers with your soul

There's a fire between us
So where is your God
There's a fire between us
I can't get off the caruosel
I can't fall off this world.'

:spinning
 
Re: "Space is the Place"

wulfloki said:
Has anyone mentioned Sun-Ra yet? He and his "Arkestra" blew my mind when I was a little kid.

Sun Ra (Sonny Blount) from Birmingham, Alabama........saw Sun Ra and his Arkestra a few years before his death in a small club........amazing stuff!

sureshot
 
I know that it is not really a fortean song but star trekking by the firm was a good song because like laxative it used to irritated the sh*# out of every body.
 
"Sasquatch" by Tenacious D

There were some scientists.
Trying to figure out the Sasquatch riddle,
Then they figured out it was a missing link.

In search of Sasquatch,
that was a kick-ass In Search Of
with Leonard Nimoy
kickin' out the jams...ha!

He captured imagination,
Of people all around the globe.

His name was Sasquatch, so I'm told.

His legend's ancient
in the ancient scribe of the indian tribe.
Apache tribe.

Scientists have proven that the Sasquatch, he is real.
Take a look at the plaster cast of his foot, now you know he's real.
Listen real close to the audio tape, not human no you know he's real.
Couldn't be a man in gorilla suit, no fuckin' way.
No, you know he's real.
Real, real, real real, real, real, really real, real.

--Interrupted by J.B. & K.G. talking to Sasquatch--

Sasquatch,
We know your legend's real.
Sasquatch,
We know your love is real.
Sasquatch,
You and Tenacious D, are...real.


sureshot
Obey The D!
 
No-ones mentioned the Fall , especially their earlier records like

Dragnet which has a couple on there.



Any thing by Dead Can Dance can put one into a Fortean frame of mind

Early Cocteau Twins and His Name is Alive too
 
Sun Ra (Sonny Blount) from Birmingham, Alabama........saw Sun Ra and his Arkestra a few years before his death in a small club........amazing stuff!
Damn! I thought he came from Saturn.

Fortean Songs?

Dr John, especially, his `Night Tripper' album:

They call me Dr John,
Known as the Night Tripper,
Got my satchel of gris gris in my hand.
Daily trippin' up back down the bayou.
I'm the last of the best,
They call me the gris gris man.

I heard Johnny Cash on the radio today. Original Man in Black. He was singing, `Ghost Riders in the Sky.' Western version of the Wild Hunt. Great stuff.
 
With song titles such as "If You Have Ghosts", "Night of the Vampire", "Bermuda", and "I Walked With a Zombie", I think Roky Ericson would fit nicely in this catagory. I also heard that during an interview, he told the interviewer that he had a demon named Bob Dylan living in his backyard.
 
Roky Ericsson, the Thirteenth Floor Elevators? Even the name of the band. Yes, I remember, I think!

Funny tongue, warbling, sound going through the tracks. Great Kinks covers.
 
Pixies

I think that black frank allegedly saw UFOs all the time when he was little, and the B-side manta ray is about this curious thing.
 
"What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" was about CBS anchor Dan Rather. Oddly enough, Rather discussed the event during a broadcast, making virtually everyone in America think he was insane.

Hm...songs? "Sensory Deprivation" on Sloan's album Between the Bridges is about the film Altered States. Also, the song "Losing California" (from the same album) is about the West Coast falling into the Pacific Ocean.

Cindy Lee Berryhill (to whom I have actually proposed :eek!!!!: ) has quite a catalog of Fortean-themed songs, with subjects ranging from "Radio Astronomy" to falling in love with characters in one's dreams. Fun music.

I suppose virtually everything produced by Windham Hill is somewhat Fortean, being a New Age label.

Lastly, the all-time heavyweight Fortean recording artist is former Zappa guitarist Steve Vai. In fact, his personal label is called Akashic Records, so that should tell you something. God, aliens, and the Illuminati are all represented in his sonic tapestries, and the pattern woven is not what you'd expect at all. Fantastic artist.
 
Originally posted by Norma
HOW ABOUT THIS FOR A FORTEAN SONG


TORGOS IS A FUCKING PRICK
LALALA LA LA
TORGOS IS A FUCKING PRICK
LALALA LA LA
TORGOS IS A FUCKING PRICK
LALALA LA LA
TORGOS IS A FUCKING PRICK
LALALA LA LA
TORGOS IS A FUCKING PRICK
AND HE IS A FAGGOT.

I like it. It's got a good beat and you can dance to it. I'd give it a solid 9.
 
I think it does, but I couldn't say from personal experience torgos.
 
lopaka said:
On one of their last albums Talking Heads had a great song about a woman levitating...And She Was, I think it was called.

Umm...sorta. It was if I recall the sleeve notes correctly, about a friend of theirs who used to go out into the garden to have acid trips and the song is about her hallucinating the flying experience rather than actually levitating.

I am prepared to be corrected though.
 
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