Entertainment For Lively Minds
Great lesser known songs by really famous artists
Posted by Sting Ono on 15 September 2009 - 3:24pm.
Unlike everyone else I can't stand Neil Young. The only song of his I love is "Little Wing" (from Hawks and Doves). None of my Neil Young worshiping friends seem to know it. Similar story with one of my fave Paul Simon songs, "Soft Parachutes". As a big Floyd fan I was glad to see David Gimour playing my fave Floyd track, "Wot's...Uh, The Deal" on a recent DVD, and "Fantastic Voyage" is the Bowie song I most often find myself singing. What lesser known tracks do you rave about, my dears?
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From those scousers...
Hey Bulldog. Stuck away with a bunch of rejects on a one sided soundtrack album, and even cut completely from some prints of that film, it's the one significant song of theirs that's relatively unknown.
That's the one
my favourite HJH track by some margin.
Also my current fave
Possibly dislodging another relatively little played Fabs track, And Your Bird Can Sing, from the top spot ('relatively' being a relative term). Others in a similar vein I am currently enjoying anew as I work my way through my Mono box (smug, moi?):
There's a place
It won't be long
All I've gotta do
You really got a hold on me
Not a Second Time
Money (that's what I want)
This boy
Any time at all
You can't do that
I'll be back
Every little thing
What you're doing
I'll follow the sun
Another girl
Wait
Fixing a Hole
Flying
Blue Jay Way
Baby you're a rich man
Martha my dear
Long Long Long
Good Night
It's all too much
Underrated Beatles tunes
I totally agree with "This Boy", I just don't get why people don't listen to this track! The harmonies are so beautiful, and it's just such a pretty little song, with some great vocal work from Lennon as well.
In addition, I'd like to put Harrison's "Old Brown Shoe" on the list. The production isn't the best, I admit, but I just really like the song. And I've heard the remasters have done wonders for it :-)
The clunking edit....
between uplifting middle 8 and verse kills it for me...
Not that rejected anymore...
Made it onto the Rock Band game. OK so there were 50 or so tracks, but considering the scale of their catalogue thats got to be some kind of redemption.
Long, Long, Long....
Originally tucked away at the bottom of side three of The White Album is my favourite HJH song, even though it goes largely unheralded. Harrison never wrote a better melody yet the overall vibe - eerily quiet for the most part, weird incidental noises left on at the end - is plain odd. It's the best example of that mix of the comforting & discomforting that typifies The Best Album Ever Made (IMHO). Brother Maconie picked it as his fave Beatles track in the Radio Times last week.
Can't argue with that.
Hey Bulldog a fave on my iPod.
And, speaking of the Floyd and Obscured by Clouds as stingono was, Free Four is a brilliant track. Nice lyric and two Gilmour (rather ace) solos. What's not to like?
I'm a big fan of...
the Obscured by Clouds album in general. Its the perfect blend of the sound Floyd had on Meddle and what was to come next with Dark Side of the Moon.
Yay
Love Free Four and Wot...Uh, The Deal. Two of my Floyd faves. The interesting thing about Free Four is that in a succinct pop nugget from 1972, it sums up neatly the themes of DSOTM & The Wall: The madness of the rock star life, the stress of life in general and reflecting it against the themes of war. It also introduces the Floyd concept of being "on the run" which pops up in those later albums as metaphors for modern day paranoia.
I call Free Four
a Trojan Horse song, you get all wrapped up in the catchy tune then you sing along and discover how depressing a song it actually is. Brilliant.
I call Free Four
a Trojan Horse song, you get all wrapped up in the catchy tune then you sing along and discover how depressing a song it actually is. Brilliant.
Iching pod reveals
The Who : Armenia City In The Sky.
Bob Dylan : Series Of Dreams.
Fairport Convention : The Lord Is In This Place, How Dreadful Is
This Place.
The Doors : Unhappy Girl.
Kate Bush : Jig Of Life.
The Kinks : Wicked Annabella.
Pink Floyd : Julia Dream.
The Rolling Stones : Citadel.
Van Morrison : Streets Of Arklow.
Citadel!
Absolutely brilliant - first heard it as a cover version on the B side of a Damned 7" single (obscure enough for ya?) and eventually (pre-internet) tracked down the original. Should be on 'Exile...' it's so ruff...
Child of the Moon
I think its the best track from the Stones' breif psych period.
I agree too that the Who have some really underrated songs, esepecially from the early 70's period like I Don't Even Know Myself, Naked Eye, Let's See Action, Put the Money Down, When I Was a Boy and Long Live Rock.
Child of the Moon
I think its the best track from the Stones' breif psych period.
I agree too that the Who have some really underrated songs, esepecially from the early 70's period like I Don't Even Know Myself, Naked Eye, Let's See Action, Put the Money Down, When I Was a Boy and Long Live Rock.
There's a great Doors track that's a few of their archival releases like the '97 boxed set and Live at the Aquarius Theatre they never put on any of their studio albums, I Will Never Be Untrue.
Stones/Who/Bob
Yep, I was going to say 'Child Of The Moon' and 'Citadel'.
It's a bit slight but I quite like 'I Am Waiting' from 'Aftermath', the Stones must have rated it themselves 'cos they played it on 'Ready, Steady, Go'.
Also, am the only person in the world who loves 'Dogs' by The Who?
And Dylan....
'I Don't Believe You' (Another Side)
Dogs
No you are among friends as regards Dogs. It's a big favourite in our household. That and Circles.
God I love those two songs......you are kindred spirits.
'Dogs' & 'Circles'.
That period for The Who was just class.
Dogs and Circles
and Can't Reach You from Sell Out. Gorgeous.
Winter
from Goats Head Soup. Gorgeous
Kate Bush
'All The Love'
Van Morrison 'Orangefield'
Dylan 'The Man In Me'
Babe Rainbow
Agree with you about Little Wing (although unlike you I love most of the rest of his output as well).
I would choose Crush Me or indeed almost anything else from the House of Love's Babe Rainbow album over anything from the Terry Bickers era.
Edit: Oops sorry, they don't quite qualify as a 'really famous artist' do they?
In that case, not necessarily a lesser-known track but a different version: Springsteen's acoustic, gospel-backed version of My City of Ruins from the Sept 11 memorial show outshines pretty much anything else he's done, in my opinion.
I Wish I Were Blind - Bruce Springsteen
And Kevin Montgomery does a good version too - great song.
Blimey
Is there really someone else out there who bought and still likes Babe Rainbow? Though me, I'd go for Loneliest Eyes, Feel or Yer Eyes.
House of Love
Actually I really liked that album. My fave tracks were: 32d Floor, Hedonist and In a Room, but there were a good few good uns on there.
Yes, me!
Would I like the album so much today if I heard it for the first time? Probably not. I suspect some of the production is probably a bit dated now and the music is an attempt to recapture former glories (which I hadn't even heard, this being my first HOL album). But I can't hear that. I just hear the music that captured me at the impressionable age of 16, and it still sounds great to these ears. But if you played any other music of a similar vintage to me now for the first time, it would sound so 1992.
Likewise, a song I nearly posted a bit further down under the Morrissey discussion: Yes I Am Blind, a b-side that later appeared on Bona Drag. To me it struck a chord because I was its perfect target audience - a lovelorn teenager who thought the world was unfair (sample lyric "Yes I am blind/No I can't see the good things/Just the bad things oh-oh-ohh").
I still love it today. But if I'd never heard it back then, and you played it to me now, I'd probably think it was Moz on autopilot with appalling 80's production.
I think "Songs you fell in love with when you were young but wouldn't fall in love with now" is worthy of a thread of its own, but I've never started a thread before and I'm a bit scared.
Don't be
in the words of ancient Greek philosopher Nike - Just do it
Broke My Neck (long version)
the finest thing Echo and the Bunnymen ever recorded (or ever will by recent output), b-side of A Promise 12"
Never Land (a fragment), last track on The Sisters Floodland at only 2:46 it was indeed a fragment. A fuller version clocking in at a second under 12 minutes appeared 19 years later on the remaster as Never Land (full length).
Un-bucking-felieveable...
...I was just about to log in and declare my love for "Broke My Neck", which is so gorgeous I can barely even think about it, only to find that someone got there first.
To that I would add "Time After Time / Red Rain / So. Central Rain", a live medley by R.E.M., originally the b-side of the "The Finest Worksong", which features Michael Stipe a capella accompanied by 3,000 stunned people waiting to breathe...
I was right with you until...
the "Shiney Happy People" hitmakers made an appearance, if ever there was a band that kept making the same album, it's them IMO
Awesome
track. (REM)
I have to agree
while doffing my cap to Brother Blast who some time ago pointed me in the direction of this great song. I say pointed, he actually burned it for me.
But Mac and the lads eventually got their royalty when I bought Heaven Up Here on CD.
'Up To Me' by Bob "Croak" Dylan...
is a wonderful song with my favourite lyrics by the hoary hoodie hitmaker.
A few choices
The Police - Masoka Tanga
Rush - Best I Can
Echo & The Bunnymen - Pictures On My Wall
Julian Cope - Soldier Blue
Blur - Strange News From Another Star
Teenage Fanclub - Winter
Genesis - Blood On The Rooftops
Depeche Mode - Waiting For The Night
Supergrass - Hollow Little Reign
'Strange News From Another Star'...
is possibly my favourite Blur tune. Great song.
Nice to see Rush get a shout... don't know that one. Does Neil do any drum rolls on it?
Bloody...
double posts.
Actually
it's the first Rush album on which Neil appears. It's one of their "old" songs in that it's less than 4 minutes and has nary a whiff of prog about it.
Speaking of Blur
... Graham Coxon's current album 'The Spinning Top' really ought to be better known.
yep
and 'You're So Great' from the same album
Masoko Tanga
Oh good so its not just me. Took 30 years but finally...
Radiohead - Bishop's Robes
Radiohead - Bishop's Robes
Superb song, great chorus, hidden on a B-side to "Street Spirit", along with "Talk Show Host" another amazing song.
Bloc Party - Zephyrus
Indie band creates 3 good albums, releases singles, none of which is this outstanding album track with harsh beats and a choir.
Morrissey - The Teachers Are Afraid Of The Pupils
12 minute orchestral rant about "to be finished would be a relief", surprisingly lacking from El Moz's Best-Of and Singles compilations.
Another lovely Morrissey song...
...called "Oh, Well I'll Never Learn" was hidden away on the CD single version of "Suedehead", and has never been seen again since.
Little Richard
No a-lop-bam-booming in sight -just one of the ten best soul records ever made.
Del Amitri
Sleep Instead of Teardrops that was a single B side and also appeared on the B-sides collection that accompanied their "best of" album
Agreed, agreed, agreed,
It's a beautiful song. The Del Amitri "B" sides album "Lousy With Love" is just full of songs other bands would kill for.
Finger in the frame
also wasted as a B side
Two by Joni Mitchell
Man From Mars - in the piano-accompanied version that sneaked onto the early copies of the "Grace of My Heart" soundtrack before it was replaced by the as-advertised version (pretty much the same backing track but with a Kristen Vigaard vocal).
Two Grey Rooms - on Night Ride Home (the only other piano-based song I can recall from her in the 80s and 90s).
And 'Don Juan's Reckless Daughter'...
from the commercial suicide note of the same name. An extraordinary song, ripe with mystery and allusion.
Fabulous song
Brings back memories of hearing it on Radio Luxembourg's album chart in the late 70s.
It charted?!
I thought it absolutely bombed!
Edit: Now I have checked my ancient copy of 'Guinness Hit Albums' I see it reached No.20.
Good call
'Dreamland' too is a great track with oblique references to Dylan's Rolling Thunder Tour ... but you knew that.
I'd also venture 'Goodbye Pork Pie Hat' from Mingus.
The Wolf That Lives in Lindsay
genuinely strange and unsettling
If Don Juan's reckless Daughter
was a commercial suicide note, then is Mingus the commercial Last Testament? Plenty good, but about as uncommercial as could be possible. No pun intended about Charles Mingus's demise.
I know it originally appeared on Miles of Aisles
but the version of Jericho on Don Juan is really a thing of beauty, largely because of Jaco Pastorius. In fact that whole album contains some of his very best work. I've long maintained that Don Juan is among Joni's best. Challenging yes, but that just shows how far ahead of everyone else she was.
Unfinished song
I love what there is of She's Your Lover Now on Dylan's Bootleg Series vol 1.
How about ...
Burning Ambition - Iron Maiden
Doctor Worm - They Might Be Giants
Blue Jeans & Moonbeams - Captain Beefheart
Richard Thompson - I feel So Good
I can probably only name you two Thompson songs...
...and I Feel So Good is one of them (Wall Of Death being the other). Says a lot about my ignorance of the subject.
May I recommend 'The End of the Rainbow'...
perfect with a glass of barley water on a summer's day.
Walk Away Renee (Version)
by Billy Bragg, guitar by Johnny Marr.
Originally a b-side to 'Levi Stubbs Tears' (if memory serves).
Available now on the 'Reaching to the Converted' compilation.
The original version by The Left Banke also deserves a mention
Beautiful song indeed. Great pick, Gramsci!
Long As I Can See The Light
by Creedence Clearwater Revival
See also
Walk On The Water and It´s Just A Thought.
Tangerine
is possibly my favourite Zep tune
Seconded
with a vengeance. A personal favourite since I first heard it.
The Pet Shop Boys
Have tonnes of song's that are absolutly awesome. But not that well known.
1) Too Many People
2) Violence (Hacienda Version)
3) After All
4) Casanova in Hell
5) Young offender
To name but five,it is quite frustrating when you see them live and hear West End Girls and Always on my mind for the 1000th time
and also
Shameless
Friendly Fire
and probably my favourite PSB song, Jealousy, which was a single but no one ever seems to remember it
The Theatre
In Denial
Paninaro
We could be here doing this for ages.
quite
I'm docking house points as you all seem to have forgotten Hey Headmaster (if we're allowed b-sides, and I think we are).
Also
I Get Excited
Your Funny Uncle
My October Symphony
To Speak Is A Sin
The Survivors
Luna Park
And...
You know where you went wrong
End of the world
A man could get arrested
And the swing version of Can you forgive her?
The Jam
Butterfly Collector. Simply a great tune
The Jam and B-Sides
It's always the b-sides for most of the Jam fans I know. My own particular favourites, which are actually up there on my all time favourites lists by anybody are Shopping (b-side of Beat Surrender) and The Great Depression (b-side of the import single Just Who Is The Five O'Clock Hero). Love em love em love em.
Just Who Is The 5 O'Clock Hero
has to be one of the best lyrics of any Weller song, could have bee written for me (sounds of violins)
Tales From The Riverbank
Tales From The Riverbank is another great Jam b-side.
I've seen
Weller play most of those live in recent years so he obviously likes to live beside the b-sides
the live version
of 'Away from The Numbers', from the Going Underground single pack
Blue Nile
This isn't as unknown as it once was (ie totally) and it's technically not a Blue Nile recording, but Midnight Without You by Chris Botti is the Nile performing a song of theirs with big fan Botti's trumpet worming in and out very nicely. Recommended wholeheartedly to the Massive, especially if you're missing that special lady (or chap).
Thanks
Thank you Graham I'd never heard of this - Just bought it and it's right up there with the best of the W.A.T.R. hit-makers output
Good, isn't it?
Scots miserablism at its best. Glad to be of use, Dick.
Blue Nile again
Julian Lennon's track, 'Other Side of Town' is a Buchanan collaboration that might have passed by unheard. Not sure about 'great', but worth a spotify
Yet more Blue Nile
'Regret'
more Paul Buchanan...
Paul Buchanan sings on title track of Michael Brook's 'Rockpapersciassors' album, and also an orchestral version of 'lets go out tonight' on Craig Armstrong's 'the space between us'. (the 9 minute isaac hayes version of this song is worth tracking down)
i'm off to download 'midnight without you'...
Supertramp
Child of Vision from Breakfast in America is the best thing they ever recorded. And they recorded many fine tunes.
100% in agreement Wheaty...
it is their masterpiece. No question. And like you say, they had lots of fine tunes...
Conversation Piece by Bowie
Bold as Love by Hendrix
Night Flight by Led Zeppelin
Poor Ditching Boy by RT
I'll Keep it with Mine - Fairport version, not Dylan
I love
the wistful gravitas Bowie puts into the re-recorded Conversation Piece.
Jumped
This version has jumped to one of my favourite Bowie tracks for quite a while now.
Two more good Zep ones
Wearing and Tearing
The Wanton Song
Is that similar
to The Ying Tong Song?
Now
that would be an interesting combination.
I still have a soft spot for Darlene
from the Coda album
Coda
much overlooked in the Led Zeppelin canon IMO, an album I bought expecting dregs, and got nothing but gems.
Even the drum solo!
The Beach Boys stomping It´s About Time.
Hidden on a great lost album called Sunflower from 1970. Come to think about it, most of that album fits the description.
Seconded
... and how about "This Whole World"?
Bold as love seconded
Rolling Stones - One hit to the body
Rolling Stones - I go Wild (The drums especially)
Poor ditching boy seconded
and I'll raise you the following:
Black Country Woman - Led Zeppelin
She shook me cold - Bowie
A place to survive - Van ber Graaf Generator
Fohat digs holes in space - Gong
Brilliant thread
Loved it. Agreed with most of it, will Spotify the rest. I Humbly submit 'The Man who wrote Danny Boy,' by Joe Jackson. It's on the quite gorgeous Night Music album.
There are several more Joe Jackson contenders
on other lesser-known albums. A selection, with apologies, as I know it's stretching the premise of the thread on maybe more than one count.
(i) If you can't stand his voice, with other vocalists
"Sentimental Thing" - Blaze of Glory (Drew Barfield/Operatic soprano)
"Love Got Lost" - Night and Day 2 (Marianne Faithfull)
(ii) If you can..
Moonlight* - "Mike's Murder" (the soundtrack that never was)
Shanghai Sky - Big World
If an instrumnental qualifies as a song, "Loisaida" - Body and Soul
* not on Spotify
Another Bowie
Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud
Not forgetting
Cygnet Committee
Steel Dan
My Rival
Steely Dan...
Glamour Profession.
Brooklyn
(Owes the Charmer Under Me)
Don't Take Me Alive
Neil Finn/Crowded House/Finn Brothers
Astro
Not The Girl You Think You Are
Walking on the Spot
Orange and Blue
Suffer Never
Lost Island
She Goes On
oh and what about
Nails in my Feet
Catherine Wheels
From Together Alone - Now that is his masterpiece.
Ryan Adams
Magnolia Mountain
The End
Down in the Hole (cover)
Magnolia Mountain
is wonderful.
Steely Dan
Sign in Stranger
Jack of Speed
Don't Take Me Alive
Eels
'Flower'
One last one...
I don't really like U2 at all
But The Ground beneath her feet is great.
Blondie
One Way Or Another
A lesser known Bowie song,
'Letter To Hermione' (seems to be gaining popularity recently)
Who knew
Bowie went to Hogwarts? :-)
Elbow
'Switching Off'
A selection that possibly shows my age
New Order - All the Way
Depeche Mode - Sea of Sin, Lie to Me, Dressed in Black, Ice Machine
China Crisis - Some People I Know to Lead Fantastic Lives
The Smiths - Sweet & Tender Hooligan, What She Said, Rubber Ring
Pet Shop Boys - Two Divided By Zero, One More Chance, We all look better in the dark
Human League - Hard Times
Soft Cell - Martin, Born to Lose
OMD - The romance of the telescope, Julia's Song
REM - New Test Leper
And also...
Fretless
Somehow left off Out Of Time
The whole of Up, really
Dylan fans may scoff at the
Dylan fans may scoff at the idea of this being a lesser known song, but I've always loved Boots of Spanish Leather from The Times They Are A Changin. I suppose millions of people own that record but I'd say its lesser known because I don't recall hearing it played on the radio, ever!
One Line by PJ Harvey from Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea (in fact the whole album is bloody marvellous).
Komakino by Joy Division - originally a limited edition flexidisc that was just given away in record shops (not attached to a magazine) but now featured on at least one best of album so its not that obscure. It bridges the gap style-wise between Unknown Pleasures and Closer. Monumental tom-tom riffs and throbbing bass ahoy.
Genesis
"You Might Recall", a lovely jangly thing that was on the 3x3 EP back in 1982, the one where "Paperlate" was the hit. It was on the compilation of B sides in the recent remaster box sets.
I did recall but also
feel it's worth throwing "Inside and Out" from the Spot the Pigeon EP into the mix. Should have made it on to Wind & Wuthering.
After the fall
The Elvis Costello song from Mighty like a Rose. I dont know anyone else who would list that in their favourite EC songs, have never heard him play it live yet it is haunting and the lyrics are beguiling. Sometimes I think I know what it is about and other times I havent a clue.
Agreed
Great choice. Fun to play too.
Nirvana
'Lounge Act'
Best track on 'Nevermind'.
Costello
St Stephen's Day Murders
My Mood Swings
My Dark Life
Basement Kiss
Having It All
Suffering Face
Just A Memory
Dr Luther's Assistant
That Day Is Done (with Fairfield Four)
Alibi Factory
My Blue Window
I Throw My Toys Around (with No Doubt)
and his covers of
Withered And Died \ End Of the Rainbow
The Ugly Things
What Do I Do Now?
Baby It's You (w\ Nick Lowe)
You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
Full Force Gale
God Onlky Knows (w\ Brodskys)
Psycho
I wouldn't agree with all of
I wouldn't agree with all of these, but in my mind, Basement Kiss should have been a hit for someone. I do love My Mood Swings and his take on The Ugly Things.
Can I add to the Costello list: You Tripped at Every Step, I Hope You're Happy Now, New Lace Sleeves and another "shouldn't someone make this a hit" song, Still.
Elo Love Changes All
I do think that's wonderful
but think that Julie Don't Live here anymore, which only really surfaced as a bonus track on the Time reissue is just sublime. Amazing to think it was just a B-side really. Just a little doo-wop, a little bit Spector and a hint of Wizzard too. Lovely!
Is it me...
...or does that still image above look rather pornographic?
My thoughts exactly.
Can't quite put my finger on why. It just looks like it could be rude.
Some swift suggestions here...
Happy Man - Chic
He Thought Of Cars / Get Out Of Cities - Blur
Not Now John - Pink Floyd
I Want You (She's So Heavy) - The HJH's
Torn and Frayed - Stones
Just remembered!
Gods Children and Mr Pleasant by The Kinks
Love those tunes...
Lone Justice
Wheels from their second album. Maria McKee at her best.
I've recommended this
on another thread today, but if you dont have it, get the Live Acoustic Tour album she did 3 or 4 years back. "In The Long Run" on there is terrific, and not on any of her other records. A cover from "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls"...
Don't Toss Us Away
off the first Lone Justice album, stone cold classic
Ar.
Cock-on. Just a Telecaster and Maria, slowly building. Lovely.
I've just had a sudden flash of memory.. I feel a new thread coming on..
Or You Are The Light
(In My Dark World)
Or
Panic Beach from her eponymous solo debut.
Or
Panic Beach from her eponymous solo debut.
So good
I appear to have named it twice...
Yes indeed
Wheels is wonderful. I think Maria knows it too, as when I've seen her live (3 or 4 times over a long period of time) she's always played it, and she doesn't play a lot of Lone Justice songs.
While we're on Maria McKee, I may as well throw in my usual plea for you all to seek out Season Of The Fair, the opening song from Peddlin' Dreams - it's her greatest song, and a great song by any standards.
'Things we said today' by
'Things we said today' by you know who. Just a great song, both lyrically and melodically.
I'm late to this party, but what the hell
Rolling Stones - Mother's Little Helper
David Bowie - Subterraneans
The Smiths - My Love Life
Joni Mitchell - The Silky Veils Of Ardour (last song from the previously mentioned Don Juan's Reckless Daughter)
Richard Thompson - Galway To Graceland (only available on a 3CD compilation, Watching The Dark, as far as I know)
Blondie - The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game (last song on their last album; a Smokey Robinson song I've never heard other than this version)
Laura Nyro - To A Child
The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game
is a great song. I first heard it in a great version by Grace Jones.
The hit version by Marvelletes is wonderful too. As is a nice version by Ella. All on Spotify.
On the subject of Smokey Robinson - my favourite is the sublime
The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage
http://open.spotify.com/track/6nrbjY07gRob4T89kfFPmu
How could I forget Kate?
A few Kate Bush gems have been mentioned already; I'd add You're The One, the last song from The Red Shoes, probably her least acclaimed album. It's much more visceral than just about anything she's done, and very affecting because of it.
Deeper Understanding is wonderful too - a song which predicts a number of IT developments.
Oh yes
You're The One is heartbreaking; she means it, maaaaan.
David Byrne/Talking Heads
"What a Day That Was" and "Big Blue Plymouth"
from Byrne's "The Catherine Wheel" score. Both are pretty much uptempo/funky Talking Heads in style, and got performed live by the band later. A considerably funkier "What a Day That Was" appears on the expanded "Stop Making Sense" soundtrack.
MrRadio, sir, I totally
MrRadio, sir, I totally agree with Fretless. My fave REM track. I have it on the rather excellent Until The End Of The World film soundtrack.
Floyd's Free Four is another good choice.
Floyd are a bit of an oddity in as much as whenever I read about them, or watch documentaries, some of their best songs (If, A Pillow Of Winds, Wot's... Uh, The Deal etc) often go completely unmentioned in favour of the more 'epic' ones (Atom Heart Mother, Echoes, One Of These Days etc).
Mr (or MS?) ChaosandMorphine, interestingly enough in a recent poll of celebs fave Bowie songs Ricky Gervais laid claim to 'Letter To Hermione' as his choice.
The Dame's
'Gospel According To Tony Day' is a recent fave and surely must have been an influence on Blur as it could easily have come from 'Modern Life Is Rubbish'
London Boys
from the Decca era is also great.
Wot, no (proper) Genesis?
Visions of Angels
Absent Friends
Happy the Man
More fantastic Kate Bush
Sexual Healing complete with uilleann pipes.
Under the Ivy
The Man I Love with Larry Adler
And the beautiful Mná na hÉireann
Just listen - it's sublime..
It's a track on an excellent Donal Lunny modern Irish music compilation Common Ground.
My favourite REM song
Is Find The River. It's not exactly a hidden gem, as it appears on the multi selling Automatic For The People. But it's relatively unknown, and very lovely indeed. The little melodica riff is touched with genius.
Spot-on, Azeem. Spot-on.
Finest song on the album by a country one and tucked away at the end to show people what they can do and emphasize that they were taking the mick with lumpen play-by-numbers guff like Everybody Hurts. Which is not an REM song. You can understand what Stipey's singing about, for a start.
"I have got to find the river/bergamot and vetiver/run through my head and fall away"
I rest my case..
George Harrison - 'Don't Let Me Wait Too Long'
John Lennon - 'Out The Blue'
I really like Aisumasen
I really like Aisumasen (I'm Sorry)
I think it sounds like John Lennon fronting Pink Floyd
Hawkwind
take yer pick, as far as radio is concerned they only ever released one song
What, that one about the sausage machine?
More (comparatively) overlooked gems:-
The Beatles - 'It's All Too Much'
Morrissey - 'Girl Least Likely To'
David Bowie - 'When I Live My Dream'
XTC Desert Island
Squeeze - King George Street
A Squeeze kitchen-sink-drama single, which disappeared down the plughole in the 80s. It's not quite an 80s kitchen-sink production, but the production is very much "of its time". The song is strong and complex enough not to be overwhelmed by that.
http://open.spotify.com/track/2K6w8f5cnYMZZU86Y6EuQe
Also "The Apple Tree" - to cheat a little. It's from the Difford-Tilbrook album, but appears in a radio session version here
http://open.spotify.com/track/7GZPsBecaLfKwq0ixaRO3o
On the same radio sessions album is a version of "Cold Shoulder" - more kitchen door than kitchen sink, and surely one of very few songs to mention a cat-flap in the first line.
http://open.spotify.com/track/0FzTCk4hgRyz8qCTYgQPnz
Apologies to those without access to spotify.
Introvert
is much favourite !rare" Squeeze song.
My choices...
Paul McCartney - Tomorrow
Eels - Dirty Girl
The Kinks - This Time Tomorrow, Strangers
Morrissey - Never Played Symphonies
They Might Be Giants - The End of the Tour (or anything off John Henry)
More will come to mind... can we set up a Spotify playlist for all the songs mentioned in this thread?
Speaking of Neil Young
Pardon My Heart from Zuma is very lovely.
The Who again
Pure and Easy which appears on Odds 'n Sods and the enhanched Who's Next is one of Townshend's finest songs. Quasi mystical tosh, but somehow rather marvellous.
'So In Love' Curtis Mayfield
from 'There's no place like America today' 1975 - wonder what Curtis would have made of Barack Obama - RIP lovely man
Here's My Ten Tracks Worth
Be Bop Deluxe - 15th of July (Invisibles) from Tramcar To Tomorrow
Roxy Music - Always Unknowing (B-Side of Avalon)
The Blue Nile - Easter Parade (Duet with Rickie Lee Jones)
Paul Simon - Jonah (One Trick Pony)
Kate Bush - Warm and Soothing (B-Side of December Will Be Magic)
Donald Fagen - Century's End (Steely Dan Gold Compilation)
The Beatles - Things We Said Today
Scott Walker - Two Ragged Soldiers
Jimi Hendrix - Castles Made of Sand
David Bowie - Lady Grinning Soul
Yes, yes, yes!
Thrice yes, Mr ThreadNeedle, sir! I love anyone who loves One Trick Pony (his best) and especially its best track (Jonah). Have you heard Soft Parachutes (used in the bit-rubbish-really film and available as a bonus track on the cd reissue)? It's great.
I'll have to check out the b-side of Avalon as I love that period Roxy.
A couple of random oddities
Paul McCartney "Rainclouds" (b side 'Ebony and Ivory!)
Bowie - "Right"
Joy Division "These Days"
Oasis - "Columbia"
Pink Floyd - "Remember A Day"
Joni Mitchell - "Amelia"
Neil Young - "The Losing End"
Stones - "Under Assistant West Coast Promo Man"
Marvin Gaye - Symphony
http://open.spotify.com/track/474JHeWzUtYTWegC4dFAG0
Dylan - 10 little known gems
As I Went Out One MOrning - JOHN WESLEY HARDING
Time Passes Slowly - NEW MORNING
Never Say Goodbye - PLANET WAVES
Buckets of Rain - BLOOD ON THE TRACKS
Mozambique - DESIRE
I Threw It All Away HARD RAIN
We Better Talk This Over STREET LEGAL
Groom Still Waiting at the Altar - SHOT OF LOVE
Trust Yourself EMPIRE BURLESQUE
Handy Dandy UNDER THE RED SKY
Excellent
I have more Dylan albums in my collection than any other artist but you have highlighted songs from 4 albums I don't even own! A true fan indeed.
Bowie
"Move On" LODGER
In fact, the whole of "Lodger" is great and underrated, somewhat overshadowed by the first two parts of the "Berlin trilogy".
The music on this
is All The Young Dudes played backwards, fact fans.
Lodger
is my second favourite Bowie album, behind the also (partially) overlooked "Station To Station" (i.e. critics rave about Low, Heroes, Ziggy, Aladdin Sane and Hunky Dory).
I am a big fan of "Look Back In Anger". A superb single off the "Lodger" album. I even like "Yassassin", which normally gets a bad press. And "Red Sails". And "Repetition". Well, it's all good isn't it?
Lodger
Can't get along with "DJ' for some reason, rest of it totally splendid
Slotbadger?
We should form a Word Wildlife Federation... call it WWF or something, yeah?
Some kind of support group
Badgers For Bowie?
Something by the Papa Don't Preach Hitmaker
I nominate Til Death Us Do Part from Like A Prayer. Just a great song.
A couple of great non-singles from Erotica: Did You Do It? (which suggests that she may indeed have a sense of humor) and In This Life, which suggests that she may indeed have a heart.
Also at the less "fashionable" end of the music spectrum, I've reacquainted myself, through the good offices of Spotify, with some half-remembered gems from Duran Duran: The Chauffeur; Violence Of Summer; Do You Believe In Shame; and Ordinary World, which is superb, though probably too recent and well known to "qualify" for this thread.
Todays answer has to be Ian Dury
from "Mr Love Pants"
Useless Begging
from 'Todd'
on which our hero displays his Brian Wilson influences to magnificent effect