Title of the Song

[vovat]

As I indicated in my last post, I'm going to make this one about song titles I like. I recently mentioned that I quite like Camper Van Beethoven's titles. Some of their best-titled songs are instrumentals, including "(We Workers Do Not Understand) Modern Art," "We Eat Your Children," and "Mao Reminisces About His Days In Southern China." I guess instrumentals often make for a good opportunity to come up with weird titles, since there's no requirement to write related lyrics. (I think I read somewhere that "Modern Art" was originally going to have lyrics, but they couldn't come up with any.) This is sometimes thought-provoking, as it makes you think about why they chose those titles. It's also possible to have a title that doesn't appear in a song. bethje tells me that Mike Nesmith did this often, and I must say that I think "Tapioca Tundra" is a great title. But getting back to CVB, they also came up with some interesting titles that DID have related lyrics, like "The Humid Press Of Days" and "The Light From A Cake."

When I think about some of my favorite song titles, it often seems like a common theme is that they incorporate a kind of nonsense. You can see that with some of those CVB titles. Another title I like a lot is "A Self Called Nowhere," which, for those of you who might not know, is a They Might Be Giants song. I remember noticing this title when first looking at John Henry, and thinking it sounded cool. It turned out that it was, but even if it hadn't been, that would still be a good title. It doesn't really make that much sense at first glance, but if you think about it, it kind of does. I think the name of my favorite Fastbacks song, "Old Address Of The Unknown" has a lot in common with it. The Fastbacks also did "Back To Nowhere" and "The Day That Didn't Exist," so I guess incorporating non-existence into their titles was something they did often. "Letter From An Occupant," by the New Pornographers, is also a kind of similar title, although that one isn't really all THAT nonsensical, just a little backwards.

Here are some other favorite titles from some of my favorite bands:

Belle and Sebastian: They have a lot of good long titles, including "Put The Book Back On The Shelf" and "The Loneliness Of A Middle Distance Runner." I think my overall favorite is "Take Your Carriage Clock And Shove It," though.
Frank Black: Places Named After Numbers, (I Want To Live On An) Abstract Plain
Cracker: Bicycle Spaniard
The Decemberists: My Mother Was A Chinese Trapeze Artist
Fastbacks: Don't Eat That It's Poison
Ben Folds Five: One Angry Dwarf And 200 Solemn Faces (I was intrigued by this title years before I actually heard the song.)
The Magnetic Fields: I think my favorite is "The Flowers She Sent And The Flowers She Said She Sent," closely followed by the similar "The Things We Did And Didn't Do."
The Minus 5: The Girl I Never Met (another title that plays with negatives)
The New Pornographers: The New Face Of Zero And One
Rasputina: Gingerbread Coffin (my love for food-related titles and whatnot might make a good subject for another post), Thimble Island
TMBG: Aside from the title I've already mentioned, I feel like I should mention "Youth Culture Killed My Dog." "Bastard Wants To Hit Me" and "Prevenge" are also really good titles. (In fact, "Prevenge" doesn't have that much going for it other than the title.) I think The Spine might actually have some of the best titles since the pink album. TMBG has a lot of cool titles, but I have to give them a slight demerit for the Venue Songs, since those don't even HAVE proper titles.
XTC: "Senses Working Overtime," in addition to being one of the band's best songs, has the advantage of a great title. I also feel I should mention the puntastic "Knights In Shining Karma," even though I know blatant puns like that aren't everyone's cup of tea.
The Young Fresh Fellows: Middle Man Of Time, Trek To Stupidity

If anyone else has any titles they particularly like, I'd like to know about them. I think I might make music-related posts like this a regular feature on here, if my readers don't mind. Actually, this entry also gave me ideas for two other things I could write about, but I'll probably wait a little while before writing them.

Comments

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Well, that was easy-- it was right under my desk. Here are a select number of interesting titles I found in my dad's 45 collection:
"It's a Monday Kind of Tuesday" by The Hello People
"Nothing Succeeds Like Success" by Bill Deal
"Mother Popcorn" by James Brown
"Plastic Fantastic Lover," Jefferson Airplane (this I can vouch is a cool song, at least)
"Evol-- not Love," the 5 Americans
"Everybody's On Strike," by Vic Venus
"King Midas in Reverse," the Hollies
"Libra" by Sagittarius -- that one is less the title itself as much as it's pairing with the artist
"Take Care of Your Homework," by Johnnie Taylor
"Pressed Rat and Warthog," by Cream (I do not know this song, but it's Cream, so it probably rocks)
"Epistle to Dippy," by Donovan (I do not know this song either, but it's Donovan, so it's probably, well, unique)
"Every Christian Lion-hearted Man Will Show You," by the Bee Gees
"What's Happening?!?!" (with that punctuation), the Byrds
"Llama Serenade," by Martin Denny
"It's Fun to Be Clean," by the Human Beinz
"How Come Every Time I Itch, I Wind Up Scratchin' You," I can't read the artist on this one
"Groovy grubworm," I can't read this artist either

Anyway.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I understand that Frank Black covered "Mother Popcorn," but I don't think I've ever heard either teh cover or the original.

I AM familiar with "King Midas In Reverse," which I haven't heard in a while, but I remember as being pretty cool. My favorite Hollies song is still "On A Carousel," though.

"Pressed Rat and Warthog" sounds like something you could buy in Ankh-Morpork. {g}

That "Every Time I Itch" title reminds me of some of those crazy country music titles you come across from time to time, like "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy," or something about "lying on my side crying over you" that I can't quite remember.

I stuck to songs by bands I know pretty well when doing this, but I'm sure there are a lot of great titles out there from other bands as well.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Ooo, I like "On a Carousel," too! But "Bus Stop" is probably my favorite Hollies song, there's something so perfectly romantic about it.

I looked down my playlist in Media Player, but I don't seem to have very many cool titles. There's "Swlabr" by Cream, which doesn't seem to have any meaning whatsoever. I don't know if that makes it cool. And there's Syd Barrett, who has songs entitled "Baby Lemonade," "Gigolo Aunt," "Effervescing Elephant," and "Waving My Arms in the Air," but Syd Barrett is certifyibly insane, anyway. Oh wait, here's a cool one, but it's another obscure one: "Father's Name Was Dad," by a group called Fire. Also "How Does it Feel to Feel?" by the Creation. I love 60s psychedelia.