It’s refreshing to see that bands that will go outside of what is considered normal or acceptable in the music industry. While a fair amount of these types of tracks tank horribly. There are a few select ones that strike gold. I feel the three songs posted below are examples of those.
William Shatner/Pulp-Common People
The lyrics to the original version of this song are intriguing. But I never really enjoyed listening to this song. Awkward beat and sub-par vocals. But it’s always noteworthy when a traditionally non-musician celebrity decides to cover a song. And when it’s Billy Shatner, it makes it even more awesom-er. He sing-talks his way through the beginning, plenty of emotion but it’s more like a narration than a vocal performance. It changes after the first chorus, though. His vocals start to intertwine with the lead singer’s and it makes for an epic Shatneresque performance See for yourself.
Electric Six-Gay Bar
This song is a riot, simply put. It’s from a band I’ve surely never heard of. They’re from the UK and they’ve produced NINE albums. All of which have gone completely unnoticed by the lot of us. I could not help but be drawn in when I first heard this song. It’s fast paced, upbeat, and has some interesting lyrics to say the least. My favorite of them being (mainly because of the vocal delivery of them @0:25) “Let’s start a war, start a nuclear war, Let’s start a war, at the gay bar, gay bar, gay bar!!! It’s a well-put together song; the vocals, instrumentals, and the bold approach to sing on a subject matter where very few other bands would make this a good overall effort.
HQ Link (just select the “play” option)
King Missile-Detachable PenisThis is a classic from the 90’s. Like the previous group, can’t say I’ve heard of anything else this group has done. But the lyrics and the vocalist’s apathetic delivery make this memorable. Beavis and Butthead even did a spoof on it so you know it’s at least worth a listen. The song describes a scenario that is so unorthodox and weird that it’s unclear to me how it was even conceived in the first place. It’s funny nonetheless and my favorite part of the song is the sequence where the singer is forced barter for the subject of this song. It goes something like…”
as I walked down Second Avenue
Towards St. Mark’s place
Where all those people sell used books
And other junk on the street
I saw it lying on a blanket
Next to a broken toaster oven
Some guy was selling it
I had to buy it off him
He wanted 22 bucks
But I talked him down to 17
against the grain 