I need a weird song I can take literally

[dragonlordofpoondari]

"Cold Blows the Wind" by Ween

Ah. I'm so glad someone mentioned Ween, and not just because they happen to be one of my favorite bands. This song Aeolius mentions would be an excellent choice, especially for its possibly medieval content and dirge-like feel. It's lyrics are also incredibly eerie and haunting.

Much of their music has a surreal, dreamlike, psychedelic quality though. Several of their songs feature vague and bizarre lyrics that could be twisted to your own purposes. Any of the following would be great choices for a dream (I've starred ones that would be especially worth checking) ...

Baby Bitch
What Deaner Was Talkin' About
both from Chocolate and Cheese

The Mollusk
Polka Dot Tail
Mutilated Lips
The Blarney Stone
It's Gonna Be Alright
*The Golden Eel
*Cold Blows the Wind
*Buckingham Green
Ocean Man
all from The Mollusk

*Exactly Where I'm At
*Flutes of the Chi
Back to Basom
*The Grobe
Stay Forever
all from White Pepper

*Transdermal Celebration
*Among His Tribe
*Tried and True
Captain
Alcan Road
*The Argus
all from Quebec

The Rift
from Shinola

Blue Balloon
from La Cucaracha

Demon Sweat
from The Pod

 

[hong]

Fernando

 

[Fobok]

I think I Am/Shades of Life by Billy Gilman could be something you could use.

I am black, I am white
I am all skins in between
I am young, I am old
I am each age that has been
I am scrawny, I am well fed
I am starving for attention
I am famous, I am cryptic
I am hardly worth the mention
I am short, I am height
I am any frame or stature
I am smart, I am challenged
I am striving for a future

(Chorus
The color of sky
Is blues and grays
The color of earth
Is greens and browns
The color of hope
Is rainbows and purple
And the color of peace
Is people together
Shades of life
I am

I am able, I am weak
I am some strength, I am none
I am being, I am thought
I am all things, said and done
I am born, I am died
I am dust of humble roots
I am grace, I am pain
I am labor of the fruits
I am slave, I am free
I am bonded to my life
I am rich, I am poor
I am wealth amid strife

(Repeat Chorus)

I am shadow, I am glory
I am hiding from my shame
I am hero, I am loser
I am yearning for a name
I am empty, I am proud
I am seaking my tomorrow
I am growing, I am fading
I am hope amid the sorrow
I am certain, I am doubtful
I am desperate for solutions
I am leader, I am student
I am fate and evolutions

I am spirit, I am voice
I am memory, not recalled
I am chance, I am cause
I am effort blocked and walled
I am many, I am no one
I am seasoned by each being
I am me, I am you
I am all-souls now decreeing

(Repeat Chorus)


Lots of images in that one, and a unifying theme. Lots of ways to use it too, if you reveal bits of the song ahead of time.

You can hear the song here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRt7YUbheBA

 

[Wild Gazebo]

I had a whole campaign revolve around Stairway to Heaven once. In fact, the last section of the song was used as a map to the last lair of the adventure...that they found in single lines and had to arange in proper order. I was a bit surprised by the lenth of time it took them to realize that it was all based on Stairway. <shrug>

 

[Merkuri]

I don't know if it's exactly what you were looking for, but I always wanted to base a campaign (or at least an adventure) around a song by Toad the Wet Sprocket. I think it's called "Pray your Gods":

I will give the secrets you request
But you will be the one to sacrifice
So lay your olive arms upon my breast
And sing the poems, free the butterflies

Pray your gods to ask you for your blood
For they are strong and angry jealous ones
Or lay upon my altar now your love

I feel my time is short
There are armies moving closer
Be quick my love

I feel my body weaken by the years
As people turn to gods of cruel design
Is it that they fear the pain of death
Or could it be they fear the joys of life

Pray your gods to hold you by your fear
For they are quick and ruthless punishers
Or lay upon my altar now your love

I feel my day is done
There are armies moving on
Be quick my love

(Written by memory... apologies if I got any of it wrong.)

 

[Greg K]

How about Hotel California?

 

[demiurge1138]

My roommate has discussed basing characters off of the Beatles' "Come Together":

Here come old flattop he come grooving up slowly
He got joo-joo eyeball he one holy roller
He got hair down to his knee
Got to be a joker he just do what he please

He wear no shoeshine he got toe-jam football
He got monkey finger he shoot coca-cola
He say "I know you, you know me"
One thing I can tell you is you got to be free
Come together right now over me

He bag production he got walrus gumboot
He got Ono sideboard he one spinal cracker
He got feet down below his knee
Hold you in his armchair you can feel his disease
Come together right now over me

He roller-coaster he got early warning
He got muddy water he one mojo filter
He say "One and one and one is three"
Got to be good-looking 'cause he's so hard to see
Come together right now over me

 

[Aeolius]

Ah. I'm so glad someone mentioned Ween...

I found Ween's album "The Mollusk" on iTunes, while looking for "Ocean Man" to play for my kids (as it is in the Spongebob Movie). The samples of each song intrigued me, so I purchased the album. Little did I know that I would stumble across the best drinking song ever!! ("The Blarney Stone"... definitely NSFW)

 

[Trouvere]

Edgar Varèse

II. La Croix du Sud (The Southern Cross)
Juan Tablada (1871–1945)

Les femmes au geste de madrepore
ont des poiles et des lèvres rouges d’orchidée.
Les singes du Pôle sont albinos ambre et neige
et sautent vêtus d’aurore boréale.
Dans Le Ciel il y a une affiche d’Oléomargarine
Voici l’arbre de la quinine
et la Vierge des Douleurs
Le Zodiaque tourne dans la nuit de fièvre jaune
la pluie enferme tout le Tropique dans une cage de cristal
C’est l’heure d’enjamber le crepuscule
comme un zèbre vers l’île de jadis
où se réveillent les femmes assassinées

Women with coral gestures
have curls and lips red as orchids.
The monkeys at the Pole are albinos, amber and snow
They caper, robed in the Aurora borealis.
In the sky there is a sign made of margarine
Here is the quinine tree
And Our Lady of Sorrows
The zodiac turns in the yellow-fever night
Rain shuts the tropics in a crystal cage.
Time to straddle the twilight
Like a zebra, towards the Isle of Yore
Where murdered women awake.

 

[Asmor]

That's great! It starts with an earthquake
Birds and snakes, an Aeroplane
Lenny Bruce is not afraid

It's the End of the World as we Know It - REM