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Post by jk on Aug 13, 2023 22:22:52 GMT
Ye gods how I loathe that "song". Maybe yet another definition of a novelty song is a song that for one reason or another is unlike anything else in that artist or band's canon... Here's another, from The Guess Who: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clap_for_the_Wolfman
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Aug 13, 2023 22:53:36 GMT
I thought about "Clap For The Wolfman" and wasn't sure about it. If it was just a song without Wolfman Jack's voice over, I would say "no" it isn't a novelty song. But adding Wolfman Jack's voice is a gimmick, and it's also a humorous one, so I think I might say "yes" it would qualify as a novelty song.
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Post by kds on Aug 14, 2023 12:29:42 GMT
Speaking of Wolfman, or wolfmen, where does Warren Zevon's Werewolves of London land?
I remember being very unfamiliar with Zevon when he passed in 2003, so I was a little miffed when the guy that wrote a Halloween song was hailed as this great songwriter. I'm still not overly familiar with his catalog outside of a handful of songs, so Werewolves does feel like a bit of an outlier, even though he does seem to have his tongue firmly in cheek on a few of his songs.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 14, 2023 12:54:17 GMT
That kind of tongue-in-cheek idea reminds me of somebody else who had a few songs that some people would probably call novelty songs, but others might not. Funny songs, to be sure--wry, witty, cynical, maybe sometimes silly. But they're also real songs, not kids' music or anything.
Randy Newman.
"Short People" is the one that would jump to mind first, but there are quite a few others that are on the edge.
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Post by kds on Aug 14, 2023 12:58:56 GMT
Perhaps Newman and Zevon are cut from the same cloth. I'll admit that I've never really felt motivated to explore either catalog. But, I could see how one would easily mistake their music for novelty, even if it's really not.
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Post by lonelysummer on Aug 14, 2023 19:31:02 GMT
"Short People" became a hit, and the world at large wasn't sure how to take it. Newman made up some story that it was about short sighted people, but later on he confessed that he just thought it was funny for someone to dislike people for being short. I have a couple of his albums, I think he's brilliant. Sail Away, Political Science, Rednecks, My Life Is Good...
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Aug 14, 2023 20:23:56 GMT
I don't consider Warren Zevon's "Werewolves Of London" or Randy Newman's "Short People" to be novelty songs. Because of the lyrics, I would simply refer to them as funny or humorous songs. I don't think they go over the line into novelty territory. No gimmicks. Now, if Zevon's song featured animated werewolf howling or samples of werewolves (whatever they sound like ), yeah, I'd have to reconsider, but not just Warren making ah-hoo howling noises.
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Post by jk on Apr 12, 2024 12:48:09 GMT
Thinking about the cool backing vocals on "Pony Time", I remembered that Barry Mann of the Mann-Weil Brill Building husband-and-wife writing team had a hit in 1961 with "Who Put The Bomp", basically a hilarious litany of gibberish used in rock and roll and doo wop songs. It quotes "Pony Time" twice! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Put_the_Bomp_(in_the_Bomp,_Bomp,_Bomp)
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