So maybe the most emblematic song is MF Doom's Vomitspit. His lyrics sound like slightly non-sequitur boasts and put downs, all against a repetitive keyboard loop punctuated by a cartoon laugh.
Also pretty funny: The Modern Lovers' loving ode to Boston, "Roadrunner"; Andre Nickatina's bizarre "I'm A Junkie", which starts with very R-rated lyrics sung to the melody of the cheesy Dirty Dancing theme "(I've Had) The Time Of My Life" before giving way to church organ-backed swaggering; Ol Dirty Bastard's posthumously leaked duet with Macy Gray, mangling Elton John and Kiki Dee's "Don't Go Breaking My Heart"; and perhaps most hilarious, Isaac Hayes turning the sensual "Lay Lady Lay" by Bob Dylan into something that needs a parental sticker slapped on it, just for insinuation.
Mr. Dylan kicks it off with "Seven Days", never released on any of his albums until the bootleg series. And there is nothing more punk than the great Eddie Cochran's 50s song "Sweetie Pie", followed by teenaged Joan Jett's band, The Runaways, doing "Cherry Bomb".
After Isaac Hayes, Nine Inch Nail's "Closer" actually sounds tame, despite the more explicit carnal desire. I remember seeing this video, with the monkey and those lyrics, playing in a club in Chicago when it came out, thinking, ok, so this is...diffferent.
The Gap Band's "You Dropped A Bomb On Me" is an even cooler video--just one guy (I used to think, is he the whole band?) dressed up like the cowboy from The Village People, dancing around, intercut with saturated footage of fighter planes.
Pre video age: two versions of "Some Of These Days" by the Louis Armstrong Orchestra, off the legendary Hot Fives & Sevens sessions. One with vocals, the other without.
Stones related: Robert Johnson's "Love In Vain", which they covered on the Let It Bleed album, "It's All Over Now", which Bobby Womack wrote and then did this 70s version after they had a hit in the 60s with it, as well as their groovy 70s b-side "I Think I'm Going Mad".
Beatles related: A nice, sitar-heavy alternate take on "Norwegian Wood" off the official Beatles Anthology series, as well as a heavy cover of "She Said, She Said" by The Black Keys. I've always loved the story that their original version was inspired by an acid trip Peter Fonda took with John Lennon, where he said "I know what it's like to be dead." Heavy, man.
Speaking of the afterlife, Max Romeo & The Upsetters' "Chasing The Devil" promises to "put on an iron shirt/ and chase Satan out of earth". What's an iron shirt? Sounds uncomfortable. Unless it's an ironed shirt. Without too much starch.
If I were chasing the devil, I would want the entire Wu-Tang Clan by my side. "Clan In Da Front" would be our marching music. I also have "Primitive (The Way I Treat You)" by Ambulance Ltd, which seems to be more, um, sensitive about some of the relationship issues explored by RZA and his not so merry band of men.
So finally, two heartbreak songs, in very different keys. The Supremes' "Love Is Here And Now Your Gone" is so wonderfully over the top, with its haunting strings occasionally interrupted by Diana Ross' dramatic spoken-word passages. Even more sad is the ballad from the producers known as Handsome Boy Modeling School, who pair up young pop jazz singer Jamie Cullum with unsung 70s pop singer John Oates, of Hall & Oates fame, for "My Greatest Mistake".
Makes me think his greatest mistake is not cutting a solo album like this song.
