By Severin
Well, so much for keeping the lists down to sensible, manageable lengths. There were so many potential and actual interpretations of the remit that I could have produced three or four separate A-lists each illustrating a different take on the topic, but didn’t. And there are still some that probably should be there which aren't. Please assume that your own favourite nom was one of them. Usual assurances that every song got a listen.
So then, “puzzling or mysterious”. Lyrically because the subject of the song is something mysterious or because it's a mystery what on earth the thing is actually about. Or because it seems clear what it's about but – why? Musically because the composition hides a mystery or a code. Or because the music seems inexplicable in its indifference to the normal conventions of composition or of rendition.
Enough of the caveats, already. Towards the end of the blogging, someone suggested that a lyric-meanings site which uses AI to generate interpretations of song-words might help me out this week. So here goes...
Fingers Become Thumbs (it says here) “explores themes of identity, existential dread and the feeling of being lost in a chaotic world. The song intertwines absurd imagery with a sense of disillusionment” So there. It certainly does all that and has me singing along with the words “we're not alive, we're not alive, we're not at home to pregnant callers”. Which may or may not have been audible to my upstairs neighbours.
Gong have recorded a song about a Perfect Mystery. My crib tells me that it explores “the mysteries of existence and self discovery”. Pretty puzzling musically too for anyone unfamiliar with their modus operandi.
The famous lyric site gave up and died when I got to Angie La La/Ay Ay Ay Ay. According to the nominator, the singer is best know for her more “saucy double entendre songs” but this one sounds quite insane. It does have kissing sounds. At least I think that's what they are.
Casablanca Moon is simply a song about private detectives trying to solve a mystery. Probably. What the mystery is, is also a bit of a mystery to be honest. But you could dance a tango to it if so disposed.
Syd Barrett's song, Octopus, is, in some ways, one of the less eccentric of his post-Floydian offerings. Still pretty unlike anyone else at the time although plenty of “outsider” musicians have followed in his wake. The words, like many of his, sound pretty dreamlike to me but I read that they also “serve as a metaphor for how life can often be unpredictable and chaotic”. Just enjoy the journey, or the “octopus ride” as the madcap laughs.
Syd Barrett
Ah, Sarah Vaughan! Sassy! With lush strings! Singing about The Mystery of Man. With words translated from poems by Pope John Paul II! From an album devoted entirely to this concept. The conclusion BTW seems to be that we mortals can't really decipher such mysteries, which seems fair enough.
As discussed during the week, I persuaded my dad to buy me Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica album for Christmas 1974 when I was 16. I already had a copy of Clear Spot and really enjoyed it but I wasn't really prepared for this one. Musically and lyrically challenging. Why is everything “fast and bulbous”? What is a Pachuco Cadaver? We may never know.
We had three or four Miles Davis tracks nominated and picking just one was a bit of a conundrum. In the end I chose Honky Tonk. Which (as Nilpferd explained) is musically puzzling in its “juxtaposition of an abstract riff section and a dirty blues riff section which then combine”. I think I get that but (philistine that I am) I also just enjoyed the sound it made.
Bluebirds has a lovely tune and an utterly cryptic lyric. Partly about conflicting emotions, what with these birds being both natural and dismal. My AI helper suggests that “unless your daddy nails me to the cross” represents a feeling of being trapped or judged. I suspect that baffling the listener is really the point in itself.
Another one that suggests a puzzle to be solved but doesn't go out of its way to tell us what the puzzle is. Decent Days and Nights is about “a problem without any clues.... If you work it out, tell me what you find.”
Ah, one that's actually called The Puzzle. A sad and lovely song about the difficulties of relationships. Or putting yourself back together again after a breakup, like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
Who Killed Cock Robin is a very old British traditional rhyme or song. Its familiarity sometimes disguising its oddness and rather morbid overtones. The version sung by American collector of ballads, John Jacob Niles is even stranger than the one most of us know. How did the mandrake get into this narrative? Possibly it is an example of what Greil Marcus called “the old weird America.”
Amelia Coburn
Another beautiful but cryptic one is Amelia Coburn's See Saw. Parts of the lyric sound like words taken from nursery rhymes or traditional folk songs and the music does nothing to dispel that effect. “Either a lot to unpack or nothing.” Thanks, Maki, I'll use that.
At first I thought that some kind of criminal activity or possibly espionage was going on in The Fat Lady of Limbourg. And I've seen a few lyric sites where people speculate about what on earth the fat lady can distinguish with her tongue that spectrometers can't. Even with her heightened sense of taste. At least one contributor suggested opium. Then again, Brian Eno is on record as saying that he thinks words limit a song's potential meanings and that most of his are just for the sake of rhyming. So maybe this puzzle has no answer.
Starsailor is (according to Wiki) a literal translation of the Greek derived word astronaut. The song of that name does have words but they are distorted and overdubbed beyond my abilities to distinguish. Puzzling and mysterious as Fred Says. On Googling the lyric, I discover a six-line poem which includes “oblivion carries me on his shoulder, beyond the suns I speak and circuits shiver”. My AI friend mentions an exploration of “the speaker's existence and the vastness of the universe”. I think that's as much of an answer as we are going to get. It does sound quite astonishing at any rate.
Phaedra was the first Tangerine Dream album I ever bought. It was after hearing Mysterious Semblance at the Strand of Nightmares on (of course) John Peel's Radio 1 programme. I had literally never heard music like that before and I wanted to hear more. What the “semblance” was, I never found out but, and I don't suppose you are intended to. And even though the music is no longer startlingly new, it still conjures up a sense of mystery. And puzzlement. Always plenty of puzzlement.
The Ambiguously Enigmatic A-List Playlist:
Future of the Left – Fingers Become Thumbs (happyclapper)
Gong – Perfect Mystery (TarquinSpodd)
Nora Dean – Angie La La/Ay Ay Ay Ay (pejepeine)
Slapp Happy – Casablanca Moon (nosuchzone)
Syd Barrett – Octopus (TarquinSpodd)
Sarah Vaughan – The Mystery of Man (pejepeine)
Captain Beefheart – Pachuco Cadaver (Uncleben)
Miles Davis – Honky Tonk (Nilpferd)
Adam Green – Bluebirds (Shoegazer)
Futureheads – Decent Days and Nights (vanwolf2)
Ane Brun – The Puzzle (BanazirGalbasi)
John Jacob Niles – Who Killed Cock Robin (Nicko)
Amelia Coburn – See Saw (Maki)
Brian Eno – The Fat Lady of Limbourg (Vikingchild)
Tim Buckley – Starsailor (Fred Erickson)
Tangerine Dream – Mysterious Semblance at the Strand of Nightmares (bluepeter)
The Big, Beautifully Baffling The Beyond B-List Playlist:
Elvis Costello – Mystery Dance (AltraEgo)
Grateful Dead – Rosemary (Chris7572)
Sinead O'Connor – You Do Something to Me (Marconius7)
Maurice Ravel – Menuet sur le nom d'Haydn (BanazirGalbasi)
The Lovin' Spoonful – She is Still a Mystery (Marconius7)
New York Dolls – Who Are the Mystery Girls? (TarquinSpodd)
Peter Hammill – Labyrinthine Dreams (excerpt) (TatankaYotanka)
Siouxsie and the Banshees – Obsession (Carpgate)
Agnes Obel – Familiar (Uncleben)
Talking Heads – This Must Be the Place (happyclapper)
Roxy Music – The Bogus Man (Vikingchild)
The Fall – Open the Boxoctosis (Shoegazer)
Edward Elgar – Nimrod (Enigma Variations) (ajostu)
Shonen Knife – Mysterious Drugstore (TarquinSpodd)
17 Hippies – Son mystere (Maki)
Toyah – It's a Mystery (Vikingchild)
Roy Orbison – She's a Mystery to Me (ParaMhor)
Radiohead – Jigsaw Falling Into Place (Shoegazer)
Nina Simone – Lilac Wine (nosuchzone)
Massive Attack – Blue Lines (happyclapper)
Anais Mitchell and Jefferson Hamer – Riddles Wisely Expounded (Child 1) (Nicko)
VNV Nation – Beloved (tincanman)
John Zorn – Prelude 5: Music of the Spheres (BanazirGalbasi)
Nik Bärtsch's Ronin - Modul 35 (Nilpferd)
Guru’s Wildcard Picks:
Joan Armatrading – Visionary Mountains
Kevin Coyne – Rainbow Curve
Anita Baker – Mystery
These playlists were inspired by readers' song nominations in response to last week's topic: Which piece fits? Puzzling and mysterious songs. The next topic will launch on Thursday after 1pm UK time.
New to comment? It is quick and easy. You just need to login to Disqus once. All is explained in About/FAQs ...
Fancy a turn behind the pumps at The Song Bar? Care to choose a playlist from songs nominated and write something about it? Then feel free to contact The Song Bar here, or try the usual email address. Also please follow us social media: Song Bar Twitter, Song Bar Facebook. Song Bar YouTube, and Song Bar Instagram. Please subscribe, follow and share.