AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #355: UNCOMMON INSTRUMENTS

A GUEST POSTING from JONNY THE FRIENDLY LAWYER

In compiling the last Trumpets ICA (#352) I remembered a song I’ve always liked: ‘In The Aeroplane Over the Sea,’ by Neutral Milk Hotel. But I forgot that, in addition to a trumpet, the song also has someone playing a singing saw. I got to thinking about other songs that feature uncommon instruments and wondered if I could come up with a respectable ICA. No limitations or rules apply—just songs by artists we like that have an instrument you wouldn’t ordinarily hear. Here goes:

1. Steel Drums.

Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town – Talking Heads

The Heads were unusual right from the get-go. The opening track from their debut album, 77, features drummer Chris Frantz playing the solos on steel pan.

2. Theremin.

Velouria – Pixies

Maybe most recognizable on the Beach Boys epic ‘Good Vibrations,’ Velouria’s got a theremin going throughout. It’s the only instrument I know of that you play without touching it. Instead, the movement of your hand between two antennae causes wave oscillation that the theremin converts into an electronic signal. I read somewhere that the instrument came out of Soviet research into proximity sensors. I tried one once. It’s easy to get a sound out of it, but really hard to make the sound musical.

3. Oboe.

Quizmaster – Julian Cope

An album track from World Shut Your Mouth. Of course, it’s unusual to have an oboe as the lead instrument in a rock song, but it’s the lyrics that make this tune one of my favorites. How I wish I’d written:

Through the confusion I see you, practicing hard at your faith
Oh, your uniform’s muddy but still I can see
The arrangement of stars underneath
But one of these two is not on my list
We can’t expect to explore without explosion
All my ideals were destroyed in the flood
And what use where they anyway?
When the mute get lucid, pray!

4. Musical Saw.

James K. Polk – They Might Be Giants

TmbG were always an unconventional band, both lyrically and musically. Their signature instruments are accordion and baritone sax. On this track from Factory Showroom the entire solo is played on a singing saw. I love this tune because, without it, I’d have known nothing about James K. Polk, our eleventh president. American presidents are awesome because they’re honest and reasonable!

5. Harp.

Sprout and the Bean – Joanna Newsom

There are loads of rock and pop songs recorded with full orchestras, but the use of a harp as a solo instrument just didn’t happen until Joanna Newsom came along. Here she is on her debut album, The Milk-Eyed Mender, playing a big, damn harp! Her voice isn’t for everyone but the music is phenomenal. My daughter is a big fan and confirms that she, in fact, plays the harp and sings simultaneously in concert. No one else to compare Joanna to, really.

6. Xylophone.

Gone Daddy Gone – Violent Femmes

In which bassist Brian Ritchie plays two xylophone solos. Fun fact: the whole verse beginning “I can tell by the way that you switch and walk” is lifted word for word from “I just Want to Make Love to You” by Muddy Waters, a hit in 1954.

7. Melodica.

Clint Eastwood – Gorillaz

The melodica is a cross between a harmonica and an accordion. You blow into it while playing notes on a miniature keyboard. It might sound familiar because a melodica was used extensively on early Gang of Four, Joy Division, and New Order songs. And there’s one on virtually every Augustus Pablo song, if you’re a reggae person. Here’s Damon Albarn/2-D playing one on the debut single by Gorillaz, on a track also featuring Del the Funky Homosapien.

8. Spoons.

Spoonman – Soundgarden

This song is named after and features Artis the Spoonman, a street performer in Seattle where Soundgarden were based. You can see the dude whacking the spoons in the video for the song. My cover band is working up a version (albeit without the spoons). It’s a little tricky because it’s played in drop D tuning in 7/4 time, but we’ll get it.

9. Harpsichord.

Golden Brown – Stranglers

And here’s another number in a weird time signature. It’s sort of a waltz, but with extra beats stuffed in. It’s literally in something like 13/8 time, or 6/8+7/8 time. Whatever—I can’t read music anyway. But this single from 1982, played on the most baroque of instruments, never gets old.

10. Mellotron.

Pale and Precious – Dukes of Stratosphear

XTC, disguised as the Dukes, wore their 60’s psychedelic influences on their paisley sleeves in this pastiche/homage to the Beach Boys. The mellotron is a keyboard instrument whose keys play short lengths of magnetic tape. It was popular in the hippie 60’s, most famously on ‘Strawberry Fields Forever.’ And, yes, that is a theremin you hear at the end.

JTFL