What's the oddest thing in your music collection?

I am

Hot Rod Charlie Ryan is a fun record. If I'm allowed to, I'll put it on dropbox for anyone who wants it. Joe

Oddest thing . . . Hmmm, I would have to say that "An Evening With Wild Man Fischer" produced by Frank Zappa has to be up there in the running!

Frank Zappa YELLOW SHARK LIVE CONCERT RECORDED IN EUROPE

For most of his life Frank Zappa wanted to be a "serious" "classical" composer. Not only is his rock and fusion music often infused with influences of Varese and Webern but he wrote contemporary classical music throughout. The problem is he could never find anybody he felt was willing to put in the time or effort to play it the way he heard it in his head. Boulez was enough of a believer to conduct some of Zappa's music but Zappa believed even he didn't rehearse the pieces enough for the orchestra to get all of the rhythms right.

Then came The Yellow Shark Project initiated by the Ensemble Modern. They took a year to learn all of the intricacies of the music, not just getting all of the rhythms right, but the feel and emotion as well. Although critically ill, Zappa was able to attend the opening, conducting a few pieces, and hear his music the way he "envisioned" it. He also got to hear the thunderous applause and read the often-times conservative critics' rave reviews. It took him a life time, but he was finally considered a serious contemporary composer by the music establishment.

"the sounds of mental illness

Ladies and gentlemen, We have a winner!!!

If I wanted to hear the sounds of mental illness I’d turn on MSNBC. :-)

In my collection I have some old National Lampoon albums, like "Radio Dinner" and "Lemmings".  Also, I have some Firesign Theatre albums, "Waiting For the Electrician",  "Don't Crush That Dwarf", etc.

I have the Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen version of Hot Rod Lincoln.

@jnovak  My daddy said "Son you're gonna drive me to drinkin...'"

"Hot Rod Charlie Ryan". The LP is the same tune through 90% of the record. The story of Hot Rod Lincoln goes on and on

Well It's    "ME"     and I am also    "Weird"    ... LOL..  but only 81, so young at heart...

"PDQ Bach - The Seasonings" is the strangest thing in my collection.  If you want a smile on your face tonight - whether you like classical, or not - stream this.  "He was a tarragon of virtue".....

Besides myself, A pretty good recording of the US Marine Band Marching music from the 50's that was my Dad's which I have temporarily misplaced  but now going through all my albums so hope to find soon. He used to take his trumpet out once a year or so (played through college) & he would march around the Living room playing along w/ us 3 kids following behind.  We all loved it!

His system was also pretty good & how I got a taste for hifi: 2 Bozak B 302- A speakers which he built from kits (mismatched cabinetry & grill cloth because they were done first for mono  then a 2nd one for stereo, Dynaco Stereo 70 (he built & modded), Dyna pre - amp, Fisher Tuner & an Elac Miracord turntable 770H turntable w/ a Shure V15 cartridge. He also rigged it up w/multiple other speakers around the house w/ their own volume controls all connected to a Dyna 50 watt mono amp : kitchen, basement workshop, parent's bathroom & even outside on our maple tree in the summer!  Whole house system way before it's time!!  He also built a bag for our lawnmower before they were available & a cover for our pool also before they were available. He was a one of a kind & growing up w/ him & my brothers in the 60's was a great time!

One of the weirder CDs I own is one called „Never alone again“ („Nie mehr allein“, it´s german), it consists of sounds and noises a person that lives with you would make. Tracks are called „Taking a Bath“ or „Coming home from grocery shopping“ and you hear exactly what you expect: Front door opening, footsteps, someone putting a carton on the table and unpacking stuff, putting some in the fridge, some in other places. The absolute highlight is probably „Sometimes everyone has to“ and it consists of all sounds a person makes when going to the bathroom, tinkling and all. It´s hilarious, sad and a bit creepy overall. I love it.

Available on amazon or discogs.

@djspinner classic!

@mceljo Quite interesting both from a sonic and from a historical aspect. And, bonus, I recognizes parts of it as samples I had heard decades ago in tracks by the Orb.

I'm the oldest thing in my music collection.

Probably the roach from the rolling paper I got from the Cheech and Chong "Big Bamboo album. It's in a nice little shadow box on the wall with other music memorabilia. 🥴

A double cd of Budweiser's "Real Men of Genius" radio commercials featuring Survivor's Dave Bickler singing the silly announcers choices of types of men. Hard to explain if you haven't heard any of these jingles. I'll try to post a link. Pretty funny stuff. Probably early 2000's I'd guess. https://www.google.com/search?q=budweiser+real+men+of+genius&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS984US984&oq=budweisers+real+&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0i13i512l3j0i22i30l4j0i15i22i30l2.6413j1j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:ee9514c8,vid:GGKt6ClPQ18

john denver box set, lots of folk stuff. Its a warm welcome after a napalm death show, or 1349, necromantia, craft, carpathian forest, etc, the 40 min ride home after the show is so nice, donovan, or denver, dylan, jackson browne, aftere 10 min in the car jamming bestial warlust,  satanic slaughter ,holy moses, helstar,.. emperor, etc etc,...the welcome next 30 min is usually great, spooky tooth, j denver, CS&N,  gordon lightfoot, thin lizzy, ... etc etc.

then home and pop in testament, or primal fear, Wehrmacht , hit shuffle on the iPod before head hits pillow. 

@simao  - What did you think about it?

Three Monty Python comedy LP’s from the 1970’s.  My room mate eft them when he moved to another city.  I have never played them but they have been with me so long I can’t bring myself to toss them out. 

"the sounds of mental illness", clear winner in the weird catagory.

It is like so.

A compilation called "When Pigs Fly." Many highlights (lowlights?), with none better than Herman's Hermits cover of "White Wedding" (Billy Idol).

Or, "Prozak For Lovers," which features bossanova lounge jazz covers of a variety of songs, such as: "Pump It Up," "Don't Fear The Reaper," "I Wanna Be Sedated" and "Rebel Rebel."

@sgreg1 

Leather records, hang on to that one !!!!!

i have original Mamas boys on Pussy records #004 i think.

and the kooks first S/T lp on Schnoutz records, fairly rare.

and a few other LPs and rare cds.

some rare signed bathory records.

cheers

Not odd but rare. Motley Crew first album that was their promo demo sent out to radio stations. This was put out by their own record label leather records. They only pressed 500 copies.

@audioguy85 

 +1

Lots of weird sh*t in my collection, to many to mention....

A private recording of songs by the Hmong minority outside of Sapa, Vietnam, from 1999.

@tooblue No worries...Been there as well.

Cheers!

I would add Rachel Sweet, too, but she may have been too main-stream for the "odd" designation.

@tooblue Your are welcome. I guess.

@1111art , the above post was in response to your post, was laughing so hard I got confused.

@richopp, man I love me some Johnny Otis, that dude knew how to put a touring group/show together but I ain't never seen that Skillet and Leroy jive. Thanks for that. Enjoy the music

Beverly Cotton-Clog-In (Flying Fish 237).  Out of nearly 2000 vinyl records this gets my vote.

RCA Living Stereo and Command Records had some really good sounding records. Command Records Vol. 2 Provocative Percussion. Enoch Light and the Light Brigade.

I covered up the good parts

Grouppo Sportivo I guess...

I enjoy collecting funny, unique, and weird covers. Here's one just in time for

Xmas

A private issue LP of a Friar's (or Masquers') club stag dinner For Harry Joe Brown. A roast of the film director by his friends George Jessel, George Burns, Jack Benny, and Art Linkletter. Very Funny and raunchy for it's time (definitely the only time I have heard George Burns talk about contracting "Cupid's Eczema" and drop the F-bomb). And imagine Art Linkletter dropping another F bomb. I believe it was recorded in 1950. 33 rpm. A reel to reel was smuggled out, as they had a very strict secrecy policy. NO RECORDINGS ALLOWED!

 "the sounds of mental illness"                                                              Ladies and gentlemen, We have a winner!!!                  

*"the portsmith sinfonia" "plays" the classics" [more like slays 'em, as on this record each player picked up the next player's instrument and tried their best with it, with predictable results.

*"shut yo mouth" - major holley and slam stewart pair up on their respective double basses, major effects a basso profundo growl in pitch unison with his string bass, while slam sings an octave above his. 

*an audio cassette given me by a psych drug rep at the hospital i worked at, "the sounds of mental illness" complete with a listener caution. 

Doesn't qualify as "odd" per se but I have 3 albums from 3 different very close friends that never hit the big time, didn't hit the small time for that matter. I am relatively sure they didn't sell outside of Rochester NY. Each album is excellent in both sound and performances.

16” and 20” transcription records. I’ve collected a few hundred over the years. They are transcription discs the DJ’s use to - among other things - have enough time to go to the bathroom I imagine. Some are V- Discs, some are live, and some are just a few songs per side with commercials. Always fun to put on a 20” record - make you feel like your shrinking. 

I've a 'sampler' CD of various Houston bands received at a street festival, mostly ok stuff, no stand-outs but...

One is a 'bluesy' sort of thing, reminiscent of 'Cocaine' in it's rambling way.

It's hidden 'surprise' is that it 'skips back' randomly, much like a LP, but it stays within the song itself.

You can play it for hours....the skip can be a few seconds, a minute +/-, no real pattern....

Literally, this song goes on potentially forever until your player breaks or a power fail.  No visible damage or dirt, I've checked.

I've thought of putting it on during the later part of a good-sized party as background sound .... to see if anyone would notice...

@toddsyr the wikipedia description is correct!

William Shatner - Rocket Man

A very early Joan Baez album 'Joab Baez in San Francisco' where she does pop songs and Belafonte folky songs. She even does a version of "young Blood' in a deep, semi-male voice.

The Baroque Beatles Book, Beatles tunes made to sound like real baroque music except for the opera piece where the voices and words sound corny.

Various P D Q Bach albums where Richard Schikele discovers the only forgotten son of Johann Bach who should have remained forgotten. The music titles make bad puns of Baroque pieces and the music is corny and brilliantly hilarious.