What they said was that, when they were recording "Autobahn", they were trying to capture a very specific experience of driving on an autobahn in Germany in the 70s and they related that to the way the Beach Boys had captured a certain lifestyle in California in the 60s, they were trying to emulate that. "...in their songs they managed to concentrate a maximum of fundamental ideas. In 100 years from now, when people will want to know what California was like in the 60s, they only had to listen a single by the Beach Boys." So there was a conceptual side to it but, being clever fellows, they also included some musical reference points - so the harmony vocals and, especially the "Fahr'n fahr'n fahr'n" vocal refrain. Nonetheless musically it's absolutely nothing like the Beach Boys, particularly the full 23 minute version. You're dismissive of the fact that it didn't sound like anything else as if that somehow is secondary to... what exactly? Strange chords or chord sequences or time signatures? I don't know what you're looking for. "I Am the Walrus" is just a psychedelic rock song, it's not radical in terms of any of those things either, it's the sound and arrangement and feel of it that make it stand out.
Popcorn. The 1972 hit version was not the original but it was the one that "seemed to come out of nowhere".
Won’t Get Fooled Again or actually a lot of Who’s Next Smells Like Teen Spirit Gary Numans Cars Underworlds Dubbassnomyhead (or something like that) Boston’s More than a feeling Lush: Downer Cocteau Twins: pIck and choose
I think the group themselves said it was influenced by the Ba-Ba- Ba Barbara Ann and maybe Fun Fun Fun...on the autobahn
I heard Brian Eno's the Great Pretender for the first time on CHOM FM in Montreal in 1976 and it definitely sounded like something new to me:
What about the start and stops in the Beach Boys Little Girl I Once Knew. Top 40 radio did not like silence in the middle of songs. John Lennon famously praised the song in that rate the record column:
I didn't say it was secondary nor am I being dismissive. I said there are different aspects to what makes something seem like it has no precedent. Walrus musically is like what...the chord progression and melody (and words)? (Walrus isn't radical? Really? Seems radical to me in every way.)
Not really radical for the end of 1967, musically anyway, the words are unusual I give you that. "Strawberry Fields" seems more radical to me.
Well they both seem pretty radical to me. Though I think melody and chord-wise and word-wise, Strawberry is a little more normal. Walrus seems unlike anything...if that's not true, I'd like to know what it sounds like or where it came from other than a police siren...that's sort of the point of the thread. In general though, having no precedent isn't even the be-all end-all, imo (even though I started this!). Plenty, or most, Beatle songs are just sort of traditional songs and I love them all just as much.
This was released at exactly the same time, and on the same label no less. The melodies are pretty much also the same: Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazelwood / Summer Wine
Summer Wine is another personal favourite from '67. Until this moment I had never thought of them as related in any way. I can hear a slight resemblance with regards to the melody, particularly since the songs both start on a minor chord and then drop to the major two-half-tones below. But it's only slight.
"White Christmas" by Bing Crosby (1942) Before this, virtually every popular Christmas song either specifically mentioned the birth of Christ or a facet thereof, or it mentioned Santa Claus or a facet thereof. Sure, "Jingle Bells" was around, but that was a seasonal rather than a Christmas song (it was actually written for a Thanksgiving celebration), and there were the British wassail songs like "Deck the Halls" and "Here We Come a-Wassailing" -- but those were the exceptions. But "White Christmas" evoked the holiday without mentioning either St. Nick or Christ: snow, cards, sleigh bells, glistening treetops, the ultimate rustic holiday scene. And it also played into a longing to escape the ongoing World War II, which in 1942 was by no means certain to ultimately go the Allies' way. It also singlehandedly started the Christmas music industry when it spent 11 weeks at #1 in 1942 and beyond. It was already on top of the Billboard chart by Halloween!
Not technically a "Christmas" song, but the first two words are "sleigh bells." Richard Himber / Winter Wonderland
Rebel Without a Pause. Public Enemy. It is the clearest example that I can remember stopping whatever I was doing and thinking "what the hell is that?!?!!"
And wait, this one more than anything. Cromagnon, "Caledonia" (1969). Can't even believe this is the 1960s. Primal proto black metal/industrial with no seeming precedents.
