19 Weird Songs For These Weird Times

PUBLISHED ON SUNDAY, APRIL 12, 2020
By Jeff Smith

Music provides the soundtrack to our lives. From the bliss of traveling the open road on your way to the Sturgis Buffalo Chip® to the pain of being stabbed with a pencil by your significant other, there’s at least one song that perfectly captures virtually every aspect of our existence. However, “normal” has recently gone on vacation, and we’re exactly not sure when it will be returning. So in the meantime, check out this list of 19 freaky, funny and downright weird songs sure to give you a laugh during these weird times.

1. King Missile – “Detachable Penis”

This song opens with one hell of an attention grabber. After a few bars of spacey guitar and keyboard riffage, the lyrics begin: “I woke up this morning with a bad hangover, and my penis was missing again…” Wait… what?! AGAIN?! The rest of the song takes you on the protagonist’s search for his missing member and lays out the pros and cons of having a detachable ding-a-ling. We won’t spoil the rest of the song for you, but we will say it has a happy ending.

2. Cheech and Chong – “Earache My Eye”

Most rock songs are anthems of rebellion, but “Earache My Eye” might be the only one about the desire to cross-dress. Matching pink tutus, tank tops and booby tassels have never rocked harder, and Tommy Chong’s drumsticks are the size of turkey legs.

3. Focus – “Hocus Pocus”

If you were to skip to a few different spots of this song, you wouldn’t be sure if you were listening to traditional Bavarian yodeling, jazz-style scat singing, a far-out flute solo, incredibly intense whistling or a frenetic progressive rock freak-out. That said, the best way to enjoy this song is from the beginning, experiencing all of that combined into four and a half minutes of classic weird and awesome. Alternatively, you could put it on mute and be entertained just by lead vocalist/organist/yodeler/flautist Thijs van Leer’s facial expressions!

4. Alice Cooper – “Cold Ethyl”

Musically, this song doesn’t start off sounding very strange. The lyrics, however, chronicle a romantic relationship with a dead girl named Ethyl who’s being preserved in a fridge. So… that’s pretty weird. In the second verse, Alice spells it all out for you, just in case you weren’t convinced that cold Ethyl was in fact a corpse. “One thing, no lie / Ethyl’s frigid as an Eskimo pie / She’s cool in bed / She ought to be, ’cause Ethyl’s dead!” At least she won’t hog the blankets!

5. Pink Floyd – “Bike”

Pink Floyd has always been and will always be one of psychedelic rock’s pioneers and most influential practitioners. Sprawling, mind-blowing progressive opuses are the norm for the band, but their often-overlooked early work under the leadership of founding member Syd Barrett is arguably even more trippy and strange than what became to be known as Pink Floyd’s signature style. “Bike” kind of sounds like a child with ADHD dreamed he got stuck in a cartoon and decided to stay there and show a girl a bunch of strange and wonderful things.

6. “Weird Al” Yankovic – “Foil”

The lyrical concept behind “Foil,” a parody of Lorde’s pop smash “Royals,” begins by touting aluminum foil’s superior ability to keep a sandwich fresh. By the end, Al is carted away for demonstrating the material’s usefulness in blocking anal probes and mind-reading techniques from the Illuminati, top-secret government agencies and extraterrestrials.

7. Butthole Surfers – “Pepper”

If you think this song’s title would give you any idea as to what it’s about, think again. Spoken word delivery, surreal imagery and a handful of strange suicidal and death-obsessed characters all wrapped up with the weirdest studio effects 1996 had to offer. Extra weird points awarded for all the people who’ve laughed because they heard a radio DJ say “butthole” when introducing this song.

8. Ween – “Piss Up a Rope”

Imagine Merle Haggard got cockeyed wasted on a fifth of Tennessee whiskey, listened to three George Carlin albums in a row, and then wrote a song about the worst relationship of his life. He probably would’ve wound up with something pretty close to Ween’s “Piss Up a Rope.”

9. Richard Cheese – “Down with the Sickness”

What happens when you take the lyrics of an angry, intense metal song and set it to carefree, classy lounge jazz? You find yourself in the wonderfully weird bipolar world of Richard Cheese! Open up your hate and let it flow into me… Yeah!

10. Scatman John – “Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)”

There’s weird songs, and then there’s “Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)”… Yup, that’s the actual name of the song. Good luck trying to sing along with this one.

11. Primus – “Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver”

Three parts country, two parts southern rock, one part funk, one part metal, and all-out weird, Primus’ Grammy-nominated 1995 tune “Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver” is an absurd musical mind bender. If the song weren’t weird enough, the band in the music video looks like the cast of Hee Haw ate some fungus they found growing out of a cow pie.

12. Napoleon XIV – “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!”

Despite it’s undeniable creep-factor, this tune achieved instant commercial success, climbing to no. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart shortly after its’ 1966 release. It’s so damn catchy it’ll get stuck in your head until you go completely insane… At which time, those nice young men in their clean white coats will come to take you away, ha-haaa, to the funny farm where life is beautiful all the time!

13. Tenacious D – “Tribute”

Tenacious D’s “Tribute” is kind of like “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” except the Devil went down to Middle Earth and blasted some Led Zeppelin. In a nutshell, “Tribute” is about singing the greatest song in the world to a demon, and is also a tribute to the greatest song in the world, but sounds nothing like the song it’s supposedly a tribute to… Mind. Blown.

14. Ozzy Osbourne – “Mr. Crowley”

If the chilling, vampiric synth-organ intro to this song weren’t weird enough, the lyrics discussing English occultist Aleister Crowley push it over the edge. Crowley has been accused of being a Satan worshiper, and during his lifetime was referred to in popular press as the “wickedest man in the world.” Perfect subject matter for the Prince of Darkness.

15. Frank Zappa – “Muffin Man”

Frank Zappa’s extensive catalog of weird songs, “Muffin Man” is among the strangest. After a spoken word intro from The Muffin Man, an apparent mad muffin scientist or religious zealot, the song launches into a hypnotic classic rock jam that feels like what would happen if the love child of Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child” and Iron Butterfly’s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” gave you some funny brown licorice. The meaning behind the song’s refrain, “girl, you thought he was a man, but he was a muffin,” has many interpretations as Zappa never fully explained the song’s meaning.

16. Rob Zombie – “We’re An American Band”

The original version by Grand Funk Railroad isn’t too weird, but when placed in Rob Zombie’s hands, the strange really begins to ooze from this tune. Substitute the organ with John 5’s down-tuned razor-sharp guitar; add Rob Zombie’s signature growl and a reference to playing poker with Slayer’s Kerry King and you’ve got a Zombified version of a rock classic. Check out the band going Midget Bowling at 0:48 and 2:47!

17. Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show – “Freakin’ at the Freakers Ball”

“Freakin’ at the Freakers Ball” is the weirdest and possibly the most fun party you could ever stumble into. Literally EVERYBODY is there, including pyromaniacs, sadomasochists, the FBI, necrophiliacs, leather fanatics and everyone in between. Indulge in this song’s weirdness. It feels so good, it must be wrong… but who cares?!

18. Reverend Horton Heat – “Let Me Teach You How to Eat”

Despite the many food references in this song, it’s a safe bet the Rev isn’t talking about cooking anymore when he says, “I’ll teach you things that you never knew / How to choke a chicken and a make a meat stew / We can cook a taco in the middle of the street, and really feel good!” But maybe he is… who knows? Eating is one of life’s greatest pleasures. Second only to… Never mind. He’s not talking about food.

19. Barnes & Barnes – “Fish Heads”

Last but most certainly not least is this exceedingly odd yet sickeningly catchy tune “Fish Heads” by comedy duo Barnes & Barnes. Not surprisingly, this song was one of the most celebrated songs of the 80s on the legendary Dr. Demento radio show, with Dr. Demento himself making an appearance in the video. If Alvin and the Chipmunks found some funny fungus, this might be the result.

These are some of the weirdest songs ever, and ironically several of them have been performed on the legendary Wolfman Jack Stage at the Sturgis Buffalo Chip®. If you enjoyed listening to or learning about the songs on this list, share it with your friends!

What are some of your favorite weird songs? Tell us in the comments below!

Presented by the Sturgis Buffalo Chip
Known as The Best Party Anywhere®, the Sturgis Buffalo Chip believes festivals should be fun like a high five, reenergize you like a broken rule, and romance you like someone you just met and have to take home.This nine-day festival of concerts and motorcycle events promises to bring you exciting events like flat track races and live performances from artists like Aerosmith, Willie Nelson, Five Finger Death Punch, Kid Rock, Rob Zombie and many more.Find out more or get passes to the Best Party Anywhere at www.buffalochip.com and find out why it continues to be one of the most televised festivals in the world.