The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

Menu

Navigation

You are here: Home / Forum / Tracks Featuring The Spoken Word

Comments

  1. In 1979, I was strolling along outside Winson Green prison and spotted a record shop. It seemed to specialise in reggae. In the window was a bright yellow album splattered with red dots, with multi-coloured lettering for the title. It was called Rebel Music, a superb rock steady double compilation with a smattering of toasting, deejaying, skanking and dub. Most Afterworders will remember that 1979 was an exceptional year for music but Rebel Music was my most played purchase.

    My favourite track, S-90 Skank is about a very uncool Honda motorbike. It is produced by Keith Hudson. The motorbike itself opens the song, revving up inside the studio itself in as threatening a manner as it can. Big Youth then has a conversation with a friend. Having listened closely for over thirty-five years, I still cannot make out a single word. Nevertheless, it sounds fantastic. Then, I believe, Keith provides what Twang might regard as a brilliant stoner groove. It lopes like a bastard, in the classic skank stylee.

    Here. Have a listen.

    I’m a simple human being. I like a bit of chat, a little conversation with a fellow human. I especially love it when a snippet of talking is incorporated into a piece of music. Let’s see how many more records The Afterword can think of that include a bit of spoken word.

  3. Mick offering up his best Jermaine Clement impersonation while nattering towards the end of the song about how “you” could be “his” tonight and indeed every night. He’s even going to bring a horse.

    • On Let’s Spend The Night Together, Mick promises many hours of indulgent pleasure. Bowie, but on his souped-up version, offers nothing more than a quick knee-trembler. He reveals his chat-up line in a spoken word breakdown.

    • See also “Miss You” where Mick informs us that he is expecting some Puerto Rican girls who are just dying to meet him…

      (Charlie’s patented “What a prancing bell-end!” look at around 2:26)

  4. My top seven:

    Are You Lonesome Tonight by Elvis has the definitive spoken word section, surely?
    2) Delilah by Tom Jones
    3) Old Shep by Elvis
    4) Old Tige by Jim Reeves
    5) The Intro And The Outro by the Bonzo Dog Band
    6) Big Bad John by Jimmy Dean
    7) Deck Of Cards by Wink Martindale

  5. Hey Rosita! Donde vas con mi carro Rosita?
    tu sabes que te quiero
    pero ti me quitas todo
    ya te robasta mi television y mi radio
    y ahora quiere llevarse mi carro
    no me haga asi, rosita
    ven aqui
    ehi, estese aqui al lado rosita
    Spanish Stroll

    Mira aqui!

    • Superb track! Because it is in Spanish, the talking sounds more musical. Imagine if he said this instead:

      Hey Rosita ! Where you going with my car Rosita ?
      you know I love you
      but you take away everything I
      and you robasta my television and my radio
      and now he wants to take my car
      I do not like that, Rosita
      come here
      ehi , Abide here to Rosita side
      Spanish Stroll
      Look here!

  9. Dexys “alright Bill?”

    and aabout 10 minutes later

    – Oh, I see, I see She must be something
    – Yeah, she is.
    – Well how did all this happen
    – Just all at once really. The Italians have a word for it
    – What word what is it?
    – A thunderbolt or something
    – What, you mean the Italian word for thunderbolt)
    – Yeah, something like that. I don’t speak Italian myself you understand
    – No
    – But I knew a man who did. Well, that’s my story, the strongest thing I’ve ever seen

    Always cracks me up

  16. “And though my friends just might ask me
    They say, ‘Martin, maybe one day you’ll find true love’
    I say, ‘Maybe there must be a solution
    To the one thing, the one thing we can’t find'”

  17. “I was once out strolling one very hot summer’s day
    When I thought I’d lay myself down to rest
    In a big field of tall grass
    I laid there in the sun and felt it caressing my face
    As I fell asleep and dreamed
    I dreamed I was in a Hollywood movie
    And that I was the star of the movie
    This really blew my mind
    The fact that me, an overfed long-haired leaping gnome
    Should be the star of a Hollywood movie, hm
    But there I was, mm
    I was taken to a place
    The hall of the mountain kings
    I stood high upon a mountain top
    Naked to the world
    In front of
    Every kind of girl
    There was long ones, tall ones, short ones, brown ones
    Black ones, round ones, big ones, crazy ones
    Out of the middle came a lady
    She whispered in my ear
    Something crazy
    She said…”

    Spill The Wine – Eric Burdon & War:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i0DMbCKnAg

  20. Smiffy’s Glass Eye, Richard and Linda Thompson
    .”Ooh, there’s Smiffy coming to the Infirmary
    He’s got a glass eye, you ken.”
    “No you’re joking, how’d you find out?”
    “Och, it just came out in conversation.”

  21. Hey, hey you guys!
    Come on!
    Jonesy?
    Yeah, what?

    Hey listen, I’ve been thinking
    We’ll never get on the radio like this!
    You know that?
    Now, I’ve been studying the charts
    Using my mind and my imagination
    I can see it all now!
    The drummer’s in the box office, and he’s counting all the money!
    Yes! You guys know just what to do!
    Are you all ready?
    All right, on the count of four:
    Four!
    Hey! Yes that’s got it!
    Move it up!
    Wow!
    Pure gold!
    Hey!
    Yeah get that DJ on the line! Ow!
    Have you seen me dance?
    I’m the one that I want!
    On fire!
    Slow me down!
    Slow me down!

    The Clash – Capital Radio:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaXuWzp_QLg

  23. It’s a little bleak round here.
    I was down on the dock,
    the day the talking turned to those who have and those who have not
    and the ones who live and never learn.

    It used to be busy down here then.
    Some of the older ones can remember the better idea
    Lord, how the young are headstrong

    The wonderful It’s Immaterial with the wonderful The Better Idea

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbwY26wwibc

  24. This track (with not one, but two spoken parts) is a Swedish classic, because of how brilliantly bad it is.
    It’s called “Rosen” (“The Rose”) and its singer/speaker has been known as Arne “Rosen” Qvick ever since its release.

    The most stilted speach in history of stilted speaches – and it rhymes too. A wet dish cloth of a song and performance, very very funny (if you understand the language).

  25. The Shangri-Las are expert conversationalists and Give Him A Great Big Kiss their very best. It’s not the introduction, nor the interrogation on his appearance, culminating in “he’s good evil, not bad evil” but the final “How does he dance?”, “Close. Very, veeeery close,” that really hits the spot.

  26. One of my all time favourite choons – with Al weighing in at the 1 min 50 secs with a neat line in chat.

    Similar laid back groover from Bobby Womack – barely a record of his went by with a touch of spoken word.

  27. Dogs has a couple of short snippets, after the first verse and then in the coda ending with the immortal “lovely buttocks”. A much maligned song but it’s all about the tune:

  28. Brinsley Schwarz – What’s So Funny About Peace Love and Understanding

    Spoken part at around 2:14
    “We must have peace
    More peace than love
    It’s just for the children
    Of the new generation”

  30. Johnny Mathis – When A Child Is Born

    “And all of this happens because the world is waiting,
    Waiting for one child
    Black, white, yellow, no-one knows
    But a child that will grow up and turn tears to laughter,
    Hate to love, war to peace and everyone to everyone’s neighbour
    And misery and suffering will be words to be forgotten, forever”

    Clearly words of hope and belief.

    But It’s all a dream, an illusion now
    It must come true, sometime soon somehow

      • He didn’t really. Sometimes it’s closer to singing than others. Perfect Day, Satellite Of Love, Sunday Morning – singing. The later solo years he gave up really trying. But there was usually some sense of following the music. In the example I give there’s a deliberate talky bit that’s like a spoof cheesy interlude yet the song is still moving while being conciously mock corny. I would distinguish between properly speaking and doing something more musical. Influenced by Dylan I suspect but less able to carry a tune.

        Dylan mostly sang, sometimes in a more shouty way. I wouldn’t ever call it just speaking. He really could sing in tune. A very good singer in fact. Lyrics always cleary exprssed. Likewise Cohen, though his ability is more limited. He makes the most lf his low, cool expressive style. It’s effective. He’s somewhere between Lou and Bob perhaps.

      • Lou speaks his way through brilliant epic Street Hassle, but Springsteen’s self-referential mumble is pretty cool too.

        Well hey, man, that’s just a lie
        It’s a lie she tells her friends
        ‘Cause the real song, the real song
        Where she won’t even admit to herself
        The beatin’ in her heart
        It’s a song lots of people know
        It’s a painful song
        A little sad truth
        But life’s full of sad songs
        A penny for a wish
        But wishin’ won’t make you a soldier
        With a pretty kiss for a pretty face
        Can’t have its way
        Y’know tramps like us, we were born to pay

    • Gang Of Four’s guitarist does some reading too. The sheet of sound guitar and throbbing bass underpin a bleak non-love song on n Love Like Anthrax, whilst Mr Gill reads the technical details of the resources used in the recording studio. It sounds quite scary. Pity they changed it for the Entertainment! album.

  45. Couple o’ Howe one’s to finish. Can’t find the one I want, his Blacky Ranchette alterego doing Wild Dog Waltz so here’s Howe doing his version (which is not quite spoken word)from Dreaded Brown Recluse. Misses out his reciting Lucinda Williams lyrics as he disappears off into the sunset, or into his whiskey glass, not sure which, waiting for that original save-the-world girl.

    & this from one o’ the Blacky Ranchette albums. Love how this finishes the album, moseying off into the sunset, lookin’ for a Minnesota turnaround.

  49. I can’t call to mind a poignant spoken word bit in a good song – just rubbish ones:

    Hey Matthew (small child blathering on about the A Team)
    One Night in Bangkok by Murray Head, who could be a reporter on Day Today, Brass Eye.
    The Rain – Oran “Juice!” Jones AKA “The Cuckold’s Waltz” – Oran tells the lady that he’s cancelled all of her credit cards and that actually he’s the one chucking her, all right?

    Instead

  54. ABC’s Look of Love has a very effective bit is spoken word about 2 thirds of the way through.

    Something along the lines of

    “My friends say. Martin, one day you will find true love”

    And then the chorus comes crashing dramatically in.

    Marvelous.

  60. Marvelous bit in the middle of this, where that modest chap, Kid Creole, starts to boast about his conquests.

    Coati Mundi has some doubts about Kid’s grasp of the alphabet.

  67. And oh how they danced
    The little children of Stonehenge
    Beneath the haunted moon
    For fear that daybreak might come too soon

    And where are they now?
    The little children of Stonehenge
    And what would they say to us?
    If we were here… tonight

    (Last verse was not in the film, cutting to the Dressing Room scene as the dwarves danced around the impressive scenrty)

  72. It’s just come back to me – Coney Island, Van Morrison.

    Also Neil Tennant breaks into spoken word at times :

    …,” do you play to win?
    Or are you just a bad loser?”

    Left to my own Devices is spoken word apart from the chorus. It’s also one of the best songs written by anyone ever:

    “In the back of my head I heard distant feet
    Che Guevara and Debussy to a disco beat”

    And to round off this Pet Shop Boys round, Paninaro features a deader than deadpan Chris Lowe listing the things he doesn’t like, including rock and country and western – it’s a long list.

    “I don’t like much really do I?
    But what I do like, I love passionately”

  73. Clarence Carter – Making Love (At the Dark End of the Street)

    Basically almost the whole thing is spoken word, until a powerful burst of the chorus at the end. US Critic Dave Marsh reckons it’s one of the greatest records ever made, though for me it leans a little too far towards schmalz.

  75. This seems like an ideal opportunity to mention a charmingly odd album by fab indie band The Fiery Furnaces. The ever idiosyncratic brother sister duo, Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger, made an album with their 83 year old grandmother, Olga Santos, Rehearsing my choir. The songs deal with her life.

    The full story.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/arts/music/surprises-and-tall-tales-in-family-affair-albums.html?_r=0

    Here’s a track with recitative by Olga.

    Brilliantly quirky.

  78. Donovan – Atlantis

    This one is going out to Mr Concheroo. A great pleasure to have you back, Johny.

    And also to Junior and Uncle Saucey who I know had a lot to do with encouraging the Prodigal’s Return.

    Thankyou gents! A large Up to you both.

    • Thanks Mr. K. You’re most kind.

      I can’t resist a Donovan track, as you guessed.

      Donovan also had a spoken word section on Barabajagal the single he made with the Jeff Beck Group (and the follow-up to Atlantis).

      Here’s the non-more hippy lyrics for that spoken section:

      In love pool eyes float feathers after the struggle.
      The hopes burst and shot joy all through the mind
      Sorrow more distant than a star.
      Multi colour run down over your body,
      Then the liquid passing all into all
      Love is hot truth is molten

      I’m sure we can all relate to that.

      Nevertheless, great record (as Alan Partridge might say).

  79. Ry Cooder’s soundtrack to Wim Wender’s Paris Texas includes a track which is entirely dialogue from the film – “I knew these people …’ I consider it to be an essential part of the record

  84. The Kinks “Party Line” opens with a spoken word line:
    “Hello – who’s that speaking, please?”

    The spoken word voice belongs to one of the band’s managers, Grenville Collins. Perhaps Ray and Dave, with their Muswell Hill tones, didn’t sound posh enough!

  88. Charles Mingus’ “The Clown”, with narration from US radio personality Jean Shepherd. Shepherd was apparently the influence on Donald Fagen’s Chester the Nightfly.

    • At that point in his career, Mingus often included a spoken word section. He liked a bit of his own poetry!

      Here is one of Paul Weller’s favourites:

      Passions Of A Man

  92. Many of the tracks on Saint Etienne’s wonderful So Tough are prefaced by short, slightly mysterious snippets of spoken word. Many sound as though they are quotes from obscure British movies. It works a treat anyway.

  93. The Intro and the Outro has already been mentioned, but the Bonzos’ work is full of bits of spoken word.

    Big Shot, Look out there’s a monster coming and this one: We were wrong.

  94. Late to this, but here are some favourites:

    “Mustn’t grumble” – Lazy Sunday, Small Faces.
    “Sing Michael, sing” – Rudy Can’t Fail, The Clash.
    “You’re my gee-tar he-ro!” – Complete Control, The Clash

  96. Another intense slow-burning meditation. This time on bum size.

    “Oh my god, Becky! Look at her butt. It’s so big. She looks like one of those rap guys’ girlfriends.”

    It’s the people’s poet Sir Mix-a-Lot.

  98. DJ Shadow specialises in sampling talking. I know it’s cheating but here’s his best use of a voice sample. Thom Yorke sings. Unkle does his thing.

    Rabbit In Your Headlights

    • You did well, Beany. I actually managed a full minute of that, which is a record for me listening to one of your posts.

      Before the thread dies completely, I’d like to thank whoever gave me an ‘up’. I haven’t seen Ticker since the Afterword lethal infection and my self-esteem has been suffering.

Leave a Reply