Songs featuring instruments replicating other sounds.

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Springing off this thread.... Songwriting cliche #435: Song cues in lyrics

"Police on My Back" by the Clash - Guitars mimicking police sirens.
"I Fought the Law" by the Clash - Snare drum mimicking six gun shots.
"Love Gun" by Kiss - guitars and drums mimicking machine gun blasts.
"In a Big Country" by Big Country - Guitars mimicking bagpipes

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 9 October 2004 05:18 (twenty-one years ago)

"The Raven" by the Stranglers - Dave Greenfeld's keyboard coda mimicks the cries of a raven.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 9 October 2004 05:19 (twenty-one years ago)

"Bulls on Parade" by Rage Against the Machine - guitar mimicking scratching turntables.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 9 October 2004 05:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Montrose- Bad Motor Scooter - guitars mimicking motorcycle engines
Otis Redding - Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay - guitars mimicking seagulls

― officer pupp, Saturday, 9 October 2004 06:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Guitars, gently weeping

― mottdeterre (mottdeterre), Saturday, 9 October 2004 06:18 (twenty-one years ago)

"Evanescent Pez Drop" by Yo La Tengo - guitars mimicking didgeridoo
"Karen Koltrane" by Sonic Youth - guitars mimicking a pile driver

― Melson (ArchCarrier), Saturday, 9 October 2004 06:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Guitars mimmicking a wolf whistle in "The Joker"

― mottdeterre (mottdeterre), Saturday, 9 October 2004 06:51 (twenty-one years ago)

"Those Damn Blue-Collar Tweekers" by Primus - Guitars mimicking police sirens.

"Fish On" by Primus - bass and guitars mimicking the entire act of catching a fish, rod flung out, fish trying to get away etc etc.

― piers (piers), Saturday, 9 October 2004 06:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Voice mimicking a speeding, passing car on a highway in "The Last Chance Texaco"

― Penelope_111 (Penelope_111), Saturday, 9 October 2004 07:12 (twenty-one years ago)

the young gods.

oh.

― frenchbloke (frenchbloke), Saturday, 9 October 2004 10:41 (twenty-one years ago)

First Vienna Vegetable Orchestra to thread, pls.

― William Crump (Rock Hardy), Saturday, 9 October 2004 14:10 (twenty-one years ago)

David Lee Roth "Yankee Rose" = guitar imitating drunk asshole in strip bar

― dave q, Saturday, 9 October 2004 14:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Also, Adrian Belew's arsenal of animal noises. Aside from using guitar synth as a controller for stuff like "The Guitar as Orchestra" (which is all played on the guitar but simulates keyboards, horns, strings, percussion, even audience applause), he can do some interesting noises with a regular electric guitar, elephant-trumpeting being probably the best known.

― William Crump (Rock Hardy), Saturday, 9 October 2004 14:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Velvet Underground, "Sister Ray" (drumsticks as door-knocking)
Jeff Beck Group, "I Ain't Superstitious" (wah-wah guitar as barking dog)
Every song that ever incorporated a sampler

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Saturday, 9 October 2004 14:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Todd Rundgren doing motorcycle revving with an electric guitar on "Bat out of hell".

― Acme (acme), Saturday, 9 October 2004 14:40 (twenty-one years ago)

on 'cowboys and aliens'-keyboards played by no one.
steve vai and his talking guitar on 'yankee rose'

― keith m (keithmcl), Saturday, 9 October 2004 14:42 (twenty-one years ago)

oops yankee rose already mentioned

― keith m (keithmcl), Saturday, 9 October 2004 14:42 (twenty-one years ago)

"Light Aircraft On Fire," The Auteurs - guitar mimicking a plane engine on take-off.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Saturday, 9 October 2004 15:46 (twenty-one years ago)

William Crump cited Belew already, but possibly it was Fripp who makes elephant noises with his guitar on "ELephant Talk" by King Crimson.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 9 October 2004 17:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Sousaphone imitating laughing, animal noises, and turntable scratching on various New Orleans brass band records.

― Jordan (Jordan), Saturday, 9 October 2004 17:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Also, the whole Clifford Brown Quintet imitating a train coming into the station on 'Take the A Train' from A Study in Brown.

― Jordan (Jordan), Saturday, 9 October 2004 17:53 (twenty-one years ago)

hendrix - "machine gun"

self-explanatory

― you will be shot (you will be shot), Saturday, 9 October 2004 17:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Alex, the animal noises were a big part of Belew's early repertoire, but it's possible Fripp might have picked them up, so I double checked on the "Neal and Jack and Me" DVD, and it is Belew doing the elephant thing. I recommend that DVD highly, by the way; it's sort of the video equivalent of "Absent Lovers," establishing Crim Mark IV as a great, great live band.

(formerly Rock Hardy)

― William Crump (Rock Hardy), Saturday, 9 October 2004 19:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Kraftwerk to thread!

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 9 October 2004 21:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Duane Allman made his guitar chirp like a bird at the end of "Layla" in tribute to Charlie Parker. Seriously.

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Saturday, 9 October 2004 22:35 (twenty-one years ago)

"Tommy Gun" by The Clash - Drums mimicking gun fire.
"Bullet the Blue Sky" by U2- The Edge's guitar solo mimicks the sound of a fighter plane.
"Like a Stone" by Audioslave - Tom Morello's guitar mimicks a church organ in the introduction.
"Light My Way" by Audioslave - Morello's guitar perfectly mimicks a cell phone's ringtone around the second verse.

The rest of my list here depends a bit more on interpretation than on than on song cues in lyrics, etc., but here goes:
"Testify" by Rage Against the Machine - I've always thought the guitar in the intro sounded like a tiger or lion's growl.
"Voice of the Voiceless" by Rage Against the Machine - In one the streaming videos that were put up on the website a few years ago, Morello talks about how he tried to mimick the techniques used by bagpipe players by playing other notes over a droning sound from the other strings.
"Mic Check" by Rage Against the Machine - There's a definite cow "Moo" sound in the middle of the Morello's guitar-mimicking-a-turntable-scratching solo.
And a bunch of other effects by Morello, emulating synthesizer sounds, etc.

― Voodoo Man, Sunday, 10 October 2004 03:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Matthew Herbert (aka Herbert) using just about anything as percussion (cereal boxes crushing, newspaper ripping, etc etc).... "The Audience" uses his sample and loop technique with partner and vocalist Dani Siciliano's voice...one of my faves... :)

― DJ Muse, Sunday, 10 October 2004 05:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I remember, as an impressionable (read: gullible) youth being told that all the animal noises on "Good Morning" by ye olde Beatles on Sgt.Pepper's.. were made with a guitar. In retrospect, I sincerely doubt the veracity of this claim.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 10 October 2004 13:36 (twenty-one years ago)

"Like a Stone" by Audioslave - Tom Morello's guitar mimicks a church organ in the introduction.

Made a mistake. It was "I am the Highway" that has the church organ intro.

― Voodoo Man, Monday, 11 October 2004 00:56 (twenty-one years ago)

You can tell a difference?

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Monday, 11 October 2004 01:28 (twenty-one years ago)

The guitar on "How Soon is Now" always sounds like a car going past to me.

― Wooden (Wooden), Monday, 11 October 2004 01:30 (twenty-one years ago)

being told that all the animal noises on "Good Morning" by ye olde Beatles on Sgt.Pepper's.. were made with a guitar.Then again, I always liked how "Good Morning" ends with a chicken clucking and segues right into the "Sgt. Pepper" reprise with a guitar completely mimicking that sound.

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Monday, 11 October 2004 01:43 (twenty-one years ago)

rev. gary davis would often do piano and whistling impressions on his guitar. i cant htink so specific recordings right now.

― tom cleveland (tom cleveland), Monday, 11 October 2004 02:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Neil Young, all with guitars:
"Motor City" (engine backfiring)
"Southern Pacific" (chugga chugga of a steam engine)
"Shots"

― bill neil (inabillity), Monday, 11 October 2004 02:20 (twenty-one years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.