If you were a wandering homeless person, brain hopelessly damaged by drugs &/or booze, what song would you sing?

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I'm thinking "Cisco Kid."

― RS LaRue (rockist_scientist), Friday, 14 January 2005 17:00 (twenty-one years ago)

LCD Soundsystem - Yeah

― Omar (Omar), Friday, 14 January 2005 17:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Kate Bush: 'Sensual World'

― Miles Finch, Friday, 14 January 2005 17:02 (twenty-one years ago)

A medley of Phil Collins and Sting's greatest hits.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 14 January 2005 17:04 (twenty-one years ago)

"Crashed the Wedding!"

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 14 January 2005 17:04 (twenty-one years ago)

"Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet"?

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 14 January 2005 17:06 (twenty-one years ago)

That Crystal Waters' song: "la da dee la da daa!"

― mottdeterre (mottdeterre), Friday, 14 January 2005 17:08 (twenty-one years ago)

o. nate otm.

― mark p (Mark P), Friday, 14 January 2005 17:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Some guy fitting the above description stopped me in the street recently and asked me for change "...to buy batteries for his personal stereo". Of course I helped him out as much as I could at the time, but alas, I neglected to ask what it was he was listening to.

― NickB (NickB), Friday, 14 January 2005 17:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Satta Amassa Gana

― Snappy (sexyDancer), Friday, 14 January 2005 17:22 (twenty-one years ago)

"I am a lineman for the county, and I ride the main roads..."

― wichita lineman, Friday, 14 January 2005 17:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Stevie Wonder, "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing".

― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Friday, 14 January 2005 17:25 (twenty-one years ago)

They Might Be Giants' "It's Not My Birthday"

― martin m. (mushrush), Friday, 14 January 2005 17:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Isn't this what Tom Waits does?

― The Mad Puffin (The Mad Puffin), Friday, 14 January 2005 17:31 (twenty-one years ago)

And I will go back to my darling, my darling
When you, my darling, are gone

― toothy philanthropist, Friday, 14 January 2005 17:32 (twenty-one years ago)

'Wheels of Confusion'

― 57 7th (calstars), Friday, 14 January 2005 17:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Hall & Oates - Rich Girl

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Friday, 14 January 2005 17:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually, I just realized my description probably fits most professional singers.

― RS LaRue (rockist_scientist), Friday, 14 January 2005 17:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Ashlee Simpson, "La La."

Or, perversely, "Amazing Grace."

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Friday, 14 January 2005 17:49 (twenty-one years ago)

that "How Dry I Am" song the drunks always sing in cartoons.

― john'n'chicago, Friday, 14 January 2005 17:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Nick Cave - "O'Malley's Bar"

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Friday, 14 January 2005 17:55 (twenty-one years ago)

anything by bob dylan. it might make some sense that way.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Friday, 14 January 2005 17:57 (twenty-one years ago)

"The Prophet's Song" by Queen...complete with vocally acrobatic a capella mid-section wherein Freddie harmonizes extravagantly with himself.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 14 January 2005 18:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Baby, It's Cold Outside

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Friday, 14 January 2005 18:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Bon Jovi - Wanted Dead or Alive

hey, if i'm homeless, i'd have bad taste in music.

― pinder (pinder), Friday, 14 January 2005 18:23 (twenty-one years ago)

G N Fn R - PARADISE CITY

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 14 January 2005 18:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Purple rain, purple rain.

― sulky (sulky), Friday, 14 January 2005 18:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I have a voicemail on my phone from where my roommate called me from Ashville after a show, and some homeless dude was all like "HEY MAN, LOOK, I GOT ME SOME WINGS!" and then somehow talks him (my roomy) into handing him the phone, at which point he begins belting out the chorus to the afforementioned ode to that place where the grass is green and the girls are pretty, quite well actually. He gets done and my roomy is like "dude, you've got some pipes", but is cut-off by the dude, who immediately is all like "OKAY THAT'LL BE THREE DOLLARS".

So yeah, "Paradise City".

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 14 January 2005 18:37 (twenty-one years ago)

The Pogues - A man you don't meet everyday

― Shmool McShmool (shmuel), Friday, 14 January 2005 18:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Kool Keith "Girl Let Me Touch You"

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 14 January 2005 18:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd just tell everybody that my drunken, unintelligible ramblings were a Fall song!

j/k MES I luvs you boo, don't take it personal B/F/F! Love the Real New Fall LP for real...when you're in Mpls holla at yr boy!

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Friday, 14 January 2005 18:52 (twenty-one years ago)

If you get caught between the moon and New York City ...

― zaxxon25 (zaxxon25), Friday, 14 January 2005 18:57 (twenty-one years ago)

xtc - senses working overtime

― cutty (mcutt), Friday, 14 January 2005 19:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I was tending bar in the east village, afternoon, nobody there.
omeless guy comes in, puts a dollar in the jukebox, goes straight to Sabbath Volume 4, sings along to 'changes' in a wobbly falsetto, looks around mournfully, no eye contact, it's still just me washing glasses, and he shuffles out.

― autovac (autovac), Friday, 14 January 2005 19:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Pogues - Bottle of Smoke

― 57 7th (calstars), Friday, 14 January 2005 20:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Scritti Politti - "Skank Bloc Bologna" (although I'd end up making up most of the lyrics as I can barely discern what the hell Green's singing)

― Ian Moraine (Eastern Mantra), Friday, 14 January 2005 20:28 (twenty-one years ago)

i once witnessed a gentleman who fits the thread title's description belt out "Roses" by OutKast in downtown San Francisco during an antiwar rally

― ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Friday, 14 January 2005 20:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Gilbert & Sullivan, or Gilbert O'Sullivan

― Haibun (Begs2Differ), Friday, 14 January 2005 20:39 (twenty-one years ago)

This is such a sad tale. Pray tell, what bar?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 14 January 2005 21:15 (twenty-one years ago)

'the wheels on the bus go round and round..round and round....round and round...the wheels on the bus go round and round...all through the day...'

― 6335, Friday, 14 January 2005 21:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd be in the studio with Mouse On Mars contributing my thoughts over an instrumental of "Wipe That Sound". My name would be Mark E. Smith.

― donut christ (donut), Friday, 14 January 2005 21:46 (twenty-one years ago)

"If This Is It" by Huey Lewis & The News.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Friday, 14 January 2005 21:51 (twenty-one years ago)

DON'T!
STOP!
THINKING ABOUT TOMORROW!
DON'T!
STOP!
IT'LL SOON BE HERE!

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 14 January 2005 21:58 (twenty-one years ago)

HEY
YOU
GET OFFA MY CLOUD

― Sonny, Ah!!1 (Sonny A.), Friday, 14 January 2005 21:59 (twenty-one years ago)

JUMP
SHOUT
KNOCK YRSELF OUT

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Friday, 14 January 2005 22:45 (twenty-one years ago)

"24 hr party people" - Happy mondays

― A pair of brown eyes, Friday, 14 January 2005 23:54 (twenty-one years ago)

positive state of mind : beach boys - when i die
negative state of mind : mark owen - home

― trixie fifibelle, Saturday, 15 January 2005 01:28 (twenty-one years ago)

positive state of mind : oasis- cigarettes and alcohol
negative state of mind : blur - last century

― trixie fifibelle, Saturday, 15 January 2005 01:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Cocteau Twins' "Ivo"

― Nic de Teardrop (Nicholas), Saturday, 15 January 2005 01:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I put myself through grad school working with challenged populations, and one of my favorite clients was a bit of a troubadour. His big number (actually, his only number) was "Heartaches by the Number." He didn't know the lyrics beyond the title, but he did know the whole tune, so he'd sing "I got heartaches by the number/one, two, three, four, five” over and over making it fit the melody. It was pretty amazing, actually.

― mottdeterre (mottdeterre), Saturday, 15 January 2005 01:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Arthur Russell - Arm around you. I would be a very hands-on homeless person.

― tyler (tyler), Saturday, 15 January 2005 02:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Uptown girl by Billie Joel

or some medly of mid eighties Phil Collins tunes from around the time of MAMA.

Also singing out what you are thinking in your head has always worked well for me.

― hector (hector), Saturday, 15 January 2005 02:15 (twenty-one years ago)

"yours is no disgrace" or "shame on a nigga"

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Saturday, 15 January 2005 03:26 (twenty-one years ago)

A Salty Salute

― j.m. lockery (j.m. lockery), Saturday, 15 January 2005 04:11 (twenty-one years ago)

"i need nothing
i've everything i need
i walk along the dusty road
a doughnut in my hand"

― zappi (joni), Saturday, 15 January 2005 04:15 (twenty-one years ago)

'How's My Drinking' GBV
'Six Pack' Black Flag
'Here comes a regular' Replacements

― hull hole (hull hole), Saturday, 15 January 2005 08:39 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

Elton John: "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" (because I suddenly feel the impulse to start singing it loudly at work for no reason).

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Wednesday, 1 February 2006 18:53 (nineteen years ago)

Anything by Diamanda Galas.

― cnwb (cnwb), Thursday, 2 February 2006 04:42 (nineteen years ago)

If I would ever find myself as a wandering transversing this plane with an omnipresent host of demons at my side as defined in this thread, the song would be King Crimson - "Starless"

Old friend charity
Cruel twisted smile
And the smile signals emptiness
For me
Starless and Bible Black

Either That or "The Real Folk Blues" (Cowboy Bebop Ending). In perfect Japanese, might I add (and I don't even speak Japanese).

― Cliftonb, Thursday, 2 February 2006 05:48 (nineteen years ago)

Ohh I want to hear.. one of those - Pphhh! Oh Fucking Christ! I've cum! - songs

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 2 February 2006 14:06 (nineteen years ago)

It's going to be a Roxy Music medley. They've been bubbling up ever since first heard Roxy Music and tried booze/drugs as a teenager. Could consist of:

In Every Dream Home a Heartache
Same Old Scene
A Really Good Time
Thrill of It All
Could It Happen to Me
Mother of Pearl

etcetera

― Thea (Thea), Thursday, 2 February 2006 15:33 (nineteen years ago)

Spanish is the loving tongue - Bob Dylan

― jimnaseum (jimnaseum), Thursday, 2 February 2006 16:00 (nineteen years ago)

Surfin' Bird

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Thursday, 2 February 2006 16:03 (nineteen years ago)

Cramps style.

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Thursday, 2 February 2006 16:04 (nineteen years ago)

The guy outside my hotel room in San Francisco last year decided that "Lean On Me" - just the chorus, mind you, over and over - would be the perfect song to sing from about 2 until 3:30 in the morning when the cops finally made him leave.

I think that may have been the closest I've ever come to seriously pondering killing another human.

― joygoat (joygoat), Thursday, 2 February 2006 16:10 (nineteen years ago)

"Well it looks so real I can feel it,
And it feels so real I can taste it,
And it tastes so real I can hear it,
And it sounds so real I can see it,
So why-y-y-y-y can’t I touch it?"

...with many variations, further mix-&-matching the senses and their respective functions.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Thursday, 2 February 2006 16:11 (nineteen years ago)

"Life's Been Good" - Joe Walsh. Er, maybe because I can actually picture Joe Walsh as a wandering homeless person, brain hopelessly damaged by drugs &/or booze. But anyway, I choose this song as an homage to Joe in all seriousny.

― Dave will do (dave225.3), Thursday, 2 February 2006 16:12 (nineteen years ago)

..also, I would be singing the "denownadeenuh, ba deenananow BOW BOW" part and not the lyrics.

― Dave will do (dave225.3), Thursday, 2 February 2006 16:12 (nineteen years ago)

"I'm the Greatest" by Ringo

― Billy Pilgrim (Billy Pilgrim), Thursday, 2 February 2006 16:13 (nineteen years ago)

I think I would just holler the three-note bass riff from YLT's "We're An American Band" most of the time, except I would take time out two or three times a day to fall on the ground, piss myself, foam at the mouth and screech a guitar solo.

― truck-patch pixel farmer (my crop froze in the field) (Rock Hardy), Thursday, 2 February 2006 16:22 (nineteen years ago)

yeah the Joe Walsh "Life's..." track would be fun, rasping the synth noises Petra Haden-style with a voice like whiskey poured over broken glass

― Thea (Thea), Thursday, 2 February 2006 17:40 (nineteen years ago)

ooh, I forgot about that part .. even better ...

― Dave will do (dave225.3), Thursday, 2 February 2006 17:41 (nineteen years ago)

eleven years pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oorzwn4E5xc

― Wes Brodicus, Friday, 12 January 2018 22:20 (eight years ago)

Star Wars, nothing but star wars

― June Pointer’s Valentine’s Day Secret Admirer Note Author (calstars), Friday, 12 January 2018 22:26 (eight years ago)

cal stars, nothing but cal stars

― June Pointer’s Valentine’s Day Secret Admirer Note Author (calstars), Friday, 12 January 2018 22:27 (eight years ago)

Wandering homeless, brain damaged on substances is kind of my ideal state, so ymmv

― June Pointer’s Valentine’s Day Secret Admirer Note Author (calstars), Friday, 12 January 2018 22:31 (eight years ago)

I have solid experience in all five of these things and the answer is clearly 'Virginia Plain' by Roxy Music.

― Doran, Friday, 12 January 2018 22:35 (eight years ago)

"The Harder They Come" by Jimmy Cliff. But I would struggle to keep it straight in my head and would lapse into "Don't Look Back" by Jagger/Tosh :(

― dorsalstop, Friday, 12 January 2018 22:39 (eight years ago)

I can't believe that not everyone immediately responded with Tom Waits, particularly "Anywhere I Lay My Head"

― josh az (2011nostalgia), Saturday, 13 January 2018 00:20 (eight years ago)

Some Zeppelin, maybe a little Floyd, Skynyrd

― kornrulez6969, Saturday, 13 January 2018 00:22 (eight years ago)

"Home On the Range"

― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Saturday, 13 January 2018 00:24 (eight years ago)

"Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet"?
― o. nate (onate), Friday, January 14, 2005 12:06 PM (twelve years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This was my first thought.

― Rod Steel (musicfanatic), Saturday, 13 January 2018 01:30 (eight years ago)

well today I was singing "If you leave me now" so that

― trife's rich padgett (rip van wanko), Saturday, 13 January 2018 01:32 (eight years ago)

"(Don't Fear) the Reaper" would be my jam.

― earlnash, Saturday, 13 January 2018 02:04 (eight years ago)

Arthur's theme

― pre millennial tension (uptown churl), Saturday, 13 January 2018 02:24 (eight years ago)

Velvet Underground s/t in its entirety... you don't wanna know how I pull off "Murder Mystery"

― bernard snowy, Saturday, 13 January 2018 02:49 (eight years ago)

fuck this thread

― marcos, Saturday, 13 January 2018 02:57 (eight years ago)

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