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ROCK AND ROLL! => All Them Other Guys => Topic started by: Zzzptm on April 24, 2025, 09:33:54 AM
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Fauna and Flora - Living nature, animals and plants etc whether real or fictional.
That's the subject for this thread, and to kick it off, I gotta use the track that gives us the thread title:
Rush "Trees"
I remember hearing it the first time and loved the story... dude, it's about TREE REVOLUTION!!! :rockon:
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I don't have a complete list yet, but I have one ready to go...
Rush - Dog Years
I probably wouldn't have gone with The Trees, it's fine but they have better!
This is from the vastly underrated Test For Echoes (1996), a light-hearted look at life through a dog's eyes!
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Let's keep the mini-theme within a theme going:
Rush with By-Tor and The Snow Dog! Those animals make an appearance in a future song by those crazy talented Canadians.
I think By-Tor is more of a kind of beast-thing rather than a canine, but the Snow Dog...well, he'd be a dog all the way!
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YEAH! RUSH!
Jethro Tull will likely be also playing at this festival... :D
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I've been away for a bit so sorry for being late to the party here...
Hmm this is going to require some thinking....
But I'll kick things off with a track that did not quite fit to my Horror listing.
So this is a track about a wolf that once was a man...
MIDNIGHT DREAMS by Solitude Aeturnus
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Inspired by Chargers pick, my 2nd pick is...
Motorhead - In The Year Of The Wolf
From the fabulous album Inferno... and this is one of the best songs on it.
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For my second pick I'll go with a Black Sabbath tune that is about a mythical creature that flies in the night...or simply about an owl...take your pick.
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This: Propagandhi “March of the Crabs"
:metal1:
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Not been round much this weekend so I'm a little late with my 3rd pick...
Hawkwind - Into the Woods
A take on the Hansel and Gretel story or similar!
If you go into these woods you're in for a big demise!
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For my 3rd one I'm gonna go for some DOOOM!
This is about a Serpent
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Pick number 4
Iced Earth - Order of the Rose
From 2006 album Framing Armageddon. As it's a concept album I'm not quite sure how this stands on its own, but I rather like it still as I do the whole album.
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That Iced Earth release is a good one!
Number 4:
The Cult sing about some dangerous flora on their late 1980's release, "Wild Flower":
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I am behind three days... but I have the first of my makeup work ready to go.
I'll start off by saying I recently did "Poultry Week" on The Magic Time Warp Show. 36 songs about Duck, Turkey, and Chicken. Mostly chicken. :smug: So I got animal songs, for sure! :D
But the folks here like their 70s rock and metal, so I wondered if Deep Purple did any nature stuff and came up blank. I thought of Iron Maiden, but those guys sing mostly about other topics and HOLD ON WAIT A MINUTE...
Maiden sang about The Beast. Not just *any* beast, *THE* BEAST!!!
Sure, there's devils and stuff in the song, but it's about *** T H E ___ B E A S T ***
And as we all know, beasts are animals!
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Speaking of beasties... there's a song from Blue Oyster Cult about a wee little lizard that had a bit of fun in Japan...
HOLY SHIT! IT'S GODZILLA!
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For my 4th pick I'll have some rockin' occult metal by SAVAGE MASTER!
This one has Blood On The Rose but it also has some Wolves!
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This one is from Mountain, "Flowers of Evil", about coming home from Vietnam, addicted to heroin. That's made from the opium poppy, the flower of evil in the title.
The story in the song is heartbreaking... "It's too expensive to stop this war."
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Cislo five:
An ode to bacon, Pink Floyd unleashed Pigs (Three Different Ones) on the world in the mid 70's on their aptly titled album Animals.
That Mountain release is a great, underrated song. No doubt lost in the ubiquity of like-themed tunes of the time.
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^^^
I wondered if someone might post from that album!
My 5th pick
The Stranglers - Down in the Sewer
I thought a "rat" related song was required. I first thought of Chew by Jello Biafra and NoMeansNo, but I think I posted that in the horror listing and I don't want to repeat myself if I can help it! So I went with this from the Stranglers 1977 debut Rattus Norvegicus. It's almost got prog sensibilities about it, nearly 8 minutes, split into 4 sections and so on!
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My #5 comes from MEGADETH and is about a DEADLY NIGHSHADE!
Maybe not among my favourites from this brilliant album but it's still a very good one!
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Was playing Slade in Flame this morning... and "Them Kinda Monkeys Can't Swing" was on that album. Got a great overdrive on this track, and, yeah, it's got animals in it!
Monkeys, birdies, and pigs, to be specific!
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... and that one reminded me that Black Sabbath did a botanical tune, I think it's about some kind of tobacco varietal... are there any other kinds of smokable leaves? :smug:
"Sweet Leaf" live at the Cal Jam :rockon:
:geezer:
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Pick #6
New Model Army - Snelsmore Wood
I wasn't a huge fan of this back in 2000 when the Eight album came out, but it has grown on me over the years.
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6th pick
This one comes from BLACKMORE's NIGHT...frankly there could have been several choices on this very album Ghost Of A Rose (including the title track ofcourse) but I find this to be the best of the lot so here are 3 BLACK CROWS!
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Pick number 7
Yes - Don't Kill the Whale
From one of Yes' worst albums 1978s Tormato, this was always the best song, even if they did get some shit for the lyrics! I did listen to the album recently and it isn't quite as bad as I remember!
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First song on their debut in 2005, Red Fang brings my number 6 selection with Prehistoric Dog:
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My number 7 comes from SAVATAGE
Even though the title hints to a mythical location in south America this was actually inspired by a spring near where Jon and Criss lived.
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Number seven is a gentle ode to animals. A relatively new release, it came out in 2021 from the band Architects and is called Animals.
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Pick numero 8
Marc Bolan and T Rex - Ride A White Swan
This was always on my radar to include here. Always been a fan, but it could do with being longer!
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"Is she really going out with him?"
The Damned - New Rose
Even starts with a picture of a flower, that's botany for ya right there!
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"... but it was a rare occasion, such as this one, that he did."
Primus - Tommy the Cat
This song is creepin' up on 40 years old now... wow...
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My 8th one is a cold cold one...
As it talks about ICED EARTH!
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Pick number 9
Metal Church - Dead on the Vine
Vines are a type of plant... this is great song from the guys.
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From 1959, The Coasters sing about that nasty plant Poison Ivy. Although I'm thinking there might be some innuendo going on here...
Number eight:
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What? Innuendo in the fifties??? Surely not... :smug:
Side note: generally, if a song got into the pop charts in the 50s/early 60s, it was either clean or clean enough... in the case of Poison Ivy, the group were ostensibly singing about a young lady who had undesirable characteristics as a potential long-term romantic partner with matrimony as the final objective. Sure, it could be taken other ways, but since it could be read as a clean track, it was clean enough.
On the other hand, if it hit the top of the R&B charts, there was no such conclusion that could be drawn. Wynonie Harris had a song about "churning butter" that was highly graphic, Dinah Washington had one about a boyfriend that exhibited freight handling skills, and Big Joe Turner had one about a big-legged woman... none of those can I play on my show, as they go too far. There's another by Eddie Cochran about peanuts at the movies, but "peanuts" gets real sloppy in pronunciation... so, nope, I don't play that one, neither.
Side note the second: Check out the Stones' version of "Poison Ivy", it's able to stand up next to The Coasters' version toe-to-toe in a true Rock and Roll Football classic!
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I'll stay with heavy rock for my official 9th submission, "Wicked Willow" from Mos Generator. This is a great track, very much in feel to what Black Sabbath had on Vol. 4 and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.
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My 9th comes from CATHEDRAL who take us to the INERTIA's CAVE!
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Number 9:
Sweaty Teddy sings about The Great White Buffalo:
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For my final pick I'll go with DIO and them telling us it's time to LOCK UP THE WOLVES!!
Not a huge fan of this album BUT this title track is actually among DIO's best!
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Gotta go with Jerkin' Crocus by Mott the Hoople to round things out...
They play it faster live than on the studio disc, and I love the live recording from their official live album, but be warned it's the start of a medley. The standalone live recordings are all muddy bootlegs, don't do Mott any justice.
Back to the point, crocus is a flower. But, somehow, I get the impression the lads aren't discussing gardening... :think:
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Number 10 - Orchid by Black Sabbath. No lyrics, but smells flowery, like an orchid.
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My pick number 10
The Osmonds - Wild Horses
If you're not familiar with the group... may I suggest you don't seek out any of their back catalogue as this is the only one that rocks!
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^ Osmonds had a few hard rock bangers in their career, but yeah they're mostly bubblegum pop. :)
But that one reminds me of a GREAT Tommy Bolin track... and he just so happened to have Deep Purple as his backing band on this performance...
Deep Purple / Tommy Bolin - "Wild Dogs"
It's one of those slow rockers that doesn't have to crank up the speed at the end to get good. It holds steady all the way through and delivers an exceptionally well-crafted song. Bolin stepped off this planet too soon, man...
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Then this one pops to mind, needs inclusion here...
Atomic Rooster "Black Snake"
The live version with Chris Farlowe is amazing. Man eats a sandwich in the middle of the track, like a boss. Well worth hitting the button to play it on YouTube if you haven't heard it, or just haven't heard it in a while.