Favorite Obscure Rock Song


What is your favorite obscure Rock Song? 

It's hard for me to pick just one, but my favorite pick is Fleetwood Mac's song Station Man from the album Kiln House.  That song's rolling twin guitars just hit me the right way. It has a JJ Cale type of vibe with a biting lead guitar.  I have liked that song since I was in college in the mid seventies.  I borrowed Kiln House from a room mate and never gave it back to him.  Granted, I much prefer the earlier Peter Green Fleetwood Mac albums, but the Jeremy Spencer/Danny Kirwin era Fleetwood Mac created a some excellent songs on middling albums.

I am interested in learning what your favorites are.

 

 

 

 

flyfish77

I have many but one I was just listening to is Theme From Boat Weirdos by Joe Walsh.

I love "Station Man" and love Danny Kirwan’s playing, both from that period and earlier with P. Green. I’ve started working it out on guitar several times but never managed to learn it all the way through.

Not really sure what qualifies as "obscure" but a few more, off the top of my head: "Seasons" by Steve Miller Band, "Someday World" by Wishbone Ash, "In the Kingdom" by Hot Tuna, "Winter" by the Stones, "Each Morning" by Les Dudek, "I Fall Apart" by R. Gallagher. .

Here's the R. Gallagher:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzxi9QgAKYQ

 

@rick_n    You are "spot on" with that one.   Listened to it again last night along with "Cinema Show".

I still go back to "Arriving Somewhere But Not Here"  by Porcupine Tree from time to time.   It has a nice complexity and depth.

 

Not sure if it qualifies as "obscure" but I like All of You by Don Felder from the Heavy Metal soundtrack.

 

You guys have been responding to exactly what I was talking about. I forgot about Jenny 867-5309.  That is a great song. So is Supper's Ready.

Mick Jagger, Going Home, on Aftermath: 11 minutes of amazing vocal performance. Don't know about streaming sound, awesome on LP, CD, R2R

 

These are arguably trend more towards "progressive rock" than "mainstream rock". Apologies for not picking just one:

"The Camera Eye", Rush

"Moths", Jethro Tull

"Astronomy", Blue Oyster Cult

"11:59 PM October 30th", The Changelings

"Rajah Khan"; Rennaissance

"Caislean Oir", Clannad

 

I don't really find these obscure.  If you can find it on Qobuz, it's not really obscure, IMHO.  

"Abort" by Tribe

"Jennifer's Bills" by Spirit Varnish

Here are some you might actually find on some streaming services:

"100% White Girl" by VKTMS

"Machine Gun Voodoo" by SPK

 

Post removed 

TRAPEZE - "Black Cloud"

BEBOP DELUXE - "Blue As a Jewel*" (Demo version*)

X - "White Girl"

FETCHIN' BONES - "Deep Blue"

WISHBONE ASH - "You See Red"

Going back to around 1960 Roy Buchanan the Jam part 1 and 2 which he didnot 

even get credit for .

Frigid Pink - Summer time blues 

 The Sensational Alex Harvey Band   

 
    There's No Lights On The Christmas Tree Mother, They're Burning Big Louie Tonight

Hope I spell this correctly :  )  In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly. One of the best drum solos 

 

This cut is not strictly "rock", but it's one of my favorite cuts from this album....deserving of being heard.

In the certified, but maybe not too obscure "rock" category I love "Wasted Union Blues" from the first It's a Beautiful Day album.

Great thread.

Here's a couple of songs that I think are pretty obscure that I just love. These date from the early 70's.

Caravan: Memory Lane/Hugh Headloss (from "For Girls Who Grow Plump In The Night"). The song is available on Qobuz on the Caravan Anthology album but the original album is not on Qobuz. The original album is one of my Desert Island Discs.

Savoy Brown: Ooh What a Feeling (from "Wire Fire"). Album out of print and not available on Qobuz but this song is available on YouTube. This is a great party album.

Bright Light Social Hour - Sea of the Edge

Psychedelic rock band from Austin, TX....I saw these guys live in a hole in the wall bar...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOeZ-q5q-dk

A Letter of Thanks - Jack Bruce

Times - Rare Bird

Hyannisport Soul - Colours

Great thread overall, thanks @flyfish77  Here are two that have been front and center the past several months.  Will be interesting to see if someone can pick up the thread of how I discovered them.  

That's OK, He'll be our Brother Someday - Barefoot Jerry  (1971, the best year ever!) 

Oh Lord - Geordie (Brian Johnson's first band) 

 

I’ve been listening to Frank Zappa since 1967. I listen almost daily. Nothing is obscure anymore.

Bent

How obscure are we getting... some of these are obscure for a reason, lol.

Free, "Mr Big" off Fire & Water

The Modern Lovers, "Pablo Picasso" off The Modern Lovers

Blue Mountain, "Let's Ride" off Dog Days

Grant Lee Buffalo, "Mockingbirds" off Mighty Joe Moon

Hanne Boel, "Still Shines" off Outtakes

Ruston Kelly, "Blackout" off Dying Star

I dont know how obscure these are but they're no Saitisfaction, Purple Rain or Walk This Way... just my opinion

 

 

The late / great Chris Squire made a couple of great records outside of Yes.  One is his collaboration with Steve Nardelli on a Syn record titled Syndestructable.  Another I love is he and Steve Hackett got together to form Squackett which gave birth to A Life Within a Day. 

"Supper’s Ready" by Genesis

I hate to be that guy. But the state of present day rock is pretty bad if Supper’s Ready is considered obscure.

But I am not that guy, since there is an ongoing supply of great modern music.

But as a huge fan of prog, I can go way more obscure.

Since most prog bands did not have writing hits, or radio friendly songs, as a goal, the vast majority of prog, present and past, is obscure,

Back in the 70’s, prog rock from Italy was considered equal in quality, based purely on the quality of the music, so the list of brilliant obscure prog from Italy is long and deep.

Premniata Forneria Marconi - Dove...Quando, Impressioni di Settembre, Per un Amico

Banco del Mutuo Socorrso - Canto Nomade Per Un Prigioniero Politico, Metamorfosi

Arti e Mestieri - Articolazioni

I could seriously list dozens more Italian prog songs, that are the equal or near the equal of most of their Brit contemporaries.

And that is not even going into prog from France, Spain, the US, Japan, Canada, Poland, that was also at an extremely high level.

More current stuff:

Pain of Salvation - The Perfect Elemnt, Beyond the Pale, Inside Out / near brilliant Swedish prog-metal.

Riverside - Egoist Hedonist, Second Life Syndrome, Deprived (Irretrievably Lost Imagination) / Great Polish prog/prog-metal band.

Steve Wilson - The Raven That Refused to Sing, Luminol, Raider II

 

 

@mitchagain Trapeze... the most underrated album of the 70's. I remember that nobody knew this album even back in the day. My pick would be the song Jury.