Looking for examples of songs with vocals like "Pepper"
January 29, 2023 8:58 AM   Subscribe

I'm looking for song examples where the singer "speaks" over music in a more or less plain voice (possibly in a rhythmic fashion). The first forty seconds of The Butthole Surfers "Pepper" is the best example I know. I am not looking for rap or hip hop or trap unless it's very different. Not looking for people using recorded samples of speaking over music. I am looking for diverse examples of people using a speaking voice over music. It can be just a short section of a piece.
posted by fake to Media & Arts (110 answers total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
How about Dry Cleaning?
posted by falsedmitri at 9:00 AM on January 29, 2023 [2 favorites]


Soul Coughing's whole deal is deadpan flat affect slightly singsong words over music.
posted by nebulawindphone at 9:01 AM on January 29, 2023 [14 favorites]


There's plenty of sprechstimme in operetta and musical theatre. E.g. "Why can't the English [learn to speak]?" from My Fair Lady.
posted by humbug at 9:06 AM on January 29, 2023


First thing that came to my mind was Going the Distance by Cake.
posted by TheFantasticNumberFour at 9:07 AM on January 29, 2023 [14 favorites]


I feel like Mr. Freeze by K’s Choice has some of this.
posted by obfuscation at 9:11 AM on January 29, 2023


The Mountain Goats' See America Right is almost 100% this.
posted by praemunire at 9:12 AM on January 29, 2023 [3 favorites]


Beck-Loser
posted by ActionPopulated at 9:13 AM on January 29, 2023 [3 favorites]


Talking Heads, Seen and Not Seen
posted by bondcliff at 9:14 AM on January 29, 2023 [3 favorites]


"Somewhere Down the Crazy River" by Robbie Robertson fits your criteria pretty well, I think. And it's a great song.
posted by akk2014 at 9:14 AM on January 29, 2023 [3 favorites]


For me, it's in the middle of Elvis' Are You Lonesome Tonight or the early Stones' Time Is On My Side although these lack the rhythms of "Pepper" which does seem like rap or hip-hop to me. That's song's dead-pan vocals start at 0:25 and sound the same all the way through, no change at 0:40, and their delivery reminds me of Beck's "Loser" also.
posted by Rash at 9:15 AM on January 29, 2023


Ghosts of the Forest, About to Run
U2, Exit
posted by bondcliff at 9:18 AM on January 29, 2023


T-Bone Burnett - Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend
posted by Redstart at 9:19 AM on January 29, 2023


R.E.M. – Belong
posted by mbrubeck at 9:22 AM on January 29, 2023 [3 favorites]


Baz Lerhmann Everybodys free to wear sunscreen maybe? Not quite as rhythmic as some.
posted by cgg at 9:22 AM on January 29, 2023 [4 favorites]


The Dead Milkmen have a bunch of songs that are basically just talking - e.g. Stuart, Cousin Earl.

Not particularly rhythmic, more conversational.
posted by mskyle at 9:32 AM on January 29, 2023 [1 favorite]


U2,Numb
posted by corey flood at 9:34 AM on January 29, 2023 [4 favorites]


First Big Weekend by Arab Strap
posted by vunder at 9:37 AM on January 29, 2023 [2 favorites]


A couple of sections of If I Had A Million Dollars by Barenaked Ladies.

Bitchin’ Camaro is another good Dead Milkmen one.
posted by mbrubeck at 9:41 AM on January 29, 2023 [3 favorites]


Jonathan Richman – Tandem Jump
posted by mbrubeck at 9:44 AM on January 29, 2023


I came across this very silly song – Olive, by Ken Nordine. There's a whole group of artists like this that are essentially poetry put over music.
posted by lookoutbelow at 9:45 AM on January 29, 2023 [2 favorites]


Parklife by Blur.

(Unrelated: Despite this song being part of the soundtrack to my late teens/early twenties, I’ve never noticed before that none of the video is actually set in a park…)
posted by penguin pie at 9:50 AM on January 29, 2023 [3 favorites]


ghetto defendent, william s. burroughs speaking.
posted by j_curiouser at 9:54 AM on January 29, 2023


Roll the Bones by Rush
posted by Enid Lareg at 9:55 AM on January 29, 2023


Patti Smith's Dancing Barefoot has a spoken word part at 3:30, can you hear a young Michael Stipe listening?

The Sugarcubes and B-52s had/have incredible female vocalists but the male vocalists used a form of Sprechgesang (don't Germans have a word for everything?)

And jeez, Jim recited poetry over like 50% of The Doors songs.

(Note also that "Pepper" was directly inspired by "Loser" which is essentially a hip-hop track)
posted by credulous at 9:57 AM on January 29, 2023 [2 favorites]


Roger Ruskin Spear's Mattress Man
posted by Rash at 10:00 AM on January 29, 2023


Satan Is Real by the Louvin Brothers, which these days is mostly known for the hilarious album cover but which I find strangely hypnotic. Entirely spoken except the first and last couple lines.
posted by showbiz_liz at 10:01 AM on January 29, 2023 [1 favorite]


Self Esteem - I Do This All the Time

https://youtu.be/Mtd_jlV61mA

Self Esteem is Rebecca Lucy Taylor, and she is hands down fantastic.
posted by JJZByBffqU at 10:05 AM on January 29, 2023


Response by poster: So many great answers here, thank you all! Please keep 'em coming.
posted by fake at 10:07 AM on January 29, 2023


Kae Tempest's stuff
posted by atlantica at 10:08 AM on January 29, 2023 [1 favorite]


A lot of Beck's music is like this
posted by jordemort at 10:10 AM on January 29, 2023 [1 favorite]


Lest we not forget The Nails
posted by credulous at 10:10 AM on January 29, 2023 [7 favorites]


Diana Ross, Ain't No Mountain High Enough (multiple times throughout the song: 1:20 - 1:59; 2:28 - 2:46, 3:38 - 4:15)
posted by skye.dancer at 10:11 AM on January 29, 2023




Let It Out (Let it all hang out) by the Hombres (1968)
posted by Rash at 10:30 AM on January 29, 2023 [1 favorite]


Very different hip-hop, largely poetry-adjacent:

Mike Ladd - How Electricity Really Works
The Last Poets ft Chuck D - Down to Now
Jessica Care Moore ft Talib Kweli - Catch Me if You Can
The Roots ft Ursula Rucker - The Return to Innocence Lost
Gil Scott-Heron - Whitey on the Moon
posted by box at 10:34 AM on January 29, 2023 [2 favorites]


The Pursuit of Happiness - I'm an Adult Now
posted by JoeZydeco at 10:35 AM on January 29, 2023 [1 favorite]


A lot of Leonard Cohen's stuff, particularly from the late '80s on, was like this.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 10:48 AM on January 29, 2023 [3 favorites]


Velvet Underground - The Gift
posted by crime online at 10:54 AM on January 29, 2023 [3 favorites]




The Format do a fair bit of this in the middle of Time Bomb.
posted by armeowda at 11:13 AM on January 29, 2023


Oh, and I almost forgot Bruce Cockburn’s shamelessly eco-nerdy If A Tree Falls.
posted by armeowda at 11:15 AM on January 29, 2023 [2 favorites]


Oh, there was a band in the late 70s through early 90s called Flash and the Pan that had a lot of songs with spoken lyrics (often spoken verses with sung choruses).

I can't vouch for the videos in that playlist, just the songs.

One of their founding members, George Young, was brothers with Malcolm and Angus Young of AC/DC.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 11:17 AM on January 29, 2023 [2 favorites]


We Don't Need Nobody Else by Whipping Boy.
A Century of Elvis by Belle and Sebastian.
Hey Pretty (Drive-by 2001 mix) by Poe (with Mark Danielewski).
posted by rollick at 11:18 AM on January 29, 2023 [1 favorite]


MC 900ft Jesus does this a lot. My fave.
posted by Mid at 11:18 AM on January 29, 2023 [1 favorite]


Joan Baez's 1968 anti-war album Baptism is mostly spoken over music from one end to the other.

There are countless 'novelty' songs like this. The one that made me laugh myself silly over the absolutely non-ironic performance as well as the fact that it could exist in the first place is Lorne Greene's Ringo.
posted by jamjam at 11:28 AM on January 29, 2023 [1 favorite]


Death Cab for Cutie's new song, Foxglove Through The Clearcut has some of this.
posted by tybstar at 11:43 AM on January 29, 2023


Detachable Penis by King Missile.

Popular by Nada Surf
posted by SaltySalticid at 11:53 AM on January 29, 2023 [17 favorites]


Shawn Mullins - Lullaby
posted by belladonna at 12:00 PM on January 29, 2023 [2 favorites]


Little Feat - Willin'

2nu - This is Ponderous
posted by demonic winged headgear at 12:01 PM on January 29, 2023


Listener: Wooden Heart. The rest of their music is like this too, but that’s the standout track.
posted by sacrifix at 12:07 PM on January 29, 2023


Mercury Rev with Alan Vega

Mercury Rev with Robert Creeley
posted by dobbs at 12:10 PM on January 29, 2023


Meryn Cadell did this a lot. Window of Opportunity and, his small radio hit, The Sweater
posted by JoeZydeco at 12:10 PM on January 29, 2023 [2 favorites]




Arab Strap does this a lot, even the songs where the singer, Aidan Moffat, sings he doesn't really sing a lot. Like if there's a continuum with the amount someone sings their songs people like Mariah Carey and Beyonce would be on one end and he'd be on the other. Anyways here are some of the more spoken songs:

Love Detective
New Birds
Girls of Summer
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:01 PM on January 29, 2023 [2 favorites]


Anything by Yard Act.

The Girl With Faraway Eyes by The Rolling Stones.

There's a whole genre of folk/blues songs called talking blues which you might enjoy. Here's an example fom Bob Dylan called Talkin' Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues.
posted by Paul Slade at 1:02 PM on January 29, 2023 [1 favorite]


Primus, Groundhog's Day
posted by bondcliff at 1:09 PM on January 29, 2023


Looper – Modem Song

Wet Leg - Chaise Longue (previously)
posted by mbrubeck at 1:11 PM on January 29, 2023 [3 favorites]


Arlo Guthrie – Alice’s Restaurant Massacree (previously)
posted by mbrubeck at 1:15 PM on January 29, 2023 [3 favorites]


Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express.
The Sisterhood - Finland Red, Egypt White. The lyrics are a spec sheet for the Kalashnikov AK47 rifle, read out.
Roxy Music - A Song for Europe. The Latin part of the text is spoken, the English and French parts sung.
posted by Stoneshop at 1:18 PM on January 29, 2023


What's He Building in There and Frank's Wild Years - both by Tom Waits.
posted by Paul Slade at 1:21 PM on January 29, 2023 [2 favorites]


Came in assuming someone had posted Alice's Restaurant. The chords he plays as he tells the story are quite imprinted; I listen to this most years on US Thanksgiving.

Rex Harrison was not a singer; his songs in the movie My Fair Lady are spoken
posted by theora55 at 1:21 PM on January 29, 2023 [3 favorites]


... and Arthur does this some in his songs in Camelot. In fact, a lot of Broadway musicals.
posted by Rash at 1:28 PM on January 29, 2023 [3 favorites]


Beat my Dog, Audra McDonald
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 2:40 PM on January 29, 2023


Loscil - "The Making Of Grief Point"
posted by rustcrumb at 2:45 PM on January 29, 2023


The Last Poets did some of this and Am by Umar bin Hassan is my favorite example.
posted by jessamyn at 2:59 PM on January 29, 2023


Indigo Girls - Go

The spoken bit starts around the 2:00 mark.

Lyrics here, because it's hard to hear to spoken bit, which is a quote from Muriel Rukeyser.
posted by tuesdayschild at 3:10 PM on January 29, 2023


Kissing with Confidence by Will Powers. (Will Powers was the fictional persona of photographer Lynn Goldsmith, so all the songs on the album this comes from feature tons of interesting artists accompanying them. The whole album, Dancing for Mental Health, is full of spoken word stuff.)
posted by kitten kaboodle at 3:20 PM on January 29, 2023


You could do worse perusing the work of Wall of Voodoo and Stan Ridgway. “Call of the West” is a great starting point.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 3:23 PM on January 29, 2023 [4 favorites]


Denis Leary - Asshole
posted by Adifferentbear at 3:28 PM on January 29, 2023






First thing that came to my mind was Going the Distance by Cake.
posted by TheFantasticNumberFour

First thing that came to my mind was Cake's Short Skirt/Long Jacket.
posted by kate4914 at 4:15 PM on January 29, 2023 [6 favorites]


Steven Jesse Bernstein - No No Man
posted by box at 5:13 PM on January 29, 2023


Karen Finley - Tales of Taboo (Lyrics v NSFW)
posted by box at 5:15 PM on January 29, 2023


One Night in Bangkok by Murray Head.
Cut My Grass by Howell Dawdy.
posted by ejs at 5:28 PM on January 29, 2023 [1 favorite]


Pavement's Conduit For Sale.
posted by msbrauer at 5:34 PM on January 29, 2023 [2 favorites]


Primitive Radio Gods' Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand had a similar vibe. After being released roughly a month apart, the two of them dominated alternative radio that summer. It's still a great track but the rest of the album sounded little like it.
posted by Candleman at 5:40 PM on January 29, 2023 [5 favorites]




Suicidal Tendencies, "Institutionalized"

"All I wanted was a Pepsi!"
posted by limeonaire at 6:04 PM on January 29, 2023 [4 favorites]


Tindersticks has a ton of songs with a mostly spoken story over music [trigger warning: domestic violence and sexual abuse, self harm, general misery] vibe.

I can't dig them all up right now, but if someone else want to take the reminder and run with it but Nick Cave has a bunch, both with the [lyrics very NSFW] Bad Seeds and [NSFW lyrics and video] Grinderman.

Some of Leonard Cohen's later works are close to spoken.
posted by Candleman at 6:10 PM on January 29, 2023


Pretty much anything by The Jim Carroll Band

Small Car by Marvin Pontiac

Testify by David Bromberg (1:47 to 2:59)

Ghost of Stephen Foster by Squirrel Nut Zippers
posted by staggernation at 6:35 PM on January 29, 2023 [1 favorite]


Midfielding, Midfield General
Fire Coming Out of the Monkey’s Head, Gorillaz
posted by actionpact at 6:53 PM on January 29, 2023


It might be too singsong for your question, but Tom's Dinner is a quintessential example of talking over music (even though the music didn't exist when the vocals were recorded).

Also, Nthing Gil Scott Heron and Jim Carroll.
posted by Candleman at 7:30 PM on January 29, 2023 [1 favorite]


Seconding the work of Soul Coughing, which is mostly the poetry of Mike Doughty set to alt-jazz beats. See for example, Screenwriter's Blues

The Jim Carroll Band - People Who Died -- You'll find it VERY much in the same vein as "Pepper"

Also, I feel like a lot of songs by They Might Be Giants would qualify, especially the ones where John Linnell is the main vocalist. But this would depend on where exactly you draw the line between "speaking rhythmically" and singing, for example "Birdhouse In Your Soul" or "Till My Head Falls Off"
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 8:10 PM on January 29, 2023 [4 favorites]


From memory, several songs on Laurie Anderson's classic album Big Science fit the bill.
posted by brushtailedphascogale at 1:03 AM on January 30, 2023 [1 favorite]


Modern Baseball - How Do I Tell a Girl I Want to Kiss Her?
The outro of The Hotelier - Among the Wildflowers fits the bill (around 4.45)
Slaughter Beach, Dog - 104 Degrees
Mary Lambert - Body Love. She also does spoken word, so it's in a lot of her stuff. Lay Your Head Down is also a good one.
La Dispute's vocals generally hover around the edge of singing, screaming and speaking, Such Small Hands is a good example, also I See Everything.

Probably doesn't fit the bill, but it's worth a mention that using recorded speech, especially break-up voicemails and the like in songs, are a trope of Midwest emo.

posted by snusmumrik at 2:18 AM on January 30, 2023




Linton Kwesi Johnson's albums are full of spoken poetry over a heavy reggae beat. Sonny's Lettah will give you a taste.
posted by Paul Slade at 2:42 AM on January 30, 2023


Bottom by Tool features a spoken word section by Henry Rollins.
posted by saladin at 3:15 AM on January 30, 2023


The Leanover by Life Without Buildings. Pretty much all of their output as well.

Richard Ramirez Died Today of Natural Causes by Sun Kil Moon
posted by multivalent at 4:21 AM on January 30, 2023 [1 favorite]


Violent Femmes Please Do Not Go is a contender in a few spots IMO
posted by i_mean_come_on_now at 5:31 AM on January 30, 2023




Oh also Art Star by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs has a couple of spoken sections.
posted by saladin at 6:31 AM on January 30, 2023 [1 favorite]


Would the genre of patter songs work for you or are they too fast?
posted by creatrixtiara at 6:33 AM on January 30, 2023


All 1980s:
LaTour - People are Still Having Sex

Ebn Ozn - AEIOU and Sometimes Y

The Normal - Warm Leathereette

Jim Carroll band has already been mentioned, but Pepper is basically an updated version of People Who Died by the Jim Carroll Band
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:27 AM on January 30, 2023 [7 favorites]


Belle and Sebastian also has I Could Be Dreaming , which the ending has a member reading a long passage from Rip VanWinkle.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:30 AM on January 30, 2023 [1 favorite]




Cake- Going the Distance

Technically singing, but in "talky", rhythmic ways:

Walk on the Wild Side

Tom's Diner
posted by bearette at 7:53 AM on January 30, 2023 [2 favorites]


Jello Biafra does a spoken word piece over a Black Sabbath sample in Ice-T's "Shut Up, Be Happy."

Megadeth's "Dawn Patrol" .

A short bit in Metallica's "To Live is to Die" (@7:33).

King Missile's "Detachable Penis."
posted by Boxenmacher at 8:12 AM on January 30, 2023


Johnny's Camaro by David Wilcox
posted by tangosnail at 8:30 AM on January 30, 2023


Leo Kottke - Jack Gets Up
posted by JohnFromGR at 10:21 AM on January 30, 2023




It's the End of the World by Skeeter Davis
Is That All There Is by Peggy Lee
posted by Furnace of Doubt at 11:36 AM on January 30, 2023


I do the Rock.
posted by Rube R. Nekker at 5:39 PM on January 30, 2023


A House - Endless Art
posted by TwoWordReview at 7:53 PM on January 30, 2023


Pretty much everything Lou Reed did fits this description, no? Eg Halloween Parade
posted by rouftop at 7:11 AM on January 31, 2023 [1 favorite]


Yello - Ocean Drive. Spoken, or not-sung, vocals are fairly common in their repertoire, but this is the most notable track IMO.
posted by Stoneshop at 10:02 AM on January 31, 2023


Enivrez-vous - Stereolab (in French)
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:43 PM on January 31, 2023


I forgot to add: if you like the Butthole Surfers Pepper, they also have a sort-of spoken word song called Moving to Florida , which is kind of silly beat poetry but includes the great line "Cause all the sausages that dance like Ray Bolger on the hood of car in a traffic jam know exactly what to do. "
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:24 AM on February 1, 2023


Found another: in the wake of his passing I've been into David Crosby's first solo album and that Cowboy Movie track may be just what you're looking for.
posted by Rash at 6:40 PM on February 20, 2023


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