Help me identify the best song I've EVER heard
September 29, 2007 9:44 AM   Subscribe

I was in a cab yesterday and I heard the last minute or two of a song on the radio. Very ostentatious and psychedelic, kind of Tomorrow Never Knows-ish, with loads of overdubbed organ bits and INSANE drums (played in a style that leaned more towards jazz than rock)...

...When I asked the driver what it was, he said it was "Welcome to the Show" by John Lennon (a song that, to the best of my knowledge, does not exist). No other song by that name seems to fit the bill, either, nor does the song reflect the style of any of Lennon's solo stuff that I've ever heard. The driver mentioned how much he liked a bit of the lyrics near the beginning, which went something like "Welcome to the show, it's going to make your head explode!" Googling variations on this, and segments of the sentence, doesn't turn up any useful results.

Unfortunately the bit that I heard was largely (if not entirely) instrumental so I have no idea what the singer's voice was like. Between the style of the recording and the classic rock station it was playing on, it's safe to say that it's from '65-'75, but my ear for this sort of thing isn't great, so I could be mistaken...

So, Mefites, any ideas?
posted by incomple to Media & Arts (7 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Could it be "Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression, Pt. 2" by Emerson Lake and Palmer? Audio sample here.
posted by hydrophonic at 10:00 AM on September 29, 2007


Another sample, with more organ and drums.
posted by hydrophonic at 10:02 AM on September 29, 2007


Response by poster: From the lyrics it's safe to say that that's definitely the song he was talking about, though from the samples I'm not 100% that's what I heard (but the lyrics are all I really had to go on). I'll check out the whole track. Thanks, hydrophonic!
posted by incomple at 10:13 AM on September 29, 2007


"Welcome to the Show by John Lennon" -- I just got my laugh of the morning trying to picture that.
posted by hodyoaten at 10:39 AM on September 29, 2007


How odd. I just heard this song at the coffee shop this afternoon for the first time in probably years.

"Seven virgins and a mule. Keep it cool, keep it cool."
posted by booth at 7:06 PM on September 29, 2007


Man, you can't hear that and not want to throw the goat for ELP. Good call.
posted by steef at 8:43 PM on September 29, 2007


This is far overdue, but the song you're looking for is actually a cover of the song performed by The Helio Sequence, a portland based band. Their rendition of this classic Beatles psychedelic tune has been described by critics as "What John Lennon imagined in his head while writing Tomorrow Never Knows"
posted by Texasjake987 at 10:45 PM on February 25, 2008


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