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Popular music in the forties, fifties and sixties may have had its eccentrics, its novelty artists and its satirists (Spike Jones, Wild Man Fischer, Tom Lehrer, The Shaggs for example), but it was only in the seventies that its real bizarros came to light.

Folks like Barnes & Barnes and Ogden Edsl in the USA (supported by the wonderful Rhino Records, and the Dr Demento radio show) and the punk wackos in the UK were from a self-consciously arty background. That is, nobody understood what they were doing, cos they didn't really understand it themselves....

And there were also the post-hippies. Edgar Broughton and his Band combined an old Shadows track with a blues number to produce a very strange mixed-up affair in Apache Drop Out Boogie.... and Frank Zappa on the other side of the pond matched them all the way.

Some people actually really were a bit crazy. Poor John Otway (who's fine now, thanks) had a bit of a nervous breakdown, but only after the wildly individual sound of Cor Baby That's Really Free became a great hit.

And there are thousands more.

Gorra track to recommend?

This is where you come in. Each week on the show, Tim's Expert of the Weird, Mark Stewart, will be researching a track that you have suggested, finding a copy, handing it over to him, and Tim will play it on air.

To listen to the show, and to find out more about it, click on the links in the top right-hand corner of this page.

And this week? This week (for seven days from November 11th) you can hear the first choice - one of the great weirdly funny tracks of all time, the 1978 recording of 'Fish Heads' by Barnes & Barnes.
Got any other suggestions?

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