Songs that are "rooms with many doors"

Califone - "Black Metal Valentine" (also my favourite song of theirs, truly sublime in the purest sense)

Cardiacs - ... (I have a choice of about 50 songs here...maybe MAYBE I'll side "Dog-Like Sparky", or "Dirty Boy", or "The Duck And Roger The Horse", or "Buds And Spawn", or "RES" or "In A City Lining" or or or or...)

The Electric Soft Parade - "The American Adventure" (again, kaleidoscopic, whisks you through many possible hooks and resolutions before finally hitting pop gold, although it IS 7 minutes long)

The Fiery Furnaces - jeeeez, er..."Chris Michaels" then (pretty damn definitive as these things go IMO)

The Flaming Lips - "The Spark That Bled"

Guillemots - "Sao Paolo" (11 minute running-time notwithstanding)

queen - bohemian rhapsody
ted nugent - wango tango
teena marie - square biz

Ooh, here's a good one: Julian Cope - "Know (Cut My Friend Down)", only 3:20 in length!

I wrote a list of my favourite "Bohemian Rhapsodies" when I was at high school; I think I've already listed a few of them.

able tasmans 'school is no good for you'

My Radiohead choice is "2+2=5", obv. :-D

belle & sebastian 'your cover's blown'

Am I allowed to mention Koenjihyakkei or are they too prog?

Late Of The Pier - er, I'd like to say "The Enemy Are The Future" but "Broken" and "Bathroom Gurgle" are more concise, more obviously-lurching-between-sections examples.

Mansun - any track off "Six" tbh but especially "Six", "Shotgun", "Cancer" and "Being A Girl"

(this is important to me)

The Mars Volta - d/q for being too prog in traditional sense

Massive Attack - "Group Four"

Melt-Banana - something, haven't worked it out yet

Mercury Rev - please please please can I pick "Meth Of A Rockette's Kick"? Oh goody, cheers!

Mew!! Perfect. "Am I Wry? No"

The Monsoon Bassoon - maybe "Wise Guy", maybe "Blue Junction

Mr. Bungle - "Violenza Domestica"? "Goodbye Sober Day"? Too much choice here. Probably "Ma Meeshka Mow Skwoz"

omg My Computer - "All I Ever Really Wanted Was A Good Time" !!!!!!!!!!

the letter M's pretty good for this shit and I didn't even get round to Muse or Meshuggah

"A Dreamer Who Is Too Weak to Face Up To" is as good a Melt-Banana choice as any for this.

I suspect a lot of these songs are multiple unfinished songs cobbled together.

McCartney's got a pile of these:
"You Never Give Me Your Money"
"Golden Slumbers/The End"
"Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey"
"Live and Let Die"
"Band on the Run" (mentioned above)
"Picasso's Last Words"
"Junior's Farm" (maybe)
"Goodnight Tonight"
"The Pound Is Sinking"
(Some of these admit to being 2 songs, but it feels like there are 4 or 5 song bits buried in each of them)

Fleetwood Mac - "The Chain"
XTC - "The Wheel and the Maypole"
Pink Floyd - "Jugband Blues"
Buffalo Springfield - "Broken Arrow"
Brian Wilson - "Rio Grande"
The Who - "Who Are You"
The Roches - "My Sick Mind"
Rickie Lee Jones - "Traces of the Western Slope"
Rickie Lee Jones - "Gravity"
Nick Lowe - "Nutted By Reality"
Sloan - "The Good in Everyone"
Sloan - "Fading Into Obscurity"
Belle & Sebastian - "Step Into My Office Baby"

Really you just want this:

http://media-files.gather.com/images/d709/d677/d744/d224/d96/f3/full.jpg

i have a creeping suspicion this could be my least favourite type of song

The Moody Blues - House of Four Doors (duhhhh)

Hmm. Examples of this kinda die away after M, at least on MY iTunes. Until SFA. In truth, you can't really beat those Boo Radleys examples for songs that fulfil Nick's criteria exactly. My examples are generally a teeny bit too long. Apparently Architecture In Helsinki are a bit micro-proggy inna pop style but they're also a bit cutesy/happy-clappy, whereas Boo Radleys actually made their songs into miniature labyrinths, full of not just surprise but wonder, fear and incomprehension.

SFA - probably "Receptacle For The Respectable"

Talk Talk - "Taphead" (haaahahahahahaha)

The The - "Out Of The Blue (Into The Fire" (more in terms of lyrical narrative than music...this song passes through many phases of emotional tone in only 5 minutes, and the music itself develops unpredictably)

Thighpaulsandra - "Lycraland" (this song passes through an absolute wealth of musical territory, in an almost entirely abstract fashion; it's also completely brilliant, and I'm willing to overlook the near-16-minute runtime because you simply gotta hear it, and the album it's on, much of which has similarly vaulting ambitions)

Ulver - "The Truth" (four minutes, utter carnage)

Volcano! - "Easy Does It"

Wilco - "Poor Places" (I REALLY fucken dig this song, and it's perfect for this thread)

Working For A Nuclear Free City - "Nancy Adam Susan" or maybe "England" (it's amazing how many of my very favourite songs are cropping up as candidates here!)

XTC - "The Wheel..." otm ^^^ with ya buddy

Youthmovies - "Magic Diamond" (I think this might be their best track - its narrative never doubles back but keeps on burrowing down, down, deep into something totally unexpected and utterly magical)

65DOS - "Music Is Music As Devices Are Kisses Is Everything"

ok I'm done, sorry for ruining yr thread Southall

and yeh Noodle, "A Dreamer..." is a good choice, even if the previous track (which isn't, granted, so breakneck) is like one of the highlights of all music ever

Roger Waters - Just about anything off of Pros & Cons of Hitchhiking (and a few from The Final Cut too)
Sonic Youth - "Swimsuit Issue"
Sonic Youth - "Bone"
Talking Heads - "Artists Only"
Velvet Underground - "I'm Sticking With You"
Billy Joel - "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant"
Electric Light Orchestra - "Fire on High"
Electric Light Orchestra - "Standing in the Rain"
Electric Light Orchestra - "Mr. Blue Sky"
Electric Light Orchestra - "Loser Gone Wild"
Laurie Anderson - "Sharkey's Day"
The B-52's - Rock Lobster

i have a creeping suspicion this could be my least favourite type of song

Too often they sound like what they are--unrelated bits slapped together--but when they miraculously work, they're great.

I think many of my examples flow organically between sections, rather than bolt *completely* unrelated sections *right* next to each other. But I don't think that contravenes the conditions of this thread.

Only Skin - Joanna Newsom

pretty things - defecting grey

i remembered another thread along similarish lines

Layla and other songs that just change into something else almost unrelated

like shitloads of zappa songs? at least the ones on the two i have - absolutely free and freak out

Much early Throwing Muses does this, esp "Finished" and "Call me".

It would be ridiculously too obvious to say "Supper's Ready", here, wouldnt it?

big star - daisy glaze

Lilys are probably champions of this (basically every single one of their songs). I assume that Pas/Cal (referenced above) fit the bill because they're channeling lilys.

three 6 mafia "triple six clubhouse"

― rio (r1o natsume), Sunday, March 22, 2009 3:52 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

excellent example

This is my all-time fave type of song when it isn't proggy. And it's practically a Timbaland-esque cliché by now appearing in From Justin to Kelly and all over the High School Musical franchise. Here are some other examples (with varying degrees of applicability):

LiLiPUT: "Eisiger Wind" - best example of this EVER!
Kleenex: “Ain’t You”
Jay-Z: "Come and Get Me"
Mouth and MacNeal "How Do You Do"
Sweet: "Ballroom Blitz"
The Jackson 5: "The Love You Save"
Queens Court: "I Ain't No Lady" (Chicken of the Sea Mix)"
2ge+her: "U + Me = Us (Calculus)"
The Dismemberment Plan: "The Dismemberment Plan Gets Rich"
!!!: "Me & Giuliani Down By The School Yard (A True Story)"
Franz Ferdinand: "Take Me Out"
Lady Sovereign: "Public Warning"
Justin Timberlake: "Like I Love You"
Blackout Crew "Put a Donk On It"
Boston: "More Than A Feeling"
Alice Cooper: "School's Out"
Skatt Bros. "Walk The Night"
Diana Ross: “Love Hangover”
Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer: "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)"
T. S. Monk: "Bon Bon Vie"
Madonna: “Like a Prayer”
Afrika Bambaataa & the Soul Sonic Force: “Looking For The Perfect Beat”
Public Enemy: "Night of the Living Baseheads"
Grandmaster Flash & the Furious 5: “The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel”
Sand Party: "Lambada Festival"
B-Rock & The Bizz: "My Baby Daddy"
Fatboy Slim: "The Rockafeller Skank"
Red Rat: "Dwayne"
Barenaked Ladies: "One Week"

And that's (sorta) leaving out medleys, megamixes, and sampladelia like:
ABBA: "Medley: Pick A Bale Of Cotton-On Top Of Old Smokey-Midnight Special"
S-Express: "Theme From S-Express"
M/A/R/R/S: "Pump Up the Volume"
Eric B & Rakim: “Paid in Full (Seven Minutes of Madness Remix)”
Magazine 60: "Don Quichotte"

I thought a lot of old folk songs would fit the description, but I'm drawing a blank at the moment. For one thing, ballads tend to be fairly linear — there may well be versions of "Little Bessie" that run 30+ verses, but I doubt any of them stray too from the theme of a dying little girl and her ruminations on the afterlife, even for a verse or two. eh, hopefully someone will dig up some examples to prove me wrong.

(stray too far, that is)

ruby suns 'kenya dig it?'

Totally forgot about the pre-rock era:

Spike Jones: "Cocktails For Two" (Spike Jones in general, actually)
Jelly Roll Morton: "Black Bottom Stop" (Jelly Roll Morton in general, actually)
Several cuts off the Jewface comp
Louis Armstrong/Earl "Fatha" Hines: "Tight Like This"
Lil McClintock: "Don't Think I'm Santa Claus"
Red Norvo: "Dance of the Octopus"

huh, I had lyrical content in mind when I made my last post, but this thread is more about song structure, as the threadstarter makes clear.

these come to mind:

Bad Dream Fancy Dress - "Choirboy's Gas"
Bob Drake - "Flashy Smog Wolf Person" (and about a thousand others. this guy has a knack for writing minute-long songs that veer into a dozen different directions)
Wendy & Bonnie - "Let Yourself Go Another Time"
Van Dyke Parks - "The Attic"
Gilberto Gil et al. - "Parque Industrial"
Beach Boys - those long "Heroes & Villains" suites you can find on any SMiLE bootleg
Louis Philippe - "An American Friend"
Flipper's Guitar - "Dolphin Song"

Hmm, "Paradise By the Dashboard Light"? Plus at least half of the titles on Trout Mask Replica. And maybe 1/3 of Forever Changes.

Daughters of Albion - "Well Wired" has parts that repeat but you never know where it's going on first listen.
Deerhoof - "Holy Night Fever"...and more I can't name right now.
Os Mutantes - Mutantes
Spoils of War - "The Crimson Uniform / Jena's Score"
The Unicorns - Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone has lots of this
The Four Seasons - "American Crucifixion Resurrection" (from the amazing "The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette")
The United States of America - "The American Way of Love"

most of the pas/cal album except all of the songs are horrible. - funny, the first thing that popped into my head upon reading the initial post was "Summer is Almost Here."

Moonshake were always good for this sort of thing.

I'm thinking there's gotta be some examples of this from Spoon.

I think I've always thought of The Reflex by Duran Duran being like this.

Also, Louis; if I can't pronounce the band name = too prog.

Gotta be some Blur and Kate Bush examples too.

So far the playlist has:

Good Vibrations The Beach Boys The Very Best Of The Beach Boys
Happiness Is A Warm Gun The Beatles The Beatles (White Album)
Get On The Bus The Boo Radleys C’mon Kids
Four Saints The Boo Radleys C’mon Kids
Joel The Boo Radleys Wake Up!
Black Metal Valentine Califone Roots & Crowns
The Dismemberment Plan Gets Rich The Dismemberment Plan Juno & The Dismemberment Plan
All You Good Good People Embrace The Good Will Out
Paranoid Android Radiohead OK Computer
Man Without Friends Siobhan Donaghy Revolution In Me
The Spark That Bled The Flaming Lips Soft Bulletin
São Paulo Guillemots Through The Window Pane
Six Mansun Six
Receptacle For The Respectable Super Furry Animals Rings Around The World
Artists Only Talking Heads More Songs About Buildings & Food
Rock Lobster The B-52's Rock Lobster
Poor Places Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Music Is Music As Devices Are Kisses Is Everything 65DaysOfStatic The Destruction Of Small Ideas
Only Skin Joanna Newsom Ys
Take Me Out Franz Ferdinand Franz Ferdinand
Like I Love You Justin Timberlake Justified
The Love You Save The Jackson 5 The Ultimate Collection
2+2=5 (The Lukewarm) Radiohead Hail To The Thief
Pump Up The Volume M/A/R/R/S Pump Up The Volume

Rollerskate Skinny made a (brief) career of following the Mercury Rev/Boo Radleys model of this idea to its logical extreme. Pretty much all of their songs fit the bill.

Patrick Wolf must do this too.

"I can take you to the sun" The Misunderstood.

It's only 2.5 mins, but it feels like five, in a good way.

Pavement and The Clash must have something that fits.

Anyone mentioning All Around The World by Oasis gets a slap.

Gotta be a Bunnymen example, too?

You asked for some pop suggestions:
Girls Aloud 'Biology'
Fall Out Boy 'This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race'
Bomb the Bass 'Beat Dis'
pretty much all of 'Paul's Boutique'
Outkast 'Bombs Over Baghdad'

It also struck me that this kind of structure has become the default for the big-budget R&B video, i.e. three or four unrelated sections bolted together

Gotta be a Bunnymen example, too? - Thorn of Crowns

How about ISB ? Koeeaddi There

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNKk-Itin64

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENw6co2BUc4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Obs9_APqt_o

that mirrors song is great! they sound like a long-lost paisley underground band from the wrong era and hometown. I'll have to check out one of those posthumous comps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-3N7TBrfOA

i.e. when will you diphsits realize that Laura Nyro is the soul-progge schnizzle?

Another early example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdeybxuS7tY

I was just listening the the Eli album this morning, and thinking of this very thread.

most of these aren't really rooms with many doors. they're more like railroad apartments. a bunch of rooms in a row.

Dancing about architecture.

are throwing muses too obvious for this thread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxJeQf42c6c

Joni Mitchell's output from 1975-1979

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HO-90E9aPvM

I feel this kind of trait is definitely more psyche than prog.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9VbJmbtMW8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH9atqqkUuY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUMj8Otywoc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfgjlBR--uA

do The Boswell sisters qualify as jazz age micro-prog? they were famous for their labyrinthine re-arrangements of jazz standards and contemporary hits, with lots of unexpected segues and key changes and tempo shifts. ex. 'It's the Girl':

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

(cf. Lee Morse's pleasant but utterly conventional version from the same year)

you're a scholar

this is great, reminds me of nothing so much as the bonzo dog doo-dah band. would be keen to hear more

Gotta be some Blur and Kate Bush examples too.

― Sickamous Mouthall (Scik Mouthy), Monday, March 23, 2009 3:53 AM (eight years ago)

'All We Ever Look For' has exactly 3 doors http://www2b.abc.net.au/tmb/BoardFiles/164/Emoticons/sunglasses.gif

Hop Along - Not Abel

Grateful Dead - “St. Stephen”

(there are variable criteria being used in this thread; but to me that song literally sounds like you’re hanging out / wandering in & out of a room with multiple doors)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK0Zu2B_kak

This isn't very good but they certainly cram a lot into 3'15". There's even a drum solo!

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