Strange Collaborations

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Holden
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Strange Collaborations

Post by Holden »

Hi! I was recently listening to American Head by The Flaming Lips, and it struck me as really odd (but not unwelcome!) that they collaborated with Kacey Musgraves on a track on the album. So I was curious, what are some strange collaborations between artists that have surprised you?
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Live in Phoenix
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Re: Strange Collaborations

Post by Live in Phoenix »

Joni Mitchell with Billy Idol - Dancin' Clown

Can and folksinger Tim Hardin did some concerts

Alice in Chains with Elton John - Black Gives Way to Blue

DMX with Marilyn Manson - The Omen

Bing Crosby and David Bowie - The Little Drummer Boy

Paul McCartney and the rest of Nirvana - Cut Me Some Slack

The KLF and Tammy Wynette - Justified and Ancient

Frank Sinatra and Elvis - Love Me Tender/Witchcraft

Lou Reed and Metallica - Metal Machine Music II (or Lulu, whatever)

Lou Reed with Bruce Springsteen - Street Hassle

Weezer with Kenny G - I'm Your Daddy

Paul Simon with Brian Eno - Surprise

Michael Bolton (written with Bob Dylan) - Steel Bars

Dan Ackroyd, 2pac, Digital Underground - Same Song
(OK, this last one's in jest and only counts if you're watching the terrible Nothing but Trouble movie.)

2pac, Tim Roth, Thandie Newton - [Freestyle]
(I guess there's a 2pac song forever remaining in the vault with his Gridlock'd co-stars Thandie Newton, and self-described "little pasty-faced London boy" Tim Roth.)

Not a song collaboration, but in 1993, when gangsta rap cred was around its peak, Ice Cube directed a Color Me Badd video ("Time and Chance"), which somehow didn't destroy his career.


I'm sure there's a ton of these sort of things, not that that makes it less interesting.
Last edited by Live in Phoenix on Sat Jan 23, 2021 3:32 pm, edited 7 times in total.
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Re: Strange Collaborations

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Mick Jagger and my aunt at bar in 1980
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Harold
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Re: Strange Collaborations

Post by Harold »

You'd be hard pressed to find a more unlikely grouping than both Mavis Staples and Josh Homme on "Pulling the Pin" from RTJ4.
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Re: Strange Collaborations

Post by FrankLotion »

There weren't a whole lot of hip-hop/rock collabs in the early 90's but having KRS-One with R.E.M. on Radio Song is baffling for a number of reasons, though I'm certainly not the first person to say that the pairing was a flop.

Probably the most surprising and infamous of all was Lulu...

A weird collab that did work in my eyes was Elton John on QOTSA's Fairweather Friends, I could listen to an album of that.
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Re: Strange Collaborations

Post by Edre Depeche Head »

Lately there has been some odd ones in popular hip hop but some have turned out very good. Post Malone - Take What You Want (feat. Ozzy Osbourne & Travis Scott), I mean the three of them couldn't be more apart.
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Re: Strange Collaborations

Post by Harold »

How about Thundercat's "Show You the Way," featuring yacht-rock kings Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald?
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Re: Strange Collaborations

Post by Wisnu Tirta Aji »

"Said I Love You... But I Lied" by the American singer-songwriter, Michael Bolton, also re-recorded as a collaboaration by him with the Indonesian singer-songwriter, Agnez Mo, previously billed as Agnes Monica.
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Re: Strange Collaborations

Post by poorpete »

Good picks. I always return to the Eminem / Elton John version of Stan for the Grammys in the early 000s.

Ben Folds /William Shatner :-)
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Re: Strange Collaborations

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Pusifer feat. Mila Jovivich - The Mission (M is got Mila mix)
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Re: Strange Collaborations

Post by StyleItTakes »

I just bought American Head on vinyl earlier today! I loved the collaboration with Kacey Musgraves, they worked so well together, of course it helped that American Head was such a great album already that almost any strange collaboration on the record would probably have worked.

The Flaming Lips, however, are not always prime examples of exemplary decision making with regards to collaborating. Namely 2015's Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz. The band had been going through something of a creative DISASTER period that possibly stretched back to At War with the Mystics (2006), the collaboration with Miley doing nothing to aid their recovery. The Flaming Lips and Miley did, however, collaborate far more successfully on the Flaming Lips' track for track Sgt. Pepper tribute album With a Little Help from My Fwends (2014) with a terrific rendition of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (alongside Moby).

A collaboration that has become famous for dividing critics and fans is the Lou Reed and Metallica album Lulu (2011). An honest and meaningful work of art that delves deep into Lou's love of literature. I, personally, adore Lulu, and consider it to be Metallica's best work. Critics are often too predictable... The bad ones at least.
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