Exhibit 1:

Einstürzende Neubauten: Noisy German industrial gothic punk nutters, led by a singer who looks like he escaped from Camberwick Green Secure Mental Unit. Went a bit sensitive at the end of the nineties, did a (frankly disturbing) cover version of There's a Worm at the Bottom of the Garden.

Then they gave us this heart-breakingly gorgeous song:



Exhibit 2:

Edward Barton: Deranged Mancunian poet and songwriter, (in)famous for performing this, er, performance on The Tube back in the eighties.

Also responsible for this:



Exhibit 3:

David Bowie: Rather tiresome glam-rock wannabe, had a few singles in the Hit Parade, responsible for utter drivel such as this.

Redeemed himself, briefly, by giving us this:




Does anyone else have any examples of apparently hopeless weirdoes having brief flashes of utter brilliance, against all expectations?

Yes, I proposed to CJ.

Sure...

Mad as a cut snake he maybe, but he was always hauntingly breathtaking.

I suppose it's no secret that Don Van Vliet was a weirdo and brilliant.

My favorite bits of his, both from the same album:

Duet for guitar and bass.


Solo guitar.


Gary Lucas talks about the songwriting process with Captain Beefheart.

Yeah, brilliant. I'm watching/listening to the Ed Barton one for the fourth time now

Too, too sad (not you, the clip)

oh i dunno

Possibly the greatest moment of brilliance from a total nutter (in the nicest possible sense):

Spike Milligan's Lifetime Achievement acceptance speech.



If he can call the Prince of Wales a grovelling bastard, I don't feel too bad calling him a nutter.

I'm somewhat ashamed to admit it, but in my opinion, Spike Milligan's moment of brilliance was an outrageous (and nowadays utterly politically incorrect) television sketch involving daleks and curry.

I shan't reproduce it here, but it may be found easily on youtube.

I am sure that many of his sketches qualify as brilliant, and probably no longer politically correct. I picked his speech as it was, probably, straight off-the-cuff.

Fine idea for a thread!

The Bonzo Dog Doodah Band's "My pink half of the drainpipe"



The best choice is dear, departed Captain Beefheart. Good call! I could put his whole recorded works here. Had the privilege to see the old sod live twice.

More to come later.

Indeed.

He once played at a club I used to run sound at as a student back in 1980.

I was warned he was a PITA, and no-one could work with him.

After the sound check, he asked me for a chineese restaurant and "it'd better be good".

Alas, it was (I'm pretty tough when it comes to restaurant evaluation), they were happy, and we got on famously for the rest of the night!

A cool guy, sadly missed.

Tom

Well, some people claim this is brilliant, I think it falls squarely in the "utter nutters" category:

My Pal Foot Foot - The Shaggs

Here's another one: Richard Wolfson and his Towering Inferno project, which gave us the barely-listenable-to album Kaddish, full of industrial noise, Cretan peasant songs and chants in a variety of European languages.

...and this:



Like a pearl in a basket of nails.

I am so glad somebody already mentioned Bonzo Dog Doo dah band, I thought of them when I saw the thread title, hahahah...

This song is a gem. I have loved it for exactly 2o years.



Legendary pink dots aren't bad either, they have been pretty consistently odd.



Magma and their invented language..



Henry Cow, etc. Einsturzene Neubaten are great, so is David Bowie, Skinny Puppy, The Fall, lotsa peculiar and great muzzak.

Ted Chippington. Probably not mad as such, but decidedly odd nonetheless.

Local band I grew up with, lovely brass section (and the artist is my cousin).



One of the bands I played with.



Friend's project.



I always liked this edgy band.