3 Classic Rock Songs That Take a Very Strange Turn

Classic rock songs often feature recognizable melodies, grooves, and chord progressions. This grounds the listener with a tune they can immediately absorb. However, there are occasions when an artist throws a curveball. And depending on one’s view, dramatic changes in a song’s arrangement can be either endearing, puzzling, or both.

So in the spirit of musical curveballs, quirks, twists, zigzags, and the like, let’s revisit the strange turns in these classic rock songs.

“Black Betty” by Ram Jam

I’m not sure when I first heard the left-hand turn in Ram Jam’s defining track. Adapted from an African American work song, Ram Jam’s jam goes haywire roughly a minute and a half in. The musical interjection contains a drum solo before it launches into a Southern rock boogie, which finds the bass player ripping a few runs beneath the guitar solo. Then more drum solos before Lead Belly’s iconic refrain returns.

“Tom Sawyer” by Rush

For many, Rush remains a divisive band. For this same skeptical lot, songs like “Working Man” and “Tom Sawyer” are a way in to the Canadian trio. Both grooves, perhaps, too good to ignore. Here, “Tom Sawyer” features one of drummer Neil Peart’s most accessible rhythms. But far from being a typical rock song, the track breaks for a sci-fi synth riff that bassist Geddy Lee repeats to support the shredding guitar solo. Peart eventually corrals the skittering arrangement with epic drum fills amid Alex Lifeson’s most iconic riff this side of “The Spirit Of Radio”.

“Eyes Without A Face” by Billy Idol

On “Rebel Yell”, Billy Idol blended new wave and hard rock with punk imagery. The blockbuster title track helped launch the ex-Gen X singer into superstardom. His ballad, “Eyes Without A Face”, which borrows from the French horror film, Les Yeux Sans Visage, also became a hit, reaching No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Dark synths, a drum machine, and Idol’s croon set up a jarring bridge that enters with Steve Stevens’s heavy metal guitar riff. Then Idol adds to the dramatic change with a rap about tour life in a screeching detour from the rest of the track’s melancholy synth-pop.

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