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Certain Songs #384: The Edgar Winter Group – “Frankenstein”

December 3, 2015 by Jim Connelly

frankenstein Album: They Only Come Out at Night
Year: 1973

How weird was the early 1970s? That an instrumental that was nearly incomprehensible and full of weird twists and turns topped the Billboard charts.

And not as a novelty song either. Cos in the 1970s, that kind of shit happened all of the time!!!

I did my part: “Frankenstein” was one of the very first 45s I ever owned (and had a killer b-side, “Undercover Man”).

There’s no point in doing a dissection of it, as Chuck Klosterman already did that a couple of years ago in Grantland. (Bursts into tears).

But I can say that my favorite parts weren’t so much Edgar Winter’s sax or Ronnie Montrose’s wah-wah guitars, but rather the part in the middle where the drums battle each other for an uncomfortably long amount of time. Not quite a drum solo, though: more like the drum equivalent of “Dueling Banjos,” only not nearly as long.

Oh, and of course, the “chi-chi-chi-chi-chi-chi” synth at the end, which I always thought was the sound the ocean sings to itself while making a rip tide. And suddenly going into a full-blown gun battle. I mean. What even the fuck? And “Frankenstein” wasn’t even the weirdest instrumental to become a massive hit that year. Not when “Hocus Pocus” existed.

“Frankenstein” performed live in 1973

Filed Under: Certain Songs Tagged With: Frankenstein, The Edgar Winter Group, They Only Come Out At Night

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Previously on Medialoper

  • Certain Songs #2549: Sugar – “Try Again”
  • Certain Songs #2548: Sugar – “Needle Hits E”
  • Certain Songs #2547: Sugar – “Man on the Moon”
  • Certain Songs #2546: Sugar – “If I Can’t Change Your Mind”
  • Certain Songs #2545: Sugar – “Helpless”

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