There are two songs I'm trying to find information about (in the hopes
of finding copies), one more esoteric than the other.  I don't know
who sang either of them, but I think that both songs were written in
the 80s (certainly no later than 1991).

Specifically, I'm looking for the names of the artists and the names
of the songs (and, if possible, the names of the albums they appeared
on).

The tougher one is sung by a male, and the melody is slow and fairly
simple.  Few instruments, as I recall, are played in the song.  The
only lyric I remember goes something like this:

"Where did my brain go
It dripped right out of my ears
And into my mouth"

The song itself, however, is not nearly as macabre as that lyric would
make it seem.  It's a reasonably perky song, and I can't really think
of any musical category to place it in.  It sort of belongs in the
kind of genre that Eno was a part of with Taking Tiger Mountain and
Roky Erikson & The Thirteenth Floor Elevators helped populate - one
couldn't quite call it alternative (at least not now that that label's
been subsumed), but one certainly couldn't call it rock either.  I
think sometimes people call it art rock, but that seems a pretty
pretentious term for it.

The second song I remember much better, and I could have SWORN I had a
copy on my machine, but apparently I was imagining things.  It goes
like this:

"Maybe I'll be happy with a new guitar
Maybe I'll be happy if I wreck my car
Maybe I'll be happy as a millionaire
Maybe I'll be happy if I cut my hair

[...]

Maybe I'll be happy with myself
Maybe I'll be happy right now"

The above two lines end the song and do not appear otherwise in the
lyrics, and they are repeated once or twice with lengthier
enunciation: "Maaaayyyyybeeeee I'll be haaaapppyyyy with myself
Mayyyybeeee I'll be haaapppy right now"

There is also a verse with girls' names:

"Maybe I'll be happy with Maggie"
[...]

This is NOT the song by Catherine Wheel that includes the lyric "maybe
I'll be happy."

Search engines haven't turned up anything useful so far on either of these songs.

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Clarification of Question by yggdrasil23-ga on 11 May 2004 13:45 PDT

Clarification to note that some of the lyrics in the second song
mentioned may be "Maybe I'd be happy" and not "Maybe I'll be happy." 
The last lines are "I'll," and not "I'd," however.

---

Clarification of Question by yggdrasil23-ga on 11 May 2004 14:34 PDT

Nother one.  The lyric in the first song may actually be "dripped down
out of my nose" or "dripped right out of my nose" as opposed to ears. 
Neither clarification is giving me any better luck with the search
engines though.

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Request for Question Clarification by markj-ga on 11 May 2004 16:17 PDT

yggdrasil23 --

Was song No. 2 a solo effort with primarily keyboard accompaniment, by
any chance?

markj-ga

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Clarification of Question by yggdrasil23-ga on 11 May 2004 17:38 PDT

Hm...I don't think so.  It was one singer, but I definitely got the
impression of a three-or-four-piece rock-type band.  There was at
least guitar and drums, and I'd guess a bass as well. I don't think
there were any keyboards, but I could be wrong about that.  Pretty
guitar-heavy.

yggdrasil23 --

Thanks for your clarification.  What I had in mind was a track called
"Maybe '80" on a Rick Wakeman album entitled Rock & Roll Prophet.  The
quirky track has been been described as Wakeman's "humorous look at
the then-near future."   (The album was recorded in 1979 but not
released until 1982).  Unfortunately, the group apparently included
only keyboard, percussion and back-up vocal.  It sounds promising, but
I have been unable to find lyrics or an audio clip online.

Here's a link to the the Amazon.com listing:
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00000879J/102-9446005-3308902?v=glance

markj-ga

Hm.  I can't find the lyrics to that at all, but it seems highly
unlikely.  The "Maybe I'll be happy" song sounds very, very unlike Yes
(and in fact, I can't stand Yes) or anything of that genre at all. 
Perhaps Rick Wakefield's solo work is very different from his work
with Yes, but the singer of that song, while male, sounds pretty young
(as does the whole band - one gets a pretty indie vibe from it).  I'll
keep looking to see if I can find lyrics or a clip from that track,
though...

* Wakeman.  I keep thinking of Rick Wakefield, but the search for the
lyrics by Wakeman are not forthcoming either :)