It’s an interesting genre. Some band or performer sings about some other band or performer being onstage and performing. A somewhat silly idea when you think about it–
–but some rather good songs in the genre nevertheless.
Bennie and the Jets
Willie and the Poor Boys
Duchess (Genesis)
(nominate your favorites)
Of course some of the songs of this general type are actually telling a tale about the other performer of whom they sing, whether fictional or otherwise (e.g., Joan Baez singing about the guy who was playing Real Good for Free; or the Genesis song Duchess about the performer in the waning years of her popularity who misses being the big star).
I think it’s the others, though, that intrigue me, the ones where the content of the song is mainly just “Well, hey, there’s this band and, like, they get up on stage and sing songs and people come to hear them perform”. It’s as if they are saying “This isn’t us, up here performing these licks, this is how it goes down when that other band I’m singing to you about gets up here and does their chops, they sound like this!”
An obscure addition to the list, but the British a cappella group The King’s Singers sings of Freddy Feelgood and his Funky Little Five Piece Band.
It’s quite an impressive song, especially when they launch into the jazz improv. They do a damned good job of mimicing a clarinet, a trombone, a trumpet, a bass, and a drum set.
Well, Dire Straits’ most famous songs are all about musicians. “Sultans of Swing” is about an amateur Dixieland jazz band that plays music in dingy bars before tiny, indifferent crowds, just for love of the music. “Walk of Life” is about a guy playing rock and roll oldies in the subway, hoping to get some money from passersby. (And, while it doesn’t QUITE fit the topic, “Money For Nothing” is about rock stars on MTV, being mocked by blue-collar workers at an appliance store).
Others?
Well, there’s Tom Petty’s “Into the Great Wide Open.”
“Sally Simpson” by the Who is the story of a teenage girl who rushes the stage at a rock concert, and was (according to Townshend) partially inspired by events he witnessed at a Doors concert several years earlier.
The entire album Cruising With Ruben and the Jets by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention is a tribute (with a touch of parody) to doo wop. In the liner notes, there’s the story of Ruben and the Jets (Ruben actually left the band to work on his car, but the decided to keep the name because it sounded “real sharp”).
Later, Zappa helped a friend by the name of Ruben Ladron de Guevara form a real band named Ruben and the Jets.
Essentially the entire album The Wall by Pink Floyd, but specifically the songs “In The Flesh?” and “In The Flesh.” (Yes, it’s deliberate.)
“So you thought you might like to
go to the show,
To feel the warm thrill of confusion,
that space cadet glow.
Tell me is something eluding you, sunshine?
Is this not what you expected to see?
If you want to find out what’s behind these cold eyes,
you’ll just have to claw your way through this disguise.”
and
“So you thought you might like to
go to the show,
To feel the warm thrill of confusion,
that space cadet glow.
Well, I’ve got some bad news for you all:
Pink isn’t well, he stayed back at the hotel.
He sent us along as a surrogate band,
we’re gonna find out where you fans really stand.”