# Bands citing themselves?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-citing-themselves/502150
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [July 7, 2009, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-citing-themselves/502150 "2009-07-07T01:24:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2009, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-citing-themselves/502150/21 "2009-07-07T17:26:28Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#):
>
> On the Beastie Boys’ song “Intergalactic” they sample one of their much older songs, using the bit “…mmmmm, DROP?”
>
> I totally forget the name and album of the older song. I know there are several other BBoys examples, too.
**The New Style** off _Licensed to Ill_, I only know cause it’s my favorite song on that album.
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### Author:  [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2009, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-citing-themselves/502150/22 "2009-07-07T17:28:43Z")
I can’t believe nobody’s mentioned **Frank Zappa** yet. More examples than I can count.
And while not exactly _musically_ self-referential, I’ll mention the new **Wilco** album, which is titled “Wilco (The Album)” and has a song titled “Wilco (The Song)”.
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### Author:  [@Sunshine\_and\_Smiles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunshine_and_Smiles)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2009, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-citing-themselves/502150/23 "2009-07-07T17:33:45Z")
At the end of Wilco’s “I am Trying to Break Your Heart”, Jeff Tweedy sings, “I’m the Man Who Loves You”, another song on the album.
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### Author:  [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2009, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-citing-themselves/502150/24 "2009-07-07T17:34:19Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> Sting quotes a snippet of song from the previous album on (I think) every album, from the Police era to his solo career.
“It’s a big enough umbrella, but it’s always me that ends up getting wet.”
Originally from “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” on Ghosts in the Machine, shows up in “O My God” on Synchronicity… and other songs that Sting has done as a solo artist.
“Every breath you take.”
Originally in the song of the same name on Synchronicity, quoted on “Love is the Seventh Wave” on Sting’s Dream of the Blue Turtles.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2009, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-citing-themselves/502150/25 "2009-07-07T17:41:41Z")
Enya’s “On my Way Home”, from _The Memory of Trees_, has a sample of one of her earlier songs in the background, but I can’t remember what the other song was called.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2009, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-citing-themselves/502150/26 "2009-07-07T17:45:00Z")
> [@astorian](#):
>
> And the Kinks’ “Destroyer” features the riff from “All Day and All of the Night.”
It also features the line “Met a girl called Lola…”
And their song “The Road,” essentially a look back over their long career, includes the line “They’re just dedicated followers of fashion who like putting down all the well-respected men who came dancing…”
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### Author:  [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2009, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-citing-themselves/502150/27 "2009-07-07T20:47:01Z")
Veruca Salt: “I told you about the Seether before…”
The Who: “To the sound of ol’ T-Rex…and Who’s Next…”
Digital Underground: “I sang ‘Do What You Like’ and in case you missed it I’m the one who sang ‘just grab him in the biscuits’”
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### Author:  [@HookerChemical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HookerChemical)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2009, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-citing-themselves/502150/28 "2009-07-07T21:31:44Z")
Thinking outside the box (CD case?) how about Jethro Tull’s Strange Avenues off of Rock Island?
> [@](#):
>
> The wino sleeps cold coat lined with the money section.
> Looking like a a record cover from 1971.
They’re referencing their 1971 album cover for Aqualung, which had a homeless man on it.
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### Author:  [@Birdmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Birdmonster)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2009, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-citing-themselves/502150/29 "2009-07-07T22:38:42Z")
**The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway** cites itself near the end, but that might be a reprise than what you’re talking about here.
The Beatles’ **Glass Onion** contains the self-referential line “I told you 'bout Strawberry Fields”
Piggybacking **Shoeless** ’s idea: both Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden have eponymous songs or eponymous albums.
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### Author:  [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2009, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-citing-themselves/502150/30 "2009-07-08T00:15:49Z")
Do Metallica’s “Unforgiven” and “Unforgiven II” count?
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### Author:  [@Birdmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Birdmonster)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2009, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-citing-themselves/502150/31 "2009-07-08T00:17:39Z")
> [@gonzoron](#):
>
> Do Metallica’s “Unforgiven” and “Unforgiven II” count?
Are you aware there’s an even crappier “Unforgiven Three?”
[Seriously.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6hGQ71NXrE)
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2009, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-citing-themselves/502150/32 "2009-07-08T02:11:58Z")
The original versions of Traffic’s **Dear Mister Fantasy** album, starts out with the song “Paper Sun.” You could hear bits of “Paper Sun” between the other songs, and the final song was titled “We’re a Fade; You Missed This,” which is a final coda to “Paper Sun.” Most CDs drop all this and tack “We’re a Fade” onto “Paper Sun.”
Steve Miller often referred to older song titles in his songs. “The Joker,” for instance, begins with “Some call me the Space Cowboy/Some call me the Gangster of Love.” “Space Cowboy” and “Gangster of Love” were earlier Miller songs.
He starts out “Space Cowboy” with the line “I told you 'bout living in the U.S. of A./Don’t you know that I’m a gangster of love.” That refers to “Livin’ in the USA” and “Gangster of Love.”
I also believe there was one song that name checks “Space Cowboy,” “Gangster of Love,” and “The Joker.”
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### Author:  [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2009, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-citing-themselves/502150/33 "2009-07-08T05:20:32Z")
In Mozart’s opera _Don Juan_, during the dinner scene, Don Juan has hired an orchestra to play music, and one of the tunes they play is from Mozart’s opera _The Marriage of Figaro_. IIRC Leporello (the servant) says something like “oh yes, I know that tune well.”
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### Author:  [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2009, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-citing-themselves/502150/34 "2009-07-08T14:31:17Z")
> [@Birdmonster](#):
>
> Are you aware there’s an even crappier “Unforgiven Three?”
>
> [Seriously.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6hGQ71NXrE)
Actually, I wasn’t, but I like it! Another reason to pick up Death Magnetic one of these days. Haven’t gotten around to it yet…
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### Author:  [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2009, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-citing-themselves/502150/35 "2009-07-08T14:54:05Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#):
>
> The Who do this a lot. Mostly on Tommy and Quadrophenia you have songs with parts of other songs in them.
I don’t think this is really what the OP is looking for. _Tommy_ and _Quadrophenia_ are not just collections of songs written around the same time, the albums were written as “rock operas” and are meant to be taken as a whole. I wouldn’t call for instance the repetition of “See me, feel me…” in _Tommy_ a case of a band citing itself, it’s just a repeated theme within one larger musical work.
That said, The Who did cite themselves on plenty of other occasions. **RealityChuck** already mentioned that there were earlier Who songs that Pete Townshend borrowed from when writing _Tommy_. One he didn’t mention was “Glow Girl”, a pre-_Tommy_ song about a woman who dies in an airplane crash but is apparently reincarnated at the end – the song concludes with repetition of the line “It’s a girl, Mrs. Walker, it’s a girl!” _Tommy_ begins with the (apparent) death of the main character’s father, Captain Walker, in an air crash, and the birth of Tommy is announced with “It’s a boy, Mrs. Walker, it’s a boy!”
The 1978 song “Sister Disco” uses the phrase “deaf, dumb, and blind” which is/was a fairly common expression but in the context of a Who song is also evokes their famous “deaf, dumb, and blind boy” hero Tommy.
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2009, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-citing-themselves/502150/36 "2009-07-08T15:00:37Z")
> [@Lamia](#):
>
> I don’t think this is really what the OP is looking for. _Tommy_ and _Quadrophenia_ are not just collections of songs written around the same time, the albums were written as “rock operas” and are meant to be taken as a whole. I wouldn’t call for instance the repetition of “See me, feel me…” in _Tommy_ a case of a band citing itself, it’s just a repeated theme within one larger musical work.
The Aqualung album would be a borderline case of this. Cross-Eyed Mary name-checks Aqualung, although the band denies that the album is a theme album.
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### Author:  [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2009, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-citing-themselves/502150/37 "2009-07-08T15:12:05Z")
Deep Purple’s “Hungry Daze” includes the line, “We all came out to Montreux… but that’s a different song.”
The Byrds’ “Love That Never Dies” features the line, “Throw a dime to the Tambourine Man, and kiss all the horses good-bye.”
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### Author:  [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2009, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-citing-themselves/502150/38 "2009-07-08T15:13:08Z")
And the Guess Who had an autobiographical song called "When the Band Was Playing ‘Shakin’ All Over.’ "
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### Author:  [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2009, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-citing-themselves/502150/39 "2009-07-08T18:26:43Z")
The Hold Steady have a song on Separation Sunday, “Cattle and the Creeping Things” with this line-
“Silly rabbit. Tripping is for teenagers. Murder is for murderers6. And hard drugs are for bartenders. I think I might have mentioned that before.”
This is a reference to a line from “Certain Songs” from their previous album.
“Hard drugs are for the bartenders and the kitchen workers and the bartender’s friends.”
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### Author:  [@audiobottle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audiobottle)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2009, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-citing-themselves/502150/40 "2009-07-08T19:30:29Z")
Off The National’s _Boxer_, Slow Show ends with a callback to 29 years off their first ablum, _The National_.
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