# Clever musical cross-references **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 11, 2001, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-musical-cross-references/75830 "2001-08-11T18:50:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2001, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-musical-cross-references/75830/1 "2001-08-11T18:50:30Z")
Think of songs where one musician slyly quotes another’s music. One of the cleverest examples I can think of is in Bob Dylan’s song “It Ain’t Me, Babe.” In the chorus he sings: “_ **No, no, no,** it ain’t me, babe_.” This song came out in 1963 — right after the Beatles had a hit with “She Loves You.” Who can forget that song’s famous chorus? “_She loves you, **yeah, yeah, yeah** _” Dylan’s _ **No, no, no** _ is sung on three notes (a descending minor third, to be technical), the exact same three notes the Beatles used for their _ **Yeah, yeah, yeah** _ refrain. He must have intended his anti-love song as a snide rejoinder to the Beatles’ hit song. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2001, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-musical-cross-references/75830/2 "2001-08-12T01:45:25Z")
Matthew Fisher, after he left Procul Harum, did a solo album with a song entitled “Going for a Song.” The lyrics keep saying “Please don’t make me play that song again,” and there’s a short quote from “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” to make it clear what he means. In Peter, Paul, and Mary’s “I Dig Rock and Roll Music,” they do musical imitations of the Beatles and the Mamas and the Papas. It’s not exactly what the originals did, but it sounds like them. Similarly, the Beatles quote from the Beach Boys’ sound in “Back in the U.S.S.R.,” especially with the middle part {“Those Ukrane girls really knock me out” etc.). ELO’s version of “Roll Over Beethoven,” has a quote from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. ---
**Author:** ![pesch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pesch/32/4925_2.png) [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2001, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-musical-cross-references/75830/3 "2001-08-12T01:59:00Z")
One reference you can’t hear . . . In the late '70s, I was drinking in a Munich beer hall – the same one Hitler used as a base for his putsche – when the brass band launched into “Deutschland, Deutschland Uber Alles,” just long enough to get our attention before swinging into a polka. The Beatles did the self-referential bit with “All You Need is Love” by throwing in a “She Loves You Yeah, Yeah, Yeah” in one of the choruses. (And the Rutles did the same thing, tossing in “Hold My Hand, Yeah, Yeah” on their version). ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2001, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-musical-cross-references/75830/4 "2001-08-12T02:58:14Z")
In the recorded version of “Sunshine of Your Love,” in the first 4 bars of the guitar solo, Eric Clapton plays the melody from “Blue Moon.” The Beatles had another clever self-reference: In “Glass Onion,” John Lennon sings, “I told you 'bout the fool on the hill,” after which there is a quick flute phrase, recalling the flute from “Fool on the Hill.” ---
**Author:** ![Purd\_Werfect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47c2d/32.png) [@Purd\_Werfect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purd_Werfect)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2001, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-musical-cross-references/75830/5 "2001-08-12T03:42:11Z")
On the song **El Camino** from their first album, _Ween_ break into a totally twisted yet recognizable take on _Jefferson Airplane’s_ **Go Ask Alice** for a few bars right in the middle of the song. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2001, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-musical-cross-references/75830/6 "2001-08-12T13:08:26Z")
**Yes** did a cover of Simon & Garfunkle’s song “America.” They transformed the gentle acoustic ballad (“All come to look for America”) into a full-blast rock-‘n’-roll rave-up. It was mainly an excuse for extended electric guitar jams. But in the beginning part, Chris Squire on bass plays a couple bars of the melody of **Leonard Bernstein** ’s song “America” from _West Side Story_—you know, the one with the Puerto Rican girls singing “I like to be in Ame-ri-ca”, playing with Latino rhythms, 6/8 crossed with 3/4, thrown into Yes’s 4/4 jams. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2001, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-musical-cross-references/75830/7 "2001-08-12T13:47:31Z")
Tim Rice’s lyrics in the musical “Blondel” have about a million of them, but few people are interested. One example: This 1983 show has a song sung by Richard the Lionheart called “I Just Can’t Wait to be King.” Where was that lyric reused? His brother Richard sings in counter-point “Saladin Days,” which was one of Tim’s and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s first songs. If you want anymore, e-mail me. But I ain’t gonna be hanging by the computer. ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2001, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-musical-cross-references/75830/8 "2001-08-12T14:07:42Z")
At the end of Barenaked Ladies’ song _New Kid (On The Block)_, the ending is a sequence of (you guessed it) New Kids on the Block references. It goes like this: New kid on the block (step one, I was fun)[sub]I think that’s what he says…[/sub] New kid on the block (think of what you say, think of what you do!) New kid on the block (oh oh, oh oh oh oh!) New kid on the block The parts in parentheses are sung in the background, and each is a reference to a NKOTB song: the first is from _Step By Step_ (the line NKOTB sings is actually “Step one, we can have lots of fun”), the second is from _Games_, and the third is from _The Right Stuff (You Got It)_. Another BNL one: in their cover of the song ‘McDonald’s Girl’, they include the old McD’s jingle at the end. ---
**Author:** ![ndorward](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c2a13f/32.png) [@ndorward](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ndorward)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2001, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-musical-cross-references/75830/9 "2001-08-13T03:05:48Z")
Was just listening recently to Zappa’s _Strictly Commercial_ compilation, & a musical quotation in “Nanook Rubs It/Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow” was eluding my memory. My wife got it: it’s from the old standard “Midnight Sun”, of course. (Frank knew his cheesy jazz standards: _Lather_ at one point throws in an uncredited rendition of “Laura”–it’s at the start of “Flambe”.) ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-musical-cross-references/75830/10 "2001-08-16T20:06:00Z")
Wanna talk about Zappa’s musical quotations, you could write a book. How about in “Billy the Mountain” from _Just Another Band from L.A._ — he parodies the Latino riff from Crosby, Stills, & Nash’s “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” singing farcical lyrics that totally destroy the mystique of Stephen Stills’s enigmatic pseudo-Spanish lyrics. “He was born next to the frozen beef pies.” But that is as broad as parody gets, nothing the least bit subtle about it. ---
**Author:** ![Delta-9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3be4f8/32.png) [@Delta-9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Delta-9)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-musical-cross-references/75830/11 "2001-08-16T20:15:17Z")
In the Eagles’ “Hotel California” the line about “stabbing it with thier steely knives” is a nod to Steely Dan. I remember hearing/seeing/reading somewhere that the bands knew each other well, and they did this often. ---
**Author:** ![renigademaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71c47a/32.png) [@renigademaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/renigademaster)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2001, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-musical-cross-references/75830/12 "2001-08-17T03:06:08Z")
I was going to say that the Beatles tipped their hat to Bob Dylan with Rocky Racoon. I think I read once while they were poking fun at some of his music, they had a deep respect for him. ---
**Author:** ![cykrider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f19dbf/32.png) [@cykrider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cykrider)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2001, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-musical-cross-references/75830/13 "2001-08-17T03:15:43Z")
In the later versions of _Crash_ by Dave Matthews Band he says the lines: “I’ll be your dixie chicken if you’ll be my Tennessee lamb.” Which is from a country song called Dixie I believe. ---
**Author:** ![schplebordnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@schplebordnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/schplebordnik)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2001, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-musical-cross-references/75830/14 "2001-08-17T03:34:59Z")
Nah, the song’s “Dixie Chicken,” by Little Feat. Not exactly a country song, more like Rock n Roll/Blues/Country hybrid. One of the best live songs ever, for those of us of a certain age… ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2001, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-musical-cross-references/75830/15 "2001-08-17T03:47:28Z")
Garth Brooks covered Dixie Chicken, too. ---
**Author:** ![rackensack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@rackensack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rackensack)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2001, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-musical-cross-references/75830/16 "2001-08-17T04:43:13Z")
The first thing that came to mind on seeing the thread title was They Might Be Giants, who have to be the reigning undefeated champions of this sort of thing. It’s usually more subtle than direct quotations, but they musically allude to the whole range of American music of the twentieth century: Broadway show tunes, jazz and pop standards, work chants, etc. Their cleverness extends beyond being inveterate smart-asses in their lyrics to the music itself. As often as not, their songs are about music as much as the nominal subject. ---
**Author:** ![bleach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bleach/32/3106_2.png) [@bleach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bleach)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2001, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-musical-cross-references/75830/17 "2001-08-17T05:25:41Z")
Oasis has a lot of Beatles references, perhaps too many to list. For example, the Na Na Na part in All Around the World off Be Here Now by Oasis is around the same length of the Na Na Na part in Hey Jude by the Beatles (saw that on Pop-Up Videos). In Weird Al Yankovich’s “Slime Creatures from Outer Space,” as the track is fading, Al asks, a la Ray Parker Jr., “Who ya gonna call” and the bg singers yell “Slime Creatures!” It’s cute. Stevie Nicks did a gig at The Whiskey that was recorded live, and she worked in the lyrics to “When Doves Cry” by Prince into her own song, “Edge of Seventeen.” Veruca Salt references their own song in “Volcano Girls” with the lyric I told you 'bout the Seether before The one who is neither or nor Here’s another clue if you please The Seether’s Louise. The Seether is another Veruca Salt song, and the lyrics to that are like “The seether is neither loose nor tight. The seether is neither black nor white…” Louise is a band member. In The Who’s “Pinball Wizard” version with Elton John singing lead vocals, there’s an interlude in which they transition to “Can’t Explain,” an early Who hit. ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2001, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-musical-cross-references/75830/18 "2001-08-17T06:12:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jomo Mojo \* > \*\ ***Yes** did a cover of Simon & Garfunkle’s song “America.” They transformed the gentle acoustic ballad (“All come to look for America”) into a full-blast rock-‘n’-roll rave-up. It was mainly an excuse for extended electric guitar jams. > > But in the beginning part, Chris Squire on bass plays a couple bars of the melody of **Leonard Bernstein** ’s song “America” from _West Side Story_—you know, the one with the Puerto Rican girls singing “I like to be in Ame-ri-ca”, playing with Latino rhythms, 6/8 crossed with 3/4, thrown into Yes’s 4/4 jams. \*\* Metallica used that part too in ‘Don’t Tread on Me’. ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2001, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-musical-cross-references/75830/19 "2001-08-17T12:07:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bleach \* > \*\*Veruca Salt references their own song in “Volcano Girls” with the lyric > > I told you 'bout the Seether before > The one who is neither or nor > Here’s another clue if you please > The Seether’s Louise. > > The Seether is another Veruca Salt song, and the lyrics to that are like “The seether is neither loose nor tight. The seether is neither black nor white…” Louise is a band member.\*\* This, of course, is also a reference to the Beatles’ _Glass Onion_, in which they sing: I told you 'bout the Walrus and me, man You know that we’re as close as can be, man Well here’s another clue for you all The Walrus was Paul ---
**Author:** ![TheNerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@TheNerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheNerd)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2001, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-musical-cross-references/75830/20 "2001-08-17T14:49:03Z")
These aren’t quite on the same lines as the above ones, but here are my observations anyway. I was watching a rerun of an early episode of Star Trek Next Generation a couple of nights ago (the one with the Binar). When the Enterprise docked into the space station, the music was extremely similar to the music from Star Wars when Vader’s shuttle docked. In the old computer game Descent II, the music from the 2nd level (I think, it’s been a few years since I played) is “Ase’s Death” from the Peer Gynt suite by Grieg, only sped up a bit and with a stronger beat. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-musical-cross-references/75830.md?page=2)