# Game: Songs referring to earlier songs **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 3, 2002, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/game-songs-referring-to-earlier-songs/112116 "2002-06-03T09:45:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2002, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/game-songs-referring-to-earlier-songs/112116/21 "2002-06-03T23:19:11Z")
Shel Silverstein wrote “The Father of a Boy Named Sue” as a humorous take on his earlier, “A Boy Named Sue”. Simon & Garfunkel’s “A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara’d Into Submission)” refers to being “Art Garfunkel’d”, which maybe doesn’t refer to a song but is self-referential. But there’s several references to Dylan – the line, “But it’s alright ma, everybody must get stoned” (“It’s alright ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” and “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35”), not to mention that the whole song is sort of a parody of “Subterranean Homesick Blues”. Dire Strait’s “Tunnel Of Love” has the lines, “Getting crazy on the waltzers, but it’s the life that I choose/Sing about the sixblade, sing about the switchback and a torture tattoo”, a reference to their own “Six Blade Knife”. Mentioning the waltzer ( a carnival ride ) might also be another subtle reference, since “Tunnel of Love” opens with a bit of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Carousel Waltz”. Another song by Dire Straits, “Walk of Life”, also refers to Johnny doing “the song about the knife”. ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2002, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/game-songs-referring-to-earlier-songs/112116/22 "2002-06-04T00:38:46Z")
Almost forget “Creeque Alley” by the Mamas and the Papas, which has tons of biographical references, including mentioning "California Dreamin’ " ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2002, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/game-songs-referring-to-earlier-songs/112116/23 "2002-06-04T02:04:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pldennison \* > \*\*Veruca Salt’s “Volcano Girls” makes reference to both their own hit “Seether” and to the Beatles’ “Glass Onion”: > > “I told you 'bout the seether before, > You know the one who’s neither or nor; > Well here’s another clue if you please, > The seether’s Louise!” \*\* Heh heh. I went to HS with Louise Post. My lame contribution: Then I let the alpine play I was pumping new shit by NWA It was Gangster, Gangster at the top of the list Then I played my own shit it went something like this ---
**Author:** ![John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Carter_of_Mars)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2002, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/game-songs-referring-to-earlier-songs/112116/24 "2002-06-04T02:30:01Z")
Going back to ancient times… Hank Ballard and The Midnighters’s “Annie Had a Baby” references back to their earlier hit: “Work With Me Annie” Chubby Checker’s “Lets Twist Again” references back to his earlier hit: “The Twist”. The Shirelles “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” followed so closely on the heels of “Tonight’s the Night” that the relationship is in escapable. There are bound to be many more, but I’ve got brain-drain right now. (And what’s different, you may ask) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Dragon\_Phoenix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@Dragon\_Phoenix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragon_Phoenix)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2002, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/game-songs-referring-to-earlier-songs/112116/25 "2002-06-04T03:17:53Z")
“Garden Party” by Ricky Nelson refers to his monster hit Hello Mary Lou: _I said hello to “Mary Lou”, she belongs to me_. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2002, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/game-songs-referring-to-earlier-songs/112116/26 "2002-06-04T16:25:13Z")
This one is a technicality (John Lennon shared credit on “Yesterday,” though he didn’t really write it): John Lennon’s “How Do You Sleep?,” a bitter screed against Paul McCartney, alludes to the Beatles’ songs “Yesterday” and “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” as well as to McCartney’s solo hit “Another Day.” (“So, Sgt. Pepper took you by surprise.”) (“The only thing you done was ‘Yesterday’ And since you left, it’s just another day.”) ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2002, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/game-songs-referring-to-earlier-songs/112116/27 "2002-06-04T18:09:30Z")
Thought of another one - Queen’s “Bicycle Race” has “Fat bottomed girls will be riding today / So look out for those beauties, oh yeah” which refers to their song “Fat Bottomed Girls”. That wasn’t really an ‘earlier’ song, though – it was the B side to “Bicycle Race”. ---
**Author:** ![minlokwat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minlokwat/32/2844_2.png) [@minlokwat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minlokwat)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2002, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/game-songs-referring-to-earlier-songs/112116/28 "2002-06-04T19:30:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by panamajack \* > \*\*Thought of another one - Queen’s “Bicycle Race” has “Fat bottomed girls will be riding today / So look out for those beauties, oh yeah” which refers to their song “Fat Bottomed Girls”. That wasn’t really an ‘earlier’ song, though – it was the B side to “Bicycle Race”. \*\* And completing the circuit, “Fat Bottomed Girls” contains the line: “Get on your bikes and ride!” ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2002, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/game-songs-referring-to-earlier-songs/112116/29 "2002-06-04T20:45:02Z")
Pink Floyd’s ‘Have a cigar’ refers to the band name, ‘And by the way, which one’s Pink?’. Allegedly a quote from a real record executive. The start of Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’ is the second part of a sentence which is started at the very end, thus making a loop, and making it almost certainly the ‘nearest’ self-reference that is going to appear on this thread! ---
**Author:** ![Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c67d28/32.png) [@Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weird_AL_Einstein)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2002, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/game-songs-referring-to-earlier-songs/112116/30 "2002-06-04T21:01:29Z")
In the Digital Underground song “Humpty Dance” they refer to their previous hit “Doowutchyalike”. ---
**Author:** ![Jello](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@Jello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jello)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2002, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/game-songs-referring-to-earlier-songs/112116/31 "2002-06-05T05:43:33Z")
“St. Stephen” and “Hell in a Bucket” by the Grateful Dead. Although St Stephen (“Wishing well with a golden bell, bucket hanging clear to hell”)'s lyricist was Robert Hunter and Hell in a Bucket (I may be going to hell in a bucket, but at least I’m enjoying the ride)'s was John Barlow, the latter song has always seemed to me to be a reference to the first. ---
**Author:** ![Junior\_Spaceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Junior\_Spaceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Junior_Spaceman)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2002, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/game-songs-referring-to-earlier-songs/112116/32 "2002-06-05T06:08:58Z")
I don’t know if you count this, cause it’s a ‘part II’, a couple of records later, but **Iron Maiden’s** _22 Acacia Avenue_ refers back to _Charlotte the Harlot_. **Chubby Checker’s** _Let’s Do the Twist Again_? **Radio Birdman** in _Anglo Girl Desire_ have the lines: > [@](#): > > I have seen you **do the Pop** > And the **moving change** which refers to two other songs of theirs (‘Do the Pop’ and ‘Do the Moving Change’ if you’re wondering ;)). **Lou Reed’s** song _Gimme Some Good Times_ is a kinda rewrite of _Sweet Jane_ and refers to some of the lines of the earlier song. ---
**Author:** ![Mojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2002, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/game-songs-referring-to-earlier-songs/112116/33 "2002-06-05T12:26:21Z")
Charlie Daniels Band, _The Devil Went Down to Georgia_, references [Fire on the Mountain\*, an earlier album by the CDB. ---
**Author:** ![moodtobestewed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ab097/32.png) [@moodtobestewed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moodtobestewed)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2002, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/game-songs-referring-to-earlier-songs/112116/34 "2002-06-05T16:40:33Z")
On the US version of the Clash’s debut, the song “Complete Control” is about the band’s struggles to release as a single the song before it, titled “Remote Control”. ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2002, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/game-songs-referring-to-earlier-songs/112116/35 "2002-06-05T17:16:28Z")
While not fitting the category exactly, Neil Young wrote a song called “Buffalo Springfield Again”, wherein he sings about his earlier band, Buffalo Springfield. And of course, that band put out an album also called “Buffalo Springfield Again”. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2002, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/game-songs-referring-to-earlier-songs/112116/36 "2002-06-05T20:42:15Z")
My favorite producer of seasoned processed pork products (Jimmy Dean) followed up his hit _The Ballad of Big John_. You may recall that Big John’s rap sheet included an incident of (presumably) voluntary manslaughter in New Orleans, where he killed a man in a fight over a Cajun queen. Following Big John’s untimely interment, Mr. Dean released a frightening account of this siren restoring the unfortunate miner to the world of the living (_Big John’s Cajun Queen_). Whenever I heard this record, I was reminded of the poor reanimated corpse at the end of _The Monkey’s Paw_. I mean, the guy was squashed like a bug; how is restoring the spark of life to his flattened remains going to help him? ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2002, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/game-songs-referring-to-earlier-songs/112116/37 "2002-06-05T20:47:35Z")
Harry Chapin’s “Sequel” is a sequel to “Taxi”. It’s about the same man, meeting the same woman, ten years later. ---
**Author:** ![Fish42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/4da419/32.png) [@Fish42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish42)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2002, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/game-songs-referring-to-earlier-songs/112116/38 "2002-06-05T21:08:30Z")
Sly and the Family Stone’s “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” refers to “Dance to the Music,” “Everyday People,” “Sing a Simple Song,” and “You Can Make It If You Try” Curtis Mayfield’s “Future Shock” mentions “Super Fly” John Lennon’s “God” includes a reference to the Beatles’ “I Am the Walrus” Chris Kenner’s “Land of 1000 Dances” mentions his “I Like It Like That” Public Enemy’s “Revolutionary Generation” mentions “Sophisticated Bitch” The Jimmy Castor Bunch’s “Bertha Butt Boogie” has references to his earlier hits “Troglodyte” and “Hey Leroy (Your Mama’s Calling)” ---
**Author:** ![twit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@twit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twit)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2002, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/game-songs-referring-to-earlier-songs/112116/39 "2002-06-05T23:17:23Z")
“Do I have to tell the story Of a thousand rainy days since we first met It’s a big enough umbrella But it’s always me that ends up getting wet.” These lyrics appear in two Police songs: “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” from Ghost in the Machine and “O My God” from Synchronicity. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2002, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/game-songs-referring-to-earlier-songs/112116/40 "2002-06-06T00:19:48Z")
**Robert Plant** has included **Led Zeppelin** stuff in his solo work. _Tall Cool One_ has several Zeppelin riffs at the end. _Your Ma Said You Cried in Your Sleep Last Night_ contains some _Black Dog_ lyrics in it. “Hey hey mama said the way you move…” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/game-songs-referring-to-earlier-songs/112116.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/game-songs-referring-to-earlier-songs/112116.md?page=3)