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”.
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
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.”)
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”.
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!
“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.
I don’t know if you count this, cause it’s a ‘part II’, a couple of records later, but Iron Maiden’s22 Acacia Avenue refers back to Charlotte the Harlot.
Chubby Checker’sLet’s Do the Twist Again?
Radio Birdman in Anglo Girl Desire have the lines:
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.
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”.
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”.
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?
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”
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…”
