Local H - All The Kids Are Right
Notable to me for being more amusingly self-deprecating than the usual mopey “Woe is me for being a musician” track.
First the band was wired, then the band was tired
Sluggish and a little slow
Just walking through the set, drunk as we could get
And what the hell was wrong with Joe?
You could tell the crowd was fading fast
Every song we played looser than the last
And it may be okay but you won’t wear our t-shirts now, anymore
Interesting- never knew this. The lyrics are vague enough to mean almost anything. It’s always been sort of a ‘background song’ I’ve heard a million times but never gave much thought to. So I got to wondering, what does “25 or 6 to 4” mean? Is is a reference to musical time signatures or something?
According to this, it is indeed about trying to write a song in the middle of the night, and the title merely refers to it being “25 or 26 minutes before 4 AM”.
About half of the Hold Steady’s songs qualify, either explicitly about their particular experience as musicians or referencing a musician’s (typically wasted musicians playing seedy dives with seedier women) life generally:
Stay Positive:
Rock Problems:
Joke About Jamaica (“The boys in the band know they’ll never be stars”):
Which segue’s to Boys in the Band by the Libertines:
Also Welcome to the Machine by Pink Floyd
And, for that matter, another song on that album (Wish You Were Here), “Have a Cigar.”
Old 97s - “Longer Than You’ve Been Alive”
Dire Straits’ “Sultans of Swing” is well known. Another song about a down-on-their-luck band is Marshall Crenshaw’s “Steel Strings”.
“Now the manager’s doing time in jail / And the pink Cadillac is up for sale”
Good example of a song about the music biz, which reminds me of “Have a Cigar”-- not only the same band, but from the same album. A masterpiece of bitter sarcasm. Roger Waters sure had a jaundiced eye for the music biz:
ETA: Argh, ninja’d!
Albert Hammond “Anyone Here in the Audience”
Motorhead “Going to Brazil”
My favorite song about songwriting:
Traveling Band - Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Cursive’s “Sink to the Beat” .
Clint steps in to establish the beat
4/4 hip hop and you don’t stop
this unique approach to start an EP
intended to shock, create a mystique
a cheap strategy, a marketing scheme
building awareness for the next LP
they’ve got a good fan base
they’ve got integrity
they’ve got a DC sound
Shudder to Think, Fugazi
and Chapel Hill Around The Early 90’s
this is the latest from Saddle Creek
Drive-By Truckers got a bunch of them…
Opening Act
Angels and Fuselage
Shut Up and Get on the Plane
and a few more…
Lodi.
We’re An American Band Grand Funk Railroad
We’re an American band
We’re an American band
We’re comin’ to your town
We’ll help you party it down
We’re an American band
That’s what they say. We all know it’s about drugs. it’s always drugs.
I remember when radio stations wouldn’t play it because they believed that.
He didn’t like any biz. From “Not Now, John”:
Not now John we gotta get on with the film show
Hollywood waits at the end of the rainbow
Who cares what it’s about as long as the kids go
I always figured this was referring to his experiences with the movie The Wall.
Add The Marshall Plan, from Blue Oyster Cult.
It’s about a kid who has his girl “stolen” by some rock star at a concert, so he decides he’s going to become that guy. And does.
Of course! I’m surprised that one didn’t occur to me as part of the OP.
Just past the one-year anniversary of “Sweet sweet Connie” Hamzy’s death. She’s doin’ her act in Rock 'n Roll heaven now.
Barenaked Ladies “Hello City”
Belle & Sebastian “This Is Just a Modern Rock Song”
Squirrel Nut Zippers “Trou Macacq” and “Suits are Picking Up The Bill”
That whole Running On Empty album really spoke to me, as I was touring at the time. But what made it hit home was that it was recorded on the road. A few tracks were live, others recorded in hotel rooms, some backstage…
… and at least one on the tour bus (you can hear trucks passing and the bus downshifting).
.
I double-checked myself on the tour bus song. Wikipedia sez:
“Nothing but Time”