Yeah, my mind was wandering on a cold and rainy commute home. I was trying to think of songs whose titles plainly refer to the title of another song within them.
The only one I could really think of was “Tennessee Waltz,” that old country standard. The refrain goes:
So were they playing a song about a guy losing his darlin’ to his best friend while they were dancing, while this guy was losing his darlin’ to his best friend while they were dancing?
Bizarre, and what shitty luck!
I was thinking that Bruce Springsteen’s “Highway Patrolman” was a metasong, but then I remembered the title was not “The Night of the Johnstown Flood.” :smack:
There’s this song by Buck Owens called “Together Again.” And there’s this later song by Buck Owens, about a guy asking someone to play “Together Again” on the jukebox, called “Play ‘Together Again’ Again.” That there’s purty meta.
You’re So Vain – Carly Simon
You Can All Join In – Traffic (“Here’s a little song you can all join in with.”)
The Song That Never Ends – Shari Lewis (“This is the song that never ends.”)
New Song – The Who
“This is the theme to Garry’s show,
The theme to Garry’s show…”
From It’s Garry Shandling’s Show.
“Make a hole with a gun perpindicular
To the name of this town in a desktop globe
Exit wound in a foreign nation
Showing the home of the one this was written for”
They Might Be Giants, “Anna Ng”
“This is a song for the lonely
Can you hear me tonight?
For the broken hearted, battle scarred,
I’ll be by your side”
Actually in re-reading the OP none of the examples I offered really fit, since the songs don’t refer to a separate song but are instead self-referential.
I just don’t get it when somebody sings a song about how his heart was broken because he didn’t see it coming, where “it” refers to a line that’s right there in the song.
If you know it well enough to sing it in public, you should know it’s coming.
Title of the Song, by Da Vinci’s Notebook. Doesn’t actually refer to another song by name, but… well, here’s a sampling of the lyrics. You’ll get the idea.
*Declaration of my feelings for you
Elaboration on those feelings
Description of how long these feelings have existed
Belief that no one else could feel the same as I
Reminiscence of the pleasant times we’ve shared
And our relationship’s perfection
Recounting of the steps that lead to our love’s dissillusion
Mostly involving my unfaithfulness and lies
Penitent admission of wrongdoing
Discovery of the depth of my affection
Regret over the lateness of my epiphany
CHORUS:
Title of the song
Naive expression of love
Reluctance to accept that you are gone
Request to turn back time
And rectify my wrongs
Repetition of the title of the song*
Unless I’m missing some subtext, that’s not exactly what I was looking for, Biffy. I know the OP could be interpreted that way, but I meant the title of another song of the same title.
“Going for a Song” – Matthew Fisher. The other song is not mentioned by name, but it’s clear enough what Fisher is talking about. The lyrics talk about a musician who is forced to play the same song night after night after night. Fisher was organist for Procol Harum, and sneaks in the organ riff from “A Whiter Shade of Pale” in the middle.
“Sweet Home Alabama” – Lynryd Skynyrd (“Well, we heard Neil Young sing about us,” referring to Young’s “Southern Man.”
“Play it All Night Long” – Warren Zevon ("Sweet Home Alabama. Play that dead band’s song.)
“The Weiner Schnitzel Waltz” – Tom Lehrer (“Do you remember the night I held you so tight/As we danced to the wiener schnitzel waltz?”)
In “Hey Nineteen”, Steely Dan sings,
"Hey nineteen
That’s “Retha Franklin
She don’t remember
The queen of soul”
In “Monterey” Eric Burdon sings about a host of other musicians, as does Charlie Daniels in “The South’s Gonn Do It Again”.
In “War Is Coming! War Is Coming!”, War sings about war coming, but I don’t know if they mean the band or actual, you know, war.
