Was enjoying some Beastie Boys last night when it occurred to me that while name-checking yourself in rap and hip-hop is near required, it’s not really something you hear in other genres.
Examples:
“One-two-three-to-the-four/Snoop Doggy Dog and Dr. Dre at your door”
“Beastie Boys known to let the beat …/ hmm, drop?”
“Mr. Moles on da beats/And Missy be the beats behind the beats” (Missy Elliot)
Ok, I actually don’t know enough country or techno to know if it’s common there.
Trying to think of examples outside of rap & hip-hop.
[ul]
[li]“Milkmen Stomp” by The Dead Milkmen[/li][li]“KMFDM Sucks” (and other songs) by KMFDM[/li][li]“Put the Book Back On The Shelf” by Belle & Sebasitian has a coda where they mention themselves[/li][/ul]
I don’t think “Bad Company” by Bad Company fits the bill. They’re not talking about a band.
Any others? Note I’m not looking for songs where the singer talks about “me” or “me and the band” (example: Willie Nelson’s “Me and Paul”) but rather explicitly says the band’s name or their name.
The Queers “You’re Tripping” contains the couplet “Bring on the beers/'Cause we are The Queers”
John Lennon name-checks The Beatles in his solo song “God” (“I don’t believe in Beatles”). Although it’s not the usual braggadocio associated with hip-hop name-checking, in fact it’s quite the opposite.
I can think of lots of songs about life on the road or the early days of the band that don’t explicitly name the band. There’s also lots that name check other artists. But name-checking yourself does seem rare in rock.
“Wilco (the Song)” by **Wilco **has the lyric Wilco will love you baby.
Old 97s’ “Barrier Reef” contains the line “My name’s Stuart Ransom Miller” which many think is Rhett Miller name-checking himself but it’s actually a song about his dad. Rhett himself is Stewart Ransom Miller II and his dad is the original. From something he wrote about the song:
“Creeque Alley”; by the Mamas and the Papas fits the definition. All members of the group are name checked.
“The Movies Are a Mother to Me” by Loudon Wainwright III ends with the line “Between Loudon and himself.”
One of the many reasons I hate rap and hip hop. One of the music feeds on my cable keeps playing this song (one of the very few hip hop songs on that feed) by Britney Spears and Will I Am where they say their names as part of the chorus. It makes my toes curl.
But the first answer to your question that I thought of was the 60’s hit “Tighten Up”, where Archie Bell introduces himself before he begins singing.
Tenth Avenue Freeze Out by Bruce Springsteen mentions him and saxophone player Clarence Clemons by fairly obvious aliases (Bad Scooter and The Big Man). The song is a somewhat mythologised version of the formation of the E Street Band.
The song was also used as a rather moving tribute in concert after Clemons’ death by performing it but with silence where his sax solo would have been.