There’s this bit of fun nonsense from The Hold Steady in their song The Swish.
She said “my name’s Rick Danko baby, but people call me one hour photo.”
…
She said “my name’s Robby Robertson, but people call me Robo.”
She said “my name’s Steve Perry baby, but people call me Circuit City.”
…
She said “my name’s Neil Schon, but people call me Nina Simone.”
Man, what a clomp down Memory Lane that song and its references were! Thanks.
Tears For Fears manage to give props, dis, and namecheck two Paul Weller bands in “Sowing The Seeds Of Love”:
Oi! I liked The Style Council (thought The Jam was much better).
In the Intro and the Outro, the Bonzo Dog Band mentions Eric Clapton, Val Doonican (a UK singer of the 60s), and The Rawlinsons (another UK musical act).
Fred Astaire is mentioned in Leo Sayer’s Long Tall Glasses, but as a dancer, not a singer (though he was a fine singer, too).
Another Pavement song, “Range Life”:
Out on tour with The Smashing Pumpkins
Nature kids, they don’t have no function
…
The Stone Temple Pilots, they’re elegant bachelors
They’re foxy to me - are they foxy to you?
"Punk Rock Girl" by The Dead Milkmen name-checks Mojo Nixon.
Up on Cripple Creek, by The Band:
Me and my mate were back at the shack/we had Spike Jones on the box. Box as in jukebox.
X-Ray Spex’s “Let’s Submerge” mentions “dagger glares from Richard Hell.”
Snow Patrol mention Sufjan Stevens in the song “Hands Open”.
“Put sufjan stevens on
And we’ll play your favorite song
“Chicago” bursts to life and your
Sweet smile remembers you”
No they don’t,per the OP.
It’s hardly rock, but in “Little Ramona” by BR5-49, Ramona’s got Emmylou and Patti Smith on a 90-minute cassette!
Cake wrote a song called ‘Frank Sinatra’.
BNL mentioned ‘Garfunkel’ in their song ‘If I Had A Million Dollars’.
Bruce Springsteen sings about ‘Roy Orbison singing for the lonely’ in Thunder Road.
Kiss is mentioned in ‘Surrender’ by Cheap Trick… I think someone already said that, though.
The Clash, in London Calling: “Phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust”
New country songs, on the other hand, almost always name another, older, country artist.
Kate Bush’s “Blow Away” mentions Minnie Ripperton, Keith Moon, Sid Vicious, Buddy Holly, Sandy Denny, and Marc Bolan. It’s about a really eclectic, kickass gig in heaven.
Wow, thank you for the link. That’s always been my favorite song by them, but when it came out I was a young Kansas farmgirl who knew nothing about the band or their history or what the lyrics meant. I learned the words by heart and always sang along when it played on the radio (I think I had the single too), but it was in the way I sing along with the Bulgarian Chorus today since I don’t speak a word of Bulgarian, mouthing the words phoentically. I haven’t heard the song in a couple of decades, but now I want to find the song and listen to it with my new-found knowledge of what it all means. Thanks!
Sloan disparagingly calls out Consolidated in Coax Me.
Then there’s the godawful Iggy & Angus, which mentions, well, Iggy, Angus, as well as Kurt. But Patrick Pentland can’t write a decent song to save his life. Blech. Gimme Jay any day.
I may have missed this since I only skimmed…
Alan Jackson mentions Jimmy Buffett by name in “Five O’Clock Somewhere.”
Which is also on Gordon, incidentally.
They REALLY had fun with namechecking on Gordon.
“Blind Lemon Jefferson is a-coming
Tap tap tappin with his cane” - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Blind Lemon Jefferson
Tupelo, from the same album (The Firstborn is Dead), is all about mythologising Elvis’ birth, but only mentions him as “The King”, IIRC.
No love for Led Zeppelin? I’m surprised that Hats off to (Roy) Harper hasn’t been mentioned by now.
The Righteous Brothers mentioned Huey Lewis, Bruce Springsteen, and Bob Seger in “American Rock and Roll”. Not one of their better-known (or better) songs.
The New Radicals mentioned Beck, Hanson, Courtney Love, and Marilyn Manson in their song “You Get What You Give”.