All summer long we were dancing in the sand
And the jukebox kept on playing “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”
Also, “Waylon, Wille and Me” by David Allan Coe:
“I’d heard The Burritos out in California
could fly higher than The Byrds
Roger McQuinn had a 12 string guitar.
It was like nothing I’d ever heard
And The Eagles flew in from the west coast
Like The Byrds they were trying to be free
While in Texas the talk turned to Outlaws
Like Willie and Waylon and me.”
The second verse references the Beatles, the Stones, Janis Joplin and Bob Dylan.
My favorite is Pi Di Di Di by Calle 13, a reggaeton group; it’s basically a throwdown against Puff Daddy for dissing reggaeton artists (and Hispanic people in general). Sorry, it’s in Spanish, and my slang knowledge is not so fabulous that I’d take a stab at translating it. (Also, it’s pretty crude. Funny, but crude.)
I once made a mix of songs about Husker Du and its members:
Mold - Bob Mould Hates Me
The Posies - Grant Hart
Anthemic Pop Wonder - How Great Was Husker Du
Splitsville - Husker Du
The Replacements - Something To Du
Speaking of The Replacements, there’s also “We’re The Replacements” by They Might Be Giants.
What about songs that reference themselves? One version of “The Bonnie Lass of Fyvie-o” contains the line “And the band played ‘The Bonnie Lass of Fyvie-o’”.
Kind of obscure, but I recall a song from the early eighties called “Sit On My Face, Stevie Nix” by Phester Swollen and the Rotters. No, I am not making this up.
“Tribute,” by Tenacious D, about the time they were challenged by a demon to write the best song in the world, which they immediately did by playing the first song that came into their heads. “Tribute” is not that song, but is merely a tribute to it.
As long as it’s a formal mix, you could start it off with “Make Me a Mixtape” by the Promise Ring, which mentions Husker Du as the most prominent of a couple of bands they want to include in their mixtape. So while not entirely about Husker Du, it is about a mixtape
P.J. Harvey’s Memphis and Rufus Wainwright’s Memphis Skyline are both about Jeff Buckley and his death. They’re just two of about a dozen known tribute songs to Buckley.
Duran Duran’s Michael You’ve Got a Lot to Answer For is about Michael Hutchence, the lead singer of INXS, and the woes he was facing right before he ended his life. So Long Suicide from the same album is about Kurt Cobain.
The Mamas and The Papas talk about themselves as well as members of The New Christy Minstrels, The Byrds and Lovin’ Spoonful (Roger McGwinn, Barry McGuire, John Sebastian & Zal Yanovsky) and their early beginnings and inspirations in* Creeque Alley*.
Diana Ross’s Missing You and Night Shift by The Commodores were both homages to Marvin Gaye, the latter also eulogized Jackie Wilson.
In Frank Sinatra’s version of* Mack The Knife*, he clearly states that Bobby Darrin, Ella Fitzgerald, and Satchmo all do a better version than he does…
Garth Brooks’ references his “worn out tape of Chris LeDoux” in his song “Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)”
That reference actually brought Chris LeDoux from sputtering along on an independent label, to selling over 5 1/2 million copies of his music on his new label.
Speaking of which – P.J. Harvey’s album Exile in Guyville is, according to her, a song-by-song reply to the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main St. (“Reply songs” are a whole subcategory of “songs about other songs” and I’m pretty sure this has been done at least once on this MB.)
There’s also the songs from Eamon & Frankee (Fck it/Fck you right back). Not necessarily meant for small ears - the one song is a direct reply to the other.
Or how about Usher’s “Confession” and “Confession: Part II”
