Oh, I forgot Opening Act, apparently by a band called Ugly Duckling:
We’re the opening act
We do a couple songs and we don’t come back
And when we’re finished we’ll be hoping you clap
We’re the opening act
Would “Killing Me Softly With his Song” count?
If so, there’s also Tom Paxton’s Annie’s Going To Sing Her Song, the middle of his Annie trilogy (the other two are “Has Annie Been in Tonight?” and “When Annie Took Me Home.”)
And, to add, the Master of Ceremonies was done by Alan Rickman in “The Bell” on TB II and John Cleese on the 2002 or so remake of TB I. Viv does it again on one of the alternate versions of The Bell on the single, and some British comic whose name I can’t remember. I have a bootleg of Mike doing it on a demo, including “a computer approximation of Tubular Bells” and an unknown Spanish person doing it on the Spanish version.
In Mikes “Amarok” the Maggie Thatcher imitator, after the end of the album, goes on about how endings are just beginnings, and how they can keep this going, never an ending. Until she dances herself out the window.
If we expand this to contract disputes, the Beatles “Northern Song” mentioned on the first page refers to their publisher, Northern Music, who they were just dumping for Apple. Pretty much all of Mike’s “Heavens Open” can be interpreted as a slap at Richard Branson and Virgin records, and there is a direct insult to RB hidden in Morse code in “Amarok”.
I don’t think introductions should count, but if they do, the introduction to “Bob Dylan’s Blues” on Freewheeling mentions how that, unlike most folk songs, this one was not written in Tin Pan Alley, but rather somewhere in the United States.
Would ELP’s “Karn Evil 9” count?
Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends, we’re so glad you could attend, move along, move along.
Sorry to bring this back up, but Jellyfish does this in “All I Want Is Everything.”
“And every show, I would just dedicate this song to you”
There’s the old ballad Jesse James, which includes this final verse:
*
This song was made by Billy Gashade
As soon as the news did arrive;
He said there was no man with the law in his hand
Who could take Jesse James when alive.*
Also the re-working of the same tune by Woody Guthrie for his ballad Jesus Christ. Final verse:
This song was written in New York City
Of rich man, preacher, and slave
If Jesus was to preach what He preached in Galilee,
They would lay poor Jesus in His grave.
If I understand the concept correctly, I think Scorpions “Can’t Live Without You” fits this, the whole song does.
You stand in front of the band
With all those scarves in your hands
I see you play imaginary guitars
You people shaking your heads
Right till the end of the set
You really turn me on wherever we are
Thumbs up for this. They’re one of my favorite bands.
Bonus points to Justin Timberlake, in “Rock Your Body”: he was singing about how he’s going to “have you naked by the end of this song” at the precise moment he caused Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction, breaking the fourth wall and her nipple cover.
For You by Big Star.
Sometimes I can’t help but worship you
I love you and all the things that you do
I thought I’d sit and write this song just for you
To let you know that I am thinking of you
I’ll Have to Say I Love You in a Song - Jim Croce
The Devil Went Down To Georgia kinda sorta counts: "he rosined up his bow, and then he pulled the bow across the strings, and it made an evil hiss, and a band of demons joined in – and it sounded something like this…"
Eminem - Just Lose It
His son is Rufus Wainwright, and the video for the song “California” has Rufus playing a guy named “prettyman” singing “California” at karaoke.
Its kind of meta, not the song, but the video.
Along the same lines, the last verse of the Civil War ditty “Goober Peas” is as follows:
I think my song has lasted almost long enough.
The subject’s interesting, but the rhymes are mighty tough.
I wish the war was over, so free from rags and fleas
We’d kiss our wives and sweethearts, and gobble goober peas.
Barenaked Ladies break trump the “song” by discussing an entire Box Set
Alanis Morrisette does it in All I Really Want:
Here can you handle this?
{Silence}
Did you think about your bills? Your ex? Your deadlines?
Or when you think you’re going to die?
Or did you long for the next distraction?
Weird Al’s parody “Achy Breaky Song” is about how much he hates “Achy Breaky Heart.” Of course, the parody is done to the tune of “Achy Breaky Heart.”
Towards the end of “That’s Not My Name” by the Ting Tings, you hear the guy say “This song is monotone.” And, it’s true that his part of the song is certainly monotone, although the female singing part isn’t so much.
(I hope this hasn’t been mentioned – this thread has gotten long since last time I checked in. Sorry for the repeat if it has.)
If I Had A Hammer, by Lee Hayes and Pete Seeger
Now I’v got a hammer and I’ve got a bell
And I’ve got a song to sing
All over this land.
It’s the hammer of justice, it’s the bell of freedom,
It’s the song about love between my brothers and my sisters
All, all over this land.