# Songs That Mention a Famous Person But Are Not About That Person **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 26, 2013, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386 "2013-01-26T01:09:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/81 "2013-01-27T12:30:46Z")
> [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](#): > > Richard Thompson - Tear-Stained Letter - “She danced on my head like Arthur Murray” Also from Thompson ( **She Twists the Knife Again** ): > [@](#): > > I bring home my packet, my white-collar money > I’m in a fist fight, she thinks she’s Gene Tunney mmm ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/82 "2013-01-27T12:38:48Z")
Did I miss “Moves Like Jagger” in the thread? Pretty much every Beastie Boys song in existence name-drops a celebrity somewhere in the lyrics. “Piazza, New York Catcher” by Belle and Sebastian has a couple of throwaway lines about Piazza, and a couple of other baseball references that aren’t directly named (Willie Mays and Sandy Koufax) but is otherwise not about baseball or any of those players. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/83 "2013-01-27T19:08:02Z")
Lloydd Cole’s _Rattlesnakes_ mentions Eva Marie Saint and Simone De Beauvoir ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/84 "2013-01-27T19:20:59Z")
Kid Rock’s _Wasting Time_ says he’s "in it to win it like Yzerman’ and he has ‘more time than Morris Day’. ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/85 "2013-01-27T19:36:02Z")
_Slow Turning_ by John Hiatt talks about the kids in the car banging like Charlie Watts. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/86 "2013-01-27T21:32:37Z")
_Two men sit in the corner of a diner Both of them look quite a bit like Carl Reiner_ “New Routine” - Fountains of Wayne ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/87 "2013-01-27T21:38:39Z")
Bertie Higgins’ song _Key Largo_ has this line, “We had it all/Just like Bogie and Bacall…” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/88 "2013-01-27T21:43:02Z")
Lotte Lenya gets a mention in Mac The Knife. > [@Oakminster](#): > > So what? I don’t like Neil Young, or anyone else that insults the entire South the way he did. Dude, Neil Young wasn’t insulting a compass direction, he was insulting “Southern Man” for being dumb racist whip crackers. If you weren’t a dumb racist whip cracker he wasn’t insulting you. If you were, he was. At the time Young wrote the song, the racists had all the power and were the ones promoting the “Southern way of life”. Non-racist Southerners weren’t hiding behind the way of life crap then and aren’t now. Martin Luther King Jr and his friends were Southerners. Young wasn’t talking about them. And we all know it. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/89 "2013-01-27T21:55:25Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > I disagree. The song is a direct response to Young, but it is about the state. The whole second verse is about him: _Well I heard mister Young sing about her Well, I heard ole Neil put her down Well, I hope Neil Young will remember A Southern man don’t need him around anyhow_ It may be about the state, but it’s also unequivocally about Neil Young. > [@Oakminster](#): > > So what? I don’t like Neil Young, or anyone else that insults the entire South the way he did. The South deserved it, and still does, though the specifics may have changed. How about that Pearl Harbor sneak attack on democracy by the Virginia Legislature while a key Dem was away at the inauguration? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/90 "2013-01-27T21:57:29Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Lotte Lenya gets a mention in Mac The Knife. That’s what happens when your husband is the composer… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/91 "2013-01-27T22:01:25Z")
Blue Oysters Cult _Me 262_ mentions Goering, Hitler and Willi Messerschmmidt. [lyrics](http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/blue+oyster+cult/me+262_20020555.html) ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/92 "2013-01-27T22:15:01Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > I disagree. The song is a direct response to Young, but it is about the state. Did you see the shirt Ronnie Van Zandt wore for the Street Survivors album cover? [http://www.thepalette.us/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Street-survivorsWeb.jpg](http://www.thepalette.us/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Street-survivorsWeb.jpg) They Loved Neil, best publicity ever. And Neil stopped performing Southern Man, because he realized there were racists everywhere. But, Alabama is a Mother..F..r of a song. Bob Dylan’s The Highlands (or is it just Highlands?) also mentions Neil: “I’ve gotta turn up the sound…” ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/93 "2013-01-27T22:23:22Z")
> [@Accidental\_Martyr](#): > > Some more from Drive-By Truckers: > > “Carl Perkins’ Cadillac” also mentions Elvis (Presley), Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee (Lewis) and Mr. (Sam) Phillips. I might be wrong, but I think the song is about Elvis and Phillips, so Carl Perkins would be the one for this thread. Damn good song. Damn good band. ---
**Author:** ![Strainger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/strainger/32/244_2.png) [@Strainger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strainger)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/94 "2013-01-27T22:28:45Z")
All I Need Is the Girl from Gypsy and Billy Joel’s Still Rock and Roll to Me mention Beau Brummell at one point. ---
**Author:** ![\_Olive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/4af34b/32.png) [@\_Olive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_Olive)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/95 "2013-01-27T22:59:38Z")
Jimmy Buffett, Mañana - Anita Bryant ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2013, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/96 "2013-01-28T02:03:46Z")
Kate Bush’s [“Blow Away”](http://youtu.be/GGrFWxClk40) is about a bizarre after-death jam. It mentions “Minnie” (Ripperton), “Moonie” (Keith Moon), (Sid) “Vicious,” Buddy Holly, Sandy Denny and (Marc) Bolan. Her [“There Goes A Tenner,”](http://youtu.be/lxVcrFTzZMs) a song about a burglary gone very wrong, mentions “Edward G” (Robinson). ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2013, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/97 "2013-01-28T02:21:13Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Lotte Lenya gets a mention in Mac The Knife. > [@jayjay](#): > > That’s what happens when your husband is the composer… 🙂 Yeah, but wasn’t it Bobby Darin who started the tradition of name-checking previous singers of that song in unauthorized lyric additions? I don’t know enough about Kurt Weill to say definitively. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2013, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/98 "2013-01-28T04:17:40Z")
“Shush girl, shut your lips, do the Helen Keller and talk with your hips.” – “Don’t Trust Me,” by 3oh!3 ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2013, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/99 "2013-01-28T15:24:32Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Don Mclean’s classic \* American Pie\* mentions James Dean, Lenin, and The Byrds by name, and appears to contain oblique references to multiple other entities. Given that the song is about music and muscians of the '60’s, I would guess Mclean is referencing John Lennon, rather than Vladimir Illyivich. Still, since “Lennon” and “Lenin” are homophones, it’s a twofer. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2013, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/100 "2013-01-28T15:33:00Z")
One Night in Bangkok: Tea, girls, warm, sweet Some are set up in the Somerset Maugham Suite. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386.md?page=6)