We’ve done songs that mention other songs. How about songs that mention other bands?
Counting Crows, “Monkey” Got Ben Folds on my radio right now
Ben Folds, “Rockin’ The Suburbs” I’m rockin’ the suburbs, just like Micheal Jackson did
…
I’m rockin’ the suburbs, just like Quiet Riot did
…
you’d better look out, because I’m gonna say ‘fuck’
just like Jon Bon Jovi did
Mott the Hoople, “All the Young Dudes” Oh man I need TV when I got T. Rex
R.E.M., “The Wake Up Bomb” Practice my T. Rex moves and make the scene
get drunk and sing along to Queen
Harvey Danger, “Flagpole Sitta” I wanna publish zines, and Rage Against Machines
Bloodhound Gang, “Boom” Like a Kenny Loggins record, no one’s ever gonna hear ya
Bloodhound Gang, “Lift your head up high and blow your brains out” Or did you own a record by Stryper?
And then of course there’s the allegory that is “American Pie”…
The Mamas and the Papas: One of their songs mentioned the names of a bunch of other people in counterculture late 60s folk music…McGuinn and McGuire yadda yadda yadda gettin’ fat except Mama Cass (don’t recall if they mentioned the band names specifically)
The Offspring: “He wanted Ice Cube but he got Vanilla Ice…pretty fly for a white guy.”
I can’t remember the singer or it’s names, They was like run dmc/ and reverend run/ but one got shot the other two got murdered/ all for the ends/ so now before we go any further i want my ends"
Steely Dan made some reference to the Eagles in a song of theirs, so the Eagles, in Hotel California, put in the line “…they stabbed it with their steely knives but they just couldn’t kill the beast.”
That was actually Peter Paul and Mary in I Dig Rock and Roll Music. That song is what totally convinced me my music history teacher was cool. :eek:
-Lil
Lynard Skynard sings about Neil Young in Sweet Home Alabama
“Well I heard Mr. Young sing about her. Well I heard ol’ Neil put her down. I hope Neil Young will remember, a southern man don’t need him around anyhow.”
Wesley Willis has made a career out of it. Some of his song titles include:
Urge Overkill
Elvis Presley
Easy-E
Stabbing Westward
Jello Biafra
Hootie & The Blowfish
Kurt Cobain
Nirvana
The Rolling Stones
Mojo Nixon
Bolt Thrower
Spin Doctors
Dave Grohl
Foo Fighters
Pink Floyd
Blues Traveler
Fugazi
Blackie-O
KRS-1
Morbid Angel
KMFDM
Shonen Knife
Liz Phair
Courtney Love
Jefferson Airplane
Black Flagg
Megadeth
Steve Albini
And then (the exremely underappreciated) Heavy Vegetable recorded “Song for Wesley”.
You forgot one, but its kinda subtle… after all, its just called XTC Versus Adam Ant.
/sarcasm…
The Barenaked Ladies have a ton. From Gordon, their first album…
“Brian Wilson,” their best song (IMHO). Wilson’s not a band, but he was in one, so I guess it counts…
“Grade Nine”-- “When I tried out for the football team to prove that I’m a man/I guess I shouldn’t have told them that I liked Duran Duran”
“Enid”-- they shout “Styx!” and start going into a rocking chorus of “Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto”
“Yoko Ono”-- “Well I may be stepping on pins and needles/but I don’t like all the people slagging her for breaking up the Beatles”
“New Kid on the Block”: “I’m a New Kid on the Block/and I may not be Johann Sabastian Bach/so we may not write the songs we sing/look at Elvis he sold his soul and they crowned him king.” Very good lyrics about being a teen idol…
“Blame it On Me”: “Milli Vannili said blame it on the rain/but if all else fails you can blame it on me”
“The King of Bedside Manor”: “Well he’s not the king of beside manor/ no he’s not the Tom Jones who lives next door”
“If I Had a Million Dollars”: “I would buy you some art/like a Picasso or a Garfunkel”
And that’s just off the top of my head… thats almost the entire album. The trend seems to have slacked off in their other albums, though other “alternative pop” bands did do the same thing:
Cake: “Frank Sinatra”
Nine Days: “Bob Dylan” “If I am only dreaming/then me and Bob are not so far away.” I really like that line…
Weezer: “Buddy Holly”
Fountains of Wayne: “Red Dragon Tattoo”: “Now I look just like that guy from Korn”
There’s a local folkie named Anais Mitchell. I don’t know if she’ll ever be well known, but she has a song called “Made it Up” with these immortal lines: “And we both stopped bitching long enough to hear the music and we danced to Leonard Cohen in the kitchen and we just made it up the way we wanted to nothing easier to do nothing easier to do”
There’s also a sad piece of emo by Something Corporate called “Konstantine.”: “And its to Jimmy Eat World and those nights in my car/where the first star you see may not be a star”
Kid Rock’s “American Badass” (i think) mentions alot of bands: “I like AC/DC and ZZTopp” and goes on from there… i’ve blocked most of it out of my memory…
Hedwig and the Angry Inch contains a song callled “Midnight Radio” that mentions lots of female rockers… i don’t remember all of them, though “Aretha” and “Nico” stick out in my mind…
I’m pretty sure Hot Patootie from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” mentions some rock band, but I forget exactly…