winterwren, you left out the best part of the dismemberment plan’s “the ice of boston”:
“and i think to myself, aw gladys girl i love you, but OH! get a life!”
but continuing the thread:
a band that unless you’re from virginia, you’ve probably never heard of, Emmet Swimming, has a couple of these:
in their song ‘Arlington’:
“I live next to Fugazi/ It’s the suburb of the week/ Arlington.”
and from “Jump In The Water” i don’t know the quote, but they mention the Juliana Hatfield Three
and Better than Ezra in “Teenager”:
“wrap yourself in black, listen to the Cure.”
and finally, Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road”:
“The screen door slams/ Mary’s dress wavin/ Like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays/ Roy Orbison singin for the lonely…”
The Beautiful South - I Think The Answer’s Yes
“From poor old U2 to poor old Simple Minds
No amnesty for murderers of poor old working class”
The Beautiful South - Straight In At 37
“Well Simon le Bon stayed round my house before
And he was sick on the plants and he was sick on the floor
And he wouldn’t go home until he’d sung his song
With a backing harmony from Paul Young”
The Dead Kennedys - MTV Get Off The Air
“You’ve turned rock and roll rebellion into Pat Boone sedation
Making sure nothing is left to the imagination”
The Little River Band’s “Reminiscing” mentions Glenn Miller
“That’s the way it began
We were hand in hand
Glenn Miller’s Band was better than before”
Hootie and the Blowfish mention Bob Dylan in “I Only Wanna Be With You”
Put on a little Dylan, sittin’ on a fence.
I said, “That line is great” you asked me what it meant.
Said I shot a man named Gray
Took his wife to Italy
She inherited a million bucks, and when she died it came to me
I can’t help it if I’m lucky.
I only wanna be with you
Ain’t Bobby so cool
I only wanna be with you
Bob Seger’s “Rock & Roll Never Forgets” mentions Chuck Berry:
All Chuck’s children are out there playing his licks.
Get into the mix.
Dexy’s Midnight runners mention Johnny Ray in “Come On, Eileen.”
Poor old Johnny Ray
Sounded sad upon the radio
He moved a million hearts in mono
Golden Earring’s “Radar Love” mentions Brenda Lee:
Radio’s playing some forgotten song.
Brenda Lee’s coming on strong.
The Smithereens mention the Rolling Stones’ Bill Wyman in “Behind the Wall of Sleep.”
Well, she held a bass guitar,
And she was playing in a band.
And she stood just like Bill Wyman,
Now I am her biggest fan.
The Beastie Boys’ “The New Style” refers to Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page (a guys with a history of teenybopper girlfriends).
If I played guitar I’d be Jimmy Page
The girlies I like are underage.
Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” mentions Elvis Presley:
“Elvis was a hero to some,
But he never meant #%&* to me.”
Also, since there’s been some confusion:
Peter Paul & Mary’s “I Dig Rock and Roll Music” mentions (and ridicules) the Beatles, Donovan and the Mamas & the Papas:
I dig the Mamas and the Papas at “The Trip,”
Sunset Strip in L.A.
And they got a good thing goin’
When the words don’t get in the way.
And when they’re really wailing,
Michelle and Cass are sailin’.
Hey! they really nail me to the wall.
I dig Donovan in a dream-like, tripped out way
His crystal images tell you 'bout a brighter day
And when the Beatles tell you
They’ve got a word “love” to sell you
They mean exactly what they say
The Mamas & the Papas recorded he autobiographical “Creeque Alley” which alludes to Roger (Byrds) McGuinn, Barry (“Eve of Destruction”) McGuire, and the Lovin’ Spoonful.
Oh, one other song that mentions Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page- “Venus and Mars/Rock Show” by Paul McCartney & Wings:
Tell me, what’s that man moving cross the stage?
It looks a lot like the one used by Jimmy Page.
Canadian bands in the 90’s just loved to do this. There are so many examples…why, let’s do a chain of references!
The challenge: Go from The Tragically Hip to Elevator (Through).
The Tragically Hip, “Put It Off”
“I was listening to Love Tara, by Eric’s Trip, on the day you were born…”
Eric’s Trip, “Sloan Song”
“You’re just sitting there listening to that Sloan song.”
Sloan, “I Am The Cancer”
“So long Matthew, I will miss you…” (“Matthew” refers to Matt Murphy, late of The Super Friendz and now lead singer of The Flashing Lights.)
The Flashing Lights, “Elevature”
(Um, OK, so the whole song is about Rick, Tara, and their band Elevator (Through).)
There you have it. Neat, huh? Oh, my other favorite reference is The Super Friendz’ “No Good Reason”: “Playing your records by Jonathan Richman…”
The biggest hit in France the summer of 1977 was “Rockollection,” a forgettable pop tune by Laurent Voulzy. In it he not only mentioned la petite fille (Little Eva), Les Beatels, Les Beach Boys, Les Cailloux (the Stones), Les Bee Gees, Bob Dylan, Donovan, etc. … he also incorporated excerpts from their hits into his own song, so he interrupted his tune with bits from “Loco-Motion,” “Hard Day’s Night,” “I Get Around,” “Satisfaction,” etc.
In other words, Voulzy’s song was nothing but filler meant to contain snippets from other songs.
Another one I found while listening to a cd on the way to work:
Def Leppard’s Let’s Get Rocked
She’s dialin’ through my radio
And I’m ready to make my move
But what she got ain’t rock ‘n’ roll
And it really blew my groove
It was Chopin, Mozart, Beethoven
It makes me wanna scream
Bach, Tschaikovsky, violins
Turn it off, that ain’t my scene
Well I’m sorry girl
Here’s my confession
I suppose a rock’s out of the question?
*
“Oh I put a dime in the drugstore record machine.
Oldie-goldies started playing if you know what I mean.
I heard Chubby Checker, he was doing the twist
And the Beatles and the Monkees - it goes like this.
I put a dime in the drugstore record machine.”
A few songs occur to me with references to other musicians.
The song “The Late Great Johnny Ace” by Paul Simon is a tribute to Johnny Ace an R&B artist who killed himself playing russian roulette. But also, the Beatles and Rolling Stones are mentioned:
The song ends with a tribute to John Lennon
Then Eminem made quite a few references in ‘Real Slim Shady’. There’s Dr Dre:
A really obscure mid 80s English indie band called the Stairs had a song called ‘Honey I need a girl of a different Stripe’ and it had a line that went ‘she said she liked the Smiths, well how could I resist’ and being hugely into the Smiths at the time that line thrilled me no end!
Also there is ‘For the Singer of REM’ by Firehose, though it doesn’t actually mention them in the lyrics directly. Obtuse.
And REM themselves mention T Rex in ‘Wake Up Bomb’ iirc.
