“Do I Need You” by Ann Peebles contains the line “I can’t stand the rain,” the title of her biggest hit and also the name of the album on which both songs originally appeared.
Simon and Garfunkel’s “A Simple Desultory Philipic” which is partially a backhanded tribute to Dylan, has the line
It’s alright Ma
Everybody must get stoned.
Jaime Brockett’s song about the Titanic has
Like all tough sailors do
When they’re far away at sea
from Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream (a wonderfully funny song.)
Jimmy Buffett’s “My Whole World Lies Waiting Behind Door Number Three,”
has a line from Like a Rolling Stone about
“do you want to make a deal”
but it is not in the lyrics I found on the web.
That’s the one I had in mind; “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 by
“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
Yeah **I’m tangled up in blue **
I only wanna be with you
“Space Cowboy” by the Steve Miller Band begins with these words, referencing two songs of its previous album “Sailor:”
“I told you 'bout living in the U.S. of A.
Don’t you know that I’m a gangster of love”
Of course, years later Steve Miller had a megahit with (the vastly inferior, IMHO) “The Joker,” beginning with:
“Some people call me the space cowboy
Some call me the gangster of love”
I had forgotten the Tangled Up In Blue reference that went along with the Idiot Wind quotes. Thanks! A Blood On The Tracks twofer.
James Taylor referenced his first album, James Taylor and the Flying Machine, in his classic "Fire and Rain:
“Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground”
Gives the song an extra poignancy, not that it needs it.
A couple more James Taylor tunes:
In Me and My Guitar, he mentions Who Do you Love
In Captain Jim’s Drunken dream, he mentions Nearer My God To Thee
I have a feeling that there are more from Taylor
Prince’s “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker” has the lines "my favorite song, she said, and it was Joni (Mitchell) singing ‘help me I think I’m falling’ "
Kinks’ Destroyer…
“Met a girl called lola and I took her back to my place
Feelin’ guilty, feelin’ scared, hidden cameras everywhere”
Yes, including the lines that were obviously the direct inspiration for the self-referential lyrics quoted in the OP (thus making it a double song-reference):
Speaking of the Kinks, their song “The Road,” which is sort of a career retrospective, includes the lines
[quoted from memory]
The critics keep saying, "When are they gonna stop?
They’re just dedicated followers of fashion who like putting down
all the well-respected men who came dancing…
The Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love” not only mentions, but extensively quotes, their “She Loves You”.
In one of my faves, “Airplane”, the Indigo Girls sing:
Up on the airplane
Nearer my God to Thee
I start making a deal
Inspired by gravity
and of course Harry Chapin’s “Dance Band on the Titanic”:
Dance band on the Titanic
Sing “Nearer, my God, to Thee”
The iceberg’s on the starboard bow
Won’t you dance with me
Instrumentally, the Indigo Girls include Ode to Joy/Beethoven’s 9th at the end of “Cedar Tree”, but not lyrics.
Supposedly, The Moody Blues and The Beatles referenced each other quite often. I only know of one for sure:
In Lady Madonna, there is a reference to Tuesday Afternoon.
“A Whiter Shade of Pale” cribs music from J. S. Bach, although there’s no lyrical reference.
The Beatles sing “Frere Jacques” in backing vocals in the chorus of “Paperback Writer.”
They also insert a line from The Mersey’s hit “Sorrow” in “It’s All Too Much.”
There used to be a huge blues/ r’n’b tradition of “response” songs, with hundreds of them for “Work with Me Annie” alone. This carried into early rock’n’roll to an extent, with bands doing follow ups like “Who Shot Mr. Lee?” and lots of references to song characters like Short Fat Fannie & Bony Moroni in dance numbers.
There were also plenty of ‘follow up’ songs to county story songs like “Harper Valley PTA” and “Ode to Billie Joe,” some of them pretty obscure, which continue the tales.
Lots of obscure horror novelty songs of the 60s reference the Purple People Eater.
The full version of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s “Mr. Bojangles” includes a short intro interview with an old man who begins singing a hymn.
The Sex Pistols’ “New York” makes reference to The New York Dolls’ “Lookin’ for a Kiss.”
I’m sure there are plenty more, those spring to mind.
Ooh right, and both David Bowie & Peter Schilling followed up on the Major Tom character following “Space Oddity.”
Southside Johnny did a version of Springsteen’s “The Fever” which he later followed up with “I Ain’t Got the Fever No More”.
The blues started out as a folk music, which is all about sharing, aka, referencing others’ songs.
When a folk music becomes a pop music style is usually hard to say. [Homer Simpson/]That’s for the courts to decide![/HS]
E.g.:
If you want to get a good gist of the call-response thing, attend a black church.
Counting Crows’ “Mr. Jones”:
I want to be Bob Dylan
Mr. Jones wishes he was someone just a little more funky
Beatles’ “Yer Blues”:
I feel so suicidal, just like Dylan’s Mr. Jones
Which all seems to come back to Dylan’s “Ballad of a Thin Man”:
Because something is happening here
But you don’t know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?
How many song titles can you find in Genesis’ “Just a Job to Do”?
First verse:
In line 1: “It’s alright” - multiple songs, including Huey Lewis, but I don’t know who was first
Line 2: “after midnight” - Clapton
Line 3: “Bang Bang” - Cher
Line 4: “The harder they run, and the harder they fall” - close enough to Jimmy Cliff for government work.
Second verse:
Line 3: “My aim is true” - Elvis Costello album title, and refrain of his “Alison”.
Line 4: “I got a name” - Croce
Line 4: “I got a line on you” - Spirit
I’m sure there’s more in there, but that’ll do for now.