# Songs written to diss other songs **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 6, 2017, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-written-to-diss-other-songs/798111 "2017-10-06T14:47:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-written-to-diss-other-songs/798111/21 "2017-10-06T19:20:12Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > I’m afraid these are not what you’re looking for, but … > > [Neil Young’s _Alabama_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QGMz9beIL0) was answered by [Lynyrd Skynyrd’s _Sweet Home Alabama_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Cyokaj3BJU). (There were no hard feelings; Young sometimes performed _Sweet Home_ with Skynyrd!) Young even acknowledged that his own song deserved the ridicule. > [@](#): > > In his 2012 autobiography Waging Heavy Peace, Young commented on his role in the song’s creation, writing “My own song ‘Alabama’ richly deserved the shot Lynyrd Skynyrd gave me with their great record. I don’t like my words when I listen to it. They are accusatory and condescending, not fully thought out, and too easy to misconstrue”. > **[Sweet Home Alabama | Controversy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Home_Alabama#Controversy)** > > "Sweet Home Alabama" was written in answer to two songs by Neil Young, "Southern Man" and "Alabama", because the songs "took the entire South to task for the bloody history of slavery and its aftermath." "We thought Neil was shooting all the ducks in order to kill one or two," said Ronnie Van Zant at the time. The lyrics to "Sweet Home Alabama" include the following lines: ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-written-to-diss-other-songs/798111/22 "2017-10-06T19:29:22Z")
Every Taylor Swift and Katy Perry song ever? ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-written-to-diss-other-songs/798111/23 "2017-10-06T20:31:17Z")
“Back in the USSR” was a parody of “California Girls”. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-written-to-diss-other-songs/798111/24 "2017-10-06T20:47:52Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I think you can leave out rap and hip hop because the answer would be “most of them” (slight exaggeration). Will not leave it out no matter what you say. Sporty Theivz’s [No Pigeons](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP33_uFlzTM) was their second and last release. It’s the answer to TLC’s [No Scrubs.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrLequ6dUdM) I do remember guys around me singing No Pigeons but it is such an inferior song that I’m not sure it had a lot of traction outside New York. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-written-to-diss-other-songs/798111/25 "2017-10-06T21:52:01Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > Will not leave it out no matter what you say. > > Sporty Theivz’s [No Pigeons](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP33_uFlzTM) was their second and last release. It’s the answer to TLC’s [No Scrubs.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrLequ6dUdM) I do remember guys around me singing No Pigeons but it is such an inferior song that I’m not sure it had a lot of traction outside New York. “Pigeons” being like “chickenheads” for the same reason?? Then there’s Kool Moe Dee “How Ya Like Me Now?” LL Cool J “Jack the Ripper” Kool Moe Dee “Let’s Go” etc. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-written-to-diss-other-songs/798111/26 "2017-10-06T21:56:17Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > “Pigeons” being like “chickenheads” for the same reason?? Yeup. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-written-to-diss-other-songs/798111/27 "2017-10-06T22:21:17Z")
Woodie Guthrie wrote “This Land is Your Land” in response to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America”. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-written-to-diss-other-songs/798111/28 "2017-10-06T22:56:03Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > And yet no one’s mentioned Warren Zevon’s “Play it All Night Long,” which disses “Sweet Home Alabama.” I don’t see that song ‘dissing’ Sweet Home Alabama. The lyric is, “Sweet Home Alabama - play that dead band’s song. Turn those speakers up full blast, play it all night long.” The context is that it’s a song about how miserable country living can be, and playing that song all night long is a way to escape the misery - but even that band is dead. Misery all around. The other way to interpret the song is as a contrast between the reality of southern poor country living and the uplifting version of it exemplified in Sweet Home Alabama. But I don’t believe Zevon had any quarrel with the band or the song. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-written-to-diss-other-songs/798111/29 "2017-10-06T23:12:12Z")
Not just one song, but a whole genre: “One more song about movin’ along the highway Can’t say much of anything that’s new.” — Carole King, “So Far Away” There’s also Peter Paul and Mary’s “I Dig Rock and Roll Music” that takes shots at the songs sung by the Beatles and the Mommas and Poppas. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-written-to-diss-other-songs/798111/30 "2017-10-06T23:13:11Z")
Jay-Z’s “Takeover” was a shot at Nas and Mobb Deep. Nas responded with “Ether,” still considered by many to be the zenith of the hip-hop diss track to this day. Jay-Z would respond, but Nas had pretty much cleaned his clock already. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-written-to-diss-other-songs/798111/31 "2017-10-06T23:21:21Z")
Dylan’s “Clothes Line Saga” from the Basement Tapes, is a parody of “Ode to Billie Joe.” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-written-to-diss-other-songs/798111/32 "2017-10-06T23:22:48Z")
Weird Al Yankovic’s song parodies are usually directed at some other target. But [“Achy Breaky Song”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CT5NZd3ZiU) is a parody of “Achy Breaky Heart” that targets the original song. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-written-to-diss-other-songs/798111/33 "2017-10-06T23:40:34Z")
After Ed Sheeran wrote “Don’t” about his fling and breakup with Ellie Goulding, Goulding wrote “On My Mind” as a counterattack. And then there’s Mojo Nixon’s “Don Henley Must Die”, which specifically singles out “Hotel California” and Henley winning the Grammy for Best Rock Vocalist on “Boys of Summer”. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-written-to-diss-other-songs/798111/34 "2017-10-06T23:54:54Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Weird Al Yankovic’s song parodies are usually directed at some other target. But [“Achy Breaky Song”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CT5NZd3ZiU) is a parody of “Achy Breaky Heart” that targets the original song. The same with [“(This Song’s Just) Six Words Long”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWi5jdgTUJs&app=desktop), which is a parody of “Got My Mind Set On You” by George Harrison, although I’d call it more of an affectionate satire than a diss. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-written-to-diss-other-songs/798111/35 "2017-10-06T23:59:28Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > I don’t see that song ‘dissing’ Sweet Home Alabama. The lyric is, > > “Sweet Home Alabama - play that dead band’s song. > Turn those speakers up full blast, play it all night long.” > > The context is that it’s a song about how miserable country living can be, and playing that song all night long is a way to escape the misery - but even that band is dead. Misery all around. > > The other way to interpret the song is as a contrast between the reality of southern poor country living and the uplifting version of it exemplified in Sweet Home Alabama. But I don’t believe Zevon had any quarrel with the band or the song. Well, Lynryrd Skynyrd had no quarrel with Neil Young, either (he was planning to perform it with them before the crash), but “play that dead band’s song” sounds like a dis to me. ---
**Author:** ![Obeseus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbce88/32.png) [@Obeseus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Obeseus)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2017, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-written-to-diss-other-songs/798111/36 "2017-10-07T00:12:32Z")
Not necessarily a diss, but Danny Aiello played Madonna’s father in the music video of _Papa Don’t Preach_. Aiello didn’t like the way the song indicated the father would reject his daughter, so he recorded a follow-up with _Papa Wants the Best for You_. ---
**Author:** ![Monocracy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monocracy/32/4493_2.png) [@Monocracy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monocracy)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2017, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-written-to-diss-other-songs/798111/37 "2017-10-08T13:39:42Z")
In 1991, 3rd Bass came out with a song “Pop Goes the Weasel” dissing Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby” and the (then) current state of rap music in general. The irony being that the song itself was as horrible as the music they were disparaging. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2017, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-written-to-diss-other-songs/798111/38 "2017-10-08T13:56:44Z")
Jim Reeves had a country classic with “He’ll Have to Go,” which inspired an equally popular " answer" song called “He’ll Have to Stay” by Jeanne Black. Steve’s song was a plea to an ex-love to send her new man packing and give him another chance. Black’s song replied, “Forget it, you broke my heart, and my new man is much better than you.” ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2017, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-written-to-diss-other-songs/798111/39 "2017-10-08T14:02:47Z")
In “Spamalot,” Eric Idle wrote " The Song That Goes Like This, " a parody of the overwrought “I Dreamed A Dream” from “Les Miz.” ---
**Author:** ![phungi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phungi/32/395_2.png) [@phungi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phungi)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2017, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-written-to-diss-other-songs/798111/40 "2017-10-08T14:58:40Z")
> [@xizor](#): > > A classic one is _Sweet Home Alabama_ calling out Neil Young and his _Southern Man_ song. > > “Well I heard Mr. Young sing about her > I heard ol’ Neil put her down > I hope Neil Young will remember > A southern man don’t need him around anyhow” Check out Drive By Truckers’ [Ronnie and Neil](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIsZrg2wGms), which expands on the rivalry while quelling it [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-written-to-diss-other-songs/798111.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-written-to-diss-other-songs/798111.md?page=3)