# Unusual references in songs **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 26, 2020, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-references-in-songs/852593 "2020-04-26T06:52:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2020, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-references-in-songs/852593/1 "2020-04-26T06:52:17Z")
It occurred to me earlier that in the song “Birdhouse In Your Soul” by They Might Be Giants, they make a reference that I was unfamiliar with : [The Longines Symphonette](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Longines_Symphonette?wprov=sfla1). And, of course, in “Ramble On” by Led Zeppelin, there’s the part where he talks about Mordor and Gollum. Not really sure how that relates to the actual book series, as I can’t place what character Robert Plant is supposed to be. I imagine that it’s more of a “it was the 60s, and everyone thought they were Hobbits or whatever.” But I can’t think of another mainstream/non-novelty song that refers to the saga. What else? There must be hundreds I’m not thinking of. ---
**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:** [April 26, 2020, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-references-in-songs/852593/2 "2020-04-26T07:04:50Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > But I can’t think of another mainstream/non-novelty song that refers to the saga. “The Wizard” by Black Sabbath is about Gandalf, and I don’t know if you’d consider Blind Guardian mainstream, but they have a number of Tolkien-themed songs in their catalogue, with “[Time Stands Still at the Iron Hill](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aB6CPyO0Ww)”, about Fingolfin’s duel with Morgoth, being a favorite of mine. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2020, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-references-in-songs/852593/3 "2020-04-26T07:05:48Z")
You consider me a young apprentice caught between the Scylla and Charibdes It’s no good, he sees her he starts to shake and cough just like the, old man in that book by Nabokov ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2020, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-references-in-songs/852593/4 "2020-04-26T07:20:43Z")
Robert Plant’s Heaven Knows has the line “with all the romance of the Ton-ton macoute” . ---
**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:** [April 26, 2020, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-references-in-songs/852593/5 "2020-04-26T07:22:16Z")
Blue Öyster Cult’s “In Thee” features the lyric “Jim said some destinies should not be delivered”, referencing “Day and Night” by Jim Carroll. ---
**Author:** ![minlokwat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minlokwat/32/2844_2.png) [@minlokwat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minlokwat)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2020, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-references-in-songs/852593/6 "2020-04-26T11:53:19Z")
**Steely Dan** ’s _Any Major Dude Will Tell You_ has the line: “Have you ever seen a squonk’s tears? Well, look at mine” What is a squonk, you ask? Per Wiki, it’s “a mythical creature reputed to live in the Hemlock forests of northern Pennsylvania”. What’s up with the tears? The squonk was so ashamed of its appearance, it spent most of its time hiding from sight and weeping. If discovered by hunters, it had the ability to vanish in a puddle of tears. Try working that reference in at the next after-work happy hour. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2020, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-references-in-songs/852593/7 "2020-04-26T12:13:46Z")
> [@minlokwat](#): > > **Steely Dan** ’s _Any Major Dude Will Tell You_ has the line: “Have you ever seen a squonk’s tears? Well, look at mine” > > What is a squonk, you ask? > > Per Wiki, it’s “a mythical creature reputed to live in the Hemlock forests of northern Pennsylvania”. > > What’s up with the tears? > > The squonk was so ashamed of its appearance, it spent most of its time hiding from sight and weeping. If discovered by hunters, it had the ability to vanish in a puddle of tears. > > Try working that reference in at the next after-work happy hour. One line? Pfft. Genesis - “Squonk”. [https://youtu.be/mmPf1rGClzA](https://youtu.be/mmPf1rGClzA) ---
**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:** [April 26, 2020, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-references-in-songs/852593/8 "2020-04-26T12:45:11Z")
Some of the musicians “performing” on the Bonzo Dog Band’s “The Intro and the Outro” was pretty obscure to Americans at the time and are even more so now: Val Doonican, Garner Ted Armstrong, Billy Butlin, Lord Snooty (UK comic character), Franklyn McCormick, et. al. Even a few that were well known at the time have faded into obscurity. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2020, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-references-in-songs/852593/9 "2020-04-26T14:25:39Z")
And speaking of Genesis songs, “Broadway Melody of 1974” from The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway throws out references to Howard Hughes, Groucho Marx, and Lenny Bruce, but I had to look up who Caryl Chessman was. > **[Caryl Chessman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caryl_Chessman)** > > Caryl Whittier Chessman (May 27, 1921 – May 2, 1960) was a convicted robber, kidnapper and serial rapist who was sentenced to death for a series of crimes committed in January 1948 in the Los Angeles area. Chessman was charged with 17 counts and convicted under a loosely interpreted "Little Lindbergh law" – later repealed, but not retroactively – that defined kidnapping as a capital offense under certain circumstances. His case attracted worldwide attention, and helped propel the movement to en... ---
**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:** [April 26, 2020, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-references-in-songs/852593/10 "2020-04-26T15:28:07Z")
The Kinks’ “[Where Are They Now?](https://genius.com/The-kinks-where-are-they-now-lyrics)” is filled with forgotten popular culture icons from the UK. The Bonzo Dog band and the US group Love included the line “We are normal and we want our freedom” in songs. It’s a reference to a line from the play _Marat/Sade_. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2020, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-references-in-songs/852593/11 "2020-04-26T18:54:32Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > One line? Pfft. > > Genesis - “Squonk”. [https://youtu.be/mmPf1rGClzA](https://youtu.be/mmPf1rGClzA) I was going to say… ---
**Author:** ![journeyman\_southpaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5e9695/32.png) [@journeyman\_southpaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/journeyman_southpaw)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2020, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-references-in-songs/852593/12 "2020-04-26T21:05:23Z")
The Cult has a song called “Aphrodisiac Jacket” which includes the line “plastic fantastic lobster telephone.” This sounds pretty nonsensical but they’re references to a couple of art pieces by Salvador Dali: [Aphrodisiac Dinner Jacket](https://www.salvador-dali.org/media/upload/catalegescultures/MITJA/NFE%203252.JPG) and [Lobster Telephone](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Lobster_Telephone_Photo.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2020, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-references-in-songs/852593/13 "2020-04-26T21:13:10Z")
Shakira’s, Whenever Wherever, for some reason, references the size of her breasts. It’s not quite as blatant as My Humps by Fergie, but it’s in there and once you hear it, it’s hard not to. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2020, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-references-in-songs/852593/14 "2020-04-26T21:13:12Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > The Kinks’ “[Where Are They Now?](https://genius.com/The-kinks-where-are-they-now-lyrics)” is filled with forgotten popular culture icons from the UK… Interesting - Ian Dury did something rather similar with [England’s Glory](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHzmjBRixX8). Makes you wonder if Dury had heard Where Are They Now. Most intriguing lines from England’s Glory: > [@](#): > > With Billy Bunter, Jane Austen > Reg Hampton, George Formby > Billy Fury, Little Titch - Little Titch being a diminutive Music Hall performer, very much forgotten, but from whom we get the words “titch” and “titchy”. [Here he is](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkEUHawaAZ4). Dury certainly wasn’t above an unusual/obscure reference or two. Like in Sweet Gene Vincent. > [@](#): > > Who, who, who slapped John? > > …Sweet Gene Vincent > Let the Blue Caps roll tonight > [@](#): > > Ian Dury spent six weeks researching his lyric and read two biographies of Gene Vincent before finishing it and handing it to the song’s co-writer, Chas Jankel… > Dury’s research and knowledge allowed a large percentage of the lyric, which tells the rough life-story of Vincent, to be made up of references and/or extracts from Vincent’s songs. For instance the Song’s opening line Blue Gene Baby is a faithful re-creation of the first line of “Blue Jean Bop” and the line Who, who, who slapped John? spoken as the song speeds up to its full tempo is directly lifted from “Who Slapped John”. Another line ‘and you lay that pistol down’ is a bastardisation of a lyric from “Pistol Packin’ Mama” used to reference Vincent’s partiality for waving guns around in-studio (an act that once scared The Beatles). “Be-Bop-A-Lula” is also referenced at least once, as one character in the song “Uncanny Annie” is ‘the one with the flying feet’, ‘she’s the one with the flying feet’ being a line in “Be-Bop-A-Lula”. [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Gene_Vincent). The Blue Caps were Vincent’s sidemen. No need for a link to the song. But did you think I would miss the opportunity? [Never.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOHuNsd3fhU) j PS: I didn’t know the Kinks song. So thanks, **Chuck** ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2020, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-references-in-songs/852593/15 "2020-04-26T21:27:02Z")
While I think on it, Brian Ferry wasn’t above the odd unusual reference either. Take **Virginia Plain**. > [@](#): > > Make me a deal and make it straight > All signed and sealed, I’ll take it > To Robert E. Lee I’ll show it… > > Baby Jane’s in Acapulco We are flyin’ down to Rio… > > Can’t you see that Holzer mane? > What’s her name Virginia Plain > [@](#): > > The name “Robert E. Lee” refers to music industry lawyer Robert Lee, practising at London law firm Harbottle & Lewis at the time. Warhol superstar Baby Jane Holzer is also referenced in the lyrics “Baby Jane’s in Acapulco / We are flying down to Rio” and “can’t you see that Holzer mane?”. [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Plain). [Song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BonWfTW7jKc). j ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2020, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-references-in-songs/852593/16 "2020-04-26T21:39:10Z")
Virtually _every_ song by [Al Stewart](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Stewart#Use_of_historical_and_literary_sources). ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2020, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-references-in-songs/852593/17 "2020-04-26T21:47:09Z")
A lot of the references in Paul Simon’s [_A Simple Desultory Philippic_](https://genius.com/Paul-simon-a-simple-desultory-philippic-lyrics) are well known, but others are more obscure (or have faded from public consciousness): [Diz Disley, Krishna Menon, Tom Wilson, Barry Kornfeld, etc.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Simple_Desultory_Philippic_(or_How_I_Was_Robert_McNamara%27d_into_Submission)) ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2020, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-references-in-songs/852593/18 "2020-04-26T22:23:49Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > - Little Titch being a diminutive Music Hall performer, very much forgotten, but from whom we get the words “titch” and “titchy”. Was he the namesake of the last-named member of that great Oz band: Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick, and Tich ?? ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2020, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-references-in-songs/852593/19 "2020-04-27T20:42:15Z")
> [@RioRico](#): > > Was he the namesake of the last-named member of that great Oz band: Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick, and Tich ?? Bang on. And the perfect example for this thread. j ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2020, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-references-in-songs/852593/20 "2020-04-27T20:57:49Z")
Peter Gabriel - We Do What We’re Told (Milgram’s 37), referring to his obedience studies. Aaaaaaaand it was made into a program called the game of death. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/3yz-P5CWE1E/hqdefault.jpg "TV's 'Game of Death'") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yz-P5CWE1E)