Metamatic Forums Socialising The Green Room Songs that mention other bands / singers etc.

When my doctor gave me medication for the sinusitis and laryngitis I'm currently suffering from, she must have slipped some Ivan Basso pills in there too, because I came up with the idea for this thread. It sort of follows on from Ivan's excellent 'songs which reference other songs' thread.

I was reading an article about Half Man Half Biscuit that quoted Frank Zappa as once saying "Singing about music is like dancing about architecture", which I can sort of understand in a way. Well, HMHB are notorious for mentioning other artists in their songs. Irk The Purists consists of little more than Nigel reeling off a list of bands and singers to a punked up version of the hymn "Give Me Joy In My Heart". Someone on the HMHB lyrics site has compiled a list of all the musicians who get a mention and there's a total of 168 in 168 songs, meaning that he mentions another artist on average once in every song. He's definitely dancing about architecture! Some of them get a mention in the titles such as:

The Ballad Of Climie Fisher
Eno Collaboration (which also mentions Bono, Ono and Chrissie Hynde)
Joy Division Oven Gloves
etc.

whilst others are mentioned in the lyrics.

So, let's have a list of non-HMHB songs that mention other bands / musicians / singers. I'll start the ball rolling:

"Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee good times" - The Things That Dreams Are Made Of by The Human League

"They've got three fifty to go and see The Clash" - Part Time Punks by The Television Personalities. I remember this song prompting John Peel to say, in his dry, deadpan voice "Ah, those were the days, when you could go and see The Clash for £3.50" The song also mentions Siouxsie & The Banshees and The Lurkers.

"No Elvis, Beatles or Rolling Stones" - 1977 by The Clash

"Meet Iggy Pop and David Bowie" - Trans Europe Express by Kraftwerk

The album 'Tin Planet' by Space contains the following two titles:

The Ballad Of Tom Jones
A Little Biddy Help From Elvis

I'm sure there must be more. Over to you, Ivan...

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David Bowie mentions Michael Jackson ("a Michael Jackson song") in "Shopping for Girls" on the second Tin Machine album.

Bizarrely, Bowie also mentions "Sam Therapy and King Dice" (who as far as I know were ficitious artists Clockwork Orange style) but it does seem that a band have now adopted that name!

And let's not forget that Stray Sinatra Neurone...

The Undertones - My Perfect Cousin:

"Oh my perfect cousin,
His mother bought him a synthesizer
Got the Human League in to advise her
Now he's making lots of noise
Playing along with the art school boys"


David Bowie - Song For Bob Dylan:

"Oh, hear this Robert Zimmerman
I wrote a song for you"


Kirsty MacColl - There's A Guy...':

"There's a guy works down the chip shop swears he's Elvis
Just like you swore to me that you'd be true"


Prefab Sprout - Faron Young:

"You give me Faron Young four in the morning"


MGMT - Brian Eno:

"I can tell that he's kind of smiling
But what does he know?
We're always one step behind him,
he's Brian Eno
Brian Eno"


Brian Eno - Dead Finks Don't Talk (supposedly about ex-band mate Bryan Ferry):

"Oh you headless chicken
Can these poor teeth take so much kicking
You're always so charming
As you peck your way up there"


Dandy Warhols - Bohemian like You (about Queen's famous epic rock opera song - okay, I'm telling fibs here!):

"Cause I like you,
Yeah I like you.
And I'm feeling so Bohemian like you"


Pulp - Bad Cover Version:

"Aah, sing your song about all the sad imitations that got it so wrong
It's like a later "Tom & Jerry" when the two of them could talk
Like the Stones since the Eighties,
like the last days of Southfork"


ABC - When Smokey Sings:

"He soothes it right - makes it out-ta-site
And everything’s good in the world tonight!
When Smokey sings - I hear violins
When Smokey sings - I forget everything"


BIS - Action And Drama:

"Give me '80's Madonna
Give me action and drama
Give me Club Tropicana"


Sparks - What Are All These Bands So Angry About?:

"Some might have done it, but not today
Beethoven, Coltrane, or Lady Day
Some might have done it, but not today
What with all these things besieging us now
Some might have done it, broken on through
Wagner, Tatum, or Howlin' Wolf
Some might have done what we'll never do
What are all these bands so angry about?"

Hey Striny Bob "Give me back my Pills !" (to paraphrase the now mostly defunct Lynrd Syknyrd (Sp)
Great idea for a thread I'll have to give it some thought Anyway off the top of my head
(BRYAN ) FERRY CROSS THE MERSEY GERRY AND HIS PACEMAKER

This band tho being total Barry White , revealed themselves as latter day Nostrodami by predicting the rise of the overweight one-eyed Argentinian traffic warden impersonator ,ten years or so before he took the music world (If not Jerry Hall) by storm (see "Viva Roxy Music " vid , "let's stick together " for conclusive evidence !
Hre's some trivia for you . Gerry Pacemaker was from the West Bank of the Mersey like your beloved Nigel Halfmanhalfbiscuit They 're all surreal in Birkenhead I've never fathomed out why the former should name his band after a German soldier with a heart condition

Ah, Ivan, I wish I had even the remotest idea what you're talking about!

Another one sprang to mind whilst out shopping this afternoon:

"In winter 1963
it felt like the world would freeze
with John F. Kennedy
and The Beatles"

from 'Life In A Northern Town' by The Dream Academy.

There are a couple of bands who mention themselves too.

Dalek I Love You sang a song called Dalek I Love You and The Monochrome Set kick off their album 'Strange Boutique' with a track called 'The Monochrome Set, I Presume'.

Perhaps the sickest one though comes from the guy who inspired me to create this thread (Mr.N. Blackwell of Birkenhead):

"I'm going to see The Bootleg Beatles
as The Bootleg Mark Chapman"

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Ivan and Bob, please excuse my interrupting, but I was much amused by both your posts, and as a Friday afternoon is the only free time I have to myself during the 7 day week I’m using it wisely and pondering your words:

Mr N. Blackwell of Birkinhead should watch out for this bootleg lady, she’s likely to come up to him and ask ‘why?’ -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilNZMvmwPlI

I thought you were actually referring to 'Herr Hoffman Hoffbis-Kurt’, rather than to any other cardiovascular challenged man from the Rhineland.

The floppy fringe part I can ‘see’, but Ivan, are you seriously suggesting that a sparkly tiger-skin jacket is typical Argentinean traffic warden attire? -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVeEBMJt8vs

CORES:Me old china I Give you "Senor Juan Jesus Briano El Ferrol , El guardian del trafico argentino sans eyepatch *
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkkci8I30qg
Obviously his eye infection had cleared up by the time this vid was shot Very good of the KLM cabin crew to offer their services as backing vocalists free of charge!
His Dad explained the significance of "Both Ends Burning" "Wor Bryan had had a dodgy curry one neet . You should have seen the stert of the toilet pan Wor Mam divvent want to clean it
Bryan might have mixed with your aforementioned Dali but like John Foxx still very much the miner's son !
Ye can terk the lad out of Co Durham , but ye can't terk Co Duhram out of the lad
* Great vid with the spangly jacket . Ladytron A band who run the Korova in my native Liverpool to where I flew back from my adopted Italy to see Mr Metamatic 4 years ago(talk about 6 degrees of seperation !)
Re the Falklands War It wasn't about the economy or territory Apparently Thatcher , after one sherry too many said that Argentinian traffic wardens were a bunch of fey neerdowells with their ridiculous spangly jackets. General Gualtieri took offence to this . The rest is history . As Stringy Bob diplomatically points out above I'm always talking imcomprehensible bollix on here I missed my mètier as a "News of The World " journalist.
PS Elvis Costello's real name wasn't really Declan McManus , "He" was actually a female Bulgarian shot putter who had a sex change !

Damn, how did I miss that one! I was trying to think of any JF tracks that might mention other artists but I have a real problem remembering titles of instrumentals.

I just remembered a couple of others.

"She doesn't have to have her DB's records back now" and "She doesn't have to have her Young Fresh Fellas tape back now" - Twisting In The Wind by They Might Be Giants.

"She said Presley's what I go by" - Burma Shave by Tom Waits. I'm making the wild assumption that she's referring to Elvis Presley and not former Troggs front man turned crop circle afficionado Reg Presley!

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Oh yeah, and Jackie Wilson Says by Dexy's Midnight Runners. Anybody remember the TOTP fiasco when some witless BBC research assistant put up a photo of Scottish darts maestro Jocky Wilson on the screen instead of Jackie Wilson?

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Woops Double post See Below !