The Replacements are getting a lot of bloggy attention this week for their 1987 song about Alex Chilton ("Alex Chilton"):
Long before that song, though, they wrote a song about the band Husker Du:
It's not quite as good as "Alex Chilton".
This comes to mind thanks to Matt Yglesias who notes:
...I think it’s worth observing that the only reason I ever heard Big Star was because of The Replacements’ song “Alex Chilton”. And while the current generation will probably be exposed to The Replacements thanks to Rock Band 2, I was first introduced to the band thanks to the They Might Be Giants song “We’re The Replacements.”
So now my head is stuck on the task of finding songs who explicitly reference other bands in their lyrics - trying to find the longest chain of band-to-band references I can. I haven't come up with anything better than the two-link chain that Yglesias notes: TMBG -> Replacements -> Big Star. And I can't think of anyone who references TMBG, and I don't think Big Star made any references to other bands.
I've come up with a lot of other references:
- Yo La Tengo references the band America in their song "Lewis", and the Stones (and The Beatles, I suppose) in "Paul Is Dead".
- Robyn Hitchcock -> Eazy E in "Where Do You Go When You Die", David Byrne in "Freeze", Nick Drake in "I Saw Nick Drake", the Higsons in "Listening To The Higsons", and there are probably a dozen others.
- Pavement -> REM in "Unseen Power Of The Picket Fence", Smashing Pumpkins and Stone Temple Pilots in "Range Life", Vanilla Ice (and Madonna, indirectly, I think) in "Summer Babe", Geddy Lee in "Stereo".
Fire" - Calexico -> Stevie Nicks in "Not Even Stevie Nicks"
- Liz Phair -> Galaxie 500 in "Stratford On Guy".
- Billy Joel -> Buddy Holly, The Beatles, Dylan in "We Didn't Start The
- The Who -> T Rex in "You Better You Bet".
- The Pixies -> Lou Reed in "I've Been Tired".
- The Police -> James Brown in "When The World Is Running Down".
- Miley Cyrus -> Britney and Jay-Z in "Party In The USA".
- Sonic Youth -> Carpenters in "Tunic", Maddona in "Master-Dik".
- Deep Purple -> Frank Zappa, Rolling Stones in "Smoke On The Water".
- Gillian Welch -> Steve Miller in "My First Lover".
- Led Zeppelin -> Roy Harper in "Hats Off To Harper".
- Eddie Money -> Ronnie Spector, "Take Me Home Tonight".
- Van Morrison -> Jackie Wilson in "Jackie Wilson Said".
- Tom Tom Club -> James Brown in "Genius Of Love".
- Golden Earring -> Brenda Lee in "Radar Love".
- Juliana Hatfield -> Nirvana in "Nirvana"
- Lynyrd Skynyrd -> Neil Young in "Sweet Home Alabama".
- Vampire Weekend -> Peter Gabriel in "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa".
- John Mellencamp went big with Frankie Lymon, Bobby Fuller, Mitch Ryder, Jackie Wilson, Shangrilas, Young Rascals, Martha Reeves, and let's don't forget James Brown in "R.O.C.K. In The USA".
- The Dead Milkmen went all-out in "Instant Club Hit" and referenced Depeche Mode, The Smiths, The Communards, Book Of Love, Public Image Limited, Naked Truth, and Siouxsie And The Banshees.
- But if we allow indirect references, nothing beats Don McLean's "American Pie": Buddy Holly, The Beatles, John Lennon, Rolling Stones, The Monotones, Lovin' Spoonful, Dylan, The Byrds, Janis Joplin, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, and probably a couple of others.
- There are a million "Elvis" references.
...but I can't come up with a two-step link. I know there must be others besides TMBG->Replacements->Big Star. Somebody must have a Zeppelin or Skynyrd reference; and I'd be surprised if Michael Stipe didn't mumble the name of some other band at one point. Just can't think of them...
This would be so easy as to be pointless if I stuck with hip-hop, since name-checks are a staple of the form. But it's much less prevalent in rock music.
Barenaked Ladies have a song named “Brian Wilson.” The song also references a Beach Boys song, but not the Beach Boys themselves. I wouldn’t be surprised to find them making more name-checks in other songs, since that’s the kind of band they are. But you also don’t want to go too obscure — I feel like songs that get radio play have more weight in this kind of exercise.
Steely Dan names Aretha Franklin in “Hey 19.”
Aretha!
i’ve been replaying “Hey 19” in my head. but i kept hitting that “nothing but blues and Elvis” line and thinking that was what was leading me to that song.
“Brian Wilson”. yep, that’ll work.
got one!
Gretchen Wilson -> Tanya Tucker, George Strait, Charlie Daniels, Skynyrd in “Red Neck Woman”.
Gretchen Wilson -> Skynyrd -> Neil Young
Good one. Country, like hip-hop, is rich in name checking. Kenny Chesney has a song where he names Sonny & Cher. I’m pretty sure I’ve heard Jimmy Buffet’s name in at least two C&W songs (but can’t be bothered to investigate).
A couple more rock/pop songs:
Randy Newman -> Beach Boys (“I Love L.A.”)
RHCP -> Bob Marley (“Give It Away”)
There’s got to be a triple waiting in there.
Country, like hip-hop, is rich in name checking
yeah. it really is. i feel a little bad about using a country song to get my double. i will stick to rock songs from now on.
Yep, I would think there are nearly as many references to Bill Monroe as to Elvis.
Here’s one — Joe Pop-o-pie references Zeppelin in “Bummed-out Guy” (“Nothing to do now, cept be on the phone,/ Listen to Zepplin, and get really stoned”), Zeppelin as you noted refs Roy Harper.
Also the Monkees self-reference in “We’re the Monkees”, so you get an infinite recursion that way.
“Away with the Pixies” – Ben Lee->Pixies->Lou Reed
Other single-step ones
“Big Day Coming” – Yo La Tengo (Stones)
“Drug Test” – Yo La Tengo (Grateful Dead)
“Versus Tape” – Small Factory
“Johnny Mathis’s Feet” – American Music Club
“Daft Punk Is Playing At My House” – LCD Soundsystem
“London Calling” – The Clash (Beatles)
“All the Young Dudes – Mott the Hoople (T.Rex)
Actually, “Thirteen” by Big Star has the line “Tell him what we said ’bout ‘Paint It Black'”. So that’s three steps.
“Away with the Pixies” – Ben Lee->Pixies->Lou Reed
nice!
“Tell him what we said ’bout ‘Paint It Black’”.
as an indirect reference, yeah. but direct references are best.
I made the following mix tape of a similar vein:
Tall Dwarfs – Meet The Beatle [George Harrison]
Robyn Hitchcock – The Man Who Invented Himself [Syd Barrett]
Frank Black – Czar [John Denver]
Black Box Recorder – Andrew Ridgley [of Wham]
Young Fresh Fellows – Amy Grant
Mojo Nixon – Don Henley Must Die!
The Posies – Grant Hart [of Husker Du]
Pixies – Allison [Mose Allison]
The Chills – Song for Randy Newman etc.
Frank Black – I Heard Ramona Sing [The Ramones]
Robyn Hitchcock – I Saw Nick Drake
Magnetic Fields – My Only Friend [Billie Holiday]
Belle & Sebastian – Shoot the Sexual Athlete [The Go-Betweens]
The Go-Betweens – When She Sang About Angels [Patti Smith]
Billy Bragg – I Dreamt I Saw Phil Ochs Last Night
Elf Power – Loverboy’s Demise
Beck – Ozzy
David Bowie – Song for Bob Dylan
Sean O’Hagan – Perry Como
Prefab Sprout – Faron [Faron Young]
Frank Black – The Man Who Was to Loud [Jonathan Richman]
Dan Bern – Kurt [Kurt Cobain]
Teenage Fanclub – Gene Clark [of the Byrds]
I always thought the Man Who Invented Himself was David Bowie.
Joe Pop-o-pie
can’t say i’ve heard of Joe Pop-o-pie. good name, tho !
Radiohead reference Jim Morrison in ‘Anyone Can Play Guitar’.
Dead Milkmen’s Bitchin Camero talks about a Doors cover band. And Punk Rock Girl of course mentions Beach Boys (although the song the ref was the Mamas and the Papas) and Minnie Pearl.
I’d guess a lot of the jokey bands name check a lot.
For straight up indie stuff it seems like there should be a Lemonheads/Juliana Hatfield/Blake Babies namecheck, but I can’t think of what it is. And of course Mary Lou Lord’s “His Indie World” names everyone only your hip friends know.
Did Patty Hearst ever do a song? CvB had “Tania” on Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart.
Wayne County And The Back Street Boys did a song called “Max’s Kansas City” that named everyone in that scene.
Just off the top of my head you have Julian Cope doing the song “Bill Drummond Said” and Bill Drummond (of KLF fame) responding with a song called “Julian Cope is Dead”.
Mojo Nixon did “Don Henley Must Die”.
And Jonathan Richman did “Velvet Underground”.
Now I’ll be thinking all day for more and to try to get a threesome.
Took five minutes for a couple more…Buddy Holly by Weezer. The New Radicals namecheck Dust Brothers, Hanson, Beck, Courtney Love and Marilyn Manson. ABC did When Smokey Sings.
Lucinda Williams references other musicians frequently. There’s Hank and Loretta in “Car Wheels”, as well as a few more on that album, including ZZ-Top and Robert Johnson.
BTW, I don’t remember seeing any Lucinda in your top 100 albums. That said, your top 100 are a good collection.
Lucinda also mentions John Coltrane in “Righteously”.
i like her, but she hasn’t cracked the top 100 yet.
Pavement (“Unseen power of the picket fence”) -> REM (“Voice Of Harold“) -> The Revelaires (whoever they were)
Robyn Hitchcock (“Freeze”) -> David Byrne / Talking Heads (“Fela’s Riff”) -> Fela Kuti
can’t say I’ve heard of joe pop-o-pie
Check it out: http://www.pop-o-pie.com/
Made a small name for himself in the early eighties as “The old guy who does punk-rock Grateful Dead covers.” His shtick at the beginning was just to have one song and play it over and over when he got a gig, by 84 he had branched out a bit — he sings in “Pop-o-rap”, “MOST OF THE bands that you go out to see / Save the hit till the end and it’s all real cheese-y / But there’s only one group, and it comes from San Fran / That will play you the hit over and over again.” Some streaming songs at his Myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/popopies
Sonic Youth at Disneyland by Mold. I know pretty much nothing about Mold, but I picked up the single in a used record shop some time in the 90s.
Has nobody mentioned Counting Crows song “Mr. Jones” with the chorus “I want to be Bob Dylan”. Especially apropos for this thread because it was originally written “I want to be Alex Chilton” but the record company didn’t think anyone would get the reference.
“Thank You Jack White for the Fiberoptic Jesus That You Gave Me” – Flaming Lips
Frank Zappa and the Mothers in Smoke on the Water.
Sonic Youth at Disneyland
what a great title!
Has nobody mentioned Counting Crows song “Mr. Jones”
nope. not yet.
Frank Zappa and the Mothers in Smoke on the Water.
got that one. there’s a Stones reference in there, too.