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Songs About or That Reference Other Musicians


Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand

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18 minutes ago, Deej said:

So fucking great.

Yep, it kinda ended NWA.  Not that they were intimidated by IceCube.  He just shined a harsh light of truth on how everyone in NWA was getting screwed by Eazy E and Jerry Heller and it all imploded after that.  It’s the atomic bomb of diss tracks.

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A couple more I just remembered

Ringo-Early 1970 (his old mates)
Tom Petty & the Heartbraekers-Swingin' (Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Sammy Davis)
Def Leppard-Rocket (Beatles, Elton, Bowie, etc...)
Fountains of Wayne-Supercollider (Pink Floyd)

which makes me kick myself that I forgot two of the most obvious songs written about another musician...

Shine On You Crazy Diamond
Wish You Were Here
(and could also add Brain Damage and Nobody's Home, all for Syd, and of course Vera-Vera Lynn)

and I guess we can just throw in the entire Rumours album as well

John Mellencamp-ROCK in the USA
There was Frankie Lyman, Bobby Fuller, Mitch Ryder
(They were rockin')
Jackie Wilson-Shangra-Las-Young Rascals
(They were rockin')

Spotlight on Martha Reeves
Let's don't forget James Brown
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A couple more I just remembered


John Mellencamp-ROCK in the USA
There was Frankie Lyman, Bobby Fuller, Mitch Ryder
(They were rockin')
Jackie Wilson-Shangra-Las-Young Rascals
(They were rockin')
Spotlight on Martha Reeves
Let's don't forget James Brown
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On 4/23/2023 at 8:50 AM, TexPx said:

Smoke on the Water (Deep Purple)
Zappa

I’ve got a recording of the show that inspired that song. I’ve been meaning to post about it in the Zappa thread. I’ll try to get to that soon.

Frank has a good number of songs that mention other artists. He references the band Angel in Punky’s Whips. I used to have one of their albums. I’ll skip that one.

He mentions the Vanilla Fudge in Mud Shark. That’s allegedly based on a true story. And it’s a great groove.

He mentions the Dead.

Here the Dead reference is less explicit but it’s there.

Here he doesn’t mention anyone specifically. San Francisco psychedelic bands in general and there’s a musical reference.

There’s a Peter Frampton reference here (plus a bonus Jimi Hendrix reference).

 

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I’ve got a recording of the show that inspired that song. I’ve been meaning to post about it in the Zappa thread. I’ll try to get to that soon.
Frank has a good number of songs that mention other artists. He references the band Angel in Punky’s Whips. I used to have one of their albums. I’ll skip that one.
He mentions the Vanilla Fudge in Mud Shark. That’s allegedly based on a true story. And it’s a great groove.
[/url] He mentions the Dead.
Here the Dead reference is less explicit but it’s there.
Here he doesn’t mention anyone specifically. San Francisco psychedelic bands in general and there’s a musical reference.
There’s a Peter Frampton reference here (plus a bonus Jimi Hendrix reference).
 

Fillmore East recording?
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1 hour ago, TexPx said:

Fillmore East recording?

If you’re talking about the show that inspired Smoke on the Water, that was in Switzerland.

We all came out to Montreux
On the Lake Geneva shoreline

If you’re talking about I Have Been In You that I posted above, that’s from London at the Hammersmith Odeon in ‘78. That’s got an early version of Flakes on it which is missing the ending lyrical part, the part from “I’m a moron ‘n’ this is my wife” on. It just has the sweet guitar solo by Adrian Belew. Which reminds me, that song has a Bob Dylan reference (Dylan impression by Adrian).

Incidentally, the song 117 Valley Drive that I posted above is by Adrian’s band with his friends from back in Cincinnati called The Bears. They’re a great psychedelic pop band and a fair amount of their material is on YouTube if you care to look it up. There are some good live videos.

Here’s that live version of Flakes from London ‘78 in case anyone’s interested. In this version Frank asks Bob if he wants to buy some acid.

Spoiler

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 4/24/2023 at 2:35 PM, 4th&Five said:

They have quite a few:

3 Dimes Down

George Jones Cell Phone Blues

Carl Perkins Cadillac 
Ronnie & Neil 
Danko/Manuel

 

Yep, and "Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife" is about the murders of Bryan Harvey (of House of Freaks) and his wife and daughters, although it doesn't specifically mention him.

 

I'd also like to add:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Carl Spackler
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I could neither find a link to the video of When the Word is Running Down by the Police, nor a link to James Brown on TAMI show, nor any Otis Redding songs, but that's my contribution to this thread.  (I didn't actually look for links.)

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7 hours ago, shakahorn said:

I could neither find a link to the video of When the Word is Running Down by the Police

That's probably my favorite song by The Police, off my favorite album (a position that draws scorn every now and again).

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