Songs about, or which reference, research..?

So far, I have...

Sleeparchive - Research

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Pl__i9CdRA

and,Half man half biscuit - national shite day ('poor sods conducting polls')

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FR842KUaOw

Not sure if this is what you have in mind but Th' Flaming Lips "Race For The Prize" immediately came to mind

Depeche Mode - The Meaning Of Love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEoU0pgnFNc

great! thanks for these, very much. One thing I'd like to politely ask - if the reference to research isn't immediately obvious, it would be great if you could specify what it is. Thanks!

Tom Verlaine - "The Scientist Writes A Letter"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTrmUDlydac

"Roger's in the archives, looking up Casement..."

Kate Bush - Experiment IV

Camera Obscura, French Navy

"Spent a week in a dusty library..."

Monolake - Cern-LHC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4itzHRpltQ

Pram - The City Surveyor

The Fall - "Wings"

"Hovered in air outside a study
An academic kneaded his chin
Sat in the dust of some cheap magazines
His academic rust could not burn them up"

Helloween - Dr. Stein

They Might Be Giants - "For Science"

I will kiss the girl from Venus...for science!"

fat lady of limbourg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAwt44FcQn8

Iggy Pop - "Funtime"
Last night I was down in the lab/Talking to Dracula and his crew

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GWsdqCYvgw

Have you ever heard about the Higgs Boson Blues?
I'm going down to Geneva, baby
Gonna teach it to you
Who cares? Who cares what the future brings?

There are probably plenty of horror-themed novelty songs that reference research of some kind, most famously "Monster Mash."

Cerrone - Supernature (kind of fits that bill ^).

Genesis - "The Chamber of 32 Doors":

The priest and the magician,
Singing all the chants that they have ever heard;
They're all calling out my name,
Even academics, searching printed word.

Also, Rael researches sex in "Counting Out Time":

The day of judgment's come,
And you can bet that I've been resting,
for this testing,
Digesting every word the experts say.
Erogenous zones I love you.
Without you, what would a poor boy do?

Found a girl I wanted to date,
Thought I'd better get it straight.
Went to buy a book before it's too late.
Don't leave nothing to fate.
And I have studied every line, every page in the book,
And now I've got the real thing here, I'm gonna take a look, take a look.

The Wolfhounds - Cruelty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq8pqVN4ITk

"well he's a scientist in research..."

Guided By Voices - I am A Scientist

"...I seek to understand me."

Dr Heckyl & Mr Jive by Men At Work totally fits the bill, and it has the greatest/oddest chorus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoqlJsV6Bsc

husker du "books about ufos"

walking down a sunny street to the library
checking out the latest books about outer space
going to the fruit stand to buy a dozen oranges
then she and the books and the oranges go back to her place
she's telling the same old story to everyone that she knows
she's just sitting in her room reading books about ufos

Joan was quizzical
Studied pataphysical
science in the home
Late nights alone with a test tube,
Oh, oh oh oh

John K. Samson - "When I Write My Master's Thesis"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S5UpGx6470

peter Gabriel, shock the monkey, regarding animal research

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lefMGj7-NM

charlemagne palestine - 7 organism study

rush - manhattan project
mogwai - atomic ost
can - quantum physics

Hermann Love Pauline by SFA is about Gruff picking up those little pocket history books in service stations whilst on tour iirc.

Semisonic - All About Chemistry, in the reference/metaphor category. Whole song.

Also surely a fair number of 50s/60s novelty songs about mad scientists and the like, which tend to have at least the suggestion of a research/laboratory setting, e.g. Jimmy Troy's wonderful "The Brain."

What's that one Flaming Lips song, "Search For The Prize"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwbhVjUcono

Sorry, "Race For The Prize."

Hermann Love Pauline by SFA is about Gruff picking up those little pocket history books in service stations whilst on tour iirc.

every breath you take - the police

Can, "Below This Level (Patient's Song)"

"This time the experiment you’ve made
Has turned to some kind of lemonade"

"Maxwell's Silver Hammer" - "Joan was quizzical, studied pataphysical science in the home."

Submitted for your approval, the mysterious second verse of Brian Eno's Fat Lady of Limbourg. She appears to be a human CSI lab.

The Fat Lady of Limbourg
Looked at the samples that we sent
And furrowed her brow.
You would never believe that
She'd tasted royalty and fame
If you saw her now.
But her sense of taste is such that she'll distinguish with her tongue
The subtleties a spectrograph would miss,
And announce her decision,
While demanding her reward:
The jellyfish kiss.

Oh geez, someone beat me to Fat Lady of Limbourg. Sorry home organ, I searched by "eno"

more about *not* doing research, but:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4csr6pLZLg