How Would You Feel If Someone Wrote A Song About You...?

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Creeped out? Excited? Proud? Apalled? Smitten? If it depends who it is then say who you'd like to. And more broadly does the idea of a 'muse' have any currency in pop these days? Or - thin ice here - in pop writing?

Tom, Friday, 20 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

...they have..it got played ontha Evenin Session ..I felt like Rosanna Arquette -ummm..stilldo.

Is Mark p. the muse of Ethan ?

TRASH YR MUSE !

rEVENGE IS A DISH BEST SERVED COLD, Friday, 20 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

"Mark'll Sink Us": Fall b-side.

Not abt me at all, it turned out (some corrupt Popish prelate, Marcinkus, connected to MES's assassins-in-the-Vatican obsession), but that didn't stop me spreading the word, long after I wuz put right.

Plainly it depends who writes the song, Tom. Britney? I'm glad. Bono: not.

mark s, Friday, 20 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

My mate Chris (who looks uncannily like a gingery Mr Ewing), mentioned me in quite a few of his songs, back in the time when he was writing about 4 a day. The best one was the one that basically told my scary ex-girlfriend to sod off and leave me alone, which was nice :)

She came up to me after the gig and said "What was that song about???" and i shrugged and claimed no knowledge, teehee.

Also a band called Ideal wrote a song called "Richey's Dead" (I'm sure Ally remembers it) and i was part of the argument about whether he was or not that spawned the song.

will this do?

CarsmileSteve, Friday, 20 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I really wouldn't care who wrote it, I would be mortified. It would just be really embarassing to me, even if the song was great.

Nicole, Friday, 20 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Of course I remember "Richey's Dead". Unfortunately it was not a good song, which is a shame because there is a good song to be made there. Ideal, pfff.

Anyhow, someone HAS wrote a song about me and it was crap because they were a crap guitary wanky band and I was mortally offended by it. If someone wrote a good song about me I'd be all for it. I reckon more songs SHOULD be written about me.

Ally, Friday, 20 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I wrote a song about myself once. I love it. Nobody else knows it is about me though, the words are so roundabout. But they mean something to me (about me). I figured if nobody is going to write about me, at least I should. Is that too self-centered? Nah, every song that is written in the first person might be about the singer so lots of folks have done it. Its not as direct as Marc Bolan or Morissey though. Bolan likes to rock, yeah, oh yes he does! Take me out tonight.

Tim Baier, Friday, 20 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

If anyone is around on Saturday night this week (21st) you can hear a song about me performed live at the Dublin Castle in Camden by a band called Fractured. (No, I'm not in the band).

Fractured are damn good actually and will be suported by I Ludicrous who are also ace. It's £5 on the door and I'll buy any FT folks a pint if they ask around for Dr. C.

The song's called "Strange Things" and it's about stuff I'd rather forget.

Dr. C, Friday, 20 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Local band/AmRep types Supernova once threatened to write a song about me called "My Name is Ned," while my friend Grady in Chicago wants to do the same. I say bring it on. FEED MY EGO!

Ned Raggett, Friday, 20 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

FEED MY EGO!

A Big Black reference? Or am I on crack? If it is, how great. I've been discovering all things Albini lately, and damned if it ain't cool.

On that note, it does indeed depend on who it is. I'd probably be upset if any of my favorite bands wrote a song about me since I've been listening to a lot of stuff like Pussy Galore, Jesus Lizard and The Contortions, and they're not exactly famous for their happy fun lyrics.

In the end, if it was a nice sappy "you're great" song I'd have to settle on "embarassed".

Dave M., Friday, 20 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Ha. I also wrote a song about myself. Unfortunately, it's kind of bad. (Think a completely earnest yet bordering on parody Cure pastiche about wanting to kill yourself after the death of a loved one. Erm.)< I have a recording of it that I made in college lying around somewhere that no one will EVER hear. Even if it is a bad Cure/Depeche Mode pastiche, the subject matter is too personal to open it up to the ridicule it richly deserves.

I keep hoping that a group called the Satisfied Ladies will hit the top of the pop charts with a smash single called, "Daniel Perry Is A Throbbing Hunk Of Man- Size Love", but at this point I think chances are slim.

Dan Perry, Friday, 20 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I probably wouldn't mind having a song written about me as long it was flattering...Actually, I wouldn't mind if Snoop Dogg or someone like that did a rap about me, telling the world about how cool and relevant I am, but that's not going to happen. But I really haven't done enough good or bad things to warrant having a song written about me. Oh well.

james edmund L, Friday, 20 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

What a coincidence, Dan, I was planning on making that my debut single.

Ally, Friday, 20 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Mine too, but I suspect it wouldn't have the same impact.

Re: "FEED MY EGO!" -- as far as I know you're on crack, but maybe Monsieur Albini has mentioned that himself from time to time.

Ned Raggett, Friday, 20 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

All right...fess up. How many here would have paid Momus to write a song about them if they'd had the money?
Flipside to Momus: Apart from the bill-paying aspect, how did it feel to write songs about people on demand? And do you have a special rate for ILM'ers?

Sean Carruthers, Friday, 20 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I would so pay Momus to write a song about me, as long as the fee is reasonable. So that I could make everyone buy it. Even my mom would buy it.

Ally, Friday, 20 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Oh lord, I would have sent my $$$ to Momus in a heartbeat if I had known about it early enough! What was it? $2000 I think. Whatever it was, it seemed totally worth it. He's a great lyricist and YOU KNOW lots of people are going to hear it. Its not that much for a little fame (or infamy as one may see it). People seemed to get all pissed off at him for "whoring" himself out or whatever BS they threw at him, but I thought the whole thing was an absolutely brilliant idea.

Didn't Other Music in NYC do one? That's money well spent on promotion if you ask me.

Tim Baier, Friday, 20 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Oh yeah, I'm not ashamed of my song about me since its so cryptic. Its actually released on an album. As songs tend to be.

Tim Baier, Friday, 20 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Actually, a whole bunch of us tried to get-together to chip in enough to get a song about Tom on _Stars Forever_. Alas, we could not raise the full amount of funds.

Ned Raggett, Friday, 20 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

It would only be cool if I could tell everybody that it was my song.

Elton John everybody! Thank you and goodnight.

JM, Saturday, 21 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I don't think that the complexity of the business of 'writing about someone' has yet been grappled with here. Writing a song about someone is not simply a matter of repeating their name in the chorus, saying one or two funny things about them, and naming the song after them (not that anyone said it was). It might sometimes be that: it might be something slightly different.

A pop song, I am inclined to think, is - or can be, or should be, or maybe can't not be - a kind of *fiction*. It's not as complex, detailed or elaborate as other kinds of fiction (I'm thinking mainly of prose fiction), but it involves something like the same relation between 'text' and 'world' - between 'art', if you can tolerate that word, and 'reality'. That is, the song is based on, or drawn from, or inspired by (in this instance) a real person: and you wouldn't write it without them. Yet the 'character' who appears in the song (if character is not too elaborate a word) is not really identical with the real person. How could it be? - it's just a figment of a few words, a few melodic effects. The pop song is, I reckon, a largely simple form: it isn't going to try and tell you the 'whole' of a person as Proust, James or Woolf seemed to bid to do. No, it must sketch, suggest an outline, a figure, in a few strokes. That figure won't equate to a real, living person: the most you can probably say is that it will be a kind of tribute to them; and that its richness comes from its borrowed thought of the real person, rather than from something in the song's words themselves.

The 'fictional' character of the pop song has not, I think, been discussed as fully or insightfully as it might. This may be because people think that to do so is to equate pop songs with pieces of prose fiction: which they either proceed to do, somewhat inappropriately, or understandably decline to do. The modality of a pop song's relation to what we call the real goes untheorized - no, make that unthought.

the pinefox, Saturday, 21 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Pinefox, you've got something- I waz idealized like a print - you know how the colours are brighter on the shoppin bagz than the real paintingn - we iz all words onna page yet we all have expectations of eachother despite the detachment - we're all cyphers - often triplebluffin ourselves - art , even if it doesn't explain complexities that we don't understand anyway - alludes to them inna slinky way - on the record ITS me to the power of ten but only bits of me strangely warped, twisted samples reflected in broken glass,

Dinner is ready

Second Cummin, Saturday, 21 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Did Momus charge people for the Indie Pop List song?...If not then he could write a song about ILM as well?

james edmund L, Saturday, 21 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

In answer to the question, I'd feel slightly embarassed probably but also elated, of course. Unless it was really horrible. Actually someone has written a song based on something I said, but that's not quite the same thing. It is a fantastic song though.

Ally C, Saturday, 21 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Momus once teased me that he'd written a song about me. I'd have paid for a song on SF, no question.

I'm not sure how I'd feel because it would obviously depend on what perspective they came from, though to call me a "paranoid introverted bastard" would probably me marginally truer than calling me "someone everyone likes". However I have written lines which could fit in songs about Tom (or at least somebody based on him), and likewise a few lines applying to David the Huntsman. But, as yet, the songs in which they would fit remain unwritten.

Robin Carmody, Saturday, 21 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Whoa! Why? A song about me? As a songwriter for more then 30yrs. I expect that a study of auto-songagraghy would be an interesting appeal and a awsome endeavor but about me would be an unexpected mirrow of surprise that I may or not understand? HUH!

Alexis Krysyna, Saturday, 21 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

i have had a few songs (five at this count) written about me. mostly i haven't minded the attention, although listening to said songs after whatever fact inspired the song has of course been sort of sad. the songs have all been good too, which is i guess an added bonus.

maura, Sunday, 22 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Re: "Feed My Ego"

Not an Albini reference, but a Pussy Galore one (given what you listed as your current listenings). It's from "Yu Gung", which was a cover of a Neubauten song, which itself was a reference to a Japanese movie about the powers of the human mind.

Oddly, the album this is from, the Sugarshit Sharp EP, was the only one of the three Caroline releases reissued on Matador that wasn't recorded by Steve Albini.

Vic Funk, Tuesday, 24 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I'm actually curious about the answers to this, and all you can do is blether about Momus.

I wrote a song about Dan from the C6, and he's never even commented on it. Probably cause he thinks it's about his stupid bassist... who has gone on and on about it. Probably because I go on and on about him. It's all crap. I wish I'd never done it, becuase it's all got so complicated.

It's a wonderful song, though.

I mean, all songs are about someone, aren't they? Very few people write songs in the abstract, and if they, they're usually CRAP.

He should feel complimented and flattered as hell. It wasn't intended in a creep, stalker way, it was just a "my god, I completely idolise you, and I don't think I'm cool enough to talk to you, so I'll write a song to break the ice" thing, but then it all went wrong.

WAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

And it's our next bloody single, and I can't listen to the thing cause it makes me weep.

I can't write without a fucking muse. Who said I could write anyway? I'm just some nonsense drunk let loose on the internet afterhours.

"A beautiful boy has a thousand songs just hanging around His head all you gotta do is write 'em down"

Fucking crap blueheaded guitar bands for destroying the concept of the word, it's so lovely. As UVS once said in the Whore Of God, "her last John was peculiar, he moved in a mysterious way" and yes, muses move in mysterious ways, and pick fucking crap people to inhabit. Dear muse, I'm writing you this letter to suggest you take up residence in somebody better. Sick of longbrownhaired sideburned badlyshaved boys that look like Shaggy who inspire stupid spinning spacerock and the like, want it to stop, but it won't go away.

Enough, I have had far too much vodka.

Yeah, cheers.

kate the saint, Friday, 27 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

'All you can do is blether about momus'?

Look, I'm sympathetic to the vodka situation, I really am, but you have to admit that that claim is piffle.

the pinefox, Saturday, 28 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

thirteen years pass...

Hmm. I did this very recently. Sort of. The song doesn't reference this person specifically and there's no 'i love you baby' type bullshit in it but there is a latent romanticism about a shared experience in it that would be fairly obvious if they heard it. I have to say that I honestly think it's a pretty good song, but now I'm going back and forth on whether or not it's a good idea to actually send it to this person (it's someone I know already). I have no idea how they would react. I have no interest in sharing it with the general public so I'm either going to send it to them or no-one.
I find that this can bring out ideas you did not know you had, but whether it's a good idea or not to actually let that person hear the song I cannot say.

mirostones, Tuesday, 26 August 2014 14:32 (nine years ago) link


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