SONGS WHERE/SONGS THAT/SONGS WITH/SONGS IN WHICH

SOME PEOPLE ARE AFRAID ILM IS TURNING INTO THE TVTROPES OF MUSIC, SO HERE'S A CATCH-ALL THREAD WHERE WE CAN DOCUMENT THE THEMATIC/SONIC/COMPOSITIONAL LINKAGES BETWEEN SONGS WITHOUT HAVING TO START A NEW THREAD FOR EACH AND EVERY TROPE THAT POPS INTO OUR HEADS DURING MOMENTS OF DESPERATE BOREDOM

songs where a woman corresponds with her husband under an assumed identity and arranges a liaison with him as a test of his marital fidelity:

Rupert Holmes - Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
Kate Bush - Babooshka

"some people"

Songs that are not John Cage's 4' 33"

Songs in which Instrumentation is or is not used

Songs in which the vocalist audibly takes a drag on a cigarette between verses:

Sandy Denny - "No End"

this would be a good thread to collect all of the disparate 'songs where' threads, cause i can never find any of them.

songs where you can't find what you're looking for

"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" - U2

songs where you can't find what you're looking for

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K89RsKaEO7I

songs written by a non-famous family member of the recording artist:

Grizzly Bear - Marla
Throwing Muses - Sinkhole

Songs by 90's-era American indie bands about 80's-era British female singers:

Unrest - "Cath Carroll"
June & the Exit Wounds - "Cathy Dennis"

Songs by 90's-era American indie bands about 80's-era British female singers

Black Tambourine - Throw Aggi Off the Bridge

(about Aggie and Stephen Pastel)

the plot thickens!

songs where the narrator is so miserable that even the sight of children playing fails to cheer his burdened heart:

Rolling Stones - As Tears Go By
Pearl Jam - Black
Screaming Trees - Winter Song

Lol

young girl: hahaha wheeee I love playing in the puddles
Mark Lanegan, grunger: HOW CAN YOU BE SO CAREFREE WHEN MY SOUL IS LITERALLY DYING 😢😢😢

songs that in off whacking with which trailer

lol i have been bumping a lot of these

songs where the narrator is so miserable that even the sight of children playing fails to cheer his burdened heart

How could you leave off The Chi-lites, Have You Seen Her

and Chicago, Make Me Smile

Songs in which, it is not I who is mad, it's you normals!

Elton John - Madman Across the Water
Bonzo Dog Band - My Pink Half of the Drainpipe
Supertramp - Asylum

Songs where the singer is bored of music:

Cat Power - Colors and the Kids

songs where a singer expresses disdain for being put on a pedestal as artist

ionnalee- samaritan

songs where a singer expresses disdain for being put on a pedestal as artist

London Calling
Don't Look Back in Anger

?

much better to have a catch-all thread, good job

songs where a singer expresses disdain for being put on a pedestal as artist

Eminem - Marshall Mathers

songs where a singer expresses disdain for being put on a pedestal as artist

Ani DiFranco - Little Plastic Castle

People talk about my image
Like i come in two dimensions
Like lipstick is a sign of my decling mind
Like what i happen to be wearing
The day that someone takes a picture
Is my new statement for all womankind

And i wish they could see us now
In leather bras and rubber shorts
Like some ridiculous new team uniform
For some ridiculous new sport
Quick someone call the girl police
And file a report

songs where you can't find what you're looking for

"Where Is My Mind"

songs where a singer expresses disdain for being put on a pedestal as artist

Neil Young - On The Beach

^ arguable, but i think he touches on the need for an audience and how frustrating that is - possibly more ambivalent??

songs where the strength of the protagonist's relationship is evaluated based upon their awareness of their lover's potato preferences:

Gershwin - Let's Call the Whole Thing Off
Sia - Sweet Potatoes

Songs in which the Beatles wish you a Happy Birthday

Songs in which the singer reads off a phone number:

“867-5309/Jenny” — Tommy Tutone
“Group Sex” — Circle Jerks
“The Vietnamese Telephone Ministry” — Fiery Furnaces

^Brenda Lee - Bigelow 6-200

Transylvania 6-5000

Oh snap!

Songs in which the boys are back in town:

Thin Lizzy - The Boys are Back in Town

roxy music - remake/remodel ... "CPL 593H!"

scraping foetus off the wheel - DI-1-9026

isaac hayes - good love ... "call good love 69-9-69"

squeeze - "853-5937"

are there any phone-number songs yet that have modern 8, 10, or 11 digit numbers?

City Boy – 5705

roxy music - remake/remodel ... "CPL 593H!"

Not a phone number, it was the registration number of Bryan Ferry's car.

songs written by a non-famous family member of the recording artist:

Grizzly Bear - Marla
Throwing Muses - Sinkhole

― how to diss a peer completely (unregistered), Monday, 12 February 2018 02:46 (five months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Lyn Paul - The Waiting Game (Doreen Belcher)

I know. I do.

"Maybe Baby" had some lines written by Buddy Holly's mom.

George Harrison's "Piggies" had one line he couldn't fill, needed to rhyme with "lacking". His mum suggested "What they need's a damn good whacking" which is the "WHOA" line in the song.

Songs where the singer is bored of music:

Isn’t this every Cat Power song?

POLL: Songs Written By The Artist's Mom

Harry Nilsson, "Little Cowboy"
Harry Nilsson, "Marchin' Down Broadway"

are there any phone-number songs yet that have modern 8, 10, or 11 digit numbers?

Jeremih - 773 LOVE

This doesn't count but Hoyt Axton's mom wrote "Heartbreak Hotel."

Not a phone number, it was the registration number of Bryan Ferry's car.

arggghh of course... dunno what i was thinking... it was late.

Bryan says sorry but the traffic was bad

don't forget The B-52s "6060-842". Which is a weird way to format a local US telephone number circa 1979.

Songs Set in a Courtroom (Bonus Points If It Includes an Argument between the Singer and the Judge):

Pink Floyd - “The Trial”
The Five Du-Tones - “Divorce Court”
Wynonie Harris - “Good Morning Judge”
Bessie Smith - “Send Me to the Electric Chair”
NWA - “Fuck the Police”

Bob Dylan - “Percy’s Song”

Skeeter Davis - “Set Him Free”

Bands whose members are all men but whose name implies they would be women

Violent Femmes
Girls

Das Damen

Jerry Reed's "When You're Hot You're Hot" has a pretty great courtroom scene. Also about a thousand other country songs about people shooting either their woman or the deputy down. And "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man."

George Jones, "Brown to Blue" we stood there in the courthouse room...
the judge pronounced the words

Paul Simon "Adios Hermanos"

Bascom Lamar Lunsford's "Mountain Dew" was inspired by his experience as a lawyer:

The lyrics tell the story of a man's first day in court to answer charges of making illegal alcohol. In the first verse, the prosecutor closes his case. In the next three verses, several respected members of the community—the deacon, the doctor, and the conductor—visit the charged man, trying to buy his whiskey.[6] In the final verse, the judge offers the young man clemency if he is willing to pay court costs for the trial.

Bascom Lamar Lunsford was a lawyer practicing in rural North Carolina during the 1920s. At the time, the manufacturing of beverage alcohol for non-medicinal purposes was illegal in the United States due to prohibition, but North Carolina residents nevertheless continued their longstanding tradition of making a form of illegal whiskey called moonshine. Lunsford frequently defended local clients that were accused of the practice, and the original lyrics and banjo accompaniment to "Good Old Mountain Dew" were written during the course of one of these cases.

^that Wikipedia summary misses the point though. the punchline of the song is that the judge sets the defendant free in exchange for a taste of his moonshine. "cost" in the last verse doesn't literally mean "court costs"

Bands whose members are all men but whose name implies they would be women

Women
Single Mothers
Girl Band

Twisted Sister

Bare naked... no its gone

Songs Set in a Courtroom (Bonus Points If It Includes an Argument between the Singer and the Judge):

Springsteen: Johnny 99 and also Nebraska

Also Steve Earle The Devil’s Rigjt Hand

And The Specials - Stupid Marriage

Songs Set in a Courtroom (Bonus Points If It Includes an Argument between the Singer and the Judge)

BANG BANG Maxwell's Silver Hammer went down on his head!

“Here Comes the Judge,” Pigmeat Markham ( and other songs with the same name by others)

^ ^ ^ Top-20 rap hit from 1968!

Songs Set in a Courtroom (Bonus Points If It Includes an Argument between the Singer and the Judge)

"murder in my heart for the judge" by the moby grape

Songs in which the singer reads off a phone number:

― i’m still stanning (morrisp)

the space negroes' version of "sex bomb"

Songs Set in a Courtroom (Bonus Points If It Includes an Argument between the Singer and the Judge):

― Mr. Snrub

"mr. waters (the judge)" by birmingham sunday

"arrest, trial, and judgement (joy in the marketplace!)" by harry partch
"good morning judge" by wynonie harris

songs with a falsetto goodbye:

Danny O'Keefe - Falsetto Goodbye
Third Eye Blind - Semi-Charmed Life

The reprise of "So Long, Farewell" from Sound of Music

Dinosaur Jr - Start Choppin'

^ah, I had a feeling I was missing an incredibly obvious one

The Communards - Never Can Say Goodbye

Supertramp - Goodbye Stranger

songs written by a non-famous family member of the recording artist:

Jefferson Airplane - Somebody to Love (written by Darby Slick)

songs in which 'yee-ha!' or similar appears apropos of nothing but manages to be perfect:

michael jackson "wanna be startin' somethin'"
björk "big time sensuality"

^
Loudon Wainwright - The Swimming Song

Possible thread for 'off-mic eructations'? Keith Jarrett must be the king of this. Or Mingus.

songs with unearned key changes

Falco - Rock Me Amadeus

cover songs (or songs that interpolate bits of other songs) that feature newly-recorded backing vocals from the singer of the original song:

Uncle Kracker - Drift Away (feat. Dobie Gray)
Eddie Money - Take Me Home Tonight (feat. Ronnie Spector, who sings the chorus of 'Be My Baby')

The Run DMC version of "Walk This Way".

songs which feature the wilhelm scream

Does Elton John rerecord the vocals for Bennie and Jets on the newest Tribe Called Quest album?

yep!

It kicks off with a sample of John's original recording, a No. 1 hit in 1974, and the final single from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, which came out the year before. Then, at the 2:43 mark, after Busta Rhymes helps out in the second verse, the modern-day voice of Elton closes out the song in a duet with Q-Tip. John is credited as a co-writer on "Solid Wall of Sound," which also features his piano.

Steve Winwood insisted on doing this for "Call On Me."'

wait no, the new Elton vocals at the end are a newly written verse, not a reprise of the original song (xpost)

Stephen Stills on Public Enemy's "He Got Game"

Lennon on Elton's version of "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds"

Bonnie Prince Billy on Johnny Cash's I See A Darkness

Dido on Stan.

Paul Kelly going in-studio for rap group AB Original’s live radio coverpolation of his 26-year-old Dumb Things.

Songs in which the singer reads off a phone number:

Otis Redding - 634-5789

songs where a singer expresses disdain for being put on a pedestal as artist

Pearl Jam - Corduroy, and surely many others

Original writer singing backup on cover:

Will Oldham on Johnny Cash I See a Darkness

Can't believe I just now remembered Jimmy Page on "Come With Me."

songs where a singer expresses disdain for being put on a pedestal as artist

I can think of several examples that are close to this sentiment. Obviously "please don't put your life in the hands / of a rock and roll band" is at least related. So is "don't look to us / phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust."

Elvis Costello's "I Want to Vanish" is ostensibly from the perspective of someone - perhaps an old Delta blues or Appalachian folk legend - asking to NOT be recorded by what I guess is an Alan Lomax-like character.

I want to vanish
This is my fondest wish
To go where I cannot be captured
Laid on a decorated dish

The speaker seems to regard him- or herself as unfit for posterity. But it may be equally true that some art should be permitted to be transient. Putting it on record and fixing it in space and time would, effectively, be tantamount to murdering it. Let it be unheard and unbroadcast. Let us merely be happy that it ever happened at all, not be annoyed that it hasn't been preserved in a scratchy copy that robs it of life.

1981 songs referencing the stars of "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?":

"Joan Crawford" - Blue Oyster Cult
"Bette Davis Eyes" - Kim Carnes

my Christmas present is reading the above as meaning that kornrulez has gone 19 years thinking that Bonnie Prince Billy is a different guy for whom Will Oldham wrote songs.

my Christmas present is reading the above as meaning that kornrulez has gone 19 years thinking that Bonnie Prince Billy is a different guy for whom Will Oldham wrote songs.

What is this, amateur hour? Are you calling me a Bonnie Prince Billy bitch?

Is he not the man who wrote I See a Darkness? Is he not singing backup on the Johnny Cash cover version? Would that not fit the cover songs (or songs that interpolate bits of other songs) that feature newly-recorded backing vocals from the singer of the original song: theme?

see five posts above yours

oh fer crying out loud, that ILM app blows

Songs about the engineering trades and their practitioners (not including audio engineering)

The Electrician
Wichita Lineman

Casey Jones

Heh. John Henry?

Decemberists, "Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect"?

Oooh! Oooh! Fortress Around Your Heart.

if you count a tinker as a practitioner of the engineering trades, then at least part of tim hardin's "if i were a carpenter"

also about 10% of woody guthrie songs it sometimes seems

Songs in which the Beatles wish you a Happy Birthday

― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Thursday, August 2, 2018 11:20 PM (five months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWjRpsqbu7o

!

songs about the olden days when life was simpler and we had NO CELLPHONES:

Five For Fighting - Slice
("there was a time a long, long time ago/ Chevys and levees played on the radio/ no cell phones, just 20,000 lights/ swaying on a Saturday night, alright")

The Wreckers - My, Oh My
("songs were long, and gas was cheap/ no cellphones, and water was free/ daddy paid and I never had to worry")

Jim Jones - Blow It Up
("I was dealing crack when/ there was no cell phones and I swear it was iller back then/ it was beepers and street sweepers [...]")

jesus christ

arcade fire - we used to wait

Pretty sure this is the entirety of Everclear's AM Radio: "VCR and DVD, there was none of that crap back in 1970." It also mentions a "portable CD player."

I kinda want to call up Alex whatsis and ask him if he wants to rewrite the song now that those things don't really exist anymore either.

Songs about the engineering trades and their practitioners (not including audio engineering)

I would like to know of songs about audio engineering.

Not the same thing but there could be a whole thread about songs where the producer’s name or production company are mentioned in the song, usually at the beginning.

I kind of feel it’s a practice that started in Jamaica but I don’t know how to even cross-check that.

all of afropop to thread

Springsteen, "Ain't Good Enough For You"

I tried to change, I got a job in sales
I bought a shirt uptown in Bloomingdales
And babe I tried to make the latest scene
Hitting cool just like Jimmy Iovine

Can we have some songs about how cool it is to be a CEO of a multinational company?

Stan Ridgway - "I Wanna Be a Boss"

Responding to the previous question, the S&G Simple Desultory Phillipic has name drops for BOTH Roy Halee and Phil Spector. So an engineer / producer twofer.

You could also stretch "engineering" to include e.g. Casey Jones and Driver 8.

songs in which the singer snaps back at a cat caller

Negative Gemini - "Don't Worry Bout the Fuck I'm Doing"
Empress Of - "Kitty Kat"
TLC - "No Scrubs"

I feel like these all need to be individual threads. Condensing them all into this hodgepodge is a disservice to the culture.

"In My Former Country I Was Engineer" by the Ebb & Flow, which is a good song but he sure wasn't audio engineer, unless I have a somehow damaged out-of-phase download.

Peggy Seeger, "I'm Gonna Be an Engineer"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IGVxBb5uYk

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

should've included the vocal version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnIH51niqCY

The Flying Pickets did a good, spooky song called Monica Engineer

Songs in which the narrator communicates telepathically with their lover:
Golden Earring - “Radar Love”
Metric - “Satellite Mind”
Bad Brains - “Sacred Love”
...

Don't Speak / I know what you're thinking

J. Lowenstein with the riposte: https://genius.com/Sebadoh-mind-reader-lyrics

"Rocks Off"

Battle of the Children of the :
Grave
Sea
Damned

Songs whose narratives hinge upon mistaken identity:

“Silhouettes” – The Rays (and others)
“Hurricane” – Bob Dylan
“Billie Jean” – Michael Jackson*
“Oh Sweet Woods” – Fiery Furnaces
“It Wasn’t Me” – Shaggy*

*alleged

Songs that sound like Histoire de Melody Nelson:
Paper Tiger - Beck
Also others...

Songs listing the cities in which the party will be occurring tonight:

Dancing in the Streets - Martha & the Vandellas
All Over the World - Electric Light Orchestra
Keep This Party Going - The B-52's

(There's got to be more...)

T.I.’s verse on “We’re Taking Over”

Songs where the singer is in denial:

10CC - I'm Not In Love
John Waite - I Ain't Missing You
Flight of the Conchords - I'm Not Crying

Flowers on the Wall--Flowers on the Wall

stone roses - i am the resurrection

The Louvin Brothers - I Like the Christian Life

albert collins - i ain't drunk

Buzzcocks - “You Say You Don’t Love Me.”

George Jones - "She Thinks I Still Care"

The Louvin Brothers - I Like the Christian Life

lol

Bourgeois Tagg - I Don't Mind At All

Dylan - "Most of the Time"

Does this include songs where not only the singer but also the songwriter seems to be in denial? If so:

Bruce Springsteen - "Happy"
That terrible Justin Bieber song about how he's totally over Selena Gomez, he's just writing her this song because she keeps blowing up his phone, and also his mother doesn't like her.

I guess "Boots of Spanish Leather" also involves a lot of denial, although he clues in at the end.

Flowers on the Wall--Flowers on the Wall

ALBUMS NAMED AFTER THE STUDIO THEY WERE RECORDED IN

Abbey Road - Beatles
Caribou - Elton John

And then I hit Wikipedia to find these...

The Power Station - The Power Station (album and band)
Shangri La - Mark Knopfler
Bear Creek - Brandi Carlile

Feel the heat

5150 - Van Halen
Electric Ladyland - Jimi Hendrix (though this might technically be a studio named after an album)

Guitar solos that are preceded with the singer exclaiming “oh no...”:
-Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath
-Van Halen, you really got me

Songs in which the singer reads off a phone number:

“867-5309/Jenny” — Tommy Tutone
“Group Sex” — Circle Jerks
“The Vietnamese Telephone Ministry” — Fiery Furnaces

― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Friday, August 3, 2018 5:30 AM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

Owen Pallett's The Secret Seven also does this.

Songs/tunes that sample Sydney's pedestrian crossing sound:

Orbital, Walk Now
Billie Eilish, Bad Guy

Songs where the title doesn't appear in the lyrics until the 2nd verse:

Fleetwood Mac - "Dreams"

"Nebraska"

"Nebraska"

― Lily Dale, Wednesday, January 29, 2020 10:46 AM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Good one!

songs in which the protagonist's friend/lover leaves them behind in pursuit of stardom:

Twinkle - Golden Lights
Colin Blunstone - Caroline Goodbye
Amanda Mair - Sense

songs where the lead vocalist is having their ass eaten

Geto Boys - Gangsta of Love

songs where the lead vocalist is eating ass

R.A. The Rugged Man "Tom Thum"

Songs/tunes that sample Sydney's pedestrian crossing sound:

Orbital, Walk Now
Billie Eilish, Bad Guy

Basement Jaxx, Red Alert
Regurgitator, Superstraight
Giuseppe Ottaviani, Crossing Lights
Polish Club, Iguana

songs where nobody is eating ass or having their ass eaten

[..]

2523 Songbird :: Kenny G

uh yeah, I'm pretty sure Kenny has never gone on record to say that 'Songbird' isn't a wordless meditation on the pleasures of booty eating. otherwise it's a pretty solid list, though!

Old timey Ilx post up there

Basement Jaxx, Red Alert
Regurgitator, Superstraight
Giuseppe Ottaviani, Crossing Lights
Polish Club, Iguana

found the site with this list, last 3 are all legit but i don't buy the basement jaxx.

Neanderthal, solid effort, but sorry. That list includes cRIMson and Clover and pRIMrose Lane. Plus the two tracks by Leean RIMes. All of which are clear coded references.

Fuck! How could I have forgot those!

I'll be punishing the intern who compiled this list!

And I have my doubts about "2551 Lights, Camera, Action! :: Mr. Cheeks"

1 Smooth Asscheeks :: Santana
3 You Light Up My Ass :: Debby Boone
4 I Gotta Feeling (It's Analingus) :: Black Eyed Peas, The
5 Hey Jude (Can I Eat Your Ass?) :: Beatles, The
15 Tossin' Salad And Turnin' :: Bobby Lewis
16 I'll Make Love To You (By Which I Mean I'll Munch Dat Ass All Night) :: Boyz II Men
17 Bette Davis Ass :: Kim Carnes
20 I Want To Hold Your Asscheeks Open :: Beatles, The
21 How You Remind Me (Of That Time You Ate My Ass) :: Nickelback
22 Un-Break My Bung :: Toni Braxton
24 (I Want Your Tongue) Truly Madly But Especially Deeply :: Savage Garden
26 Every Butt You Taste :: Police, The
32 How Deep Is Your Hole :: Bee Gees
33 Bust A Ass Open :: Young M.C.
36 The First Time Ever I Sat On Your Face :: Roberta Flack

I should have been in bed 2 hours ago.

found the site with this list, last 3 are all legit but i don't buy the basement jaxx

ooh, what site? there used to be a thread with other techno/trance tracks that sampled it on inthemix, but the new owners nuked the entire archive a year or two ago and I can't remember any of them

(also I've just relistened to Superstraight and now I suspect either I'm misremembering another Regurgitator song of the era (never got on with T-Wrecks), or maybe the idea was that Kostic based the pre-verse drumbeat on the wait sound?)

https://junkee.com/fatboy-slim-greta-thunberg-melbourne/239874

actually they don't mention superstraight and the jaxx is their own theory, think they're talking about the video version but i still don't hear it.

speaking of the new owners! that's almost certainly not the link you meant to post, but Junkee has been around less than a decade, so it's definitely not "their" theory.

luv 2 visit websites that change the url when u scroll

https://junkee.com/billie-eilish-bad-guy-pedestrian-sound-songs/239769

ha ha, yes, ppl have definitely been picking Red Alert (1999) as a crossing sample since earlier than (checks notes)... yesterday

more hollow "ha ha" at a music publisher deleting two decades of user-generated content at the end of 2018 and then publishing clickbait that could have been better sourced using it, at the beginning of 2020

obv the ITM forums were nothing compared to the wiping of masses of original research and material on M&N, but it's a good thing that civilisation won't survive long enough for future historians to become frustrated

I lolled at "Every Butt You Taste."

And let us not even discuss Rimsky-Korsakov.

Songs in which being a "Nineties Baby" is a focal point:

Victoria Monét – "90's Babies"
Maren Morris - "80s Mercedes"
Icona Pop - "I Love It"
The Weeknd - "Girls Born in the 90's"
Jay Rick$ - "Born in the 90's"
FAVX - "Born in the 90's"
The Cassettes - "Born in the 90s"

(I've never heard of the last few, but they came up in a search of lyrix for one of the others)

Videos in which the singer's hair is cut onscreen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bgeqw7s00xg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27BvZLSzaz8
("WARNING: This video may potentially trigger seizures for people with photosensitive epilepsy.")

remembered this from one viewing in 1992, but not well enough

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

I feel like there's an obvious one I'm forgetting -- where a singer's head is entirely shorn onscreen?

i want to say U2's "Numb" but it's not that

songs in which the drummer calls out "A B C D!" instead of "1 2 3 4!" :

A Love Bizarre

Gunther gleephen glauphen globen

speaking of lost-and-recovered ITM content:

Doc Martin: When we got to Melbourne, I remember we were all walking around the city. And the crazy sound in Basement Jaxx’s ‘Red Alert’ comes from the stop lights in Melbourne. You know that little ‘dee-dee-dee-dee-dee’? They recorded it on a little recorder.

songs in which a lil' additional guitar lick accompanies a lyric that implies fucking in order to make it more explicitly about fucking

Drive-by Truckers, "Goddamn Lonely Love"
Bee Gees, "Mr. Natural"
(and surely loads more)

Songs That Ripoff “Pachelbel’s Canon”

Maroon 5 - “Memories”
Vitamin C - “Graduation (Friends Forever)”
Village People - “Go West”
Belle and Sebastian - “Get Me Away from Here, I’m Dying”
Spiritualized - “Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space”
The Farm - “All Together Now”
Aerosmith - “Cryin’”
2Pac - “Life Goes On”
Green Day - “Basket Case”
Big Star - “Blue Moon”

songs where nobody is eating ass or having their ass eaten

2584 Backfield In Motion :: Mel And Tim

SHIT!

Songs which have an intro which is an instrumental version of the song's chorus.

Reckon there are likely thousands of examples of this, but the one I was just thinking of is

Eddie & The Hot Rods - Do Anything You Wanna Do

The very next song Youtube sent me to has this same thing

Dr. Feelgood - Milk And Alcohol

Songs which don't care if you're black, white, yellow, purple, but are implicitly sexist:

Stevie Wonder, Black Man ('This world was made for all men', 21 red/yellow/black/white men and two women namechecked)
Robert Palmer, Every Kind of People ('Whether yellow, black or white/Each and every man's the same inside')

Caribbean-tinged Nigerian songs where the male singer has a female vocalist extolling said singer’s virtues in a chant as the chorus or hook:

Wizkid ft. Efya • Daddy Yo

Rema • Beamer (Bad Boys)

Adekunle Gold ft. Nailah Blackman • AG Baby

Does he come off as a dick? He may not care about that.

songs which have a SIMILAR title to the album title, but aren't exactly the same:

Cannibal Corpse - "Unleashing the Bloodthirsty" (Album: Bloodthirst)

Mercyful Fate - "The Oath" (Album: Don't Break the Oath)

Slayer - "Raining Blood" (Album: Reign in Blood)

Annihilator - "Alison Hell" (Album: Alice in Hell

Pearl Jam - "The Number That Comes After Nine" (Album: Ten)

Smashing Pumpkins - Adore (“Ava Adore”)

ahh yes good one!

Songs in which the singer misspells a word

songs which have a SIMILAR title to the album title, but aren't exactly the same:

Gram Parsons - 'Return of the Grievous Angel' (from Grievous Angel)

also

The Gosdin Brothers - 'The Sound of Goodbye' (from Sounds of Goodbye)
Simon & Garfunkel - 'The Sound of Silence' (from Sounds of Silence)
My Favorite - 'Absolute Zero' (from Love at Absolute Zero)

album titles that are cobbled together from the titles of two or more songs that appear on the album:

Velocity Girl - Gilded Stars and Zealous Heart ('Gilded Stars' & 'Zealous Heart')
Lycia - The Burning Circle and Then Dust ('The Burning Circle' & 'Dust Settles')
Mary Hopkin - Earth Song, Ocean Song ('Earth Song' & 'Ocean Song')

Simon & Garfunkel - 'The Sound of Silence' (from Sounds of Silence)

nvm, I'm an idiot and the song is actually called 'The Sounds of Silence'

songs where the "titular phrase" is slightly different from the title of the song:

L'Trimm - Cars With the Boom ("we like the cars, the cars that go boom")

Songs with a lyric that suggests/evokes the album title, without directly providing the source for it:

R.E.M., “Begin the Begin” (“Life's rich demand creates supply in the hand...”) (Album: Lifes Rich Pageant)

Bob Dylan, “Where Are You Tonight?” (“Her father would emphasize / You got to be more than street-wise....”) (Album: Street-Legal)

songs which have a SIMILAR title to the album title, but aren't exactly the same:

Thought of another one of these:

Unrest - “Imperial” (Album: Imperial f.f.r.r.)

and another:

Cyndi Lauper, “He’s So Unusual” (Album: She’s So Unusual)

Songs with a lyric that suggests/evokes the album title, without directly providing the source for it:

...and one more in this category (although it’s more “direct” than the other examples):

The Strokes, “Reptilia” (“The room is on fire, and she’s fixing her hair...”) (Album: Room on Fire)

another one of those "songs which have a SIMILAR title to the album title, but aren't exactly the same":

superchunk's "like a fool" from foolish

Sort of surprised not to see Insane Clown Posse itt

Juggalo Springfield

Songs about headaches (this thread inspired by my current migraine)

Dylan, "Pledging My Time"
Springsteen, "I'm on Fire" (At least, I'm going to interpret "a freight train running through the middle of my head" as a migraine)

Others?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gqpXVAY3fI

boyz ii men, end of the road ('pain in my head oh i'd rather be dead')

frank black, headache

xpost wrong head

Songs with a lyric that suggests/evokes the album title, without directly providing the source for it:

I realized that Nirvana's 1991 album Nevermind (aka The 6th Greatest Album of All Time) contains of these songs -- namely, the lead single, "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

another one in that category:

replacements "answering machine" - "losing hope, never be together," in which paul westerberg's "never be" can easily be mis-heard as "let it be" (as i did, for years), which is both the album title and a pretty good response to the rest of the song.

Songs featuring answering machine messages:

Papa M - Crowd of One
Blind Melon - Letters from A Porcupine

Songs featuring abusive answering machine messages which are actually tracks from another artist, though the group seem not to be aware of this

Placebo – Evil Dildo

Songs whose title(s) were the title of the band's preceding album, rather than the album they appeared on:

Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy
Sleepyhead - Punk Rock City U.S.A.

xxp (answering machine messages)

Thurston Moore - Queen Bee and Her Pals

Btw - now I'm wondering if Sleepyhead did that as a deliberate nod to Zeppelin.

Elvis Costello sometimes had a habit of titling albums using a lyric inside a song that's not the title track (e.g. My Aim Is True), or a lyric from a different album, but he wasn't even remotely consistent about it

literal elvis example: "almost blue"

Yes. But there are as many counterexamples (Punch the Clock, All this Useless Beauty, This Year's Model) as to render the generalization false

was i generalizing?

this year's model does fit this one:

"songs which have a SIMILAR title to the album title, but aren't exactly the same" - "this year's girl"

and this one:

"Songs with a lyric that suggests/evokes the album title, without directly providing the source for it": "capital punishment, she's last year's model" from "(i don't want to go to) chelsea"

Wow, sorry, I was going from sloppy memory and miscategorized This Year's Model for some reason. My bad. And you r cool, fcc

Quite right that Almost Blue - song title but from different album

Punch the Clock - lyric but not song title

My Aim Is True - lyric but not song title

This Year's Model - lyric but not song title

King of America - lyric but not song title (and it's on a different album)

Imperial Bedroom - I think, not on the album but a bonus track?

All this useless beauty, however, is both the song title and it's on that album.

There are so many, I haven't thought about this in a while.

EC is the king of this thread, huh...

Songs whose lyrics reference Un Chien Andalou:

Sexy Death Soda - When the Money Falls
Pixies - Debaser

King of America - lyric but not song title (and it's on a different album)

isn't the lyric from "brilliant mistake"? which is the opening track from King of America?

Yes, you are right, sorry.

Songs in which the singer acknowledges there may be a shortcoming in his lyrics:

Beatles - only a northern song
Black Sabbath - the writ

There is a Mansun song which is entirely on this topic, it is not a good song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y10Jk58zFa0

Sparks - The Number One Song in Heaven ("Lyrically weak, but the music's the thing")

Max Tundra - Labial ("I only sing about things that happen to me / I never learned how to fill my songs with allegory")

TMBG, "Number Three"

Alice Cooper - "School's Out" ("We can't even think of a word that rhymes")

Tower to the skies, an academy of lies
And what goes up surely must come down
And we felt the mighty blowout with the walls coming down
Or something like that

Taupin/John “Your Song” seems like the apotheosis of this

Orange Juice:
"Nothing worth finding is easily found,
Try as we might,
That was supposed to sound very profound,
It probably sounds trite."

Natasha Bedingfield - These Words

(basically boils down to, "sometimes even my deepest, cleverest lyrics are no match for the heartfelt directness of a simple 'I love you' (but don't get me wrong, I have entire notebooks full of deep lyrics)"

Our New Song by The Wonder Stuff

Songs in which the singer acknowledges there may be a shortcoming in the previous writer's lyrics:

Herman's Hermits' cover of I'm 'enery the Eighth, I Am

Billy Joel - If I Only Had the Words is sort of a song about this topic, kinda like Your Song.

Neil Young Ambulance Blues isn't it exactly but "It's hard to say the meaning of this song" is in the same genre

I don't agree with the OP and I'm perfectly fine with ILM being the TVTropes of music as one of its roles.

Songs that get all meta and mention 'this song' in the lyrics

Xp

Angie Aaron, "Spaceship" says "this is just a song to pay the rent."

Angie Aparo

Prince: "I was dreaming when I wrote this"

Spin Doctors: "I hope you heard this song and it passed you off"

This seems like a pretty common trope

Klymaxx, "I miss you / there's no other way to say that rhymed."

Weezer - In the Garage

Songs about sweat dripping down balls

tlc - waterfalls

Perhaps "Panama":

Yeah, we're runnin' a little bit hot tonight
I can barely see the road from the heat comin' off
Know what I'm sayin'
Uhh, I reach down between my legs n' ease the seat back

Don't go chaffing waterballs
Please stick to the thighs and the boxers that you're used to
I know that you're gonna scratch it your way or nothing at all
But I think you're moving too fast

Little-known fact: in an early draft of "Night and Day," Cole Porter originally wrote

Like the drip drip drip of the sweat-drops
Between the choad and the taint
So a voice inside me whispers...
Night and day
You are the one

Frank Ocean "Nikes"

songs where a woman corresponds with her husband under an assumed identity and arranges a liaison with him as a test of his marital fidelity:

Rupert Holmes - Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
Kate Bush - Babooshka

― how to diss a peer completely (unregistered)

Haha, I didn't know someone posted this a year before I polled these two songs.

to my shame, it appears that the Steve Hoffman forum beat me to it by about eight years:

https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/kate-bushs-babooshka-vs-rupert-holmes-escape.211500/

Songs that contain lyrics with “sorrow” being rhymed and resolved by “tomorrow”

Black Sabbath - megalomania

John Prine, "Speed of the Sound of Loneliness" is one, but there are hundreds.

It's up there with "college" / "knowledge."

A bit behind "night-time" / "right time" but still in the Overused Rhyme Hall of Shame.

heart / part, life / wife

fire/desire

^oh yeah, that’s the big one

Songs that contain lyrics with “sorrow” being rhymed and resolved by “tomorrow”

From Autumn to Ashes, "Autumn's Monologue"

Steven Wilson, "Happy Returns"

In reverse (tomorrow/sorrow): Nilsson, 'Without You'

"What I Did for Love" from A Chorus Line

kid cudi - “pursuit of happiness”

Springsteen, "Janey Don't You Lose Heart" and "Take 'em As They Come" (same lyric, repurposed)

doot doot doo lookin' out my back door

The Colour Field -“Thinking of You”

I'm sure there is at least one thread for this but it's hard to search: is the 'I love you, I need you' and variants thereof the most used and abused couplet in music? (Prompted by listening to All Because of You by Leroy Hutson.)

Songs that alternate between 3/3 and 4/4:
Van Morristown- Celtic ray

Songs that mention getting high followed by some instrumental flourish or emphasis :

Allman bros- Ain’t wastin time no more

And I learned to play some lead guitar
I was under age in this funky bar
And I stepped outside to smoke myself a j (INSTRUMENTAL FLOURISH)
And when I come back to the room
And everybody just seemed to move
And I turned my amp up loud and I began to play (INSTRUMENTAL FLOURISH)
And it was late in the evening
And I blew that room away

(INSTRUMENTAL FLOURISH)

songs where you can't find what you're looking for

"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" - U2

― hoooyaaargh it's me satan (voodoo chili), Monday, February 12, 2018 2:34 AM (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Let's add

"Where is my mind?" Pixies
"Where's my jumper" Sultans of ping fc

Similar to a track we were on above—songs where the title almost, but not quite, matches the lyric:

Bob Dylan - Gotta Serve Somebody (the lyric is “You’re gonna have to serve somebody”)

Oh, sorry, we actually did do this—

songs where the "titular phrase" is slightly different from the title of the song:

L'Trimm - Cars With the Boom ("we like the cars, the cars that go boom")

(Dylan and L’Trimm make a great pair.... wonder if any others deserve to join them in this pantheon.)

instrumental flourish after getting high - "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo"?

songs with names beginning with Mr or Mrs/Miss in which the name is a ridiculous , over-the-top 'character' name and or being used as a nickname to insult someone:

Helloween has a few of these:

"Mr Torture"
"Mr Ego (Take Me Down)"

Jean Knight - "Mr Big Stuff"

“Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong”?

John Fogerty - “Mr. Greed”

I feel like "Mr. Man" has appeared several times

The Kinks, "Little Miss Queen of Darkness"

Killers,"Mr Brightside"

Mr. Briefcase - Lee ritenour

“little miss strange”
“he’s misstra know it all”

Ashlee Simpson - "Little Miss Obsessive"

Edie Brickell, "Little Miss S"

“Mr Clean” by the Jam
“Mr Shuck ‘n’ Jive” by Art Garfunkel (maybe the Waylon & Willie version is better known? It’s a Jimmy Webb song anyway.).

"He's Misstra Know It All" - Stevie
"Mr Big" - Free

"Mr. Sheep" - Randy Newman

Mr. Vain by Culture Beat
Mr. Skeng by Stormzy
Mrs. Officer by Lil Wayne

Mr. Blue Sky by ELO
Mr. Brownstone by Guns & Roses
Mr. Moustache by Nirvana

songs with somewhat pedestrian verses that ratchet up significantly in intensity during the pre-chorus/chorus:

feel like Accept's "Balls to the Wall" is the best example of this. starts out with a boilerplate opening riff, verse is pretty restrained, makes you think that maybe this is a weirdly subdued opener, then the pre-chorus starts and suddenly Udo is shrieking at you and we're segueing into an amazing gang chorus.

was just taken aback by that abrupt shift the first time, how awesome it was.

Mr Loverman by Shabba Ranks
Mr Mind Detector by Goffin/King (Everly Bros, Status Quo)

Oh wait i think that one's a Quo original and there was a different Goffin/King song on that same record

Mr. Suit

Two more songs about not finding stuff you are looking for:

The Divine Comedy, "Lost Property"
Van der Graaf Generator, "All That Before"

songs that explore the looseness of Lucys:

(aka some of the best songs in the world)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGvQ4zRHMLo
Destra Garcia • Lucy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqT0q8iPQAA
Eltee Skhillz ft. Niniola • Lucy (Remix)

Grateful Dead - Loose Lucy

Songs that contain lyrics with “sorrow” being rhymed and resolved by “tomorrow”

the acrobatics to draw on the phrase "beg borrow or steal" in the third line are even clunkier.

re: sorrow/tomorrow, this has to be one of those rhymes that shows up in hundreds upon hundreds of songs

From Autumn to Ashes did that shit:

You might be just what I need
No I would not change a thing
Been dreaming of this so long
But we only exist in this song
The thing is, I'm not worth the sorrow
And if you come and meet me tomorrow

Songs that use music/a musical instrument as a metaphor for being or falling in love.

We fell in love in the key of C...
You followed me down the neck to D

Wilco, Shot in the Arm

Toni Braxton • Spanish Guitar

Kathleen Edwards, "The Cheapest Key"

Ebony and Ivory

(J/k)

Never understood that Wilco line

He put his dick on the guitar while he was teaching her to play it

ABBA, "Dum Dum Diddle"

it ain't about the D

is the fiddle a metaphor for falling in love? i thought the idea was that he was literally so busy practicing fiddle-playing to fall in love.

wish I was dum dum diddle, your darling fiddle

it's a variation on the "play me like you play your (Spanish) guitar" trope, but who's playing what here?

Kathleen Edwards, "The Cheapest Key"

― joni mitchell jarre (anagram), Saturday, February 27, 2021 5:06 AM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

good one

Songs that begin with an instrumental imitation of a steam train starting up and gathering speed:

Funky Like a Train by The Equals
Europe by Train by The Divine Comedy

Kevin Ayers - Stop This Train (Again Doing It)

David Bowie - Station to Station

The Train From Kansas City(?)

(Good one for Word painting / “meta music”)

"I would like to know of songs about audio engineering":
"Ask For Jill" by the dBs (mastering engineering)

"album titles that are cobbled together from the titles of two or more songs that appear on the album":
Christmas and the Beads of Sweat by Laura Nyro ("Christmas in My Soul" and "Beads of Sweat")

The Juantrip album on F-Communications has one song that begins with a sort of imitation of a train gathering speed, and a different song about a train.

Songs that begin with an instrumental imitation of a steam train starting up and gathering speed:

Rodgers & Hart "All Points West"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0bC-vH2DnA

good one - sounds like a precursor to the jaws theme!

Songs that begin with an instrumental imitation of a steam train starting up and gathering speed:

Funky Like a Train by The Equals
Europe by Train by The Divine Comedy

― Non meat-eaters rejoice – our culture has completely lost its way (ledge), Wednesday, March 10, 2021 3:21 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Johnny Cash - Orange Blossom Special
Justin Townes Earle - Halfway to Jackson
Miranda Lambert - Locomotive

This may be too common especially in rap but I'm interested in Songs Not Explicitly About A Place But That Feature Lyrics That Hint The Characters/Story Exists In A Specific Place To An Extent You Think The Song Represents That Place Better Than Songs Explicitly About The Place

any examples?

The Hold Steady's "Little Hoodrat Friend" for Minneapolis. I started thinking about this when listening to Neko Case's "Margaret vs. Pauline," which has the line "Two girls ride the blue line," which I assume is a Chicago reference?

Is it? I never knew where that song was set, which I guess is your point (Minneapolis has a blue line!)

To be clear, I'm not sure about the Case reference - my guess comes from the fact that she lived in / has roots in Chicago and there are other Chicago references on Fox Confessor, like the intro to "Star Witness" - but this got me thinking about the prompt.

Maybe "Echo Beach" by Martha and the Muffins, about Toronto? (They did put a map of the city on their album cover, and there actually is an Echo Beach now, named after the song.)

This may be too common especially in rap

yes, this is every rap song haha. "regulate" and "gin & juice" both specifically mention the "lbc"

I'm having trouble thinking of songs that strongly evoke a particular city or town without at least naming streets or landmarks (which even that Hold Steady song seems to do). There are songs like "Every Day Is Like Sunday" that have a strong sense of place but without getting specific.

Then there's "Take Me Home, Country Roads," which DOES explicitly mention place... but it's the wrong place.

Bill Danoff was from Massachusetts, and had first considered "Almost heaven, Massachusetts..."

He was (the story goes) inspired by driving to visit Taffy Nivert's family in Maryland. In December 1970 the two of them sat down with John Denver in Washington DC to work on the song.

The line "Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River" always bugged me because those are mostly in Virginia (though a little bit of each does cross in to WV, so we'll allow it).

Hence: the song was inspired by drives through Maryland, mixed with memories of Massachusetts. It was written in Washington DC and prominently name-drops geographical features that are predominantly in Virginia. Yet it is West Virginia's state song.

Back in Your Life by Jonathan Richman and "Snow" from the movie White Christmas are both about Vermont without naming it.

Songs that were "jump the shark" moments for bands:

Megadeth - Crush Em

Songs which are deliberately set up to sound like the band are playing out of time until you realise it's all a brilliant trick

The Fall - I Am Damo Suzuki
Crime - Murder By Guitar

PiL - Pop Tones

There's this thing called "A Day in the Life" offa some Bea'uls record, maybe you've heard of it

but that doesn't do that

every Chief Keef song but except it's not intentional

(batsignal sent, *sit back and wait*)

Song titles that are the full name of a (non-fictional) person:

"Tim McGraw" (T. Swift)
"Pete Davidson" (A. Grande)
"Cath Carroll" (Unrest)
"Rosa Parks" (Outkast)
"Clint Eastwood" (Gorillaz)

"Jessica Simpson" (the Moldy Peaches guy)

"Brian Wilson" - Barenaked Ladies

"faron young" (prefab sprout)
"lee remick" (the go-betweens)

"Virginia Woolf" (Indigo Girls)

"Debbie Harry" (Family Fodder)
"Winona Ryder" (Unrest)

(just now learned that the latter song is derived from the former, which I had never heard of)

"The Ballad of Davy Crockett"

^disqualified!!

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Magic Johnson

Sheck Wes - Mo Bamba

oh man, I should have thought of "Magic Johnson"!

Rick Ross - Gunplay f. Gunplay

“David Bowie” - phish

'Andy Warhol' - David Bowie

Duck Sauce • Barbra Streisand

lots of ‘em here:

Songs with footballers in their titles

“Alex Chilton” - the Replacements

Oh, good catch

“P.F. Sloan” - Jimmy Webb
“Buddy Holly” - Weezer
“Frank Sinatra” - Cake

"Penelope Tree" - Felt

"Ry Cooder" and "Jim Cain" by Bill Callahan

"Marilyn Monroe" – Dan Bern

"Jacques Derrida" - Scritti Politti
"Perry Como" - Sean O'Hagan
"Van Dyke Parks" - Van Dyke Parks

Uma Thurman - Fall Out Boy

Tiger Woods - Dan Bern

Bands named after songs from the Talking Heads:

Big Country
Radio head

"Robert Montgomery" by Love.
"James Dean" by Eagles.

Bands named after songs by Can:

Spoon
Moonshake
Hunters & Collectors

Bands named after songs from the Talking Heads:

Heaven

xxp
"River Phoenix" (Japanther)
"Stanley Kubrick" (Mogwai)

"Woody Allen" (Unrest)

"Pablo Picasso" (The Modern Lovers)!

"Willie Nelson" by Miles Davis (plus numerous songs named after boxers)

Psychokiller (2): 1186 monthly listeners on Spotify
Psycho Killer: 0 monthly listeners
The Psychokillers: 3 monthly listeners

not counting Psychokiller (1): 220 monthly listeners, they’re a TH cover band

Slippery People (1, first release 2020): 19 monthly listeners
Slippery People (2, first release 2021): 52 monthly listeners

Listening Wind (first release 2021): 8,795 monthly listeners

(I’m not making them up, I swear!)

also, in my Release Radar this week:

Kaydy Cain ft. Kabasaki • Serena Williams

"Matthew Modine" by Pony Up!

Yo La Tengo - Tom Courtenay

Negativland - Michael Jackson

Cocoa Tea - Barack Obama

"Johnny Carson" by the Beach Boys.

Mogwai - “Nick Drake”

Mark Knopfler - Song for Sonny Liston

Warren Zevon - Boom Boom Mancini

Bob Dylan - Hurricane

Phil Ochs - Davey Moore

Tom Russell - Muhammad Ali

Miles Davis - Sugar Ray

Faithless - Muhammad Ali

^the first three are disqualified—no extra words or nicknames allowed!—though I just realized “Magic Johnson” isn’t actually his real name, lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7iVsdRbhnc

After a shower, have decided that “professional names” are acceptable, when that is how the person is generally known (e.g., Buddy Holly, Winona Ryder). Nicknames like Debbie and Pete were accepted from the jump. Still on the fence about Magic Johnson.

did anybody ever call him Earvin Johnson?

Surely “Magic Johnson” is the only name by which almost anyone knows Magic Johnson

I’m afraid his official Twitter account is heavily dispositive here

(and fwiw, I have heard him called Earvin and always knew that was his name... I had to look up Buddy Holly‘s name, had no clue what that was)

All John Cale:

Archimedes
Brahms
Charlemagne
Dr. Mudd
Graham Greene
Hemingway
Jack the Ripper
John Milton
Magritte
Pablo Picasso (Jonathan Richman cover)

OK, Hemingway and Magritte don't count, although you could make an argument for people who are one-name famous.

You could include "Mr. Wilson" in that longer list as well.

Some of those so flagrantly disregard the rules, it’s a scandal (“Jack the Ripper”??)

morrisp not playing around

I AM CHECKING TWITTER ACCOUNTS

Lol

muddying the waters (hey!) here even more, but I don’t have Twitter, so...

Lil Nas X • Montero (Call Me By Your Name)

Frank Sinatra - Miss Kittin & The Hacker

He was prescient

lol

Some of those so flagrantly disregard the rules, it’s a scandal (“Jack the Ripper”??)

Do you know his real name?

(At least I double checked whether Helen of Troy was fictional before I included her.)

Big Bopper’s real name was Chantilly Lace right?

is The Avalanches “Frankie Sinatra” against the rules?
(Frankie sure seems to be a popular subject)

Mecano - Eungenio Salvador Dalí

The Dandy Warhols - Nietzsche

Azealia Banks - Anna Wintour
Cass McCombs - Bradley Manning
MGMT - Brian Eno
Charlie Puth - Marvin Gaye
Jay Z - Tom Ford

These are popular ones that haven’t been mentioned:

MIKA - Grace Kelly
Miike Snow - Genghis Khan
Boney M - Ma Baker
Boney M - Rasputin

"Bo Diddley" - Bo Diddley
"Marshall Mathers" - Eminem

does "Pretty Boy Floyd" by Woody Guthrie count?

^it’s not in the spirit of what I had in mind, but I’ll cry uncle and say the more the merrier at this point

(what I liked what the prosaic nature of titles that are simply “real” names, or close enough)

lol @ sic

Negativland - Michael Jackson

Cocoa Tea - Barack Obama

i like how all of these can be read either way and you can imagine that michael jackson had a song called "negativland" and barack obama has one called "cocoa tea."

Hey, that reminds me of another one:

“Michael Stipe” (P, that Johnny Depp band)

(remember 1995 – when there was a band called P, and a song by a different band called “Friends of P.”? good times, man)

here’s an honorable mention that I’ll use my discretion to allow:

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2228742698_10.jpg

this is legit one of my favorite genres of song (though my rules are even stricter than morrisp's). not mentioned yet, i don't think:

king missile - martin scorsese
migos - forest whitaker
b bragg & wilco - ingrid bergman
uncle tupelo - d. boon
joey ramone - maria bartiromo
sr-71 - axl rose
king stitt - lee van cleef
(that broadway show) - alexander hamilton
drive-by truckers - steve mcqueen
they might be giants - james k. polk
nick lowe - marie provost
pernice bros - jacqueline susann
the baseball project - harvey haddix
the posies - grant hart
redd kross - linda blair
jonathan richman - vincent van gogh
jonathan richman - salvador dali
jonathan richman - walter johnson
warren zevon - bill lee
the clash - janie jones
spank rock - rick rubin
vic chesnutt - lucinda williams
the band - bessie smith
fred eaglesmith - johnny cash
lydia loveless - steve earle
neil young - pocahontas
belle & sebastian - seymour stein
vic chesnutt - woodrow wilson
mina - brigitte bardot
big dipper - robert pollard
dominique leone - nellie mckay
young fresh fellows - amy grant
blue oyster cult - joan crawford
sun kil moon - glen tipton
neil sedaka - betty grable
big audio dynamite - esquerita
annie - ralph macchio
van dyke parks - bing crosby
van dyke parks - jack palance
todd rundgren - wolfman jack
beastie boys - johnny ryall
the kinks - david watts
mountain goats - duke ellington
blossom dearie - dusty springfield
mighty sparrow - martin luther king
lead belly - howard hughes
kraftwerk - franz schubert
teenage fanclub - gene clark
warpaint - billie holiday

^^awesome!

(I should’ve thought of “seymour stein”)

ooh, and forgot:

kanye west - barry bonds

Richard Thompson - Alexander Graham Bell

van dyke parks - “van dyke parks”

Sekiden also have an Alexander Graham Bell song but it's not eligible itt

Luke Haines, "Peter Hammill"

Andres Calamaro - Maradona
Vaudeville Villain - Zinedine Zidane

Serial killer edition:

Soulfly - Jeffrey Dahmer
Sufjan Stevens - John Wayne Gacy Jr
Cassius - Belle Gunness
Dahmer - Henry Lee Lucas (this works for a double qualifier since the artist name is also based on a serial killer)
Murder Junkies - Danny Rolling

Several songs titled Son of Sam, Jack the Ripper, Unabomber, BTK, Zodiac but don’t know if they qualify. Serial killers are usually more popular by nicknames than by real names no?

since we’re doing

Songs with footballers in their titles🕸

This rich vein cries out for a poll

songs in which humans get shredded

I'll go

Cannibal Corpse - Shredded Humans

The Buoys - "Timothy" (well not shredded, but eaten... close enough)

Kesha (still Ke$ha back then) • Cannibal

"Leng Tch'e" by Naked City.

Songs with footballers in their titles

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boys_for_Pele?wprov=sfla1

(I know it's an album, but still)

Songs in which being a "Nineties Baby" is a focal point:

Victoria Monét – "90's Babies"
Maren Morris - "80s Mercedes"
Icona Pop - "I Love It"
The Weeknd - "Girls Born in the 90's"
Jay Rick$ - "Born in the 90's"
FAVX - "Born in the 90's"
The Cassettes - "Born in the 90s"

(I've never heard of the last few, but they came up in a search of lyrix for one of the others)

― Mocha Sauce (morrisp), Wednesday, February 12, 2020 12:38 PM (one year ago)

new one:

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

songs with names beginning with Mr or Mrs/Miss in which the name is a ridiculous , over-the-top 'character' name and or being used as a nickname to insult someone

“Mr. Vain” is playing, so I came back to see if it had already been mentioned—it has—so instead I’ll add “Mr. Perfectly Fine” (T. Swift).

The Pretty Things - "Mr. Evasion".

songs in which the narrator compares their love for somebody else to a drug

better have 1,000 by 5 pm ET

Pink - "Just Like a Pill"
Ashanti - "Baby"

Kesha - Your Love is My Drug

A Case of You

There She Goes

Karma Chameleon

Because of the “string along” line?

Never Been Any Reason

"better than a white line"

Calstars: "I heard you say / that my love was an addiction."

there is the “heard you say / that my love was an addiction” line just before that

xp

double dose

Ohhh
My bad. I thought the topic was “songs about drugs but that present as love songs”

I thought the topic was “songs about drugs but that present as love songs”

A valid topic of its own! which would encompass "Perfect Day," "There She Goes," and "Can't Feel my Face."

Another: “Junkie Nurse”

Golden Brown

Ne-Yo • Because Of You

songs that should never be allowed to be used in Television or movies ever again

Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit
Stones - Gimme Shelter

Hallelujah

^ oh god, yes

Continuing in the 60s shorthand vein, "Time of the Season" by the Zombies.

Time Has Come Today, also on the "time" tip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW1d9p3ECIU

On the Nature of Daylight by Max Richter.

London Calling

songs that have really wimpy voices over 'heavy', thundering riffs, utterly rendering the riff useless

Collective Soul - Where the River Flows

songs that should never be allowed to be used in Television or movies ever again

Fortunate Son

It feels like there could/should be a thread for this but I can't find one.

Songs where the sings talks over an instrumental backing for most/all of a track:

Robert Ashley - Private Parts (the motherlode for this sort of stuff)
Paddy McAloon - I Trawl the Megahertz
Jonathan Richman - Twilight in Boston
Cassandra Jenkins - Hard Drive
Jon Hopkins/Ram Dass - Sit Around the Fire

My favorite of these is that lovely Billy Bragg / Johnny Marr cover of "Walk Away Renee"

So... spoken word songs?

If that's what we're looking for then My Sister and Chocolate by Tindersticks.

Shangri-Las: Past, Present and Future
Lou Reed: Harry's Circumcision
VU: The Gift

BB King "Lucille" -- just introduced to this for the first time on NPR American Routes last weekend. Good one.

Tom Waits must belong in this list but the only spoken word that comes to mind is "What's He Building in There" which I don't think is what you're looking for because the instrumental backing is less of a song and more sound effects (as Tom Waits does)

Diamonds on my windshield

yes, right