Last Man Standing: Lyrical Name Check
By cdm on Mar 7, 2010
THE BATTLE RAGES ON!
Name a song in which the lyrics mention another band or artist.
The rules:
1. Only one name check per song. (eg, You can only use “Ready Steady Go” for the Beatles or the Stones or Bobby Dylan but not all three).
2. You can’t repeat a band/artist name once it’s been used.
3. You can use different band names containing the same person (eg, if there is a song that name checks Clapton and another that name checks Blind Faith, both songs count)
4. The name must be used in the lyrics. Shout-outs do not count.
5. The reference must be on purpose. The lyrics can't just accidentally name check the band (eg, "Alabama Getaway" does not refer to the pop county band Alabama).
6. As with all Last Man Standing competitions, only one name at a time please.
Ready? Steady? GO!
“Ready Steady Go,” by Generation X - Bobby Dylan
331 comments
Last Man Standing!
How about if I take the cowards way out on the issue by saying Big Star in “Alex Chilton” by the Replacements?
TB
Van Morrison will provide a lot of borderline cases, but there's no doubt about "Jackie Wilson Said."
'rolling numbers, rock and rolling, got my Kiss records out'
"Maybe those Beach Boys have got you now..."
TB
Since Bobby D has been taken, I'll list The Beatles
AdRock on Beastie Boys' Sure Shot
But he hates David Bowie
I think Bowie's cool
I think Lodger rules
I think my stepdad's a fool
--Built to Spill: Distopian Dream Girl
The Concept - Teenage Fanclub
Do you remember Rick Astley?
He had a big fat hit that was ghastly.
He said I'm never gonna give you up or let you down.
Well I'm here to tell ya that Dick's a clown
"The Guess Who suck..."
"The kids are screaming for that James Brown style"
"I'm drinking Hennessy with Morrissey."
"Got the Human League into advise her"
No Elvis, Beatles or Rolling Stones in 1977!!!
I guess I can close out Rolling Stones with this one.. I'll leave Elvis on the board.
However, out of the many, I will pick the line...
"Been Roy Haleed and Art Garfunkled"
just to clear ole Art off the board.
"She doesn't have to have her dB's record back now."
"Stereo" by Pavement
Your fact checkin' cuz,
TB
Bongwater - Nick Cave Doll.
Adam Green, Jessica
Jessica, Jessica Simpson
You've got it all wrong
Your fraudulent smile
The way that you faked it
The day that you died.
Drinkin' in My Sunday Dress - Maria McKee
Bruce Springsteen, Thunder Road
"He even understands the words to Pavement songs. He's got his new guitar toys. He loves Smudge and the Beastie Boys. I wish I was him..."
TB
Now I am her biggest fan"
Behind the Wall of Sleep - The Smithereens
Also, it can't be a name that's already been checked.
And it has to be specific, so for instance the "Jester" doesn't count.
Now, who would you like to choose?
John Hiatt - Slow Turning.
Dave Alvin – Blue Wing
Anyway... Desmond Dekker Came First by Toots and the Maytels
Drive-By Truckers - The Three Great Alabama Icons.
Bo Diddley by Bo Diddley
"McGuinn and McGuire just a gettin' higher..."
I think I'll take McGuire.. He'd be harder to find. McGuinn may be in other places.
You give me Faron Young, Four In The Morning.
My pick: Carole King.
Hit - Guided By Voices
"Come and visit my exotic home
Got Fleetwood Mac on the stereo"
"We went to a shopping mall
And laughed at all the shoppers
And security guards trailed us to a record shop
We asked for Mojo Nixon
They said he don't work here
We said if you don't got Mojo Nixon then your store could use some fixin"
Brucie (Springsteen) dreams life's a highway
Too many roads bypass my way.
"Give me a Leonard Cohen afterworld, so I can sigh eternally."
Well, I met a little girl
In a country town
She said, "What do you know
There's Slim Harpo!"
"I heard she used to be married
She listens to Puff Daddy"
Scruffy the Cat "she's a long tall drink of water/badder than Bo Diddley's electric guitar" from My Baby She's All Right
Mojo Nixon "Debbie Gibson is pregnant/with my two headed love child" "Don Henley must die"
"Pack up your money pick up your tent, McGuinn, you ain't goin' nowhere..."
Bob Dylan
TB
"I dig Donovan in a dream-like, tripped out way"
Not Kool from Kool and the Gang."
King of Rock
"out on tour with the smashing pumpkins / nature kids, i/they don't have no function / i don't understand what they mean / and i could really give a fuck"
Steely Dan
"We'll crank our second-hand Marshall stacks dumb little knobs
We're paying for them with our dumb little jobs.
The guy at the bar says he
thinks we okay,
we kind of remind him of Green Day."
"The Grateful Dead blew everybody's mind."
That song is a roll call too, but I picked the Dead because they hadn't been taken yet.
"I don't believe in......."
Pick one. I'll go with "Zimmerman" just for the hell of it.
Riding in the van with Sebadoh
The Soft Boys: Mr. Kennedy
TB
E. Bloom
and oh what a weekend it was.
How about Elvis Costello's description of hell:
"'My Favourite Things' are playing
Again and again
But it's by Julie Andrews
And not by John Coltrane"
TB
James and Jason, Kirk and Lars
Laser show - Fountains of Wayne
i asked jerry, he told terry, terry sang a song just for me,
lynvall gave a message to me,
rhoda screamed and then she asked me,
"where have all the rude boys gone?"
"This is the thing that's gonna make Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band look bad."
I am for this brief, shining moment, the last man standing!
"We wore pictures of Strummer."
TB
will single-handedly spearhead the heaven seventeen revival
the mountain goats: cubs in five
Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke"
".. and with a voice like Ella's ringing out.."
obviously a reference to Ella Fitzgerald.
"Help me get Madonna off my bed
She's just too drunk to sing."
Or something like that.
Anyway, I'm sticking with my all-Dylan edition of this game. From "I Feel a Change Coming On" (from the last album): "I'm listening to Billy Joe Shaver / And I'm reading James Joyce. / Some people they tell me / I've got the blood of the land in my voice."
Last Man Standing!
I've got my Del Shannon/
And Boom Boom Cannon/
All by request/
So scramble the jets...
I like Ronnie Dio, and I like Vaseline, and I enjoy the feeling of a sharp crease in my jeans.
I'll go with The Vaselines cuz I like them more than Ronnie Dio. The Dexateens also name check themselves in a song, in the fine old, boastful tradition. In "Teenager" there's a line that goes, "A Junior High School Queen, She loves The DEXATEENS!" Then much rocking commences.
Anyway... The Fall. I am Damo Suzuki.
"Kilburn and the High Roads/
and we drove your daddy's car"
"DOA" amongst others!
(I'll take-ah Mark E. Smith-ah)
"And looking relaxed on vibes, Adolph Hitler!"
and if Herr Hitler doesn't count how about this one:
"Eric Clapton on ukelele!"
If I was a Mekon/
I'd drink pints of beer
If I was a Mekon/
Maybe I could sleep with Sally
Poco, then.
You can go with Johnnie Thunders asking if Dee Dee is home, or Dee Dee asking if Johnnie is home in their respective versions of Chinese Rocks.
"I'm RUN from RUN-D.M.C.I choose to assume kilroy's entry here was claiming Run-DMC namechecking themselves, thus leaving Kool & The Gang on the table so that I can claim Kool & The Gang dropping their own self-check in "Hollywood Swinging":
Not Kool from Kool and the Gang."
King of Rock
"I remember, not too long ago/I went to the theater and saw a Kool & The Gang Show."
"Birthday Party"
I am LMS!
"Dusty Springfield sings/
And I cry with all the tears that it brings"
"News Flash: Vacuum Cleaner Sucks Up Budgie"
"Hey, this ain't country-western!
It's just soft-rock feminist crap!
And I thought they'd struck bottom back back in the days of Ronnie Milsap
Now they can't stop the flood of assholes: there ain't a big enough ASCAP."
"Tony Orlando & Dawn"
"Jacques Dutronc and the Bolan Boogie/
The Heavy Hitters and the chichi music"
"Well there ain't no better blend
Than Joe Ely and his Texas Men."
"Midnight to six man
For the first time from Jamaica
Dillinger and Leroy Smart
Delroy Wilson, your cool operator
Ken Boothe for UK pop reggae
With backing bands sound systems"
"Dawn I want you back"...
Let's Save Tony Orlando's House - Yo La Tengo
Thanks for reminding me, AndyR
"Jerry's Kids and SSD
DYS and Channel Three
I'm like him and he's like me
Hardcore rules, can't you see?"
AND... Boston Historian, how is that Madness album? I stopped following them after they "broke up" and I felt that those last two albums, especially "Mad Not Mad" were not up to par.
Finally, I re-enter the fray with:
Trip Shakespeare: Lulu, which mentions Husker Du (both bands are from Minneapolis).
"Lonely when I hear the band
that used to play when we were searching for music
Lonely when I hear the band
du you remember?
du you recall?"
"Bline Lemon Jefferson is a-coming.
Tap tap tappin with his cane."
The Replacements "Something to Du" is in homage to Husker Du as well.
"Amy Grant" by the YFF also could count for Barry White.
The new Madness album is a strong 4 out of 5 in my book, with the title track being one of the best things they've ever done, and more in the vein of "The Rise and Fall". I'm with you on Mad Not Mad, which was too electronic for its own good.
"Let's have a cheer for The Queers/
They brought us here"
TB
and I'll bet you it belongs to Acuff Rose"
Acuff Rose by Uncle Tupelo
I'll go with Roy Acuff. Fred Rose is still up for grabs.
(i don't believe michael jackson is ever mentioned in the lyrics of the minutemen song -- do song titles alone count?)
"Buster, he sold the heat/
With a rock steady beat"
The streets really must be paved with gold
If everybody goes WHAM! and has fun on the dole
Imagine what it would be like for me
I've seen the pictures in the magazines
"In the room next to hers we find the Psychedelic Furs/
They're trying to get his brand new song just right"
just like Brian Wilson did.
Bare Naked Ladies
"It seemed to be the Lilac Time
but when the lilac died
I went back to town and cried."
I know you are all smacking yourselves right now, thinking, "how'd I forget that one?"
Earth, Wind & Fire
TB
The Just Joans "Hey Boy, You're Oh So Sensitive" includes both Talulah Gosh and Dolly Mixture.
And I know it sounds like I'm just making stuff up at this point, but here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn1YBRmmXig
I don't know if that's enough to take Metallica off the board as a whole. If not I choose...I don't know, let's go with Lars.
And anyway, "Just like Ronnie says, Be my little baby"
Eddie Frigging Money!
TB
Television Personalities "Part Time Punks"
"Then they go to Rough Trade
To buy Siouxsie and the Banshees
They heard John Peel play it
Just the other night
They'd like to buy the O Level single
or Read about Seymour
But they're not pressed in red
So they buy The Lurkers instead"
"I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives"
"Somebody told me when I got to Nashville
Son you finally got it made
Old Hank made it here, we’re all sure that you will
But I don't think Hank done it this way
I don't think Hank done it this way"
You'll Dance To Anything.... by Depeche Mode (and about 15 other 80's bands)
TB
krs-one: i can't wake up
a veritable whitman's sampler from which to choose...
I don't like this dream as a blunt
But I can't get out of it
And I cant seem to wake up
So I'm running and racing
Blunt smokers are chasing
This is insane, I'm caught by House Of Pain
I'm picked up
they said they gonna put my head out
They slit my back and all the tobacco fell out
Now I'm hollowed wet thin and yes ready
They poured the shumpang gently and re-wet me
Check it out now, in the same attire
here comes the fire
Now they lit it, now I'm burning by the minute
But check it out
more heads came to chill
Everlast took a pull and passed me to Cypress Hill
Cypress Hill took a pull
lungs are full, who's next?
I'm being passed to Das EFX
As they took a mad pull, smoke blows in heaps
It's really smokey but I can still see Black Sheep
Whoa! Black Sheep gets me, relights me
Room is proper, I'm passed off to Shabba
Shabba's voice gets low like a tuba
he said, "Me no follow no rumor"
and passed me to Grand Puba
I wasn't burnin' right so Puba got mad at me
And said who rolled this
and passed me to Kid Capri
Kid Capri said "I won't front
pass it to Redman, he knows how to roll a blunt"
Redman said no need to re-roll
and passed me to De La Soul
De La Soul took a hit and kept hittin'
now they're buggin' cause they passed me to Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton said I'll smoke but I won't inhale
I'll only hit it twice
he got slapped by Greg Nice
Now I fell on the floor, Greg Nice picked me up
I'm a blunt being smoked and I can't wake up
Get me out of this, somebody wake me up
I'm still on fire and I'm still being smoked up
half my body is gone, now they're coming to my head
now my head is being pinched by Ted-D-Ted
A crazy nightmare I got to go
I got to wake up and I'm passed off to Yo-Yo
Yo-Yo gets respect as a lady
She didn't smoke
She passed me off to Showbiz and A.G.
A.G. said respect due see
he got one big pull and passed me to Smooth B.
Smooth B. although he's talking to Ted-D
took a hit and passed me to Fab 5 Freddy
Freddy said Yo! There's nothing left Pop
Looked at me in my face and passed me to Chubb Rock
Chubb Rock said "Yo Freddy chill!
If you ever catch me smoking, just kick me in the grill"
I'm in the mouth yo! I cant wake up
Yo! I'm a blunt getting smoked and I can't wake up
i'll go with sax-man bill clinton
Throwdown Stray Cat strut in Bulawayo - hey, Bulawayo
Buddy Rich in Burundi
Quadrophenia in Armenia
Armenia City In The Sky
Big Youth booming in Djkarta
Nina Simone over Sierra Leone
Wild sound of Joujouka in Nevada - hey, Joujouka
Everywhere, everywhere Bob's bringing it all back home
...
Cos tonight Bo Diddley's in Finland Station - hey, Bo Diddley
Sun Ra's in Omaha
The Skatalites in New York City - hey, Skatalites
The Stooges rule over Habana
The Bhundu Boys rock Acapulco - hey, hey Bhundu Boys
Good hip hop in Islamabad
Ali Farke Toure's in Oaxaca - hey, Farke Toure
And Baaba Maal's all over Stalingrad...
[That's just a sample ... I'm too overloaded to pick any one artist. Carry on.]
I'll choose XTC for this entry, Adam's still open territory.
Robyn Hitchcock - Wreck of the Arthur Lee
I really don't want
To be John Lennon or Leonard Cohen
If Lennon has been claimed, then oops, but surprisingly, I don't see it.
she'd fix me a dinner of sunflower seeds
and ready-whipped topping inhalers
and take me down South with Hall and Oats in her mouth
my first love my Joan Jett of Arc
TB
Bohannon Bohannon Bohannon Bohannon
Bohannon Bohannon Bohannon Bohannon
LMS!
"I dreamed I was E. Bloom, but I woke up Joe Bouchard."
I'm takin' Joe Bouchard, since someone already got E. Bloom from another Minutemen song.
Last Man Bothering!
"I don't believe in Elvis.
I don't believe in Zimmerman.
I don't believe in Beatles."
While Dylan has been mentioned, his surname has not. Beatles has already been taken, so I'll go with the King...
UNLESS we get some unwritten rule saying one's stage name and real name count as the same, to which I call BULLSHIT!
In that case, I'll take Zimmy and the belt pleeeeze.
LMS!
Stay down!
Elmore James got nothing on this last man standing.
TB
"Just this morning
My wife and I
Went to this hotel in the hills
That's right
The Bel-Air Hotel
Where a very good friend of ours
Happens to be staying
And the name of this young man
Is Mr Bruce Springsteen
That's right, yeah
Oh, we talked about some kind of
woodblock or something
And this new guitar we like
And you know what he said to me
I'll tell you what he said to me
He said, "Rand, I'm tired
How would you like to be the Boss for awhile?"
gonna tell Chuck Berry the news."
Mott the Hoople - Honoloochie Boogie, Yeah!
Last Man Standing! This is a great feeling!
The song is about her (in)famous meeting with bluesman Furry Lewis.
LFO - Summer Girls
"New Kids On The Block had a bunch of hits
Chinese food makes me sick
I think it's fly when girls stop by for the summer, for the summer.
I like girls who wear Abercrombie and Fitch..."
LMS! LMS! LMS!
I went to see Vic and Mark Olson in Memphis. She busted her low E string and asked if there anybody in the audience who could tech for her. Skipping to the end of the story, I changed a busted string on Miss Williams' guitar. After the show, she was thanking me for doing it and I was telling her nervous it made me. She seemed to appreciate the (lame) joke I made when I told her that it was "Miss Williams' guitar, after all..."
Oh, and, "ELO Kiddies" by Cheap Trick. LMS!
TB
LAST MAN STANDING!
The lyrics mention all the band members. I'll pick Overend Watts.
"Falling James* in the Tahoe mud..."
Tom Waits - Gun Street Girl
*singer and songwriter for Leaving Trains
"Woodwork squeaks and out comes the Powell
Buddy Powell, Buddy Powell...."
Guided By Voices and Velocity Girl
"Phil & Don" [Everly]
I AM LMS!!!
If you’re used to a life of farces
Playing games of judge and jury
You know when you’re wearing those glasses
You look like Nana Mouskouri
"Lil' Jon, he always tells the truth."
Funny, it seems like there are certain artists that are more inclined to mention other bands, the leaders of this pack seem to include Barenaked Ladies, Dead Milkmen and TMBG.
I am (for the moment) the LMS!
TB
Dr John's latest offering would be disqualified were it not rendered moot by TB. Not that it matters. I suspect the good Doctor is already drawing another arrow from his quiver...
I held you swaying in my arms to Marvin Gaye"
Paul Kelley and the Messengers - I Can't Believe We Were Married
"I know the words to every Tanya Tucker song."
"I took cutie for a ride in my deathcab"
"In Spanish Harlem," Chris Stamey
Ell... Emm... Essssss!
"Ives is on the stereo"
Nobody's playing soul
No one's playing hard to get
just good old rock and roll!"
Get It Hot - ACDC
and one of them is R.E.M.
classic songs with a long history
southern boys just like you and me"
LAST MAN STANDING!
I will go with .38 Special.
What you said, without the exclamation point.
Into Pat Boone sedation
Making sure nothing's left to the imagination"
Bring over some of your old Motown records
We'll put the speakers in the window and we'll go
on the roof and listen to the Miracles
echo through the alley down below
But like Mike Jagger said, I can't get no satisfaction"
Last Man Standing?
"I tried to dance
Britney Spears
I guess I'm getting on in years."
Last man standing!
"...Meg White
I saw you on the big screen
Oh, Jack was king, but you stole the scene
Meg White
Baby, you’re the bomb
Oh, Jack is great don’t get me wrong
But this is your song
Some day (some day)
I’d like (I’d like)
To take a walk with you
Talk about most anything you’d like to talk about
And watch the sun going down
Going down
Playin’ those drums is hard to do
It’s true
And nobody plays them quite like you do"
"But then again this system works
As perfect as a dream
It works for all those record company pricks
Who come to skim the cream
From the cesspools of excitement
Where Jim Morrison once stood
It's the Tinsel Town Rebellion
From downtown Hollywood"
"Bert Kaempfert's got the mad hits."
"Oh Astley in the noose
He hasn't got a use"
"Debbie Gibson is pregnant with my two
headed love child
It's a bigfoot baby all covered in fur now
Stark raving naked in the fornication nation"
"I met Ray Davies in a Danish airport
Turned out to be a real nice guy"
someday I'm gonna kick major major butt
someday I will transcend
just like Jane's Addiction
but today I simply I am in a rut
I'm in a rut"
Steve Willoughby by Vic Chestnut
"I told you about the walrus and me-man
You know that we're as close as can be-man.
Well here's another clue for you all,
The walrus was Paul."
"Getting loose with the Pussy Galore"
"I love music
in every style
from au clair de la lune
to bad mother... to MILES"
"Spotlight on Martha Reeves"
(Ok, kinda cheap, but pending ruling I am LMS!)
"Punk came round, that was pretty scary
It was like a contemporary Peter, Paul and Mary"
"And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell"
(Mike being Mike Viola, who is the group)
Hang on Mike
if there's one thing you're good for
it's another song.
Ron Klaus was in The Embarrassment.
I went out to for the football team to prove that I'm a man
I guess I shouldn't tell them that I like Duran Duran.
"And now I'd like to introduce
I'll pass the mic to D. for a fist full of truth"
"Yo Griff, get the green black red and
Gold down countdown to Armageddon"
"Flavor-Flav on a hype tip"
She was walking down the street so I said "Hello
I'm Kangol from UTFO." And she said "So?"
And I said "So?!? Baby don't you know?
I can sing, rap, and dance in just one show
"there's an air of love and of happiness
and this is the Fresh Prince's new definition of summer madness"
“Blow it up before Steve Albini makes a speech"
"We dig Renegade Soundwave"
Here come the latest fabrications
One in a series of bad sensations
Devoid of any real creation
And able to fool entire nations
Stop me somehow if I start to
Suck like Oasis
Suck like Oasis, does
English Beat, "Pato and Roger A Go Talk"
Pick up your shoes and run-a-mile
Cause Pato and Roger seh dem come and make you smile.
Thin Lizard Dawn were a NY band signed to RCA in the mid-90's.
They sounded like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLlv0T_rTZI
Anyway, Michael Penn refers to himself in his song, "Selfish."
In dust we end industrial
Virtuous or virtual
You might find a prince of men
Until that time my name is Penn
Terminator X yellin' with his hands
Damn almighty rulin ready to jam
James Brown on the TAMI Show...
Ain't seen that in years
"When the World Is Running Down," The Police
And hasn't James Brown already been used?
Here's one: REM, "Lightnin Hopkins"
Jesse James is waiting
for the cheap music to stop
Don't goodbye deserve some Bach
not barbershop?
Mentions Dino Jr.
...for a book store
Like the one I pray for
And the music they played there
Would be Dinosaur Jr.
I AM THE LAST MAN STANDING!
"Can I kick it? To my Tribe that flows in layers
Right now, Phife is a poem sayer"
About Donny Hathaway, refers to Roberta Flack:
"Miss Flack said I still want you back."
"Feel more like Big Bill Broonzy" - George Harrison in Wreck of the Hesprus
"Sir Duke" by Stevie Wonder.
LMS!
"I saw a Dead head sticker on a Cadillac"
Next time, you best bring kryptonite.
Jerry Jeff Walker, "Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother"
"H is for Haggard"
And Rufus craves the mamma's milk
No moo-cow no billy-goat
Is gonna get the baby's vote.
"We learned all the songs by Hank and Lefty"
"Boyz II Men still keeping up the beat, yeah"
we spell our last name r-o-c-h-e
LMS!
Yoko was previously claimed with "Oh Yoko."
I remain the LMS!
"Jammin'," Stevie Wonder
Ell... Emm...ESS!
LMS, but at what cost? AT WHAT COST!?!?
I'm the epitome of Public Enemy
(I think the double meaning and the quote are all intended but I await ruling)
Mary Chapin Carpenter mentions Beausoleil in that faux Cajun song she does about the bar.
If you don't change your ways my friend
You'll be singing duets with Tammy again.
Last Man Standing!
Led Zep - Hats off to Roy Harper.
The Beatles, "Dig It," namechecks Doris Day.
"mister mister on the radio"
LMS
"Jammin to Foghat on my 8 track"
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