Songs spawning songs
I love music trivia. One of my favorite MTV/VH1 shows is Storytellers, where artists perform live and tell the stories behind their songs. I saw Stevie Nicks on Storytellers, and she told the story of how she came up with the song "Stand Back." I don’t have it, or I’d have posted it on the radio.blog. (Anyone got it?)
She was driving in her car listening to Prince’s song, "Little Red
Corvette," and everytime he sang that line, she sing, "Stand back,
stand back!" When she was recording the song, she called Prince up to
tell him about it, and he came to the studio to check it out. She said
he listened to it, added the keyboard sixteenth notes at the end of the
song, and pronounced it done. (My memory may be slightly inaccurate,
but that was the jist.)
So here are some songs that have inspired other songs, and the songs
they inspired. Jackson Browne wrote the song "For Everyman" in reaction
to Crosby Stills Nash and Young’s "Wooden Ships." David Crosby sings
backup vocals on it, so they must not have been offended. Skynyrd’s
"Sweet Home Alabama" specifically references Neil Young’s "Southern
Man." Two of my favorite songs about the south.
Can you think of any other songs that reference other songs, or that inspired other songs?
This must be my week to make comments about the Police. On the Synchronicity album there’s a song titled “Oh My God” that references an earlier Police song from the “Ghost in the Machine” album … specifically, the song “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic.” So you’re listening to the “Oh My God” track and then at then end it kind of dwindles into the following lyric:
“Do I have to tell the story
Of a thousand rainy days?
Since we first met,
It’s a big enough umbrella
But it’s always me that ends up getting wet.”
Comment by danithew — May 27, 2005 @ 1:55 pm
On Neil Young’s Silver & Gold album he sings about the Buffalo Springfield days and references his songs. Nice to have Buffalo Springfield on the resume!
Unfortunately, the most self-referential stuff seems to be the Britney/Justin type of music, as well as rap. They’re always talking about each other.
Comment by Steve Evans — May 27, 2005 @ 2:00 pm
Joni Mitchell says that her song “Circle Game” was a direct response to fellow-Canadian Neil Young’s “Sugar Mountain.” She thought that no 21 year old should be so pessimistic and hope “Circle Game” would give him hope.
Comment by Greg — May 27, 2005 @ 2:04 pm
Um, I always thought that “Sweet Home Alabama” was more of a direct response to “Alabama” than to “Southern Man”. The fact that it has the lyrics, “a southern man don’t need you around anyhow” has caused many to think that “Southern Man” was the real inspiration, though the rest of the song is obviously a response to “Alabama”.
Comment by a random John — May 27, 2005 @ 2:04 pm
The New Pornographers have great, witty lyrics that often reference pop history. Here are a couple:
In “Testament to Youth in Verse” there’s a play on Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright.”:
“Baby, think twice/Maybe it’s not all, maybe it’s not all right.”
In “Letter From an Occupant” they refer to Joni Mitchell’s great “River”:
“I cried five rivers on the way here/Which one should I sail away on?”
Comment by Greg — May 27, 2005 @ 2:10 pm
There’s always that funny story about Fantasy records suing John Fogerty for plagiarizing himself. They said his solo song “Old Man Down the Road” sounded to much like the CCR song “Run Through the Jungle.”
Comment by danithew — May 27, 2005 @ 2:18 pm
In the same vein of reference turning to copyright infringement, we have the Doors “Hello I Love You” mimicing the Kinks “All Day and All of the Night” … we have George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” copying The Chiffon’s “He’s So Fine.”
Then there’s everyone’s favorite … the Ghostbusters song sounding too much like Huey Lewis and the News’s “I Want A New Drug.”
Comment by danithew — May 27, 2005 @ 2:23 pm
The Built to Spill song “You Were Right” is chock full of references to other songs. Here’s a couple of verses:
“You were right when you said,
All that glitters isn’t gold.
You were right when you said,
All we are is dust in the wind.
You were right when you said,
We are all just bricks in the wall,
And when you said manic depression’s a frustrating mess.”
“You were right when you said,
You can’t always get what you want.
You were right when you said,
It’s a hard rain’s gonna fall.
You were right when you said,
We’re still running against the wind,
And life goes on after the thrill of living is gone.
You were right when you said,
This is the end.”
If you’re keeping score at home, that’s Zeppelin (or Shakespeare?), Kansas, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, the Stones, Dylan, Bob Seger (?), John Cougar Mellencamp, and the Doors.
Comment by Greg — May 27, 2005 @ 2:24 pm
Okay, I’m posting too many of these, but here’s one more. The Sleater-Kinney song “Sympathy” mimics the “whoo whoos” from the Stones’ “Sympathy For the Devil”.
Comment by Greg — May 27, 2005 @ 2:33 pm
arJohn: I didn’t say “Sweet Home Alabama” was inspired by “Southern Man,” just that it specifically references it. I didn’t mean my post to just be about songs inspired by other songs, but I wasn’t clear on that.
Danithew, it seems like Sting does that a lot. I know he has another song where he starts going into some lyrics from an older song, but can’t remember what it is now. I think one of his solo songs where he starts singing a Police line.
Comment by Susan M — May 27, 2005 @ 2:45 pm
Pearl Jam’s “Do the Evolution” is their own version of Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World.”
REM’s “Losing My Religion” was Stipe’s attempt to write his own version of The Police’s “Every Breath You Take.”
Comment by Eric Russell — May 27, 2005 @ 2:51 pm
Sting, in “Love is the Seventh Wave” from Dream of the Blue Turtles fades out with
Comment by Bryce I — May 27, 2005 @ 2:52 pm
Really? How interesting. “Losing My Religion” is one of my all-time favorite songs.
Comment by Susan M — May 27, 2005 @ 2:53 pm
Oh thanks Bryce, that was driving me crazy that I couldn’t remember it.
Comment by Susan M — May 27, 2005 @ 2:55 pm
How about another artist inspiring the creation of an entire album? Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville = a response to Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street. Drive-By Truckers’ Southern Rock Opera is loosely based on the mythology surrounding Lynyrd Skynyrd (sp?) - the song entitled “Ronnie and Neil” is specifially about Ronnie Van Zant and Neil Young’s relationship.
Comment by Dallin I — May 27, 2005 @ 4:19 pm
In the self-referential vein, there’s the Beatles’ “Glass Onion” which has the lines …
“I told you ’bout Strawberry fields, you know the place where nothing is real”
“I told you ’bout the Walrus … here’s another clue for y’all - the Walrus was Paul”
“I told you ’bout the Fool on Hill … I told you man he’s living there still”
and
“Fixing a hole in the ocean …”
Comment by Dallin I — May 27, 2005 @ 4:26 pm
Oh, I just thought of another I could’ve posted. There’s a song called “People Get Ready,” which I believe was written by Curtis Mayfield, that has the lines:
People get ready
There’s a train a-coming
You don’t need no baggage
You just get on board
And the Waterboys have a song called “This is the Sea” that has this verse:
Now I hear there’s a train
It’s coming on down the line
It’s yours if you hurry
You’ve got still enough time
And you don’t need no ticket
And you don’t pay no fee
That was the river
And this is the sea
But I’m wondering if that whole train metaphor was originally from something else.
Comment by Susan M — May 27, 2005 @ 4:47 pm
On Warren Zevon’s great album “Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School” there’s another scabrous portrait of southern life titled “Play It All Night Long” that includes thr refrain:
“Sweet Home Alabama
Play that dead band’s song
Turn the speakers up full blast
Play it all night long”
Comment by R.W. Rasband — May 27, 2005 @ 9:47 pm
There’s a World Party song that also rips off the “woo-hoo”s from Sympathy for the Devil. Can’t think of the name right now.
Barenaked Ladies’ “Hello City” lapses into The Housemartin’s “Happy Hour” at the end.
The Nerf Herders (great name) have a funny song called “Van Halen” that references tons of Van Halen songs.
The Old 97s have a song called “Big Brown Eyes” that references The Kingston Trio’s “A Worried Man” and another one that obliquely refers to “Bang A Gong” by T-Rex.
Let’s see, what else… Oh yeah, Hootie and the Blowfish pretty much ripped off the entire hook to Dylan’s “Tangled Up in Blue” for that “I Only Wanna Be with You” song.
Comment by BTD Greg — May 27, 2005 @ 10:28 pm
There’s a song by the emo-pop band Sunday’s Best that layers it’s emo-pop stuff on top of The Police’s melody from “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” in “The Hardest Part.”
Comment by BTD Greg — May 27, 2005 @ 10:40 pm
Also, someone should really mention “Major Tom” as “The Space Oddity,” but with a Hollywood-style happy ending and a ’80s techno-pop vibe. I know this was obvious, but someone had to do it.
I’ll stop now. Maybe.
Comment by BTD Greg — May 27, 2005 @ 10:53 pm
Of course, hip-hop music is based largely on the idea of songs spawning songs. “Good Times”–>”Rapper’s Delight,” etc. etc.
Comment by Jeremy — May 27, 2005 @ 11:15 pm
“The Old 97s have a song called “Big Brown Eyes” that references The Kingston Trio’s “A Worried Man” and another one that obliquely refers to “Bang A Gong” by T-Rex.”
“Big Brown Eyes” also references “Success Has Made a Failure of Our Home.” by Sinead O’Connor (which I always thought was a cover, but I haven’t been able to find any other version).
Comment by Allison — May 27, 2005 @ 11:47 pm
There’s a good Dallas band named The Deathray Davies (names that spawn band names) that has a song called “Jack Never Crashes” spawned by the song “Alex Chilton” by the Replacements, which in turn was inspired by Big Star.
I’ll email this trio of songs to Susan for posting.
Comment by BTD — May 28, 2005 @ 12:00 am
Since the Old 97s were mentioned, I’ll toss out one more. Their song “Crash on the Barrelhead,” off of Fight Songs, is a reference to the Gram Parsons’ song “Cash on the Barrelhead.”
Comment by Greg Call — May 28, 2005 @ 10:40 am
Yet another Old 97’s reference: “Moonlight” from Drag it Up refers to “Afterhours” by the Velvet Underground.
Comment by BTD Greg — May 28, 2005 @ 11:09 am
I’ve posted the songs BTD Greg mentioned on the radio.blog.
Comment by Susan M — May 28, 2005 @ 1:38 pm
One more:
In Uncle Tupelo’s “Train,” Tweedy references the Byrds big hit:
“The whole damn town was sleeping
Dreaming the same dream
The radio was playing
Roger McGuinn singing
‘To each and every thing there is a time and a season’”
Comment by Greg Call — May 29, 2005 @ 12:22 pm
Van Morrison sings frequently of predecessor songsters, like in his “Jackie Wilson Said”.
Comment by Steve Evans — May 29, 2005 @ 7:16 pm
Ah yeah. He’s got a song called “Bright Side of the Road” that I can only assume was inspired by James Carr’s “Dark End of the Street.” I’ll have to post them to the radio.blog later.
Comment by Susan M — May 29, 2005 @ 10:03 pm
I’ve also heard, anecdotally, that “Crash on the Barrelhead” by Old 97s is about Ryan Adams and his tendency to get a bit tipsy.
Comment by Alan — June 1, 2005 @ 12:19 pm
Ryan Adams? Drinking? Say it ain’t so!!
Comment by Steve Evans — June 1, 2005 @ 12:30 pm
I recently purchased Okkervil River’s “Black Sheep Boy” which is an entire album inspired by the Tim Hardin song of the same name. After listening to it I remembered this thread. The album’s really good, BTW. Sort of a cross between Whiskeytown and the Decemberists. Kinda…
Comment by Alan — July 6, 2005 @ 12:22 am
I keep hearing about them and have been meaning to check them out. I didn’t know that about the album though, that’s interesting.
Comment by Susan M — July 6, 2005 @ 10:19 am
I saw Okkervil River live with the Decemberists. I must say that they trumped the Decemberists that night. They are fantastic live - it made me go out and buy the album, which will easily be in my year end top 5. I listen to it fairly regularly, more so than the Decemberists. The lead singer can’t really sing, he’s one of those guys who just feels it and makes you feel it too.
Comment by Dallin I — July 6, 2005 @ 10:47 am
Susan,
Check your gmail - I just sent you an Okkervil river tune.
Comment by Dallin I — July 6, 2005 @ 10:53 am