Best name-checks in songs

[rb336]

Just thought we needed a new "fun" thing...

They can be either direct as in:
"Now me and my mate were back at the shack
We had Spike Jones on the box
She said, "I can't take the way he sings
But I love to hear him talk"
from The Band - Up On Cripple Creek

or indirect as in:
"the four kings of EMI
are sitting stately on the floor"
the "four kings of EMI being the Beatles,
from The Monkees - Randy Scouse Git [[AKA Alternate Title)

[canuck]

Great idea rb336, artists name-dropping other artists names...


from "Hey Nineteen" by Steely Dan;

Hey Nineteen
That's 'retha Franklin
She don't remember
The Queen of Soul

New Frontier from Steely Dan also;

Introduce me to that big blonde
She's got a touch of Tuesday Weld
She's wearing ambush and a french twist
She's got us wild and she can tell
She loves to limbo, that much is clear
She's got the right dynamics for the new frontier.

[canuck]

Checking up on Tuesday Weld in Wikipedia, I found out that Tiny Tim [[remember Tiny Tim?) had also included her in one of his songs;


"Then I'd Be Satisfied With Life"


All I want is 50 million dollars
And seal silk to protect me from the cold.
If I only knew how stocks would go in Wall Street
And were living in the mountains built of gold.
If I only owned Pennsylvania Railroad
And if Tuesday Weld would only be my wife [[Oh, Tiny!)
If I could only stay sixteen forever
Then I'd know that I'd be satisfied with life.
All I want is wheatgerm for my breakfast
A Champagne fountain sizzling at my feet
While Rockefeller waited on the table

[rb336]

Of course, the Clash name-checked montgomery cliff in an entire song - The Right Profile.

[gazhekwe]

Well, my telephone rang it would not stop,
It's President Kennedy callin' me up.
He said, "My friend, Bob, what do we need to make the country grow?"
I said, "My friend, John, Brigitte Bardot,
Anita Ekberg,
Sophia Loren."
Put 'em all in the same room with Ernest Borgnine!
Country will grow.
....

Oh, set me down on a television floor,
I'll flip the channel to number four.
Out of the shower comes a grown-up man
With a bottle of hair oil in his hand.
[[It's that greasy kid stuff.
What I want to know, Mr. Football Man, is
What do you do about Willy Mays and Yul Brynner,
Charles de Gaulle
And Robert Louis Stevenson?)
...

Well, ask me why I'm drunk alla time,
It levels my head and eases my mind.
I just walk along and stroll and sing,
I see better days and I do better things.
I catch dinosaurs
I make love to Elizabeth Taylor
Catch hell from Richard Burton!)

Bob Dylan – I Shall Be Free

[old guy]

Dylan's Song To Woody

I'm out here a thousand miles from my home,
Walkin' a road other men have gone down.
I'm seein' your world of people and things,
Your paupers and peasants and princes and kings.

Hey, hey Woody Guthrie, I wrote you a song
'Bout a funny ol' world that's a-comin' along.
Seems sick an' it's hungry, it's tired an' it's torn,
It looks like it's a-dyin' an' it's hardly been born.

Hey, Woody Guthrie, but I know that you know
All the things that I'm a-sayin' an' a-many times more.
I'm a-singin' you this song, but I can't sing enough,
'Cause there's not many men that done the things that you've done.

Here's to Cisco and Sonny and Leadbelly too,
An' to all the good people that traveled with you.
Here's to the hearts and the hands of the men
That come with the dust and are gone with the wind.

I'm a-leavin' tomorrow, but I could leave today,
Somewhere down the road someday.
The very last thing that I'd want to do
Is to say I've been hittin' some hard travelin' too.

[Steve]

In the fade-out at the end of Heavy Music, Bob Seger shouts. "SRC, Stevie Winwood ain't got nothin' on me."

[ronaldj]

Must include my obsession with Warren Zevon. "My Rides Here". Just the beginning. Look up the rest.

I was staying at the Marriott
With Jesus and John Wayne
I was waiting for a chariot
They were waiting for a train...
Said Jesus to Marion
"That's the 3:10 to Yuma"
My Ride's here

...

I was staying at the Westin
I was playing to a draw
When in walked Charlton Heston
With the tablets of the law...

My ride's here...

Also, references to Shelley and Keats. Not a bad feat.

My ride: the '48 LaSalle from Swanson's on the Boulevard.

[45thParallel]

This may be a little long....but it WAS long! Or so we kids thought at the time:

"Life Is a Rock [[But the Radio Rolled Me)":

B.B. Bumble and the Stingers, Mott the Hoople, Ray Charles Singers
Lonnie Mack and twangin' Eddy, here's my ring we're goin' steady
Take it easy, take me higher, liar liar, house on fire
Locomotion, Poco, Passion, Deeper Purple, Satisfaction
Baby baby gotta gotta gimme gimme gettin' hotter
Sammy's cookin', Lesley Gore and Ritchie Valens, end of story
Mahavishnu, fujiyama, kama-sutra, rama-lama
Richard Perry, Spector, Barry, Archies, Righteous, Nilsson, Harry
Shimmy shimmy ko-ko bop and Fats is back and Finger Poppin'

Life is a rock but the radio rolled me
Gotta turn it up louder, so my DJ told me [[whoa whoa whoa whoa)
Life is a rock but the radio rolled me
At the end of my rainbow lies a golden oldie

FM, AM, hits are clickin' while the clock is tock-a-tickin'
Friends and Romans, salutations, Brenda and the Tabulations
Carly Simon, I behold her, Rolling Stones and centerfoldin'
Johnny Cash and Johnny Rivers, can't stop now, I got the shivers
Mungo Jerry, Peter Peter Paul and Paul and Mary Mary
Dr. John the nightly tripper, Doris Day and Jack the Ripper
Gotta go Sir, gotta swelter, Leon Russell, Gimme Shelter
Miracles in smokey places, slide guitars and Fender basses
Mushroom omelet, Bonnie Bramlett, Wilson Pickett, stop and kick it

Life is a rock but the radio rolled me
Gotta turn it up louder, so my DJ told me [[whoa whoa whoa whoa)
Life is a rock but the radio rolled me
At the end of my rainbow lies a golden oldie

Arthur Janov's primal screamin', Hawkins, Jay and
Dale and Ronnie, Kukla, Fran and Norma Okla
Denver, John and Osmond, Donny
JJ Cale and ZZ Top and LL Bean and De De Dinah
David Bowie, Steely Dan and sing me prouder, CC Rider
Edgar Winter, Joanie Sommers, Osmond Brothers, Johnny Thunders
Eric Clapton, pedal wah-wah, Stephen Foster, do-dah do-dah
Good Vibrations, Help Me Rhonda, Surfer Girl and Little Honda
Tighter, tighter, honey, honey, sugar, sugar, yummy, yummy
CBS and Warner Brothers, RCA and all the others

Life is a rock but the radio rolled me
Gotta turn it up louder, so my DJ told me [[whoa whoa whoa whoa)
Life is a rock but the radio rolled me
At the end of my rainbow lies a golden oldie

spoken:
Listen--remember, they're playing our song!
Rock it, sock it, Alan Freed me, Murray Kaufman, try to leave me
Fish, and Swim, and Boston Monkey,
Make it bad and play it funky.
[[Wanna take you higher!)

[Downriviera]

Hello by The Beloved, an early 90's dance/synthpop band I used to spin in my club dj days. I used to call it the name drop song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWWaEEIkxGA

[drpoundsign]

Eminem on J-Lo...Disgusting of Course, but FUNNY as Heck!

The Pretenders referenced Bridget Bardot. The Bangles-Valentino.

[G-DDT]

My favorite was Bowie zinging Andy Warhol. The part with:

"Andy walking, Andy tired,
Andy Take a little snooze"

Makes me think one is being treated to one of Warhol's extensive art slide-show sit-downs-but being captive in a boring 1960's middle American "home pictures" manner.

Yeah, I was never a big Warhol fan.

[oladub]

• Well, I heard Mister Young sing about her
  Well, I heard ole Neil put her down.
  Well, I hope Neil Young will remember
  a southern man don't need him around anyhow.
  
  -Lynnyrd Skynyrd and Alabama

[canuck]

My favorite was Bowie zinging Andy Warhol. The part with:

"Andy walking, Andy tired,
Andy Take a little snooze"

Makes me think one is being treated to one of Warhol's extensive art slide-show sit-downs-but being captive in a boring 1960's middle American "home pictures" manner.

Yeah, I was never a big Warhol fan.

Did you ever listen to the album -"Songs for Drella" about Warhol's life by John Cale and Lou Reed formerly of the Velvet Underground. Great album. Very funny and also sad and moody.

[rb336]

"Ray Charles said no whites
can sing the blues
Ray Charles said no whites
'cept maybe Jews
Hey Elvis Costello
I think you might agree
The man
Must be too blind to see"
- Mitch Ryder, "Ain't nobody white"

[JBMcB]

"Give all your money to Adam Levine
But Adam Levine don't need your money
His eternal reign was decreed
When Adam Levine was only 22
Four other white guys too
It's a coup

Burn in hell
Rot in hell
Burn in hell
Motherf***er..."

Electric Six - Adam Levine

[factoryrat]

GENESIS LYRICS

"Broadway Melody Of 1974"

Echoes of the Broadway Everglades,
With her mythical madonnas still walking in their shades:
Lenny Bruce, declares a truce and plays his other hand.
Marshall McLuhan, casual viewin', head buried in the sand.
Sirens on the rooftops wailing, but there's no ship sailing.
Groucho, with his movies trailing, stands alone with his punchline failing.
Klu Klux Klan serve hot soul food and the band plays 'In the Mood'
The cheerleader waves her cyanide wand, there's a smell of
peach blossom and bitter almonde.
Caryl Chessman sniffs the air and leads the parade, he know in a scent,
you can bottle all you made.
There's Howard Hughes in blue suede shoes, smiling at the majorettes
smoking Winston Cigarettes.
And as the song and dance begins, the children play at home
with needles; needles and pins.