Self-referential songs

I was listening to Steve Miller's "Space Cowboy," and noticed how it
referred to the Joker, and then I thought about the Beatles' Glass
Onion, and started wondering: what other songs out there are there that
refer to the artist's own past recordings?

Rich Ardini...

The Raspberries:Overnight Sensation fades out
with the opening riff to Go All The Way.

I'm pretty sure there's a Who song with a
sample of an earlier Who song in the middle,
but I can't place it.

Gunther Anderson...

Bill Marcum...

Garden Party by Rick Nelson
Thank You Fa Lettin Me Be Mice Elf by Sly and the Family Stone

Hm. Don't they have a song that opens with "There once was a note, pure
and easy...", which is reprised at the end of The Song is Over?

But you might be thinking of the Who's contribution to the Elton John
tribute album of a decade or so ago, where they put a chuck of "Take Me
to the Pilot" in the middle of "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting".

The Troggs in the 90s did a clever song
called Deja Vu, where the lyrics in different
places quote all of their 60s hit titles.

Gunther Anderson...

Many thanks to everyone for contrbuting. Fun stuff.

Gunther Anderson

Mark Goodge...

Not referring to a past recording, but one of the classic
self-referential songs is Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah". In the first
verse, the phrase about the "secret chord" spells out in words what
the music is actually doing at that point:

It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth,
the minor fall and the major lift

where "fourth" is on the IV chord, "fifth" is on the V chord, "minor
fall" is on the iv and "major lift" on the IV.

John Dean...

Garden Party - Rick Nelson
Peggy Sue got Married

Bajamark...

Great thread!

Men Without Hats...... Pop Goes the World has a snippet of "Safety Dance" in
it.

They also do a song on the album "The Adventures Of Women and Men Without
Hate In The 21st Century" (how's that for an album title eh?) called "21st
Century Safety Dance"...... it's horrible. Although I kinda like the rest of
the album though.

How's this for obscure ...... Jethro Tull did a Song called "Strange
Avenues" from the "Rock Island" album (1989) with the following lyrics.

"The wino sleeps --- cold coat lined with a money section.
Looking like a record cover from 1971".

Referring to the seedy character on the cover from the 1971 Aqualung album.

Gunther Anderson

allenkirshner...

Canadian rapper Maestro Fresh Wes did it 1991. His song 'Conductin'
Thangs' includes the line, 'Symphony in Effect was just a mic check'.
'Symphony in Effect' was the name of his breakthrough 1988 album, the
first Canadian rap album to find mainstream success in Canada.

He did it again, under the shortened moniker 'Maestro', in 1998. His
comeback album 'Built to Last', included the hit single 'Stick to Your
Vision'. Apart from the song containing samples of the classic Guess
Who tune 'These Eyes', it included the line 'I used to say eighty-nine
is mine'. This references the lyric 'eighty-nine is mine' from his
second release off the 'Symphony in Effect' album, 'Drop the Needle'.
(He's, of course, referring to 1989 in both instances).

quester...

Do you want to omit songs that are obvious whole-song sequels? I'm
thinking of things like Leslie Gore singing first "It's My Party"
followed by "Judy's Turn To Cry", or the Royal Guardsmen doing a
series of songs about Snoopy and the Red Baron.

Bill Marcum...

Or Harry Chapin's "Sequel", the sequel to his hit "Taxi".

Gunther Anderson...

Yeah, those self-references have a thematic purpose. I'm definitely
thinking more along the lines of RH Draney's post, especially the
Melanie song where, at the end of another song, she mentions that she
got a pair of brand new roller skates. And, while perhaps from before
the time frame I was thinking off, that infernal nonsense Pinafore fite,
too, definitely...

R H Draney...

A couple of important omissions:

In "Garden Party", Rick Nelson sings "I said hello to Mary Lou, she belongs to
me"...the song's about a concert where the fans more or less forced him to do
his old material instead of playing something more current....

David Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes" refers back to the Major Tom character in "Space
Oddity"....

"Creeque Alley" by the Mamas and Papas recounts pretty much the whole background
of the group, and ends with the line "California dreamin' is becoming a
reality"....

One of the illustrations described When Groucho sings "Lydia the Tattooed Lady"
in "At the Circus" is "Captain Spaulding exploring the Amazon" (his character in
the earlier movie "Animal Crackers")....

When Arlo Guthrie re-recorded "Alice's Restaurant", he interrupted the story to
report that Chip Carter found a copy of the original "Alice's Restaurant" LP
among the stuff Nixon left behind when he vacated the White House....r

Michael...

The Belgian 80s funksters Allez Allez wrote a song called "Allez Allez".
You don't much more self-referential than that!

M
http://www.a-lyric.com/