songs that are about themselves

Shellac - Song Against Itself

This is the song against itself
It's of two minds of its own

TMBG - Number Three

Badly Drawn Boy - This Song

oh god why didn't i realise there would be loads of cutesy post-modern non-rock like this

i have heard none of these songs but i bet none of them quite does what tennessee waltz does, which is to a) tell a story which features b) the tennessee waltz... provoking a kind of science fiction impossibility loop

"i remember the night / and the tennessee waltz"

how could you, since you're singing it right now?? but you could, kind of... waltzes were all mainly wordless anyhow, and no one knew exactly who wrote them, or when they started

and anyway, maybe i'm the one with my chronology all kerflooey! maybe the tennessee waltz did exist, for decades, and simply didn't have any lyrics, and then got these famous ones laid over it at some point

ignition (remix)

The Beatles - Only A Northern Song

Oh Yeah - Roxy Music
Suffice To Say - Yachts

is the Ramones' "second verse, same as the first" in Judy Is A Punk a valid answer?

Song from Under the Floorboards - Magazine
Dixie Chicken - Little Feat

Natasha Fucking Bedingfield - These Words

another 'This Song' on the last Cassius album.

Kiley Dean - Make Me A Song

Sparks: "The Number One Song in Heaven"

This is the number one song in heaven
why are you hearing it now, you may ask...

Bowie, "Five Years" - just a line, which would be my choice for favourite Bowie Line, except it's more like four lines

I think I saw you in an ice-cream parlour
Drinking milkshakes cold and long
Smiling and waving and looking so fine
I don't think you knew you were in this song

'i've got a song that'll get on your nerves'

Pulp's Something Changed, sorry Tracer.

Carly Simon - You're So Vain, obviously.

Public Image Ltd - "This Is Not A Love Song"

king curtis 'memphis soul stew'

Pussy Galore "Song at the End of the Side"
Elton John "Your Song"?

tod rundgren - chain letter
eltohn john - your song

Destroyer - "Looter's Follies" may not be about itself, but it does feature the line "I swear 'Looter's Follies' never sounded so good". I only own two Destroyer albums, so it's possible this may not be a unique phenomenon.

denim - 'best song in the world'

Spitting Image - "The Chicken Song"

"oh yeah" is a great answer!

i don't know a lot of these, this is good

Overnite Sensation - The Raspberries

Possibly "How I Wrote Elastic Man"...

Maybe "Short Songs" - Dead Kennedys

I like short songs (x13)

29 seconds long

Another "This Song," by the author of "Only A Northern Song," off Alfred's favorite album, Thirty Three & 1/3

"Song For Whoever" - The Beautiful South

"Let's Dance" - David Bowie - "let's dance to the song they're playing on the radio" which would be the song you're listening to right now, ie this song called "Let's Dance" by David Bowie.

"Your Song" - Elton John
"The Last Song" - Edward Bear

Desmond Dekker - Reggae Recipe.

"Will You Write Me A Song" - Elkie Brooks
"Sad Songs Say So Much" - Elton John

"One Note Samba" -Tom Jobim

(You know, we've done this before, but who knows if the thread can be found)

"Rock'N'Roll Music" - Chuck Berry
"Rage Hard (Young Person's Guide To The 12 Inch Mix)" - Frankie Goes To Hollywood

neil young - ambulance blues ("it's hard to say the meaning of this song")
roy wood - song of praise

"Hit The Deck" - Ice T

Nick Lowe - I Love My Label

"My label always loves to hear some pretty chords/on their records/like these ones"

Signed Curtain - Matching Mole

syd barrett - here i go ("when i woke one morning and rememberd this song"...)

Fugazi: Song #1

Song #1 is not a fuck you song"

Fugazi: Furniture

"This is a song with no words"

Mekons: 100% Song

"This is a simulation of a song / are you ashamed or what?"

"Do The Strand" - Roxy Music

Pink Floyd - Have You Got It Yet?
Randy Newman - My Life Is Good
Mekons - Empire of the Senseless

Top 100 most META songs of all times

king curtis 'memphis soul stew'

-- That one guy that hit it and quit it, Monday, January 7, 2008 7:00 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Link

came here to post this

"This Is Not A Song" Frank & Walters

"Song Sung Blue" - Neil Diamond

"Sing this song all together" The Rolling Stones

Whirlpool Productions 'From Disco To Disco', sorta

Magnetic Fields - I Think I Need a New Heart

Time stands still
All I can feel is the time standing still
as you put down the keys
and say don't call me please
while the radio plays
"I Think I Need a New Heart"

"The first word in this song is 'discorporate'. It means 'to leave your body'"

you're so vain?

the human league, "the black hit of space", but not really. that "not really" applies to quite a few others here, i feel.

THIS IS THE SONG THAT NEVER ENDS
YES IT GOES ON AND ON MY FRIENDS
SOME PEOPLE STARTED SINGING IT NOT KNOWING WHAT IT WAS
AND THEY'LL CONTINUE SINGING IT FOREVER JUST BECAUSE...

Fugazi: Furniture

"This is a song with no words"

Mekons: 100% Song

"This is a simulation of a song / are you ashamed or what?"

I don't think either of these qualifies.

This is the... Song From the Edge of the World - Siouxsie & the Banshees

Jimmy Webb - "If This Was the Last Song"

Wire's It's So Obvious and other art joke song structures

pixies - tony's theme

from Monty Python's Spamalot; 'The Song That Goes Like This'

Minutemen "Self-Referenced"

No, wait, even better!

Minutemen "Themselves"

The Sisters of Mercy - "This Corrosion"

SING "THIS CORROSION" TO ME

Tenacious D "Tribute"

can't believe I went there...

Sonic Youth- Youth Against Facism

Tenacious D "Tribute"

That song is about Stairway to Heaven, though.

Can't believe no one has said 'Same Old Song' by the Four Tops.

It's the same old song
But with a different meaning
Since you been gone

"Your Song" has only been mentioned three times previously here, so I guess I'll mention it once more.

Carter USM, "The Music that Nobody Likes"!

"It goes Baa baa baa baba baaa ba ba baaa
Ba ba baaa baaa baaa baaa
baaa baaa baaa baaa"

Does the Pennsylvania Polka count? I suppose it might rather be about a dance...

Strike up the music the band has begun
The Pennsylvania Polka
Pick out your partner and join in the fun
The Pennsylvania Polka
It started in Scranton. It's now number one
It's bound to entertain ya
Everybody has a mania to do the polka from Pennsylvania.

I think that's more of a song that's about a dance, but I know where you're coming from. There's a million like this - The Twist, Mojo Workout, etc etc.

This song is just six words long
This song is just six words long
This song is just six words long
This song is just six words long

Couldn't think of any lyrics
No I never wrote the lyrics
So I'll just sing any old lyrics
That come to mind, child

You really need words
Whole lotta rhyming words
You gotta rhyme so many words, mm-mm
To do it, to do it, to do it, to do it
To do it, to do it right, child

This song is just six words long
This song is just six words long
This song is just six words long
This song is just six words long

I know that you're probably sore
'Cause I didn't write any more
I just didn't get to complete it
So that's why I gotta repeat it

This song is just six words long (six words long)
This song is just six words long (six words long)

Oh I make a lotta money
They pay me a ton of money
They're payin' me plenty of money
To sing this song, child

I gotta fill time
Three minutes worth of time
Oh, how will I fill so much time, mm-mm
I'll throw in a solo, a solo, a solo
A solo, a solo here

This song is just six words long
This song is just six words long
This song is just six words long
This song is just six words long

This song's got nothin' to say
But I'm recording it anyway
I know if I put my mind to it
I know I could find a good rhyme here

Oh, you gotta have-a music
You need really catchy music
This song has got plenty of music
But just six words, child

And so I'll sing' em over
And over and over and over
And over and over and over, mm-mm
And over and over and over
And over and over and over again

Six words long, six words long
Six words long, six words long
Six words long, six words long

This song is just six words long
It's just six words long

Song In Contravention

Song giving descriptions of an unnamed act of love
The court will call this song Exhibit A
Song including details of the persons taking part
And the actual words these persons say

Song in contravention of sections of the law
Members of the jury take your time
Remember even listening if only this far in
Already makes you guilty of a crime

This love in contravention
They see fit to ban
That woman feels for woman, man for man
This love outside the law is the strongest love of all
Pass it on
To sing this song is a crime of love
Sing this song

Song giving descriptions of an unnamed act of love
Outlawed by the government this year
A song giving descriptions of forbidden forms of love
Is passing at this moment through your ear

Song in contravention of sections of the law
That deal with making public private thoughts
With lyrics so explicit and descriptions so perverse
They constitute the crime that it reports

In the perfumed garden the apprentice sits alone
Like a Persian miniature in stone
The jury and the witnesses are kneeling at the throne
Waiting for the judgement to come down

Song giving descriptions of an unnamed act of love
An act of love is taking place
Sung with your consent, the song has reached its very end
The prosecution rests its case

"Look What They've Done To My Song, Ma" - The New Seekers

operator please, song about ping pong. and the kissy sellout remix too.

This song is just six words long

BUT IT'S NOT. I don't know whether or not that's intentional but argh that annoys me every time.

Breeders, "Cannonball":
I'll be your whatever you want
The bong in this reggae song

Neil Young, "Borrowed Tune":
I'm singing a borrowed tune
that I stole from the Rolling Stones
I'm too wasted to write my own

The Who, "Song Is Over"

wait a bunch of these including the TN waltz (do the strand, PA polka etc etc) that are about the dance with the same name, not the song itself, right? those shouldnt really count.

As far as I know there isn't a real dance called the Strand, except as defined by the song. Even there it's not a dance in the sense of a set of specific moves, it's metaphorical.

http://www.librario.com/692

i dont care, the song's not about itself

BUT IT'S NOT. I don't know whether or not that's intentional but argh that annoys me every time.

OTM :)

In categories:

Songs that comment musically and lyrically on themselves and their place in a defined tradition:

Wilco, Someone Else's Song
Gillian Welch, One Little Song
David Allan Coe, You Never Even Call Me By My Name
Jaguar Wright, Divorcing Neo 2 Marry Soul

Their first cousins, songs that both talk about and demonstrate the songwriters' songwriting style:

Rhett Miller, This Is What I Do
Sleater-Kinney, Words and Guitar
Barry Manilow, I Write The Songs
Parliament, Everything Is On The One (and P-FUNK, for that matter)
Carlos Vives, Amor Latino; El Rock De Mi Pueblo

Songs that are "about" their own construction:

Sly and the Family Stone, Dance To The Music
Rogers & Hammerstein, Doe, A Deer
Carlos Vives, La Receta

Ballads that (like Tennessee Waltz and Dixie Chicken) incorporate themselves into a narrative:

James Taylor, Sweet Baby James (and Fire and Rain, sorta)

Donovan had a song whose title I don't remember, but it started, "Here's a little song you can all join in with . . . "

Brian Wilson - "This Song Wants to Sleep With You Tonight"

the tennessee waltz isn't about a dance called the tennessee waltz, it's about a song called the tennessee waltz

You and your Tennessee Waltz.

the other matching mole song works too.
Matching Mole - O Caroline

nofx - please play this song on the radio

A few more painfully obvious ones:

Antonio Carlos Jobim, Samba de Uma Nota
Leaonard Cohen (and practically everyone else, too), Hallelujah
?, Angels We Have Heard On High

and one particularly philosophical example:

Cafe Tacuba, Cero y Uno

Antonio Carlos Jobim, Samba de Uma Nota
I'd point out that this was already posted, but as the second person to mention "Your Song" I can't really throw stones.

the tennessee waltz isn't about a dance called the tennessee waltz, it's about a song called the tennessee waltz

-- Tracer Hand, Wednesday, January 9, 2008 11:16 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

yeah you are right

There are lots of songs about somebody doing a dance or singing a song that probably don't count, even though you could well imagine that the song they are singing is the song you are hearing, such as "Um Um Um Um Um Um" by Major Lance.

The Who, "Song Is Over"

and "Gettin' In Tune" ("I'm singing this note 'cause it fits in well with the chords I'm playin'" etc. etc.)

Willie Nelson - "Sad Songs & Waltzes"

(somebody may have mentioned this, but i dont feel like lookin at the whole thing)

I said this and immediately regretted it. I think I meant it in a literal, lyrical sense. A sense that the songs are closed-off to any other music, any other artistic concern other than the completely solipsistic. The sense that songs about themselves taken to some sort of logical conclusion wind up being Dream Theater or somesuch. I didn't mean that songs that spring up out of an instinctive musical inspiration are invalid.

Anyway, discuss.

"songs have gotta be about more than themselves", that is

Randy Newman - Rednecks ("So I went to the park / and I took some paper along / and that's where I wrote this song")

The Dead Milkmen - Nitro Burning Funny Cars ("No one will ever write a song called / 'Nitro Burning Funny Cars'")

The Velvet Underground - Temptation Inside Your Heart ("It's not that good of a guitar solo")

The Monkees - Gonna Buy Me a Dog ("Don't ruin my song, man" "It was ruined when it was wrote")

Belle and Sebastian, "Judy and the Dream of Horses"

If you’re ever feeling blue
Then write another song about your dream of horses
Write a song about your dream of horses
Call it judy and the dream of horses
Call it judy and the dream of horses

From Robbie Williams' "Strong":
Early morning when I wake up
I look like Kiss but without the make up
And thats a good line to take it to The bridge

How in the hell did nobody mention "Smoke on the Water" yet? I thought that song was famous for being about itself.

Was that song about the Mothers Of Invention gig that caught fire in Montreux?

That's part of the story.

http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/d/deep_purple/smoke_on_the_water.html

(The site won't let me C+P lyrics.)

Prince's "1999" fits, right? "I was dreaming when I wrote this" etc.?

TMBG - Number Three

this might be the best song of the genre by the way

King Crimson - Happy With What You Have to be Happy With
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8xLsZh2v2g

Taylor Swift does this at least twice that I can think of on her first album. 'Tim McGraw', the first track, and 'Our Song', the last one.

Jim Croce: I'll Have To Say I Love You In a Song

In the early 90s, a Finnish dance act called Allekirjoittanut had a song on their album called (in Finnish) "A Really Catchy Filler Song". The chorus of the song went something like this (translated from Finnish):

This is a really catchy filler song
If it gets stuck in your head
Please contact your doctor
Or go the hospital

Basically the whole song was about how Allekirjoittanut's producer is demanding for one more song to fill their album, and they need to come up with something quickly. And the funny thing was, it really was a very catch filler song and it did get stuck in your head. The song even had a rap section that began something like this:

But now we're gonna have a hectic rap section
It's an international trend these days
It's certainly quite refreshing
Not to have to listen to the same guy for the whole song...

Blues Traveler "Hook" is also about how catchy it is, but with a bit of an edge of mocking you for getting caught.