SONGS WHERE/SONGS THAT/SONGS WITH/SONGS IN WHICH

Songs in which, it is not I who is mad, it's you normals!

Elton John - Madman Across the Water
Bonzo Dog Band - My Pink Half of the Drainpipe
Supertramp - Asylum

Songs where the singer is bored of music:

Cat Power - Colors and the Kids

songs where a singer expresses disdain for being put on a pedestal as artist

ionnalee- samaritan

songs where a singer expresses disdain for being put on a pedestal as artist

London Calling
Don't Look Back in Anger

?

much better to have a catch-all thread, good job

songs where a singer expresses disdain for being put on a pedestal as artist

Eminem - Marshall Mathers

songs where a singer expresses disdain for being put on a pedestal as artist

Ani DiFranco - Little Plastic Castle

People talk about my image
Like i come in two dimensions
Like lipstick is a sign of my decling mind
Like what i happen to be wearing
The day that someone takes a picture
Is my new statement for all womankind

And i wish they could see us now
In leather bras and rubber shorts
Like some ridiculous new team uniform
For some ridiculous new sport
Quick someone call the girl police
And file a report

songs where you can't find what you're looking for

"Where Is My Mind"

songs where a singer expresses disdain for being put on a pedestal as artist

Neil Young - On The Beach

^ arguable, but i think he touches on the need for an audience and how frustrating that is - possibly more ambivalent??

songs where the strength of the protagonist's relationship is evaluated based upon their awareness of their lover's potato preferences:

Gershwin - Let's Call the Whole Thing Off
Sia - Sweet Potatoes

Songs in which the Beatles wish you a Happy Birthday

Songs in which the singer reads off a phone number:

“867-5309/Jenny” — Tommy Tutone
“Group Sex” — Circle Jerks
“The Vietnamese Telephone Ministry” — Fiery Furnaces

^Brenda Lee - Bigelow 6-200

Transylvania 6-5000

Oh snap!

Songs in which the boys are back in town:

Thin Lizzy - The Boys are Back in Town

roxy music - remake/remodel ... "CPL 593H!"

scraping foetus off the wheel - DI-1-9026

isaac hayes - good love ... "call good love 69-9-69"

squeeze - "853-5937"

are there any phone-number songs yet that have modern 8, 10, or 11 digit numbers?

City Boy – 5705

roxy music - remake/remodel ... "CPL 593H!"

Not a phone number, it was the registration number of Bryan Ferry's car.

songs written by a non-famous family member of the recording artist:

Grizzly Bear - Marla
Throwing Muses - Sinkhole

― how to diss a peer completely (unregistered), Monday, 12 February 2018 02:46 (five months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Lyn Paul - The Waiting Game (Doreen Belcher)

I know. I do.

"Maybe Baby" had some lines written by Buddy Holly's mom.

George Harrison's "Piggies" had one line he couldn't fill, needed to rhyme with "lacking". His mum suggested "What they need's a damn good whacking" which is the "WHOA" line in the song.

Songs where the singer is bored of music:

Isn’t this every Cat Power song?

POLL: Songs Written By The Artist's Mom

Harry Nilsson, "Little Cowboy"
Harry Nilsson, "Marchin' Down Broadway"

are there any phone-number songs yet that have modern 8, 10, or 11 digit numbers?

Jeremih - 773 LOVE

This doesn't count but Hoyt Axton's mom wrote "Heartbreak Hotel."

Not a phone number, it was the registration number of Bryan Ferry's car.

arggghh of course... dunno what i was thinking... it was late.

Bryan says sorry but the traffic was bad

don't forget The B-52s "6060-842". Which is a weird way to format a local US telephone number circa 1979.

Songs Set in a Courtroom (Bonus Points If It Includes an Argument between the Singer and the Judge):

Pink Floyd - “The Trial”
The Five Du-Tones - “Divorce Court”
Wynonie Harris - “Good Morning Judge”
Bessie Smith - “Send Me to the Electric Chair”
NWA - “Fuck the Police”

Bob Dylan - “Percy’s Song”

Skeeter Davis - “Set Him Free”

Bands whose members are all men but whose name implies they would be women

Violent Femmes
Girls

Das Damen

Jerry Reed's "When You're Hot You're Hot" has a pretty great courtroom scene. Also about a thousand other country songs about people shooting either their woman or the deputy down. And "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man."

George Jones, "Brown to Blue" we stood there in the courthouse room...
the judge pronounced the words

Paul Simon "Adios Hermanos"

Bascom Lamar Lunsford's "Mountain Dew" was inspired by his experience as a lawyer:

The lyrics tell the story of a man's first day in court to answer charges of making illegal alcohol. In the first verse, the prosecutor closes his case. In the next three verses, several respected members of the community—the deacon, the doctor, and the conductor—visit the charged man, trying to buy his whiskey.[6] In the final verse, the judge offers the young man clemency if he is willing to pay court costs for the trial.

Bascom Lamar Lunsford was a lawyer practicing in rural North Carolina during the 1920s. At the time, the manufacturing of beverage alcohol for non-medicinal purposes was illegal in the United States due to prohibition, but North Carolina residents nevertheless continued their longstanding tradition of making a form of illegal whiskey called moonshine. Lunsford frequently defended local clients that were accused of the practice, and the original lyrics and banjo accompaniment to "Good Old Mountain Dew" were written during the course of one of these cases.

^that Wikipedia summary misses the point though. the punchline of the song is that the judge sets the defendant free in exchange for a taste of his moonshine. "cost" in the last verse doesn't literally mean "court costs"

Bands whose members are all men but whose name implies they would be women

Women
Single Mothers
Girl Band

Twisted Sister

Bare naked... no its gone

Songs Set in a Courtroom (Bonus Points If It Includes an Argument between the Singer and the Judge):

Springsteen: Johnny 99 and also Nebraska

Also Steve Earle The Devil’s Rigjt Hand

And The Specials - Stupid Marriage

Songs Set in a Courtroom (Bonus Points If It Includes an Argument between the Singer and the Judge)

BANG BANG Maxwell's Silver Hammer went down on his head!

“Here Comes the Judge,” Pigmeat Markham ( and other songs with the same name by others)

Getting Mandela effect feelings that there is a late period ZZ Top -izer album

Rhythmeenizer

System of a Down - Mezmerize/Hypnotize

KISS - Animalize

The Sea and Cake don't have many with that suffix ("Civilise" all I can think of) but Prekop uses it in his lyrics constantly

The Police - Rehumanize Yourself

The Police - Rehumanize Yourself

― kornrulez6969, Wednesday, 16 July 2025 23:00 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

A great entry for a possible 'early songs to say the C word' list (cf. the Stones, Ian Dury, Marianne Faithfull and the Beat, the latter presumably Sting's inspiration)

Audio messages on albums that relate to the playout

Grape Jam - "Just Like Gene Autry: A Foxtrot" (Wow) - has a spoken intro by Arthur Godfrey telling listeners to lift the needle into the 78rpm band to hear the song proper
Tom Petty - "Hello, CD listeners" (Full Moon Fever) - CD-only mid-album pregap where he says he's replicating the pause that vinyl/cassette listeners have to take to switch sides
Scissor Sisters - "Message from Ms. Matronic" (Scissor Sisters) - 30-second track saying either start the album again or continuing listening for UK bonus tracks

Surely loads of 'turn over for side two' type things although none come to mind rn

The Muppet Alphabet Album (1971) does the thing of providing instructions for turning the record over. This prompts Big Bird to ask, "but if they turn the record over, won't we all fall off?", to groans from the assembled Muppets.

Producer David Rubinson does the "explanation" on Wow before Godfrey does the preface to the song.

The first Tragically Hip album doesn't have an explicit "message" but does have LP surface noise marking the end of side 1 and the start of side 2 on the CD.

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT3nSbz9wvi-RCw2c5eJQOlx5zau6H329cP5Sj1pegidA&s=10

ELO's Mr Blue Sky has a vocoded message at the end saying "please turn me over", as it was the last track on side 3 of Out of the Blue.

Songs where the singer ironically requests a simple funeral:

Tom Paxton - "Forest Lawn"
Steve Martin - "King Tut"

Songs where the narrator insists they're trying their best

Godsmack-Whatever

The Esquires - Get On Up

Songs that sample TV adverts

Gorillaz - Superfast Jellyfish
Pink Floyd - Keep Talking
Pink Floyd - Talkin' Hawkin'
The Clash - Inoculated City
Felix - Don't You Want Me ('96 Pugilist Mix)
The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu - Top of the Pops
The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy - Television, Drug of the Nation (I think)
U2 - Zooropa (apparently)

I'll leave my own ancient music out of this

I thought I'd mentioned this before but it must have been on another thread, "Sweet Smiling Children" by Johnny Rivers. 1967, folks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYtUC6jWBrE

Songs that sample TV adverts

Joni Mitchell - The Reoccurring Dream
Colourbox - Hot Doggie

Songs where the narrator insists they're trying their best

Kool & the Gang, "Joanna"

Songs where the guys are just goofin' around on a piano (not their primary instrument) and decide "let's put that on the album! why not?"

De La Soul - Johnny's Dead AKA Vincent Mason (Live from the BK Lounge)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljMEvoanOZA

24-7 Spyz - Spyz on Piano
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GigbNT8EZvE

Does the Stone Roses' piano-led "The Foz" count or does piano have to be the only instrument?

That works! Could be piano or any instrument that the players aren't skilled on.

King Missile, “Philip Glass”

If stand-up comedy/monologues count as an "instrument", then:

Having Fun with Elvis On Stage

There is a story that on Elvis Costello's "Long Honeymoon," it took three people to play the accordion

UK No. 1 singles I have seen played live,

Lonnie Donegan - (all of them probably; I was two)
The Crazy World of Arthur Brown - Fire
The Scaffold - Lily the Pink
Don McLean - Vincent
Steve Harley - Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)
The Blockheads - Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick
Boney M - (again probably all of them; I wasn't paying much attention)
Bob Geldof - Rat Trap, I Don't Like Mondays
Adam Ant - Stand and Deliver, Prince Charming, Goody Two Shoes
UB40 - Red Red Wine, I Got You Babe(?), (I Can't Help) Falling in Love with You
Midge Ure - If I Was
Eddi Reader - Perfect
Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U
Blur - Country House, Beetlebum
The Chemical Brothers - Block Rockin' Beats
Busted (McBusted) - You Said No, Crashed the Wedding, Thunderbirds Are Go
McFly - 5 Colours in Her Hair, Obviously, All About You, Please Please, Don't Stop Me Now, Star Girl
Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor
Kaiser Chiefs - Ruby
The Proclaimers - I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)
The Ting Tings - That's Not My Name
Matt Cardle - When We Collide (!)

Songs that make lyrical (not musical) reference to songs by other artists.

e.g. Taylor Swift, "Guilty As Sin?": "drowning in the Blue Nile, he sent me Downtown Lights"

surely there's a whole thread for that somewhere?

I was wondering about that, but I didn't know how/couldn't be bothered to search for it.

well, here's a start anyway

Songs that quote (and credit) other songs

Songs which sample older songs but the idea almost certainly came from ongoing adverts

Progress presents the Boy Wunder - Everybody - Madonna's Papa Don't Preach (Vauxhall)
Sugababes - The Girls - Ernie K-Doe's Here Come the Girls (Boots)