Songs that get all meta and mention 'this song' in the lyrics

I always think of Yellow by Coldpay being the worst example of this.

that's because it's a terrible dirge

they actually played this on my favorite local AM radio station the other day. because AM radio rules.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Gf0N6FOSk0

it is the worst example of many things, i suppose
xp

Prince - 1999

Take the Skinheads Bowling

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lFsB96l0x8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcvWrxrNk4k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2wMe8s9mCc

best station:

http://www.wizzradio.com/

bowie, five years.
hallelujah, sorta ('it goes like this')

Baccara, 'Yes Sir I Can Boogie':

No sir
I don't feel very much like talking
No, neither walking
You wanna know if I can dance

Yes sir
Already told you in the first verse
And in the chorus
But I will give you one more chance

natasha bedingfield's timeless will-this-do classic 'these words' not only mangles the pronunciation of the world 'hyperbole' as 'hyperbowl', it even namechecks the chords she uses

Threw some chords together
The combination D-E-F
It's who I am, it's what I do
And I was gonna lay it down for you
I try to focus my attention
But I feel so A-D-D
I need some help, some inspiration
But it's not coming easily

"this is my fight song..."

Pavement - Gold Soundz

"And we're coming to the chorus now..."

Todd Rundgren - Chain Letter

"Now I'm in the middle and I just don't know
If I'll make it any further if the words don't flow
When you live in silence any sound is dear
But for those who don't, take heart because the end is near
This is the ending of my song
It has made me blind and deaf and weak but most of all
It shows you that I'm wrong"

Also:

Alice Cooper - School's Out

"...we can't even think of a word that rhymes!"

Spandau Ballet:
I bought a ticket to the world
But now I've come back again
Why do I find it hard to write the next line?
Oh, I want the truth to be saaaaaaid

NOFX:
We wrote this song, it's not too short, it's not too long
It's got back up vocs in just the right places
It's got a few oohs and ahhs
It takes a little pause
Just before the second chorus
Please play this song on the radio
Almost every line is sung in time
Almost every verse ends in a rhyme
The only problem we had was writing
Enough words
But that's okay, because the chorus is
Coming up again now
Please play this song on the radio

Daniel Cavanagh:
What I couldn't give
What I couldn't give away

Just this song, Just this song
Just this music, Just this music

You know I can't live
You know I can't live without

Just this song, Just this song

This song has nothing tricky about it
This song ain't black or white and as far as I know
Don't infringe on anyone's copyright, so

Pixies - Subbacultcha

'This is a song about something there
There is something about this song'

The Frank and Walters - this is not a song

xp and as long as we're talking George Harrison, "Only a Northern Song"

Shellac - Squirrel Song

'This is a sad fucking song'

Les Savy Fav - Meet Me In The Dollar Bin

"There is no incident, there is no incident, there's nothing incidental in this song.
There is no accident, there is no accident, there's nothing accidental in this song.
There's no coincidence, there's no coincidence, there's nothing coincidental in this song."

sisters of mercy
ballad of the absent mare

Surprised nobody's mentioned Tenacious D yet lol

Also, Shellac do this in maybe 40% of their songs

Half Man Half Biscuit - Lord Hereford's Knob ends with a nice little riff on this

Pulp - The Fear
Pink Floyd - Jugband Blues

Billy Bragg - A New England

Syd Barrett Here I Go
She don't rock 'n' roll, she don't like it
She don't do the stroll, well she don't do it right
Well, everything's wrong and my patience was gone
When I woke one morning
And remembered this song
O-oh-oh, kinda catchy, I hoped
That she would talk to me now
And even allow me to hold her hand
And forget that old band.

So now I've got all I need
She and I are in love, we've agreed
She likes this song and my others too
So now you see my world is...
'Cause of this tune!
What a boon this tune!
I tell you soon
We'll be lying in bed, happily wed,
And I won't think of that girl
Or what she said...

Thee Headcoats - Punk Rock Ist Nicht Tot

Suicide - Be Bop Kid

This song's about life

"Muzzle" - Smashing Pumpkins

"have you ever heard the words i'm singing in these songs?
it's for the girl i've loved all along
can a taste of love be so wrong?"

She and I are in love, we've agreed

lol the note he hits on "we've agreed" is one of the most bleakly funny things in pop music

"Flesh Canoe" - Animal Collective

"Cause what this song's about is me singing
I'm just wondering what to do with you myself and me
Naked in the mirror of the bathroom"

The original (2011) version of Car Seat Headrest's "Nervous Young Inhumans" ends with this monologue:

Earlier in the song I used the term "galvanistic," and galvanism is the concept, uh, the obsolete scientific theory that there is a kind of electricity flowing through our bloodstreams, and that was our life force. I used the term because I came across it in Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein", and that book is sort of an exploration of the theme of creating a character or making up a person. So I used the term "galvanistic" to allude to that book as a sort of symbol of how I, like, created you as a character, by pretending that I know a lot more about you than I actually do, and also to refer to the fact that I've fall—fallen in love with the characters you've created in, uh, your body of work. This is the part of the song where I start to regret writing it...

Microdisney - Bullwhip Road

I hate the world
I hate my life and this song
Now run along

Super Furry Animals - Gateway Song
Super Furry Animals - Runaway

Odd choice to put two songs that open with the line "this song" back to back on an album.

Moodymann- Freekie Motherfucker

You don't even like this song / you just dig the hook

Spin Doctors, "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong" ("I hope them cigarettes are gonna make you cough / I hope you hear this song and it pissed you off")

I bet she was pissed off. We all were.

This one's not "this song," but even more meta -- the final lines of "Terrible Things," the last song on Beauty Pill's The Unsustainable Lifestyle:

Terrible things, terrible things, they are gonna happen
This record's over, so why not go outside and stop them?

along the same line, the end of "The All Golden" by Van Dyke Parks, the final song on side A of Song Cycle:

"Might as well allow for one more go round
That's all folks!
Them hayseeds go back to
the country..."

Wire's Map Ref. 41°N 93°W where he semi-sarcastically says "Chorus!" just before the chorus.

obvious example: Donny Hathaway - A Song For You

Wire's Map Ref. 41°N 93°W where he semi-sarcastically says "Chorus!" just before the chorus.

If this counts, then a bunch of "Take it to the bridge..." instances to thread.

She and I are in love, we've agreed
lol the note he hits on "we've agreed" is one of the most bleakly funny things in pop music

― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Monday, March 12, 2018 12:45 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes! was listening to this song on the train this morning and i chuckled out loud at this line.

stupid mistake by the electric soft parade has the lines

I could be loving you now
I could be doing it with my eyes closed
You could be back on your feet
But that isn't how the song goes

and i have wondered whether that last line is extremely meta or is referring to another (metaphorical or specific?) song and so not meta at all. i like the former interpretation more anyhow.

Denim, "Internet Curtains"

We ain't been going very long
We've only written one good song
And here it is we will play
The best song that we've got it's called
Internet curtains

I know the intro's far too long
And the middle bit's all wrong
But even so it's still our song
So when the chorus comes please sing along
Internet curtains

And now we've got ourselves a hit
Because Chris Evans played it
Everyday on his show
I owe it all to a song called
Internet curtains

Justin Timberlake "Rock Your Body"
"Bet I'll have you naked by the end of this song"; Cue wardrobe malfunction

our song
it gives us a reason
our song
that good remedy
music has magic
that stuff of syncopation

I'm Too Sexy for this Thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88TgFOeON3k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPW6a-vjsbc

In the Cure's Antidote Megamix there's a bit from "A Forest" where Robert sings "suddenly I stop" and the guitar cuts out. Metaclever.

Songs that actually, like, stop when the singer says 'stop.'

Sparks - "I Predict"

And this song will fade out
I predict

“I Predict” possibly being the pinnacle of this practice. Good post.

Just remembered that I made an hour-long mix on this topic a few (actually 8!?) years ago, people might want to have a listen

Mp3 and tracklist are here - http://lastnightadjkilledmydog.libsyn.com/webpage/2010/10
And I just put it on mixcloud - https://www.mixcloud.com/centuries_of_sound/last-night-a-dj-killed-my-dog-026-this-is-the-title-of-the-self-referential-podcast/

I was going to post the tracklist, but it's a bit long

That recording of Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, and Bud Powell on Jazz at Massey Hall where they play 'Salt Peanuts.'

Bird stumbles over the vocal bit one time and throws in, "It's the name of this song. . ." before the solo.

I just remembered the existence of the song "This is My Hit" by Canadian rapper, Kyprios, which fits here:

This is my hook, this is my chorus
This is my hit -- it's better than yours

It is not a very good song.

better than yours tho

Thomas Dybdahl

Songs from the rain
Songs that will cause you pain
Songs that alleviate
Songs that will seal your fate
Songs for the sunny days
Songs for that warm embrace
Songs that will keep you cool
Songs that will make you cruel
Songs for the wielding
Songs to help you relax
Songs that forever last
Songs that belong to the past
Songs that will make you scream
Songs from your childhood dreams
Songs that will leave you blue
Songs that remind me of you
Songs that will make you smile
Songs that will stay for a while
Songs that will tear you apart
Songs that will mend your heart
Songs that you can't let go
Songs that you already know
Songs that you once knew
Songs that just passed through
Songs that you overheard
Songs that just occurred
Songs for the nighttime
Songs for the waistline
Songs for the dancing shoes
Songs for the Sunday blues
Songs that will make you sweat
Songs that you won't forget
Songs that were once so true
Songs that betrayed you
Songs that you always hum
Songs that will leave you numb
Songs that you will regret
Songs on an old cassette
Songs that will move you
Songs that are brand new
Songs on the radio
Songs that will make you glow
Songs from your first kiss
Songs of pure bliss

And just before dawn at the paling of the sky,
The stranger returned and said "Now I must fly,
When two thousand years of your time has gone by,
This song will begin once again, to a baby's cry"

Lenny Cohen - Sisters of Mercy.

"And they brought me their comfort and later they brought me this song"

I posted that one right at the beginning of this thread. He also does it again in "ballad of the absent mare"

I searched and everything! Bah.

Dreams are for those who sleep
Life is for us to keep
And if you're wondering what this song is leading to,
I want to make it with you

Barry & the Bookbinders - 'This Song'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXwba5xApwo

I forgot one of my favorites:

"My slow descent
into alcoholism
it went
something like this song"

https://youtu.be/WtZDxzlGbN4

This songs just six words long

(Hey) all the blood that I will bleed
(Ho) I don't know where I belong
(Hey) I don't know where I went wrong
(Ho) but I can write a song (hey)

One of the most egregious examples.

Hiss Golden Messenger - O Little Light

A blue sky bends for me
No master, I am free
Riding 'round in the rain
With this song I'm singing

I was 21 years when I wrote this song, I'm 22 now but I won't be for long.

oh dammit how's life beat me to it

Brainstorm, take me away from the norm'
I've got to tell you something
This phenomenon, I had to put it in a song
And it goes like
Whoa, amber is the color of your energy
Whoa, shades of gold display naturally

and i'll know my song well before i start singing
and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard rain that's gonna fall

If you wonder how long I'll be faithful
Well, just listen to how this song ends
I'm gonna love you
Forever and ever
Forever and ever, amen

As the moon beats yellow, the clouds they settle
to this our favourite song...

But I hate this room, and I hate this tune...

Lee Hazlewood - I'll Live Yesterdays

Seems we’re always doing something to hurt each other
But you know, you never really hurt me until the fourth verse of this song

Kanye West - Touch the Sky

I'm tryin' to right my wrongs
But it's funny them same wrongs helped me write this song

mother do you think they'll like this song?

Elton John welcomes you to his Christmas song, Step Into Christmas, in its first line.

GusGus goes extra meta in "Add This Song"

Add this song to your list
Play it til it no more exist

Through the pain of the snow
Is there nowhere to go
Like I'm stuck in the state
Of no state at all

As I wandered alone in the darkest night
Heard this song at the rave
And it saved my life

(i did add it to my list)

Back to the opening post, "It's hard to say the meaning of this song" in Ambulance Blues is the thesis statement for the entire On the Beach album!

Edward Bear, “Last Song”

It's the last song I'll ever write for you
It's the last time that I'll tell you
Just how much I really care
This is the last song I'll ever sing for you
You'll come looking for the light
And it won't be there
But I love you
Oh yes I do
Yes I do

Also on this similar thread: songs that are about themselves

John Prine, "Leave the Lights On"

This is just a long song, it ain't no poem
Leave the lights on till your baby gets home

Brinsley Schwarz, “Love Song”

This here is a love song
I gotta get back to my baby's heart again
This here is a love song
And I'm gonna sing it till I get back home

Which is also mentioned on this similar thread: Songs that are aware of themselves

Barenaked Ladies, "What A Good Boy"

I couldn't tell you
I was wrong
Chickened out grabbed a pen and a paper
Sat down and I wrote this song

Tom Waits, "Hold On"

Down by the Riverside motel
It's ten below and falling
By a ninety-nine cent store
She closed her eyes and started swaying
But it's so hard to dance that way
When it's cold and there's no music
Oh, your old hometown's so far away
But inside your head there's a record that's playing
A song called "Hold On"