Suicide - Be Bop Kid
This song's about life
― new noise, Monday, 12 March 2018 16:31 (six years ago) link
"Muzzle" - Smashing Pumpkins
"have you ever heard the words i'm singing in these songs?it's for the girl i've loved all alongcan a taste of love be so wrong?"
― flappy bird, Monday, 12 March 2018 16:44 (six years ago) link
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, 12 March 2018 16:45 (six years ago) link
"Flesh Canoe" - Animal Collective
"Cause what this song's about is me singingI'm just wondering what to do with you myself and meNaked in the mirror of the bathroom"
― flappy bird, Monday, 12 March 2018 16:48 (six years ago) link
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...
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Monday, 12 March 2018 17:34 (six years ago) link
Microdisney - Bullwhip Road
I hate the worldI hate my life and this songNow run along
Super Furry Animals - Gateway SongSuper Furry Animals - Runaway
Odd choice to put two songs that open with the line "this song" back to back on an album.
― afriendlypioneer, Monday, 12 March 2018 17:37 (six years ago) link
Moodymann- Freekie Motherfucker
You don't even like this song / you just dig the hook
― i know kore-eda (or something), Monday, 12 March 2018 17:38 (six years ago) link
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")
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Monday, 12 March 2018 17:46 (six years ago) link
I bet she was pissed off. We all were.
― Google Atheist (Le Bateau Ivre), Monday, 12 March 2018 17:49 (six years ago) link
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 happenThis record's over, so why not go outside and stop them?
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Monday, 12 March 2018 17:51 (six years ago) link
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 roundThat's all folks!Them hayseeds go back tothe country..."
― flappy bird, Monday, 12 March 2018 17:59 (six years ago) link
Wire's Map Ref. 41°N 93°W where he semi-sarcastically says "Chorus!" just before the chorus.
― piscesx, Monday, 12 March 2018 18:10 (six years ago) link
obvious example: Donny Hathaway - A Song For You
― piper at the gates of d'awwww (voodoo chili), Monday, 12 March 2018 18:12 (six years ago) link
If this counts, then a bunch of "Take it to the bridge..." instances to thread.
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Monday, 12 March 2018 18:23 (six years ago) link
She and I are in love, we've agreedlol 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.
― mizzell, Monday, 12 March 2018 18:28 (six years ago) link
stupid mistake by the electric soft parade has the lines
I could be loving you nowI could be doing it with my eyes closedYou could be back on your feetBut 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.
― Roberto Spiralli, Monday, 12 March 2018 18:31 (six years ago) link
Denim, "Internet Curtains"
We ain't been going very longWe've only written one good songAnd here it is we will playThe best song that we've got it's calledInternet curtains
I know the intro's far too longAnd the middle bit's all wrongBut even so it's still our songSo when the chorus comes please sing alongInternet curtains
And now we've got ourselves a hitBecause Chris Evans played itEveryday on his showI owe it all to a song calledInternet curtains
― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), Monday, 12 March 2018 18:40 (six years ago) link
Justin Timberlake "Rock Your Body""Bet I'll have you naked by the end of this song"; Cue wardrobe malfunction
― J. Sam, Monday, 12 March 2018 18:45 (six years ago) link
our songit gives us a reasonour songthat good remedymusic has magicthat stuff of syncopation
― reggie (qualmsley), Monday, 12 March 2018 18:59 (six years ago) link
I'm Too Sexy for this Thread.
― Mark G, Monday, 12 March 2018 19:15 (six years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88TgFOeON3k
― PaulTMA, Monday, 12 March 2018 19:15 (six years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPW6a-vjsbc
― PaulTMA, Monday, 12 March 2018 19:17 (six years ago) link
Manic Street Preachers - S.Y.M.M. (not their finest moment IMO...)
― Valentijn, Monday, 12 March 2018 19:20 (six years ago) link
"I never ever wanted to write this song" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw1D1NYVyuM
― PaulTMA, Monday, 12 March 2018 19:24 (six years ago) link
Violent Femmes - Prove My Love'third verse, same as the first'
― raise my chicken finger (Willl), Monday, 12 March 2018 19:39 (six years ago) link
Built To Spill - 'Joyride'
This part of the song is called the second verseSounds just like the first but with different wordsIt only has three chords and they are A and E and DThey are A and E and DThen it goes to D minor, D, uh, A, E, D
― Steve Reich In The Afternoon (Against The 80s), Monday, 12 March 2018 19:46 (six years ago) link
Sorry to share this:
https://youtu.be/YqnxDJk08vw
Lyrics here: http://www.madmusic.com/song_details.aspx?SongID=1514
― the salacious inaudible (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Monday, 12 March 2018 20:09 (six years ago) link
Bruce Springsteen: Bobby Jean
Or some motel room, there'll be a radio playingAnd you'll hear me sing this song
― kornrulez6969, Monday, 12 March 2018 20:26 (six years ago) link
Great one
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Monday, 12 March 2018 20:26 (six years ago) link
The Postal Service - Such Great Heights
And when you scan the radioI hope this song will guide you home.
― The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums (Chinaski), Monday, 12 March 2018 20:39 (six years ago) link
Always loved this bit of self-awareness in These Immortal Souls' "So the Story Goes":
Everybody knows I've only got one songAnd it's much too slowAnd it's much too longAnd this is how it goes
― early rejecter, Monday, 12 March 2018 20:43 (six years ago) link
Ariana Grande's "Piano" doesn't say "this song," but the lyrics are largely about the song itself:
I could write a song with my new pianoI could sing about how love is a losing battleNot hard, it's not hard
And I could sing about cupid and his shooting arrowIn the end, you'll find out that my heart was battered Real hard, it's so hard
But I'd rather make a song they can play on the radioThat makes you wanna dance, don't it make you wanna dance?But I'd rather make a song they can play on the radioThat makes you wanna grab your lover's hand
...And to get even more "meta" (and let my Arianator flag fly), I'd postulate that a song falling a few tracks later on the album -- "Almost Is Never Enough" (feat. Nathan Sykes) -- is to be taken as an example of the *other* kind of song referenced in "Piano": a slow, piano-based ballad about how love is a losing battle, etc.
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Monday, 12 March 2018 20:51 (six years ago) link
Radiohead
This this is our new songJust like the last oneA total waste of timeMy iron lung
― KPH, Monday, 12 March 2018 21:16 (six years ago) link
Number ThreeThey Might Be GiantsThere's only two songs in me and I just wrote the thirdDon't know where I got the inspiration or how I wrote the wordsSpent my whole life just digging up my music's shallow graveFor the two songs in me and the third one I just madeA rich man once told me"Hey life's a funny thing"A poor man once told meThat he can't afford to speakNow I'm in the middle like a bird without a beak 'causeThere's just two songs in me and I just wrote the thirdDon't know where I got the inspiration or how I wrote the wordsSpent my whole life just digging up my music's shallow graveFor the two songs in me and the third one I just madeSo I went to the PresidentAnd I asked old what's-his-nameHas he ever gotten writer's blockOr something like the sameHe just started talkingLike he was on TV"If there's just two songs in ya, boyWhaddaya want from me?"So I bought myself some denim pantsAnd a silver guitarBut I politely told the ladies"You'll still have to call me SirBecause I have to keep my self-respectI'll never be a starSince there's just two songs in meAnd this is Number Three"
There's only two songs in me and I just wrote the thirdDon't know where I got the inspiration or how I wrote the wordsSpent my whole life just digging up my music's shallow graveFor the two songs in me and the third one I just madeA rich man once told me"Hey life's a funny thing"A poor man once told meThat he can't afford to speakNow I'm in the middle like a bird without a beak 'causeThere's just two songs in me and I just wrote the thirdDon't know where I got the inspiration or how I wrote the wordsSpent my whole life just digging up my music's shallow graveFor the two songs in me and the third one I just madeSo I went to the PresidentAnd I asked old what's-his-nameHas he ever gotten writer's blockOr something like the sameHe just started talkingLike he was on TV"If there's just two songs in ya, boyWhaddaya want from me?"So I bought myself some denim pantsAnd a silver guitarBut I politely told the ladies"You'll still have to call me SirBecause I have to keep my self-respectI'll never be a starSince there's just two songs in meAnd this is Number Three"
https://youtu.be/UVXZBA6tJPA
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 12 March 2018 21:18 (six years ago) link
just went through Nilsson Schmilsson, which has several songs about singing songs or recording songs but i dont think anyone of them actually say "this song" at any point
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Monday, 12 March 2018 22:07 (six years ago) link
37 posts and no mention of the archetypal “this song”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwxXIPEW8aA
― Dan Worsley, Monday, 12 March 2018 22:28 (six years ago) link
Elton John - This Song Has No Title
― kornrulez6969, Monday, 12 March 2018 23:46 (six years ago) link
This is the song that doesn't endYes it goes on and on my friend. Some people started singing it, not knowing what it wasand they'll continue singing it forever just because (repeat)
(from the 90s reboot of Lamb Chop - Shari Lewis, not the band)
― gjoon1, Tuesday, 13 March 2018 00:37 (six years ago) link
Modest Mouse - Beach Side Property: "A message left on the forehead of God / Sent sealed and signed by the saints who sang / this song, this song .../ This song: / 'We're going union like they say...' "
-PiL, This is not a love song-Neil, This Note's For You (immortalizing Spuds MacKenzie). i think Neil wins the meta award for enjoying doing this in his songs the most-Fall, Mother-Sister: "What's this song about? -Er, nothing." Of course Mark gets meta a lot, e.g. NWRA where he complains about an imaginary cover of English Scheme as a love song with a grand piano, but i can't think of another song that references itself, exactly.
> Violent Femmes - Prove My Love
This is an slightly inferior copy of Ramones - Judy is a Punk, '2nd verse same as the first'
A cursory search turns up dozens and dozens of songs i don't know with "this song" as the full or partial title, including examples from George Harrison (terrible song), Isley Bros, Kid Cudi/Mary J Blige, Weird Al (Don't Download This Song), Backstreet Boys (Hey Mr DJ Keep Playin' This Song - pretty sure I have heard this), Grizzly Bear (I certainly have heard this but don't remember it), Monica, Meat Puppets, Fall Out Boy, System of a Down, Merle Haggard, NoFX, Black Crowes, Willie Nelson, etc.
― mig (guess that dreams always end), Tuesday, 13 March 2018 00:46 (six years ago) link
Pay TV - “Refrain Refrain”:
“Refrain refrain refrain refrainAnd we’re repeating it again again and again”
― Mr. Snrub, Tuesday, 13 March 2018 00:56 (six years ago) link
'Suffice To Say' by the Yachts is at, or near, the very top of this pile as far as I'm concerned.
― Migdalia Amygdala (Dr. Joseph A. Ofalt), Tuesday, 13 March 2018 04:45 (six years ago) link
The Damned - Love Song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc0och2Q_zg
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 13 March 2018 10:38 (six years ago) link
Sparks - When I'm With You
It's the break in the songWhen I should say something specialBut the pressure is on and I can't make up nothing specialNot when I'm with you
― mizzell, Tuesday, 13 March 2018 12:24 (six years ago) link
XTC - Mayor of Simpleton
"Well I don't know how to write a big hit song"
(note: "Mayor" was XTC's biggest hit in the U.S.!)
― Lee626, Tuesday, 13 March 2018 12:40 (six years ago) link
I agree that it's meta but I would question its inclusion in the "this song" tropespace.
Also I'm rethinking "Deacon Blues" rn. Basically because I was watching the "Classic Albums" documentary about Aja and it is posited that the speaker of the lyrics is a dreamy wannabe, and not an actual musician.
In that reading, the "this song" in the lyric "I cried when I wrote this song" is not Fagen literally saying that he cried when he wrote "Deacon Blues," even tongue-in-cheek. He has, rather, constructed a character whose fantasy is of being a super-hip saxophone player who takes one last drag as he approaches the bandstand, then presumes to blow that room away (rather like Paul Simon's character in "Late in the Evening").
The "this song" in that line is the impossibly sophisticated jazz number that the speaker of the song unleashes... in his fantasy of being a gifted musician. In reality he lives in his mom's basement and works at Radio Shack.
― I leprecan't even. (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 13 March 2018 13:15 (six years ago) link
...or so that reading of "DB" would indicate. Not necessarily coming down 100% for that interpretation but I find it intriguing.
Anyway "Mayor of Simpleton" is again sung from the viewpoint of a created character not synonymous with Partridge (who clearly can).
Some time ago I saw a play called "What I Did Last Summer," with an adolescent protagonist coming of age and trying out different ways of being; the last line of the play is "and so I wrote this play." Now THAT is a "this song."
― I leprecan't even. (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 13 March 2018 13:19 (six years ago) link
― mizzell
"this is the number one song in heaven"!
― ziggy the ginhead (rushomancy), Tuesday, 13 March 2018 13:24 (six years ago) link
Monty Python:
I bet you they won't play this song on the radioI bet you they won't play this new (bleep) songIt's not that it's (buzzer) or (horn) controversialJust that (bell)-ing words are awfully strong
You can't say (klaxon) on the radioOr (whip crack), or (arrow thud), or (croak)You can't even say I'd like to (güiro) you somedayUnless you're a doctor with a really large (doing)
So I bet you they won't play this song on the radioI bet you they don't (record rewind)-ing well program itI bet you those (kiosk chime)-ing old program directorsWill think it's a load of horse (fart)
― lana del boy (ledge), Tuesday, 13 March 2018 13:42 (six years ago) link
The Mountain Goats - "Cotton"
― Dangleballs and the Ballerina (cryptosicko), Tuesday, 13 March 2018 13:44 (six years ago) link
"Fire and Rain" y'all!
― ... (Eazy), Tuesday, 13 March 2018 14:15 (six years ago) link
GusGus goes extra meta in "Add This Song"
Add this song to your listPlay it til it no more exist
Through the pain of the snowIs there nowhere to goLike I'm stuck in the stateOf no state at all
As I wandered alone in the darkest nightHeard this song at the raveAnd it saved my life
(i did add it to my list)
― scanner darkly, Monday, 21 December 2020 23:04 (three years ago) link
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!
― Halfway there but for you, Monday, 21 December 2020 23:11 (three years ago) link
Edward Bear, “Last Song”It's the last song I'll ever write for youIt's the last time that I'll tell you Just how much I really careThis is the last song I'll ever sing for youYou'll come looking for the light And it won't be thereBut I love youOh yes I doYes I doAlso on this similar thread: songs that are about themselves
― Whamagideon Time (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 22 December 2020 00:27 (three years ago) link
John Prine, "Leave the Lights On"
This is just a long song, it ain't no poemLeave the lights on till your baby gets home
― Lily Dale, Tuesday, 22 December 2020 04:33 (three years ago) link
Brinsley Schwarz, “Love Song”This here is a love songI gotta get back to my baby's heart againThis here is a love songAnd I'm gonna sing it till I get back home
― Whamagideon Time (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 22 December 2020 04:41 (three years ago) link
Which is also mentioned on this similar thread: Songs that are aware of themselves
― Whamagideon Time (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 22 December 2020 04:45 (three years ago) link
Barenaked Ladies, "What A Good Boy"
I couldn't tell youI was wrongChickened out grabbed a pen and a paperSat down and I wrote this song
― Lily Dale, Tuesday, 22 December 2020 04:49 (three years ago) link
Tom Waits, "Hold On"
Down by the Riverside motelIt's ten below and fallingBy a ninety-nine cent storeShe closed her eyes and started swayingBut it's so hard to dance that wayWhen it's cold and there's no musicOh, your old hometown's so far awayBut inside your head there's a record that's playingA song called "Hold On"
― Lily Dale, Friday, 1 January 2021 23:23 (three years ago) link