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
Just yesterday mornin', they let me know you were goneSuzanne the plans they made put an end to youI walked out this morning and I wrote down this songI just can't remember who to send it to
― ... (Eazy), Tuesday, 13 March 2018 14:50 (six years ago) link
This is sort of related to the The Monty Python song:
Public Enemy - Bring the Noise
Radio stations I question their blacknessThey call themselves black, but we'll see if they'll play this
― haudrum, Tuesday, 13 March 2018 15:11 (six years ago) link
even more specific: songs where the singer says what "this song's about"
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 13 March 2018 16:42 (six years ago) link
The Yummy Fur - Roxy Girls "it's part 2 of Roxy Girls, where social commentary has all but dissolved" / "and this songs has not point at all"
― PaulTMA, Tuesday, 13 March 2018 16:55 (six years ago) link
Yes! And Father Ubu Says-- "Mark Gibbons and me fucking hate this song"
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, 13 March 2018 17:03 (six years ago) link
it's unclear, when robert pollard sings "i wrote a song once about her called 'the brides have hit glass'" in guided by voices' "the brides have hit glass," whether he's talking about *this* song called "the brides have hit glass" or some other song called "the brides have hit glass." the past tense construction suggests the latter. the fact that there's no record of a pre-existing gbv song with that title suggests the former. the fact that robert pollard by that point had probably written 2,642,791 songs that no one had ever heard suggests maybe the former after all. so maybe that one, but also maybe not that one.
― fact checking cuz, Tuesday, 13 March 2018 17:33 (six years ago) link
oops, penultimate sentence should say "...maybe the latter after all." obviously.
― fact checking cuz, Tuesday, 13 March 2018 17:34 (six years ago) link
This is a weeping songA song in which to weepWhile all the men and women sleepThis is a weeping songBut I won’t be weeping long
― ... (Eazy), Tuesday, 13 March 2018 17:54 (six years ago) link
Eazy, good catch on Fire & Rain
― I leprecan't even. (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 13 March 2018 18:43 (six years ago) link
belle & sebastian "judy and the dream of horses" makes the same move, except that the singer/writer of the song "judy and the dream of horses" implores the title character judy, in the lyrics of the song called "judy and the dream of horses," to write a song called "judy and the dream of horses"
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, 13 March 2018 19:17 (six years ago) link
Also, on "Get me away from here, I'm dying" he sings "I could only make you cry with these words."
― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Tuesday, 13 March 2018 20:14 (six years ago) link
There's one on the new Camp Cope, 'The Omen'
So I wrote you this songIt probably isn't as good as all the other sad ones
― Dinsdale, Tuesday, 13 March 2018 21:03 (six years ago) link
Everclear:
This is a song about SusanThis is a song about the girl next doorThis is a song about the everyday occurrences that make me feel like letting goYes I think we got a problemSo much for the afterglow
This is a song about SusanThis is a song about the way things areThis is a song about the scary things you see from the corner of your eyeDon't you wonder, why we never talk about the futureWe never talk about the futureWe never talk about the past anymoreWe never ask ourselves the questions to the answers that nobody even wants to knowGuess the honeymoon is over; so much for the afterglow
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 13 March 2018 21:21 (six years ago) link
also makes me think of this groaner from Pearl Jam:
Come to send, not condescend Transcendental consequencesTo transcend where we areWho are we? Who we areTrampled moss, on your souls Changes all, you're a part Seen it all, not at all Can't defend the command
Take me a for a rideBefore we leave
Circumstance, clappin' hands A driving wind's happenstance Off the track, in the mud That's the moss, in the aforementioned verse
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 13 March 2018 21:23 (six years ago) link
Go-Betweens:
"Feel so sure about our loveI'll write a song about us breaking up"
― ellaguru, Tuesday, 13 March 2018 22:23 (six years ago) link
lauryn hill "everything is everything"
i wrote these words for everyone who struggles in their youth
― dyl, Tuesday, 13 March 2018 22:24 (six years ago) link
Now this is a song all about howMy life got flipped, turned upside down
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 13 March 2018 22:31 (six years ago) link
Van Morrison, "Wavelength"
This is a song about your wavelengthAnd my wavelength, baby
― I leprecan't even. (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 13 March 2018 22:33 (six years ago) link
...and if that works then maybe we should look at folk songs that begin like "gather round and I will tell you of..."
Tom Lehrer: "Gather round while I sing you of Wernher Von Braun..."
Trad: "Oh have you heard tell of sweet Betsy from Pike..."
Beverly Hillbillies theme: "Tell you a little story bout a man named Jed..."
― I leprecan't even. (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 13 March 2018 22:35 (six years ago) link
but getting back to the meta asides rather than the "o muse, help me sing of the tale of..." intro (lol xpost), i myself was once guilty of this in the concluding track of the first and only completed Doctor Casino album (written when i was idk 23 or 24 fwiw):
So the wind will sing in my ear like a bottleIf I tilt my head just soAnd ease back on the throttleGot music and groceries;I'm open to belongAnd nothing that I've given is goneBut if there's nothing wrong,is there still need for singing these songs?I'm a bicycle, I dodge obstacles, yeah yeah
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 13 March 2018 22:36 (six years ago) link
This is such a stupid lazy songwriting trope.
― Mr. Snrub, Tuesday, 13 March 2018 22:51 (six years ago) link
Tell that to Bruce Fuckin' Springsteen!
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Tuesday, 13 March 2018 22:53 (six years ago) link
Matching Mole's 'Signed Curtain' is the ultimate example of this of course.― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Monday, March 5, 2018 10:39 AM (one week ago) Bookmark
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Monday, March 5, 2018 10:39 AM (one week ago) Bookmark
otm. on an album of beautiful songs this is one of the stand outs. it is very stream of consciousness.
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 13 March 2018 23:43 (six years ago) link
There's also "O Caroline" on the same album.
"David's on piano, and I may play on a drumAnd we'll try to make the music work, we'll try to have some fun"
― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), Tuesday, 13 March 2018 23:46 (six years ago) link
Robert Wyatt had been doing it since Soft Machine, "Moon In June":
"Just before we go on to the next part of our songLet's all make sure we've got the time"
― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), Tuesday, 13 March 2018 23:49 (six years ago) link
The BBC session version even more so
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, 13 March 2018 23:51 (six years ago) link
Paul McCartney gets close in "Here Today" ("you were here today, for you were in my song"). Billy Joel MUST have done this but all I can think of besides "a song" in "Piano Man" (a stretch) is "Famous Last Words," which does everything but say "song."
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 13 March 2018 23:51 (six years ago) link
Xp - the first three verses -I can still rememberThe last time we played on Top GearAnd though each little songWas less than three minutes longMike squeezed a solo in... somehowAnd although we like our longer tunesIt seemed polite to cut them downTo little bits - they might be hitsWho gives an... after all?Tell me how would you feelIn the place of John Peel?You just can't pleaseAll of the musicians all the timePlaying now is lovelyHere in the BBCWe're free to play almost as long and as loudAs a jazz group, or an orchestra on Radio ThreeThere are dancehalls and theatresWith acoustics worse than hereNot forgetting the extra facilitiesSuch as the tea machine, just along the corridorSo to all our mates like Kevin,Caravan, the old Pink FloydAllow me to recommend 'Top Gear'Despite its extraordinary nameYes, playing, playing now is lovelyHere in the BBCWe're free to play almost as long and as loudAs the foreign language classes... and the John Cage interview...And the jazz groups... and the orchestras on Radio 3Pop stars drink each others' winePlough each others' earthHoping for companionshipAnd then perhaps rebirthPlant seeds in fresher plots of earthBound up in concepts and dreamsAnd fears of worse things to comeThey never doThey stay the sameMusic-making stillPerforms a normal functionBackground noise for peopleEating and talking and drinking and smokingThat's all right by usDon't think that we're complainingAfter all it's only leisure time, isn't it?
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, 13 March 2018 23:54 (six years ago) link
Pixies - Subbacultcha
'This is a song about something there There is something about this song'
The Frank and Walters - this is not a song
― neilasimpson
Also Pixies - Tony’s Theme
This is a song about a superhero named TonyIt's called Tony's Theme
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 14 March 2018 00:01 (six years ago) link
Another Soft Machine, "As Long As He Lies Perfectly Still",
"Here's a song for Clean Machine Kev in Majorca"
― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), Wednesday, 14 March 2018 00:10 (six years ago) link
did no one mention The Who's "Gettin' In Tune" yet?
I'm singing this note 'cause it fits in wellWith the chords I'm playingI can't pretend there's any meaning hereOr in the things I'm sayingBut I'm in tuneRight in tuneI'm in tuneAnd I'm gonna tuneRight in on you
― piper at the gates of d'awwww (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 14 March 2018 00:20 (six years ago) link
Captain Beefheart, "Tropical Hot Dog Night"
I’m playin’ this songFor all the young girls to come out to meet the monster tonight
― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), Wednesday, 14 March 2018 00:23 (six years ago) link
leon russell's "a song for you" may be the platonic ideal of this
― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, 14 March 2018 01:49 (six years ago) link
keith urban "used to the pain" (first line: "and so i wrote this song for you")
― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, 14 March 2018 01:53 (six years ago) link