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

This is such a stupid lazy songwriting trope.

Tell that to Bruce Fuckin' Springsteen!

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

otm. on an album of beautiful songs this is one of the stand outs. it is very stream of consciousness.

There's also "O Caroline" on the same album.

"David's on piano, and I may play on a drum
And we'll try to make the music work, we'll try to have some fun"

Robert Wyatt had been doing it since Soft Machine, "Moon In June":

"Just before we go on to the next part of our song
Let's all make sure we've got the time"

The BBC session version even more so

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."

Xp - the first three verses -

I can still remember
The last time we played on Top Gear
And though each little song
Was less than three minutes long
Mike squeezed a solo in... somehow
And although we like our longer tunes
It seemed polite to cut them down
To little bits - they might be hits
Who gives an... after all?
Tell me how would you feel
In the place of John Peel?
You just can't please
All of the musicians all the time

Playing now is lovely
Here in the BBC
We're free to play almost as long and as loud
As a jazz group, or an orchestra on Radio Three
There are dancehalls and theatres
With acoustics worse than here
Not forgetting the extra facilities
Such as the tea machine, just along the corridor
So to all our mates like Kevin,
Caravan, the old Pink Floyd
Allow me to recommend 'Top Gear'
Despite its extraordinary name
Yes, playing, playing now is lovely
Here in the BBC
We're free to play almost as long and as loud
As the foreign language classes... and the John Cage interview...
And the jazz groups... and the orchestras on Radio 3

Pop stars drink each others' wine
Plough each others' earth
Hoping for companionship
And then perhaps rebirth
Plant seeds in fresher plots of earth
Bound up in concepts and dreams
And fears of worse things to come
They never do
They stay the same
Music-making still
Performs a normal function
Background noise for people
Eating and talking and drinking and smoking
That's all right by us
Don't think that we're complaining
After all it's only leisure time, isn't it?

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 Tony
It's called Tony's Theme

Another Soft Machine, "As Long As He Lies Perfectly Still",

"Here's a song for Clean Machine Kev in Majorca"

did no one mention The Who's "Gettin' In Tune" yet?

I'm singing this note 'cause it fits in well
With the chords I'm playing
I can't pretend there's any meaning here
Or in the things I'm saying
But I'm in tune
Right in tune
I'm in tune
And I'm gonna tune
Right in on you

Captain Beefheart, "Tropical Hot Dog Night"

I’m playin’ this song
For all the young girls to come out
to meet the monster tonight

leon russell's "a song for you" may be the platonic ideal of this

keith urban "used to the pain" (first line: "and so i wrote this song for you")

5 royales, shirelles, etc. "dedicated to the one i love" ("this is dedicated to the one i love...")

Well then how about "This one goes out to the one I love / This one goes out to the one I've left behind"?

And Martina McBride:

This one's for the girls
Who've ever had a broken heart
Who've wished upon a shooting star
You're beautiful the way you are

Grimes Butterfly

Don't know this song
Sweeter than a sugar cane

Uncle Tupelo - Life Worth Livin'

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):

(...)

― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, March 13, 2018 6:36 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is such a stupid lazy songwriting trope.

― Mr. Snrub, Tuesday, March 13, 2018 6:51 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

tbf i did try to couch my stupid lazy attempt with the implication that it was the work of an earnest but youthful amateur!

This is a song about a superhero named Tony
It's called Tony's Theme

I read this as more of a recorded intro to the song than as part of the song itself.

R.E.M. - Untitled ("This song is here...")
Freedy Johnston - No Violins ("Here's a song...")

sisters of mercy
ballad of the absent mare

― scotti pruitti (wins), Monday, March 5, 2018 5:29 PM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oh the sisters of mercy, they are not departed or gone
They were waiting for me when I thought that I just can't go on
And they brought me their comfort and later they brought me this song
Oh I hope you run into them, you who've been travelling so long

R.E.M. - "He piloted this song in a plane like that one" (though I'd always heard "I volunteered this song" or "If I'm to tell this song")

It's unintelligible at any speed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn-f8PgLVjU

Has Robyn Hitchcock/Soft Boys been mentioned for “The Face of Death”?

They threw him out ‘cause he was wrong
And left him trapped inside this song

"We're Not Gonna Take It" goes

We've got the right to choose and
There ain't no way we'll lose it
This is our life, this is our song

The Mekons: Empire of the Senseless

This song promotes homosexuality
It's in a pretended family relationship with the others on this record
And on the charts and on the jukebox

Thee Headcoats - Punk Rock Ist Nicht Tot

― Colonel Poo, Monday, March 12, 2018 7:49 AM (one week ago)

I go verse chorus verse solo break chorus verse solo

^ thread adjacent

OMD - the beginning and the end

"This is where we reach the end"

Last song on the record

Die Antwoord's Enter the Ninja: "fuck, this is like the coolest song I ever heard in my whole life."

Weird to think that song made it into p4k's best songs of 2010 list

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.