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

Dido on Stan.

Paul Kelly going in-studio for rap group AB Original’s live radio coverpolation of his 26-year-old Dumb Things.

Songs in which the singer reads off a phone number:

Otis Redding - 634-5789

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

Pearl Jam - Corduroy, and surely many others

Original writer singing backup on cover:

Will Oldham on Johnny Cash I See a Darkness

Can't believe I just now remembered Jimmy Page on "Come With Me."

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

I can think of several examples that are close to this sentiment. Obviously "please don't put your life in the hands / of a rock and roll band" is at least related. So is "don't look to us / phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust."

Elvis Costello's "I Want to Vanish" is ostensibly from the perspective of someone - perhaps an old Delta blues or Appalachian folk legend - asking to NOT be recorded by what I guess is an Alan Lomax-like character.

I want to vanish
This is my fondest wish
To go where I cannot be captured
Laid on a decorated dish

The speaker seems to regard him- or herself as unfit for posterity. But it may be equally true that some art should be permitted to be transient. Putting it on record and fixing it in space and time would, effectively, be tantamount to murdering it. Let it be unheard and unbroadcast. Let us merely be happy that it ever happened at all, not be annoyed that it hasn't been preserved in a scratchy copy that robs it of life.

1981 songs referencing the stars of "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?":

"Joan Crawford" - Blue Oyster Cult
"Bette Davis Eyes" - Kim Carnes

my Christmas present is reading the above as meaning that kornrulez has gone 19 years thinking that Bonnie Prince Billy is a different guy for whom Will Oldham wrote songs.

my Christmas present is reading the above as meaning that kornrulez has gone 19 years thinking that Bonnie Prince Billy is a different guy for whom Will Oldham wrote songs.

What is this, amateur hour? Are you calling me a Bonnie Prince Billy bitch?

Is he not the man who wrote I See a Darkness? Is he not singing backup on the Johnny Cash cover version? Would that not fit the cover songs (or songs that interpolate bits of other songs) that feature newly-recorded backing vocals from the singer of the original song: theme?

see five posts above yours

oh fer crying out loud, that ILM app blows

Songs about the engineering trades and their practitioners (not including audio engineering)

The Electrician
Wichita Lineman

Casey Jones

Heh. John Henry?

Decemberists, "Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect"?

Oooh! Oooh! Fortress Around Your Heart.

if you count a tinker as a practitioner of the engineering trades, then at least part of tim hardin's "if i were a carpenter"

also about 10% of woody guthrie songs it sometimes seems

Songs in which the Beatles wish you a Happy Birthday

― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Thursday, August 2, 2018 11:20 PM (five months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWjRpsqbu7o

!

songs about the olden days when life was simpler and we had NO CELLPHONES:

Five For Fighting - Slice
("there was a time a long, long time ago/ Chevys and levees played on the radio/ no cell phones, just 20,000 lights/ swaying on a Saturday night, alright")

The Wreckers - My, Oh My
("songs were long, and gas was cheap/ no cellphones, and water was free/ daddy paid and I never had to worry")

Jim Jones - Blow It Up
("I was dealing crack when/ there was no cell phones and I swear it was iller back then/ it was beepers and street sweepers [...]")

jesus christ

arcade fire - we used to wait

Pretty sure this is the entirety of Everclear's AM Radio: "VCR and DVD, there was none of that crap back in 1970." It also mentions a "portable CD player."

I kinda want to call up Alex whatsis and ask him if he wants to rewrite the song now that those things don't really exist anymore either.

Songs about the engineering trades and their practitioners (not including audio engineering)

I would like to know of songs about audio engineering.

Not the same thing but there could be a whole thread about songs where the producer’s name or production company are mentioned in the song, usually at the beginning.

I kind of feel it’s a practice that started in Jamaica but I don’t know how to even cross-check that.

all of afropop to thread

Springsteen, "Ain't Good Enough For You"

I tried to change, I got a job in sales
I bought a shirt uptown in Bloomingdales
And babe I tried to make the latest scene
Hitting cool just like Jimmy Iovine

Can we have some songs about how cool it is to be a CEO of a multinational company?

Stan Ridgway - "I Wanna Be a Boss"

Responding to the previous question, the S&G Simple Desultory Phillipic has name drops for BOTH Roy Halee and Phil Spector. So an engineer / producer twofer.

You could also stretch "engineering" to include e.g. Casey Jones and Driver 8.

songs in which the singer snaps back at a cat caller

Negative Gemini - "Don't Worry Bout the Fuck I'm Doing"
Empress Of - "Kitty Kat"
TLC - "No Scrubs"

I feel like these all need to be individual threads. Condensing them all into this hodgepodge is a disservice to the culture.

"In My Former Country I Was Engineer" by the Ebb & Flow, which is a good song but he sure wasn't audio engineer, unless I have a somehow damaged out-of-phase download.

Peggy Seeger, "I'm Gonna Be an Engineer"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IGVxBb5uYk

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

should've included the vocal version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnIH51niqCY

The Flying Pickets did a good, spooky song called Monica Engineer

Songs in which the narrator communicates telepathically with their lover:
Golden Earring - “Radar Love”
Metric - “Satellite Mind”
Bad Brains - “Sacred Love”
...

Don't Speak / I know what you're thinking

J. Lowenstein with the riposte: https://genius.com/Sebadoh-mind-reader-lyrics

"Rocks Off"

Battle of the Children of the :
Grave
Sea
Damned

Songs whose narratives hinge upon mistaken identity:

“Silhouettes” – The Rays (and others)
“Hurricane” – Bob Dylan
“Billie Jean” – Michael Jackson*
“Oh Sweet Woods” – Fiery Furnaces
“It Wasn’t Me” – Shaggy*

*alleged

Songs that sound like Histoire de Melody Nelson:
Paper Tiger - Beck
Also others...

Songs listing the cities in which the party will be occurring tonight:

Dancing in the Streets - Martha & the Vandellas
All Over the World - Electric Light Orchestra
Keep This Party Going - The B-52's

(There's got to be more...)

T.I.’s verse on “We’re Taking Over”

Songs where the singer is in denial:

10CC - I'm Not In Love
John Waite - I Ain't Missing You
Flight of the Conchords - I'm Not Crying

Flowers on the Wall--Flowers on the Wall