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New category suggestion: Self-referential songs


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It has been suggested that Bob Dylan wrote and sung

Like a Rolling Stone

about himself.

"How does it feel

How does it feel

To be on your own

With no direction home

Like a complete unknown

Like a rolling stone?"

then

A songwriter writing about songwriters -

Who Put The Bomp (in the Bomp, Bomp, Bomp) - Barry Mann - co-written with Gerry Goffin

"I'd like to thank the guy who wrote the song

that made my baby fall in love with me...

Who put the bomp in the bomp-a-bomp-a-bomp

Who put the ram in the ram-a-lam-a-ding-dong

Who put the bop in the bop-she-bop-she-bop

Who put the dip in the dip-de-dip-de-dip

Who was that man, I'd like to shake his hand

He made my baby fall in love with me (yeah!)

When my baby heard bomp-bomp-a-bomp-a-bomp-bo-bomp-bomp

Every word went right into her heart

And when she heard them singing ram-a-lama-lama-lama-lama-ding-dong

She said we'd never have to part"

another

Rolling Stones song is

Jigsaw Puzzle

"Me, I'm waiting so patiently, Lying on the floor; I'm just trying to do my jig-saw puzzle, Before it rains anymore"

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This is that new song ~ Badly Drawn Boy

And if i knew the answers i would tell you now

Just what would be the chances that i could show you how

If i knew where all the tears were coming from

Add up all the years that you've been gone

This is that new song

I told you about 20 years ago

Do you know what true romance is and could you show me now

Just what would be the chances that i could tell you how

If i knew where all the tears were flowing to

Guide them to a river where i'd swim with you downstream

This is that old dream i told you about 20 years ago

And could you hold me now

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You Can All Join In --Traffic

Here's a little song you can all join in with

It's very simple and I hope it's new

Make your own words up if you want to

Any old words that you think will do

------

This Note's For You -- Neil Young

Ain't singin' for Pepsi

Ain't singin' for Coke

I don't sing for nobody

Makes me look like a joke

This note's for you.

Ain't singin' for Miller

Don't sing for Bud

I won't sing for politicians

Ain't singin' for Spuds

This note's for you.

------

Sing This All Together -- The Rolling Stones

Why don't we sing this song all together?

Open our heads let the pictures come

And if we close all our eyes together

Then we will see where we all come from

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  • 5 weeks later...

"For Milton Mapes" - The Broken Family Band

Take yourself back to your boyfriend

And tell him what you just told me

See if he finds it amusing

Let me know if he and I would agree

You can't build a life on this,

You can't live your life like this

Breaking stealing cheating hiding wanting waiting wanting

Save your energy for someone

More inclined to sit around

Run away to your friends

All those hair-cut kids on the indie-rock underground

They can't write songs like this

They can't sing songs about this

Breaking stealing cheating hiding wanting waiting wanting

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  • 2 weeks later...

"Rock Me Amadeus" by Falco is another song that refers to itself (not to mention the artist) by name:

1985, Austrian rock singer Falco records

"Rock Me Amadeus"

umm... that's not part of the lyrics though, is it?

at least not in the version I know

:confused:

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re: Rock Me Amadeus; Actually it is. I heard this on the radio a couple of weeks ago. Before I had thought it was only in the video.

How about artists referring to themselves, like Chaka Khan in "I feel for You" and Wang Chung in "Everybody Have Fun Tonight?"

Edited by Guest
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re: Rock Me Amadeus; Actually it is. I heard this on the radio a couple of weeks ago. Before I had thought it was only in the video.

There were actually 2 versions of this song, the original version was recorded in German, and also used in the video. A separate remixed version was released for radio airplay in the U.S., and this is the version with the lyrics you cited. Rock Me Amadeus German & U.S. remix lyrics

It would be deja vu all over again 11 years later when Macarena by Los del Rio, a Spanish-language song that became a world-wide sensation, became a U.S. hit only with the release of a remix featuring English lyrics by the Bayside Boys.

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