Songs with reference to real people.

[tangerinedream]

Songs that refer to real life people please. There's the obvious stuff like Don Maclean's American Pie, (Buddy Holly) but I'd like more obscure stuff and obscure people.

Codebreaker by the lovely Tunng has a reference to 'Watson and Crick' - the two chappies that cracked the DNA code mystery type thing as google told me.

Belle and Sebastian have loads, the two I can think of straight away are Paula Wilcox (Photo Jenny) and Judy Blume and Jack Kerouac (La Pastie de la Bourgeoisie)

Smiths 'Cemetary Gates' Keats, Yates, Wilde and someone else? Havn't heard it for ages.

Archers of Loaf's 'Ethel Merman' has reference to, duh... Ethel Merman and Johnny Franklin, who is if I am not wrong, some sort of jazz musician, played with Beefheart or someone like that. Eric points out in this song that he is warbling and balding and doesn't like the Beatles song. What Beatles song is unclear, but really, you should seek it out.

I really liked an Idlewild song that referred to Gertrude Stein. No idea what it's called though.

Could go on I reckon, but bed beckons.

 

[tangerinedream]

Had to add Hefner - who had a track along the lines of 'the day that Thatcher dies' - which I am fairly sure wasn't about ex Wimbledon defender Ben Thatcher.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Debbie Gibson is Pregnant With My Two Headed Love Child - Mojo Nixon and
Skid Roper

Debbie Gibson is pregnant, with my two headed love child
It's a bigfoot baby, all covered in fur now
Stark raving naked in the fornication nation

We were secretly married out in Las Vegas
At a little bitty chapel, Joan Collins married us
Rootin tootin, ain't high falutin'

Rick Astley is a pantywaist, mash my butt in his face
He's teeny tiny two inches of terror, they're all gonna scare you
Hairbrained cockamamie knuckleheaded idjit galoot

No truth to the rumour about Spuds and Debbie G
Only went to the motel, just to watch a little TV
Hate that dog, he must die



T-T-T-T-T-Tiffany, is wrestling in jello
Body slamming Debbie G, they're covered head to tow
Hard on, my hard on



I'm stark raving naked in the fornication nation
Stark raving naked in the fornication nation

 

[BassJunkie]

Grateful Dead - That's It For the Other One (Neal Cassady)
Neil Young - Hey Hey My My (Johnny Rotten)

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Moody Blues - Timothy Leary's Dead

 

[tangerinedream]

Mogwai's instrumental - Hugh Dallas, named after a scottish referee

 

[BassJunkie]

Television Personalities - I know where Syd Barrett lives.

 

[Leica]

Bauhaus, Bela Lugosi's Dead
Bob Dylan, Hurricane
Lou Reed, The Day John Kennedy Died

 

[jugularvein]

fun lovin criminals - love unlimited. barry white saved my life etc...

 

[laptop]

There's some squabbling over who is the male in the song with the refrain ""You're so vain, bet you think this song is about you"

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

There's some squabbling over who is the male in the song with the refrain ""You're so vain, bet you think this song is about you"

I heard, Warren Beatty.

 

[trashpony]

Carly Simon's You'ren so /vain is aobut warrenbeaatty


soz am a bitspiseesed

 

[Reno]

Rufus Wainwright's Natasha is about actress and junkie Natasha Lyonne.

Martha Wainwright's Bloody Motherfucking Asshole is about her dad, Loudon Wainwright III.

William, It Was Really Nothing by The Smith's is about Billy Mackenzie.

Stephen, You Were Really Something by The Associates is about Morrissey.

Ra-Ra-Rasputin by Boney M. is about....

 

[Leica]

and Andy's Chest by the Velvet Underground was about... guess who.

 

[laptop]

I think Joni Mitchell's "Michael, Michael, Superman" is about an old friend.

But there's competition for that, too.

 

[BassJunkie]

and Andy's Chest by the Velvet Underground was about... guess who.

That's a great choon!

 

[Leica]

on the subject of actors/actresses

Noir Désir, Marlene
Kim Carnes, She's Got Betty Davis' Eyes
Elton John, Candle In the Wind

 

[Stigmata]

Man on the Moon- Andy Kaufman

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Mike Mcgear - The Man Who Found God On the Moon - about astronaut Alan B Shepard.

 

[Leica]

does anyone remember France Gall's Ella elle l'a? About Ella Fitzgerald.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Bob Dylan, The Death of Emmett Till.

 

[Leica]

...and Lou Reed's Lady Day, about Billie Holiday.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Joan Baez, Joe Hill

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Teenage Fanclub, Ballad of John and Yoko.

 

[i_hate_beckham]

Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Californication (mentions Kurt Cobain)
Lynard Syknard - Sweet Home Alabama (mentions Neil Young)
Fun Lovin' Criminals - King of New York (about mafia boss John Gotti)
Weezer - Buddy Holly (mentions Buddy Holly *shock* and Mary Tyler Moore)
New Radicals - Get What You Give (mentions Beck Hanson Courtney Love and Marilyn Manson)
Simon and Garfunkel - Mrs Robinson (mentions Joe DiMaggio)
Weezer - Sweater Song (mentions Green Day)
Rage Adainst the Machine - Wake Up (mentions J. Edgar Hoover)

and i'm fairly sure The Shamen - Ebeneezer Good is about a real person because i can't think of anything else it could be about.

 

[Cid]

and Andy's Chest by the Velvet Underground was about... guess who.

While we're on that...

Andy Warhol - David Bowie...

 

[machine cat]

There are many by the Manics:

"Kevin Carter"
"The Love of Richard Nixon"
Many revolutionaries/dictators mentioned in "Revol"
"Baby Elian"
The entire chorus of "Archives of Pain" is purely the names of serial killers.

Some more but i can't think of them right now.

 

[Artie Fufkin]

REM's 'It's The End Of The World As We Know It' name-checks Leonard Bernstein, Leonid Breshnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs.

also, Foo Fighters 'There Goes My Hero' is about Kurt Cobain...

 

[souljacker]

Reasons to be Cheerful mentions Wee Willie Harris!


And as for Half Man Half Biscuit, theres hardly a tune of theirs that doesn't mention a celeb of some sort.

 

[montevideo]

Debbie Gibson is Pregnant With My Two Headed Love Child - Mojo Nixon and
Skid Roper

talking of which the dead milkmen's 'punk rock girl':

"And security guards trailed us
To a record shop
We asked for Mojo Nixon
They said "He don't work here"
We said "If you don't got Mojo Nixon
Then your store could use some fixin"

plus the new bad things namechecking:
andy warhol (who sucks) lou reed, sterling morrison, mo tucker, john cale (& he's welsh), nietzche, john wayne, elvis presley, brian eno, david bowie, tom jones (who all suck)

plus their classy 'goethes letter to vic chesnut'