Losing My Namedrop Edge

September 14, 2012 10:59 AM

Looking for namedrop/shoutout songs like LCD Soundsystem's "Losing My Edge", Daft Punk's "Teachers", and Scooter's "Hyper Hyper".

What these songs all have in common is a section (or the entire song) where the lyrics are a list of musical influences. Are there other songs like these?

("Hyper Hyper" and "Teachers" have both been dissected on the Blue)

posted by LSK to media & arts (21 answers total)

Parris Mitchell's Ghetto Shoutout
posted by hellojed at 11:09 AM on September 14, 2012

Le Tigre - Hot Topic
posted by capricorn at 11:12 AM on September 14, 2012 [4 favorites]

Not necessarily positive shout-outs, but there are these two:

Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip Thou Shalt Always Kill.

Dead Milkmen You'll Dance to Anything.
posted by Ms. Toad at 11:15 AM on September 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

Thanx Dub by Sublime is pretty much entirely made up of a series of shoutouts, many of which are musical influences.
posted by burnmp3s at 11:33 AM on September 14, 2012

KMFDM's "Sucks" includes a section on artists they don't like (the song as whole, with a chorus of "KMFDM sucks," is about how they themselves are a pretty crappy band).
posted by infinitywaltz at 11:35 AM on September 14, 2012

The Hold Steady's entire oeuvre is Name-Drop City, USA. But if I had to pick a representative tune, it'd be "Girls Like Status".
posted by julthumbscrew at 11:36 AM on September 14, 2012

Edan - Fumbling Over Words That Rhyme
posted by carsonb at 11:41 AM on September 14, 2012

Stevie Wonder, "Sir Duke":

There's Basie, Miller, Satchmo,
And the king of all, Sir Duke!
And with a voice like Ella's ringing out,
There's no way the band can lose!
posted by mkultra at 11:44 AM on September 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

There's a fair bit in Pigeon John - Growing Old
posted by echo target at 11:46 AM on September 14, 2012

Rancid's "Wrongful Suspicion". Includes a shout-out to the amazingly-named Simon and the BAR Sinisters. Nothing for Underdog though. He probably had too much taste to get involved in the ska scene.
posted by yerfatma at 11:46 AM on September 14, 2012

Do anti-shout-outs count? Try Mylo's Destroy Rock & Roll (lyrics)
posted by juliplease at 11:48 AM on September 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

Cornershop's Brimful of Asha (God, I love this song) name drops a number of Indian background singers from Bollywood movies, particularly at the sequence in the middle.

The Clash's Hitsville UK doesn't reference bands, but rather independent record labels.
posted by Paper rabies at 11:56 AM on September 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

There's a ton of this in country music. The South's Gonna Do It Again by Charlie Daniels, for example.
posted by jquinby at 11:59 AM on September 14, 2012

Arthur Conley - Sweet Soul Music mentions Lou Rawls, Sam & Dave, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding (Singing fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa), and James Brown.
posted by .kobayashi. at 12:02 PM on September 14, 2012

Oh, and of course: Luckenbach, Texas.
posted by Ms. Toad at 12:10 PM on September 14, 2012

Tullycraft's Pop Songs Your New Boyfriend's Too Stupid to Know About.
posted by tulseluper at 12:59 PM on September 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

Oh, one more that lists the music collection of a late-80's hipster: The Pooh Sticks' On Tape.
posted by Paper rabies at 1:22 PM on September 14, 2012

Darrell Scott's "Long Time Gone":

"We listen to the radio to hear what's cookin?
But the music ain't got no soul

Now they sound tired but they don't sound Haggard
They've got money but they don't have Cash
They got Junior but they don't have Hank"

David Allen Coe's "You Never Even Called Me by My Name":

"You don't have to call me Waylon Jennings
And you don't have to call me Charlie Pride.
You don't have to call me Merle Haggard, anymore.
Even though your on my fightin' side."

Also his "Willie and Waylon and Me."

Arthur Conley, the entirety of "Sweet Soul Music" -- name-checks Lou Rawls, Sam and Dave, Wilson Pickett and James Brown.

Don McLean, “American Pie."

And yes, you are ceretainly (as suggested by Ms. Toad) looking for "You'll Dance to Anything," by The Dead Milkmen.
posted by MonkeyToes at 4:34 PM on September 14, 2012

Simon And Garfunkel's "A Simple Desultory Phillipic" is nothing but names, including the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger.

And oh my God, how have I repressed "Life Is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)"?

FM, AM, hits are clickin' while the clock is tock-a-tickin'
Friends and Romans, salutations, Brenda and the Tabulations
Carly Simon, I behold her, Rolling Stones and centerfoldin'
Johnny Cash and Johnny Rivers, can't stop now, I got the shivers
Mungo Jerry, Peter Peter Paul and Paul and Mary Mary
Dr. John the nightly tripper, Doris Day and Jack the Ripper
Gotta go Sir, gotta swelter, Leon Russell, Gimme Shelter
Miracles in Smokey places, slide guitars and Fender basses
Mushroom omelet, Bonnie Bramlett, Wilson Pickett, stop and kick it

That's a single verse, mind you...
posted by MonkeyToes at 5:26 PM on September 14, 2012

Last one, I swear -- how about Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros, "Global A-Go-Go"? (Lyrics.)

"Throwdown Stray Cat strut in Bulawayo - hey, Bulawayo
Buddy Rich in Burundi
Quadrophenia in Armenia
Armenia City In The Sky
Big Youth booming in Djkarta
Nina Simone over Sierra Leone
Wild sound of Joujouka in Nevada - hey, Joujouka
Everywhere, everywhere Bob's bringing it all back home"
posted by MonkeyToes at 5:39 PM on September 14, 2012

Taxi Driver by Gym Class Heroes
posted by dogwalker at 11:14 AM on September 15, 2012