| Author | Message | ||
     Paul Swinford Member Username: Prema Post Number: 7 Registered: 11-2005 |
Considering our Western celebrity-obsessed culture, how about a list of songs about famous people, or characters from literature? Obviously, we have the Go-Betweens' "Lee Remick" and "Caroline and I". Let me kick the ball first... "Elizabeth Montgomery's Face" by The Embarrassment a homage to the star of the TV sitcom 'Bewitched' "God Save the Queen" by the Sex Pistols, of course Others? | ||
| Mark Sweeney Member Username: Domestique Post Number: 3 Registered: 04-2005 |
Just a couple off the top of my head: Hefner also did a song called Lee Remick a few years back. Er, Clara Bow, 50 Foot Wave's homage to "The 'It' Girl" And the legendary Charlton Heston by Stump (Charlton Heston put his vest on!) | ||
| Hardin Smith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 178 Registered: 03-2006 |
These would all probably be too obscure anywhere else but this board: St. Louise is Listening - Soul Coughing (about Louise Brooks) Marlene on the Wall - Suzanne Vega Gary Gilmore's Eyes - the Adverts David Duchovny - Bree Sharp Victoria - the Kinks | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 260 Registered: 03-2005 |
Hooray for "Gary Gilmore's Eyes"! | ||
| Mark Sweeney Member Username: Domestique Post Number: 4 Registered: 04-2005 |
A song about Louise Brooks? Where do I get it? | ||
| Hardin Smith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 179 Registered: 03-2006 |
It's on, I believe, the disc "El Oso", but I must warn you, it's only tangentially about her, (though I guess that's true of my other entries, too). | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 220 Registered: 04-2005 |
"I Shot Sarah Lucas" - Luke Haines "Andy Warhol" - David Bowie "Songs for Drella" - Reed/Cale (most of the songs on the album) "New Age" - Velvet Underground (unnamed female star, plus Robert Mitchum mention) "Tom Courtenay" - Yo La Tengo There are many anti-Thatcher songs; "Tramp the Dirt Down" (Costello), "Stand Down Margaret" (the English Beat), "Mother Knows Best" (Richard Thompson), etc. "Johnny Carson" - The Beach Boys Just a few that come to mind; there are loads of others. | ||
| Hardin Smith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 181 Registered: 03-2006 |
Morrissey must have buttloads of celeb-related songs, though I can't think of any...didn't he write one about the Moors Murderers? | ||
| Andrewnz Member Username: Andrewnz Post Number: 12 Registered: 08-2005 |
Song for Randy Newman by The Chills | ||
| Eke Member Username: Ekewebb Post Number: 52 Registered: 05-2005 |
"Robert De Niro's Waiting" by Bananarama "Michael Caine" by Madness "Joan of Arc" and "Maid Of Orleans" by OMD "Seconds" and "Tom Baker" by Human League "Black Man Ray" by China Crisis "Jackie Wilson Said" by Van Morrison "Geno" by Dexys | ||
| Eke Member Username: Ekewebb Post Number: 53 Registered: 05-2005 |
And I forgot that bickering couple:- "William, It Was Really Nothing" - The Smiths "Stephen, You're Still Really Something" - The Associates | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 214 Registered: 08-2004 |
Suedehead is also about Billy MacKenzie. When Smokey Sings - ABC Nightshift - The Commodores Right On - The Pasadenas Come On Eileen - Dexy's Song For Bob Dylan - Bowie Lenny Bruce, Just Like A Woman, Joey, Hurricaine - Dylan There's a lot when you start thinking about it & not all good. Candle In The Wind for instance is so shit it's about 2 people depending on the occasion, 2 of the most tragic women in history, Elton & David Furnish. Eke, who's Black Man Ray about? | ||
| abigail law Member Username: Abigail Post Number: 59 Registered: 06-2005 |
eulegy to lenny bruce - nico bob dylan blues - syd barrett terry waite sez - the fall dickie davies eyes - hmhb (also i hate nerys hughes) missing boy - durutti column (about ian curtis) erotic - madonna (bill odie, bill odie, put your hands all over my body) at least i think that's what she sings | ||
| Eke Member Username: Ekewebb Post Number: 54 Registered: 05-2005 |
Jerry Black Man Ray is about Man Ray... http://www.manraytrust.com/ | ||
| Eke Member Username: Ekewebb Post Number: 55 Registered: 05-2005 |
Or I always thought it was anyway. Mind you I was half convinced it was about Robert Mapplethorpe as well for some reason. | ||
| Matthias Treml Member Username: Matthias Post Number: 72 Registered: 05-2005 |
River - Natalie Merchant - one of the most beautiful, wrenching songs ever | ||
| Matt Ellis Member Username: Matt_ellis Post Number: 83 Registered: 11-2004 |
'Don't Want To Be Grant McLennan' by Smudge | ||
| Andy Robinson Member Username: Andyblue Post Number: 16 Registered: 03-2005 |
Beat me to it, Matt! I've got that too. Also found in my CD collection Johnny Mathis Feet - American Music Club Brian Wilson and Be My Yoko Ono - Bare Naked Ladies Like Dylan in the Movies - Belle and Sebastian Long Live Neil Young and All Who Sail in Him and In Bed With Paul Weller - Biff Bang Pow God's Footballer - Billy Bragg (about a footballer who gave it all up to become a Jehovah's Witness) and tenuously Levi Stubbs Tears Lev Bronstein - The Redskins Perry Como - The High Llamas and while on a Microdisney theme Blues for Ceaucescu - The Fatima Mansions Elegy for Johnny Cash - Jackie leven Al Bowllys on Heaven - Richard Thompson When Harpo Played his Harp, Pablo Picasso and Walter Johnson - Jonathan Richman and finally I Am the Greatest by A House which lists loads . . . I really should have gotten ou tonight . . . | ||
| Andy Robinson Member Username: Andyblue Post Number: 17 Registered: 03-2005 |
Abigail - the thought of Bill Oddie pawing Madonna is a thought too far | ||
| Mark Tuffield Member Username: Mark_t Post Number: 31 Registered: 05-2005 |
the bodines - William Shatner | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 217 Registered: 08-2004 |
http://www.rathergood.com/bill/ There you go Abigail, your suspicions were correct. | ||
| Andy Robinson Member Username: Andyblue Post Number: 18 Registered: 03-2005 |
Exactly . . . | ||
| Mark Murphy Member Username: Murph Post Number: 6 Registered: 05-2005 |
One of my favourite bands, Television Personalities, have recorded lots of songs about "celebrities" . . . there is a Go-Betweens link . . . I saw Robert Forster at a Television Personalities gig at a pub in Dalston, London, back in the eighties! A Picture of Dorian Gray An Exhibition By Joan Miro As John Belushi Said David Hockney's Diaries Evan Doesn't Ring Me Anymore God Snaps His Fingers The Grocer's Daughter (Margaret Thatcher) I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives I Remember Bridget Riley Lichtenstein Painting Little Woody Allen Salvador Dali's Garden Party Where's Bill Grundy Now? You, Me And Lou Reed Not forgetting their album "They Could Have Been Bigger Than The Beatles". And that's just their songs with the name-check in the song title! | ||
| Peter Collins Member Username: Tyroneshoelaces Post Number: 104 Registered: 05-2005 |
I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape by The Times. Pat Nevin's Eyes by The Tractors Bela Lugosi's Dead by Bauhaus I Hate Nerys Hughes; 99% of Gargoyles Look Like Bob Todd; The Len Ganley Stance; I Love You Because (You Look Like Jim Reeves) all by Half Man Half Biscuit | ||
| Geoff Holmes Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 94 Registered: 05-2005 |
Bill Drummond Says - Julian Cope The Beatles and the Stones - House of Love | ||
| Rob Robinson Member Username: Rsub8 Post Number: 51 Registered: 05-2005 |
- John Hiatt, No More Dancing In The Streets (the Bee-Gees and Martha and the Vandellas) - Edwyn Collins - Gorgeous George - Lloyd Cole, Perfect Skin (Greta Garbo) - Lloyd Cole, Rattlesnakes (Eva Marie Saint) - Fingerprintz, Beam Me Up, Scotty - The Strawbs, Alexander The Great (The Beatles and The Stones) - Genesis, Broadway Melody of 1974 (Lenny Bruce, Marshall McLuhan, Groucho Marx, Ku Klux Klan, Caryl Chessman, Howard Hughes) - which reminds me: Steel Pulse, Ku Klux Klan - Jim’s Big Ego, Asshole (to hear the song, google asshole and click top hit) - Frank Zappa, Punky’s Whips (Punky Meadows) - Minutemen, Political Song For Michael Jackson To Sing | ||
| Rob Robinson Member Username: Rsub8 Post Number: 52 Registered: 05-2005 |
A couple more: - The Wedding Present, George Best - The Tragically Hip, Courage For Hugh MacLennan - The Postal Service, Sleeping In (John F. Kennedy) - The Dickies, I’m Stuck In A Pagoda With Tricia Toyota - The Stranglers, No More Heroes (Leon Trotsky) - Be-Bop Deluxe, Jean Cocteau - X, Back 2 The Base (Elvis Presley, apparently) - Robyn Hitchcock, The Yip Song (Vera Lynn) - O.M.D., Enola Gay (ok, an “infamous” airplane, not person or character) - The Boomtown Rats, Me and Howard Hughes - The Boomtown Rats, I Never Loved Eva Braun - Leonard Cohen, Chelsea Hotel (Janis Joplin) - Pete Shelley, Keats’ Song - Microdisney, Mrs. Simpson - Microdisney, Michael Murphy - Magazine, Philadelphia (Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov) - Fatima Mansions, Viva Dead Ponies (“Jesus”) - Mission Of Burma, Max Ernst - The Long Ryders, Harriet Tubman’s Gonna Carry Me Home | ||
| Andy Robinson Member Username: Andyblue Post Number: 26 Registered: 03-2005 |
Coming to the end of this one - who (or what) is Tricia Toyota - the only Tricia I know drives a Peugeot. And if we're talking JC what about "I am the Resurrection" by The Stone Roses. Incidentally there's an advert on BBC 3 at the moment preparing for an Easter Tale of "The Manchester Passion" which is apparently the story of Jesus told through the music of Manchester. How safe dare they be? I already hear the furore of playing "Suffer Little Children" by The Smiths! Clearly safety will be played with said Stone Roses track and Hallelujah by Happy Mondays etc. | ||
| Rob Robinson Member Username: Rsub8 Post Number: 53 Registered: 05-2005 |
Andy: Tricia Toyota (the spelling of her name in the Dickies song) was a prominent newscaster in Los Angeles (KCBS-TV) viewed by hundreds of thousands if not millions of folks. For many years. Google the name... | ||
| Mark Tuffield Member Username: Mark_t Post Number: 33 Registered: 05-2005 |
Rob: Enola Gay was the mother of Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the aircraft. | ||
| Rob Robinson Member Username: Rsub8 Post Number: 54 Registered: 05-2005 |
Mark: D'oh! Thank you for the info. I stand corrected... Anyway, I remembered another one: - Chris Spedding, Guitar Jamboree (Albert King, Leslie West, Jimi Hendrix, Jack Bruce, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Paul Kossoff, Chuck Berry, Pete Townsend, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Robert Cray) (The jamboree's "participants" are different for the live and studio versions.) | ||
| Mark Tuffield Member Username: Mark_t Post Number: 35 Registered: 05-2005 |
You are welcome Rob, I know what those D’oh moments are like. |