Acts referencing their older songs.

[Jockice]

Just been watching Top Of The Pops from 1983. The Thompson Twins were on with Love On Your Side. I don't like it or them much (a token chick, a token black guy and a token twat) but I quite like the bit where Tom goes: "I played you all my favorite records," followed by the riff from In The Name Of Love.

So your task tonight is to name some others that do similar stuff whether musically or lyrically. My starter is my favourite Pulp track, Cocaine Socialism, which contains the fantastic line: "Well you sing about common people and the mis-shapes and the misfits. Can you bring them to our party and get them all to sniff this?"

And then there's The Undertones with More Songs About Chocolate And Girls. "Or teenage dreams, they're surely worth a mention." I'm also sure there's a Smiths one but can't quite place it at the moment.

So over to you.

[non capisco]

The Joker by Steve Miller Band, that's my well cool bleeding edge example. He previously recorded songs called The Space Cowboy, Gangster Of Love and Enter Maurice (fnarr)

[Jim_MacLaine]

"I told you about Strawberry Fields
You know the place where nothing is real"

"I told you about the walrus and me, man
You know that we're as close as can be, man"

"I told you about the fool on the hill
I tell you, man, he's living there still"

Glass Onion by Les Beatles

[Clatty McCutcheon]

There's also the brief snatch of "She Loves You" sung at the end of "All You Need is Love".

The callback to Major Tom in "Ashes to Ashes" is another well-known one.

There's definitely a few more obscure ones that, annoyingly, I'm not able to bring to mind at the moment.

[Famous Mortimer]

Digital Underground - "The Humpty Dance"

I sang on Doowhutchalike, and if ya missed it
I'm the one who said, "Just grab 'em in the biscuits"

[Steven88]

Paint a Vulgar Picture references You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby and Pretty Girls Make Graves references Hand in Glove.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

They're on the same album so maybe it doesn't fit for this but George sarkily going "we all know ob-la-di-bla-da" on Savoy Truffle comes to mind

[Jockice]

There's definitely a few more obscure ones that, annoyingly, I'm not able to bring to mind at the moment.

Indeed. Most of the ones that others have mentioned I've gone: "Doh! Why didn't I think of that?" But I am sure there are a few others I won't know of.

[non capisco]

Dylan on 'Sara' pointing out "Yeah sure I shagged about and was a right old arsehole but I DID write Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands for you so dunno what you're moaning about?" or words to that effect.

The Who on their fairly wretched late period effort 'You Better You Bet' where Townsend writes about getting pissed and listening to his own album 'Who's Next', bit like when I got bored during lockdown and read a load of my old posts on here.

[turnstyle]

Radiohead's My Iron Lung is about Creep.

This, this is our new song
Just like the last one
A total waste of time, my iron lung

[dontpaintyourteeth]

Someone more musical than me will probably correct me on this but isn't Rog Waters playing a slowed down See Emily Play bassline on Goodbye Cruel World?

[Golden E. Pump]

George Michael's 'Faith' opens with an organ version of Wham's hit 'Freedom'.

[Jockice]

Paint a Vulgar Picture references You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby and Pretty Girls Make Graves references Hand in Glove.

It was the first one I was thinking of there. Ta

[dontpaintyourteeth]

Nobody will remember either song because they're decidedly non-classic but Prince had a tune that ended with the line "it's goin down y'all, like the wall of berlin" and then later had a song named Wall of Berlin. I'm not sure if any of my posts in this thread count but I'm having fun which is what really matters isn't it?

[Astronaut Omens]

The callback to Major Tom in "Ashes to Ashes" is another well-known one.

"Ashes to Ashes" seems to have been influenced by another sequel song, Buddy Holly's "Peggy Sue got Married", which calls back to Holly's earlier "Peggy Sue", and like "Ashes to Ashes" is about rumours circulating about the figure in the earlier song:

"Peggy Sue Got Married"

Please don't tell
No no no
Don't say that I told you so
I just heard a rumour from a friend
I don't say
That it's true
I'll just leave that up to you
If you don't believe me I'll understand
Do you recall a girl that's been in nearly every song
This is what I heard
Of course, the story could be wrong

"Ashes to Ashes":

Do you remember a guy that's been
In such an early song
I've heard a rumour from Ground Control
Oh no, don't say it's true

[The Culture Bunker]

Two by Felt:

'Ballad of the Band' has "And all those songs, like Crystal Ball, Dismantled King..."
'Declaration': "And I will have/as my epitaph/the second line of Black Ship in the Harbour"

[Clatty McCutcheon]

Arab Strap repeated the main refrain from "The First Big Weekend" the very next year, just after 3.30 on the track "Hey! Fever" from their Girls of Summer EP.

The lazy gits.

https://youtu.be/VstxOKTHSik?si=G6-alONGgWqLK9W_&t=212

[Magnum Valentino]

Beasties sampling themselves with the "nnnnDROP" on Intergalactic;

Beck sampling the ending of Novacane later on the same album on High 5 (I prefer to think of this as sampling rather than a reprise, fits the whole feeling of Odelay much better);

Rush recalling the riff/splash cymbal pattern from Bastille Day on Headlong Flight, which is a song about retrospection.

Rape Me/Teen Spirit.

[lazyhour]

The Auteurs' 'Future Generation', which is partly a whinge about the band's relative lack of success, contains the great couplet:

And of course I love the old songs
From New Wave to Murder Park
The next generation
Will get it from the start

[Video Game Fan 2000]

The Fall's Neighbourhood of Infinity is a sequel to the Man Whose Head Expanded

The N.W.R.A. has mention of English Scheme being played on Junior Choice
several early Fall songs all reference fictional author R Totale, modern avatar of the Great God Pan

Ice Cube's Endangered Species "I told you last album: when I got a sawed off, bodies are hauled off"

Parliament's Starchild, Sir Nose and P-Funk songs all interconnect. Chocolate City and Gamin' On Ya, P-Funk... you'd need a web diagram to map it all out

[Ferris]

Lennon's "How Do You Sleep?" is all about Paul Mac and includes the line 'The only thing you done was yesterday / And since you've gone you're just another day'. Bit tenuous but it counts.

In fact John wrote "Serve Yourself" as a response to Dylan's Jesus-bothering "Gotta Serve Somebody", so he's got previous.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

Dance to the music all night long
Everyday people, sing a simple song
Mama's so happy, mama starts to cry
Papa's still singin', you can make it if you try

[dontpaintyourteeth]

Your Love Alone is Not Enough by the Manics mentions You Stole the Sun etc etc

[idunnosomename]

ASH TO ASH, DUST TO DUST - FA-AYYDE TO BLAA-ACK
Metallica, ReLoad, The Memory Remains, 1998, referencing Fade to Black from Ride the Lightning, 1984

AND YO'RE UNFO'GIVEN TOO-OOH
The Unforgiven II, also ReLoad, "sequel" to the Black Album (1991) song. also followed up The Unforgiven III on Death Magnetic, 2008.
Also Fade to Black and Unforgiven use an identical chord progression of Am-C-G-Em and The Unforgiven II uses it too (tuned down half-step)

also "fuck it all and fuck it all regrets" on St Anger's title track which is from Damage Inc but whatever don't want to dwell on that

oh and "off to never-never land" at the end of King Nothing (Load, 1996), which has a main riff not far from Enter Sandman

Dream Theater with their run of starting each album with the end of the last one from Scenes from a Memory (1990)-Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (2002)-Train of Thought (2003)-Octavarium (2005)

Bolt Thrower with the tritone riff first played at the end of World Eater (Realm of Chaos, 1989), reused on each album but one afterwards: Embers (Fourth Crusade, 1992), Powder Burns (Mercenary, 1998), The Killchain (Those Once Loyal, 2005)

Savatage reusing the chord progression/lyrics between When the Crowds are Gone (Gutter Ballet, 1989), Believe (Streets, 1991), And Alone You Breathe (Handful of Rain, 1994)


"The walrus was Paul" on Glass Onion always gets me because... the walrus is clearly John. He sings "I am the Walrus" and everything. cool song though

[Steve Faeces]

Stormzy references Blinded by Your Grace from his previous album on the opening track of his second record.

Big Mike, I'm handlin' my weight
Big Mike, I'm standin' with the greats
One week it's "Blinded By Your Grace"
Next week it's bang you in your face

[non capisco]

Chuck D referencing Rebel Without A Pause on Don't Believe The Hype - "YES was the start of my last jam"

[BJBMK2]

Someone more musical than me will probably correct me on this but isn't Rog Waters playing a slowed down See Emily Play bassline on Goodbye Cruel World?

They popped out that bassline a couple of times. Sheep uses it at one point. I think it's also on Careful With That Axe, and a song on the Final Cut that I can't remember cos the Final Cut is one long, crap song.

[The Culture Bunker]

Reminds me that Sugarhill Gang's Apache has the line "They were jammin' off a record that said it best - 'Now what you hear is not a test'", which is a call back to Rapper's Delight.

[idunnosomename]

oh fuck me obvious classic heavy metal sequel song

Charlotte the Harlot (Iron Maiden, 1980)
22 Acacia Avenue (Number of the Beast, 1982)

also the lines "I got the keys to view at number 22", the opening lyric of Hooks in You from No Prayer for the Dying (1990) and "The beast and Charlotte they were two of a kind", From Here to Eternity (Fear of the Dark, 1992)

[non capisco]

several early Fall songs all reference fictional author R Totale, modern avatar of the Great God Pan

Love this sort of thing from lyrically dense acts like The Fall. MES disciple Joe Casey does a similar thing with the fictional town of Anacita on a couple of Protomartyr tunes non capisco mentions Protomartyr. (There's also one album that ends with the repeated refrain "She's just trying to reach you, trying to reach you" and the next album on starts with "I could not be reached/No matter how many times she repeats")