Songs that reference other albums

I was listening to some Cribs B-Sides the other day and realised in Glandular Fever Got The Best of Me they reference Pinkerton:
Yeah I was listening to Pinkerton,
Mine-sweeping round all the pubs
It was a whole new way of life to me but then
Glandular fever got the best of me
Yep

And got thinking about other songs that reference albums:
The National - Pink Rabbits - “And Bona Drag was still on”
Marth - Orange Juice - “We were driving to Vauxhall and I”
The Hold Steady - Constructive Summer - “Me and my friends are like the drums on Lust for Life”

Does anyone have any more?

2 Likes

As we try to get it on in bed
You’ve given me your home and head
You put on The Queen Is Dead
But I just want to talk instead

Owen Pallett - The Passions

Always the fucking Smiths isn’t it?

7 Likes

Beulah - Popular Mechanics For Lovers

“I heard he wrote you a song, but so what?
Some guy wrote sixty-nine, and one just ain’t enough.”

(The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs)

4 Likes

THE BEST, THE BEST, THE BEST OF U(2)

Foo Fighters - The Best

11 Likes

Craig Finn does it so much with albums and songs especially with his ‘we did the xxx into the xxxx’ phrase

Lifter Puller:
We did the Goat’s Head Soup into the Tattooed Youth

We did the Green Eyed Lady right into the Lay Lady Lay

Hold Steady:
We did the been caught stealing
Into dancing on the ceiling

Back home we we’re listening to Catholic Boy
And I got hung up on the people who died

They did “She’s Got Legs” into "Ain’t Too Proud To Beg
Into something by the Dixie Dregs
And they faked their way through “Fairytale of New York”
When the band stopped playing we howled out for more

Me and my friends are like doublewhiskycokenoice

Solo:
Played 1999 and Led Zeppelin III

And many more I’m sure.

1 Like

Has it been officially established which “Let It Be” he means (Beatles / Replacements)?

Baby Britain by Elliott Smith

“Revolver’s been turned over
And now it’s ready once again”

4 Likes

Mark prick Kozelek references They Only Come Out at Night by Edgar Winter in one of his shit songs

Like “Planet of the Apes” on TV
The second side of “'Til the Band Comes In”
Like an own-brand box of cornflakes
He’s going to let you down my friend

One from Bad Cover Version by Pulp. Never heard of Til The Band Comes In but apparently it’s an album by the producer of the Pulp album this song is on, the second side is all covers, and this is a good natured doing between friends.

3 Likes

I hear that she likes to dance around the room
To a worn out 12" of a Marquee Moon

Did consider whether this might be the single or album she was dancing to, I think both are in play

2 Likes

Orange Juice - Rip it Up

Doesn’t that reference the Buzzcocks

Not an album, but speeding 72 by momma name drops Gold Sounds

1 Like

Big Elliott Smith fan is our Bey

6 Likes

It was song number three on John’s last CD
“Gonna make it through this year, if it kills me”
And it almost killed me

I’ve heard Jarvis talk about this…he wrote the song long before he knew Scott Walker would be producing and got very embarrassed immediately before he was due to sing it for the first time in front of him…I believe Scott Walker was fine with it.

2 Likes

Ha! Didn’t know it was Scott Walker. Great stuff.

a song that’s all references to other albums

1 Like

Two for the price of one here

‘And now you’ve half-inched my copy of Pet Sounds’

And then later on

‘Cos I, read your letter
About how you love Sergeant Pepper
But I know that someday I’ll do better’

3 Likes

“My mind turns your life into folklore”