I'm not just talking about covering or sampling, it's when the other song is explicitly referenced as being a different song, almost like an ekphrasis
Our Mutual Friend - Divine Comedy (The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore)
Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space - Spiritualized (I Can't Help Falling in Love)
Chinese Cafe - Joni Mitchell (Unchained Melody)
Reminisce - Dexys Midnight Runners (I'll Say Forever My Love)
A Case of you - Joni Mitchell (O Canada)
First Love - Emmy the Great (Hallelujah)
I'm a Cuckoo - Belle and Sebastian (Boys are Back in Town)
Holes - Mercury Rev (I don't know, when it goes "How does that old song go?")
Tom Traubert's Blues - Tom Waits (Waltzing Matilda)
Young Americans - David Bowie (A Day in the Life)
This is a supercool thing to do in a song, probably my favourite example being I'm a Cuckoo, where Stuart Murdoch sings I'd rather listen to Thin Lizzy-O and the guitars play a bit from Boys Are Back in Town and at the second he actually manages to sound like Phil Lynott, even though their vocal styles couldn't be more dissimilar.
I tried to think of a clever way of doing this with words, but of course I'm borrowing words and referencing phrases all the time, it hardly seems worth pinpointing it, and borrowing a phrase or quoting a phrase isn't quite so powerful for me as quoting a song, tune and all.
So, I will just mention the most brazen example of all, from Borrowed Tune by Neil Young
where he sings
I'm singing this borrowed tune
I took from the Rolling Stones
Alone in this empty room
too wasted to write my own.
I always imagine the reason he included "alone" and "empty" in the same line is to show just how ill-equipped he is at this stage for the songwriting process.
I might add to this post if I can think of a clever way to do so, but it's an excellent list of songs, so i thought I'd put it up at once.
No comments:
Post a Comment