Metasongs!
Today: songs that comment on their own song-ness. They step outside themselves to say, not that, THIS. THIS SONG YOU ARE LISTENING TO, RIGHT NOW.
Up top: one I did a while back, from here:
“Map Ref. 41º N 93º W”, the catchiest song ever recorded about cartography, seems to anticipate a future in which systems both political and technological would increasingly seek to describe every last corner of our reality, making surveys and assigning GPS coordinates and laying claim not just to formerly-mysterious land, but to the unknown geography of human minds and hearts.
But the map is not the territory; messy reality doesn’t slot squarely into boxes. Like the way that the burbling 3-beat pattern of the liquid bass never quite fits into the relentlessly-ticking 4-beat grid of the drums.
And dig the way they get meta, snarking “Chorus!” when it rolls around at 1:35, their massed harmonies descending on approach to meet the word “altitude”:
“Disappointed” is the last track on Morrissey’s Bona Drag, an early singles comp, at a time when I think there was still some question about how much farther the guy could go without guitar genius Johnny Marr, and its final, Moz-hater-trolling lines (complete with faux-audience response) are:
[crowd cheers wildly]
No, I’ve changed my mind again
[crowd groans AWWWWWW]
Goodnight, and thank you
But farther he did go, to the disappointment of many. In this next one, he sardonically highlights those unique structural features that make HIS songs so special:
It could’ve been me
Everybody knows
Everybody says so
They say:
“Ah, you have loads of songs
So many songs
More songs than they’d stand
Verse
Chorus
Middle eight
Break
Fade”
Just listen:
La, la la la la
Here’s a famous one, the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, the major lift:
(and Cale’s version IS the best. FACT.)
An ex- of mine was really bothered by this next song. “BUT IT IS!”:
This IS a love song:
This is NOT a love song (I’ll be nice and provide the soothing cover, rather than the thumpin’, caterwaulin’ original):
This is also not a love song, nor is it The Greatest Song In The World. It’s just a Tribute:
Not to argue with Sir Elton, but I think MY song is actually “Bennie and the Jets”:
This one might count – is it ABOUT “Crocodile Rock”, or IS it “Crocodile Rock”?!:
For Mike. I think it counts when a band makes up a band to make a song about, and also pretends to be that band in the song (however, I disqualified TMBG’s “We’re the Replacements” – since the Replacements exist, that’s just a parody):
For Jaybird:
For sending everyone down a recursive rabbit hole of madness:
Add other examples in comments!
*The fourth video. See what I did there?
Morrissey’s self-indulgence truly knows no bounds 🙂 but what a neat device. The only instance I could think of was the surreal nonsense the Silver Jews pull on Federal Dust ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDAiZ0bLPSU ):
Where the coda still sounds deep and meaningful even though they just told us with a smirk that they were going to do it (Malkmus you rascal!). There’s also the neat little self-edit that LCD Soundsystem did on their live album version of “Pow Pow” where “Three, we have a black president and you do not, so shut up / because you don’t know shit about where I’m from that you didn’t get from your TV” gets revised into “Three, well, three doesn’t make sense anymore because it’s, you know, it used to be played in the future“. Oh, and of course that old classic:
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One more: This is a song about a superhero named Tony / It’s called Tony’s ThemeReport
Ooh, Malkmus should have been an obvious one.
When it’s central, so essential,
It has a nice ring when you laugh
At the low life opinions
And they’re coming to the chorus now
http://youtube.com/watch?v=lPvhKV3Yg2k
And I’ve been wasted
Advocating that
Word for the last word
Last words come up
All you’ve got to wasteReport
Morrissey’s self-indulgence truly knows no bounds 🙂 but what a neat device.
He’s the only artist I know who can tap dance the tightrope of self-aware self-indulgence and pull off the musical joke. The guys a genius all the way down. He makes me laugh every time.Report
I’ve honestly never understood people who just see him as dour, and don’t think he’s hilarious. I mean, look at the two examples I quote: “More songs than they’d stand”.
But he’s dead serious about what pop music means, and the way a song can be a comfort and companion for life. I didn’t include “Rubber Ring” because although it’s about songs, it’s not exactly about itself (Elton’s “Sad Songs” got disqualified for the same reason):
“But don’t forget the songs that made you cry
And the songs that saved your life
Yes, you’re older now, and you’re a clever swine,
But they were the only ones that ever stood by you.”Report
Yeah. I couldn’t say it any better, that’s for sure. He’s a joking trickster about events and situations that shape all of our lives but deadly serious about the power of music to get us thru those “tragedies”. If folks think he fails musically – who am I to judge? But if they think he’s depressing I’ll start arguing.Report
Many of The Smith’s(‘s) songs were musically self-referential. I always enjoyed “Paint a Vulgar Picture” … Especially in light of their post-break release of their “Best of” album(s).
Re-issue ! Re-package ! Re-package !
Re-evaluate the songs
Double-pack with a photograph
Extra Track (and a tacky badge)
The frenzy when Morrissey dies will be delicious.Report
This is the theme to Garry’s Show,
The opening theme to Garry’s show.
This is the music that you hear as you watch the credits.
We’re almost to the part of where I start to whistle.
(whistles)
Then we’ll watch “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show”. Report
Can’t believe I beat Mike to this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=me8h6qET19s
(Sorry for long links, I’m on mobile and embedding them’s a hassle.)Report
He did that a fair amount:
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Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, the Weeping Song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thHx7cdoaAcReport
I appreciate the reference to the best album ever.Report
You really like Lamb Chop?Report
Lots of people don’t, because they hate Sharia Lawis.
(No politics!)Report
See also every hip hop song ever.Report
I think a metasong would be a song about songs in general. Maybe you’d call a song about itself a reflexive song?
Helen Reddy had a song called “Think I’ll Write a Song” about being interrupted while trying to write a song. I’m not sure whether the song in question was that song, though. Maybe not, since the lyric implies that she failed to finish her song, but the actual song is nevertheless complete. Bobby Darin’s “Distractions” had a similar theme. And “Simple Song of Freedom.”
There’s “Money for Nothing” by Dire Straits.
And Joe Wecker’s DeCSS song.
Wikipedia has a category for metasongs.Report
I think a metasong would be a song about songs in general. Maybe you’d call a song about itself a reflexive song?
You’re probably right, but then I couldn’t have made a terrible pun on the front page.Report
“Reflexive Song” is one of Marley’s best.
Actually, I suppose “Redemption Song” could actually work in this post.Report
I’ve been pondering, nd I think I prefer the songs that flirt with this trope over the songs who fully embrace it. For example, Poet, by Bastille. The song IS the thing that the song is talking about doing, but the song never comes right out and says “this is a song about this song” – it’s more general than that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaljm1UPs54Report