Say My Name: Song Titles Inspired By A Fellow Musician

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JJ’s back, with examples of, “Inspiration, thy name is…“

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Musicians like to show off their influences.

…from what has gone before has a long tradition. While some opt for immortalising their heroes and contemporaries in song.

Which is the topic for today: Song titles that include the name of a fellow singer / musician.

I’m ignoring any self-referential titles. So there’s no “Ballad Of John & Yoko.” No “Bitch, I’m Madonna.” There are also no Maroon 5, ’cause…

There are a number of artists with a certain cachet that provide a borrowed cool.

First up is the man in black who started inspiring others before his death: There are at least four different songs simply titled, “Johnny Cash.” They aren’t all from the country genre and they come from around the world.

For a bit of variation, Australian rock band The Blackeyed Susans went for “Smokin’ Johnny Cash” in 1997.

Country has proved a rich lineage of paying it backwards to artists that have come before.

Johnny Cash himself passed the baton back with 1987 recording “The Night Hank Williams Came To Town”. An evocative track, dripping in nostalgia and the excitement of seeing Hank.

It provided a title that Drive-By Truckers borrowed for their alt-country track “The Night GG Allin Came To Town” from their Pizza Deliverance album.

A night some in town may want to forget going by the recounting of the night Allin defecated on stage and spread the goods around. “Punk rockers paid 12 dollars to be shit on” gives a flavour of the evening.

Back to more appropriate tributes.

Prior to Johnny there was Moe Bandy in 1975 with “Hank Williams, You Wrote My Life”.

Moe and Johnny’s reminisces of Hank were picking up the baton from an outpouring of emotion after Hank’s death. Having passed away on New Year’s Day 1953, within a few months there was:

The songs have a sense of hero worship and myth-making. Understandably “The Death Of Hank Williams” goes easy on the details. There’s poetic license to the lyrics which gives a far more sanitised and heroic vision than the reality.

I did say self-referencing titles were out, but Hank did have the good grace to give co-billing to Jimmie Rodgers in “When Hank Williams Met Jimmie Rodgers”. That passed the baton further back to Jimmie. Another icon of country whose death in 1933 inspired all of these:

Moving away from country, another popular target is Bob Dylan.

We’ve got:

• Syd Barrett – “Bob Dylan Blues”
• David Bowie – “Song For Bob Dylan”
• Loudon Wainwright III – “Talking New Bob Dylan”
• Minutemen – “Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda Songs”
• Wilco – “Bob Dylan’s 49th Beard”
• Against Me! – “Bob Dylan Dream”

Baton passing is again present. Having paid tribute to Bob, Syd Barrett disappeared into acid-frazzled seclusion.

Then there’s The Beatles, as a group and on their own.

• House Of Love gave us two-for-the-price-of-one 60s icons with “Beatles and Stones” in 1990.
• Devendra Banhart opted just for “The Beatles”.
• Scissor Sisters stripped it back further to just plain old “Paul McCartney” on 2006’s Ta-Dah album.

Whereas John Lennon has inspired extremes:

• The Cranberries with the shocking revelation “I Just Shot John Lennon” in 1996.

• While British indie band Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard deified him with “John Lennon Is My Jesus Christ” in 2020.

Barenaked Ladies ensured that partners weren’t excluded with “Be My Yoko Ono”.

When it comes to deifying your heroes there’s Britpoppers The Boo Radleys who proclaimed “Jimmy Webb Is God”. Shame they did it on their final moribund album.

Or how about The Dandy Warhols; “Cool As Kim Deal”.

The Replacements are another baton-passing band.

They recorded the song “Alex Chilton” in 1987 and in turn became the subject of:

I think they missed a trick in not going for “We Are The Replacement Replacements”.

If it’s puns you’re after, there’s AlukarD:

Offering various levels of wish fulfilment we have:

• Alvin Stardust – “I Feel Like Buddy Holly”
• LCD Soundsystem – “Daft Punk Is Playing At My House”
• Sleater-Kinney – “I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone”
• BMX Bandits – “Kylie’s Got A Crush On Us”

In a similar vein is Robbie Williams, with “She’s Madonna.”

Written by Robbie and Pet Shop Boys, it describes a man dumping his partner for a better offer from the Material Girl:

“I love you baby
but face it she’s Madonna
No man on earth
could say that he don’t want her”

When it comes to romantic assignations, Ray LaMontagne had a much sweeter and chaste proposal.

There was plenty of flattery to make his wish come true:

“Meg White
Baby, you’re the bomb
Oh, Jack is great don’t get me wrong
But this is your song”

Flattery was off the menu when Butthole Surfers came up with “Julio Iglesias.”

It’s not the legacy he would have wanted. I’d quote the lyrics but what Julio and the Pope got up to is best left to the imagination.

On the same vein as The Cranberries’ admission of guilt, The Stone Foxes confessed; “I Killed Robert Johnson”.

Whereas Mogwai channeled the deceased on “I’m Jim Morrison, I’m Dead”.

Songs that speak to the power of music come with two very different approaches.

Proving that inspiration can be found across eras and genres:

• Taylor Swift – “Tim McGraw”
• Katy B, Geeneus and Jessie Ware – “Aaliyah”
• Weezer – “Buddy Holly”
• Jonathan Richman – “Velvet Underground”
• Bob Dylan – “Blind Willie McTell”
• Rick Ross ft. Gucci Mane – “MC Hammer”
• Charlie Puth ft. Meghan Trainor – “Marvin Gaye”
• The Mountain Goats – “Duke Ellington”
• Shonen Knife – “Red Kross”
• Cake – “Frank Sinatra”
• The Hold Steady – “Stevie Nix”
• Stone Temple Pilots – “The MC5”
• REM – “Lightnin’ Hopkins”
• Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds – “Blind Lemon Jefferson”
• Everclear – “Otis Redding”
• Eric Church – “Springsteen”
• The Wombats – “Let’s Dance To Joy Division”
• Robyn Hitchcock – “I Saw Nick Drake”
• Belle & Sebastian – “The Boy With The Arab Strap”
• The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – “Kurt Cobain’s Cardigan”

There are some for whom inspiration doesn’t always come from your idols.

It’s everyone’s least favourite miserabilist, Morrissey:

Oh Pioneers!!! – “My Life As A Morrissey Song:”

Oh Pioneers!!! also liked to give credit where it was due with “I Heard That Ashlee Simpson Record Is Pretty Killer” and “Motley Crue, Probably Saved My Life”.

Ween’s “I Hate Morrissey”, a song which is entirely downhill from a great opening line: “All you do is hate life and tell me about it”.

Though that pales in comparison to late 80s noise makers Warlock Pinchers:

“That crybaby son of a bitch, no-talent motherf*cker / Bastard-ass dickhead, ball-flapping dicks*cker…”

Though, in possibly the most unnecessary follow-up ever recorded, they feel the need to clarify: “In case you haven’t guessed by now, I hate the guy.”

It’s unfair on Morrissey on and the concept of good taste to leave it there.

So I’m giving the last word to MGMT:

Who laud “Brian Eno” on their Congratulations album:

“We’re always one step behind him
He’s Brian Eno”

As well as achieving the remarkable feat of getting his full name into the lyrics:

“He promised pretty worlds
And all the silence I could dream of:“

Over to you: any more for consideration?

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