For some time I’ve been meaning to create a playlist of songs that mention the name of the album (or an approximation thereof) in the song, but go by another song name. Thus, they are technically not title tracks... Thanks to the iPod, this is now a relatively easy task, especially for someone with far too much time on their hands. I’ve managed to come up with 24 so far, any additions are welcome. Overall, not a bad playlist. Repeat offenders here are Australian (Midnight Oil and The Church); must be our convict heritage. Any challenges and it will be pistols at dawn, good sir.
Camera - Editors - The Back Room
Something To Talk About - Badly Drawn Boy - About A Boy
Young Offenders - Life Without Buildings - Any Other City
One Dimension - Simian - Chemistry Is What We Are
Carnival Of Sorts - R.E.M. - Chronic Town (EP)
This Is Not A Song, It’s An Outburst - Rodriguez - Cold Fact
Warakurna -
Introducing The Band - Suede - Dog Man Star
Open All Night - You Am I - Dress Me Slowly B-Side
Three Dimensions - Something For Kate - Echolalia
Won’t Give In - Finn Brothers - Everyone Is Here
2 + 2 = 5 (The Lukewarm) - Radiohead - Hail To The Thief
Road To Joy - Bright Eyes - I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning
For A Moment We’re Strangers - The Church - Of Skins And Heart
Out Of Control - Super Furry Animals - Phantom Power
Brave Faces -
Great Southern Land - Icehouse - Primitive Man
Picture Disc From The
You Tell Me - The Go-betweens - Tallulah
You Took - The Church - The Blurred Crusade
Close To Me - The Cure - The Head On The Door
NYC - Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights
One Love - The Stone Roses - Turns Into Stone
Poor Places - Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Posts
Can't believe I missed out a couple!
ReplyDeleteThe Keepa - Augie March - Strange Bird
This Train Will Be Taking No Passengers - Augie March - Strange Bird
I think they mention Strange Bird on another song, too...
Ahh, this is more like it. It's great when blog posts write themselves :)
ReplyDeleteYou must've read my mind, Pete. Or at least my PDA. I'd actually considered doing a list identical to this one a while ago, and had even come up with a shortlist of tracks myself.
Since you have covered a lot of my list already, I'll just list the ones that you haven't mentioned:
Alison - Elvis Costello (My aim is true)
TKO (boxing day) - Elvis Costello (Punch the clock)
Brilliant mistake - Elvis Costello (King of America)
Uncomplicated - Elvis Costello (Blood & Chocolate)
Everybody loves you now - Billy Joel (Cold spring harbor)
Brain damage - Pink Floyd (Dark side of the moon)
Memory lane - Elliott Smith (From a basement on the hill)
Lord only knows - Beck (Odelay)
The hounds of winter - Sting (Mercury falling)
Lithium sunset - Sting (Mercury falling)
Battle of who could care less - Ben Folds Five (Whatever and ever amen)
Randy described eternity - Built To Spill (Perfect from now on)
The kiss - The Cure (Kiss me kiss me kiss me)
To wish impossible things - The Cure (Wish) ;-)
Killing an arab - The Cure (Standing on a beach)
Jocko homo - Devo (Q: Are we not me? A: We are Devo!)
Smells like teen spirit - Nirvana (Nevermind)
Morning glory - Oasis (What's the story morning glory) - if you want to get technical ;-)
Party for your right to fight - Public Enemy (It takes a nation of millions to hold us back)
How do you? - Radiohead (Pablo honey) - it's in there!
Young pilgrims - The Shins (Chutes too narrow)
Scarborough fair - Simon & Garfunkel (Parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme)
Trilogy - Sonic Youth (Daydream nation)
Has it come to this? - The Streets (original pirate material)
Introducing the band - Suede (Dog man star)
Walk on - U2 (All you can't leave behind)
Inaudible melodies - Jack Johnson (Brushfire fairytales)
Times like these - Jack Johnson (On and on)
Chivalry - The Mekons (Fear and whiskey)
Poor places - Wilco (Yankee hotel foxtrot)
Hercules - Mercury Rev (All is dream)
Bury me with it - Modest Mouse (Good news for people who love bad news)
You learn - Alanis Morissette (Jagged little pill)
So pure - Alanis Morissette (Supposed formed infatuation junkie)
Sadie - Joanna Newsom (The milk-eyed mender)
Regarding Beck, I think one of the Sea change tracks should be listed as well but I can't pick it at the moment.
I'm sure there are MANY more that will come to me.
A few other interesting things come to find. What about "almost" title tracks, where the "title" track is not quite the name of the album? Billy Joel's Streetlife serenader off his Streetlife serenade (note missing 'r') springs to mind.
And another interesting type of title track is one where the title track from one album is actually on another album. A few examples of this:
Sheer heart attack - Queen (News of the world)
Houses of the holy - Led Zeppelin (Physical graffiti)
Waiting for the sun - The Doors (Morrison Hotel)
Bring it on - Gomez (Liquid skin)
Either/or - Elliott Smith (From a basement on the hill II - bootleg)
Recurring dream - Crowded House (Afterglow)
Nothing but a dream - Paul Kelly (Ways & Means)
Franks wild years - Tom Waits (Swordfishtrombones)
And what about title tracks that don't actually SAY that title in the lyrics? Jeff Buckley's Grace would have to be a prime example of this. Also The Jam's All mod cons (from memory).
And what about bands who mention the band name in the lyrics? Some examples:
Blue lines - Massive Attack
A murder of one - Counting crows
Backstreet's back - Backstreet Boys
Generic hip-hop song - Generic hip-hop artist
Finally, an interesting note about the band XTC. They seem to get their inspiration for album titles from a lyric off their previous album. The song Ballet for a rainy day started with the lyric "Oranges and lemons..." which was the title of their next album. A song on O&L had a lyric in one of its songs "nonsuch" which was the title of their next album. I think it may have even continued for their next album as well.
Sorry I just realised I doubled up on your list when I included the Suede and Wilco tracks - my apologies!
ReplyDeleteI know this is an old post to comment, but I'm listening to "A ghost is born" now and only just realised that 'Theologians' has the lyric 'A ghost is born' in it.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe I didn't realise this before.