There are some artists who find their chosen profession infinitely fascinating. Federico Fellini made a movie about making a movie. John Irving wrote a novel about writing novels. They are far from alone.
In the world of music, there have been plenty of songs about songs, or about the whole idea of music. Some are stories about musicians themselves. Others are about the magical power of a melody. Some even go as far as serving as a “how-to” manual for would-be songwriters.
From the healing power of “Drift Away” to the youthful energy of “Dancing Queen,” you better not kill the groove. Music itself is a reasonable subject for music. How many songs can you think of that have “rock and roll” in their title?
Ten songs about, well...songs
As a way of demonstrating just how far-reaching this phenomenon can be, here are ten songs from ten different genres that talk about the meaning – and at times, the mechanics – of what we are hearing.
“The Birth of the Blues” Sammy Davis, Jr. (1954) – Blues/Pop
This isn’t exactly blues, but it is bluesy. I’ll call it blues/pop. It has been recorded by plenty of stars over the years. Sammy Davis, Jr, had plenty of success in 1954, and his buddy Frank Sinatra recorded his equally definitive version a few years later.
Their Rat Pack friend Dean Martin did it live, but his daughter Diana released her own cover in 2006. So did Randy Travis, Louis Prima, and Hank Snow. The list goes on. Chet Atkins and Les Paul did a lovely instrumental duet.
Originally written in 1926 by Ray Henderson, Buddy DeSylva, and Lew Brown, this is essentially a subjective history of how blues music was unearthed. As a history, it may leave something to be desired, but as a song, it is still compelling 100 years later.
“Rock and Roll Music” Chuck Berry (1957) – Rock
Rock and roll was emerging as the dominant musical force in the second half of the 20th century. Bill Haley sounded the first shots across the bow of popular music with songs like “Birth of the Boogie,” “Shake, Rattle and Roll,” and the anthemic “Rock Around the Clock.”
That last song is arguably the first great rock song about rock, replacing the sax with the guitar for the solo. But Chuck Berry was the definitive artist of early rock and roll, and when he sang about it, that was the end of the discussion.
There is a long list of honorable mentions that came after – from “So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star” to all the songs that simply named themselves “Rock and Roll.” Peter, Paul & Mary’s “I Dig Rock and Roll Music” might be the closest thing to a major song about rock and roll – if only it actually were a rock and roll song. It is close. Chuck Berry is the real thing.
“Dance to the Music” Sly and the Family Stone (1967) – Funk
Maybe the greatest song ever from the “instructional manual” school of songwriting. Sly and company essentially teach you how to create the definitive dance-funk tune within the first two minutes – then you get to actually dance to the music for the final minute.
“Daddy Sang Bass” Johnny Cash (1968) – Gospel
Carl Perkins wrote it, incorporating “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.” Johnny Cash gave it its classic reading. It demonstrates the communal power of singing and of song, and even assigns the parts that each member of the family is designed to sing. Singing does indeed seem to help a troubled soul.
“An Old Fashioned Love Song” Three Dog Night (1971) – Pop
This is the perfect soap bubble. An old-fashioned love song about an old-fashioned love song. It throws in enough rock and roll to become a hit in 1971 without ever losing that timelessness.
Three Dog Night’s modern harmonies were perfectly suited to the message, and Paul Williams was arguably the best writer of this particular brand of pop music that the early ‘70s had to offer. It’s an ideal blending of talent.
“Plain & Sane & Simple Melody” Ted Lucas (1975) - Folk
Ted Lucas is one of the great lost artists of the 1970s. And he is undergoing a revival now, more than thirty years after his death. He was an eclectic talent – similar to Graham Parsons back in the day – looking for ways of combining genres in new ways.
Lucas had rock and roll in his DNA, but when he turned to folk music, it wasn’t so much folk rock he created as a brand of gentle psychedelic folk with titles like “It Is So Nice to Get Stoned” and “Love & Peace Raga.” “Plain & Sane & Simple Melody” strips it down to its core, commenting on how music affects the soul.
“Rapper’s Delight” Sugarhill Gang (1979) – Rap
Historians will long debate the “first” rap song, but this is as good an answer as you will get. Of course it wasn’t the “first.” But it was the first that an awful lot of people heard and identified as a new form of song. They borrowed from Chic – smart move – and then let Wonder Mike, Master Gee, and Big Bank Hank introduce themselves and basically tell the world what rap music is.
If you were listening to American Top 40 the week of 1/12/80, you would have heard the battle for the soul of popular music being fought in the top ten, with the pap of Rupert Holmes and Captain & Tennille on one side and Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson on the other.
But if you caught the beginning of the show, you would have also heard the most important song on the list – “Rapper’s Delight” – show up at 36. (It had cracked the top 40 a week earlier, but there was a year-end wrap-up going on, so audiences didn’t hear it then.)
“Please Play This Song on the Radio” NOFX (1992) - Punk
Punk bands aren’t exactly known for their self-reflection, but they do like to sing about their origins from time to time. I don’t know anyone who does this more than Michael Burkett – AKA Fat Mike.
With his typical wink of an eye, he delivers a fun pop-punk song that deconstructs exactly what makes up a pop-punk song – at least one that has a prayer of getting a listen on your local radio station. This, of course, was from those halcyon days when your local radio station actually mattered.
As Mike tells us, this song has backup vocals in just the right places and a few oohs and ahhs. Most importantly, “it takes a little pause, just before I sing the F word.”
“Sweet in the Melody” Iris Dement (1994) – Country
Opening her glorious 1994 album My Life, Dement sketches out the textbook country tune in much the way Ted Lucas had personified psychedelic folk two decades earlier.
This is the beauty and wonder of country music – not the heartbreak and cheating that seem to inform so many of the genre’s classics. This is when music and romance are still young and fresh. It is simply one of the prettiest songs you will hear.
“Talkin’ Seattle Blues” Todd Snider (1994) Grunge
This isn’t really grunge. It’s about grunge, but a Todd Snider song is just a Todd Snider song. It also isn’t the title or version I would suggest. But this one, from Snider’s debut Songs for the Daily Planet, came first, so I’ll give it proper respect.
It was a hidden track snuck onto the end of … Daily Planet and, as with almost all of Snider’s songs from those early days, it is subversively brilliant and laugh-out-loud funny.
If you want to give it a listen, I would jump ahead to the live version from 2003’s Near Truths and Hotel Rooms, now entitled “Talking Seattle Grunge Rock Blues.” The slightly updated lyrics are better, and Snider was always more dynamic in person. Apart from all that, this serves as a great – albeit satirically exaggerated – historical record of what made grunge rock so great – and so annoying.
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