while Mr Jones wants to be someone a little more funky.....
Counting Crows finest 5 minutes.

of historical characters scattered through loads of Al Stewart songs.
Amy Johnson, Peter Lorre, Stalin, Humphrey Bogart, Warren Harding, Christine Keeler, Lord Grenville, they all get a mention, if not a whole song. Al ought to be on the GCSE History syllabus.

the romantic status of this gentleman:

O level eng lit alert, and weeks of watching Film 81 with Barry Norman. His songs are chocka with references to all manner of New York slebs of years gone by: an imagination in B movie black and white, methinks.

"I can still hear the sounds of those Methodist bells,
I'd taken the cure and had just gotten through,
Stayin' up for days in the Chelsea Hotel,
Writin' "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" for you."

This has to be the ultimate, to reference both your ex-wife and your previous outpourings thereto in the same song.
Genius!

is the weatherman and so is Michael Fish.
Who did that?

Dave Graney ‘n' the Coral Snakes - Morrison Floorshow

"Well I woke up this morning
and I dusted my beer
the future is certain
The Australian Doors show I fear
Oh times are tough and a job is hard to find
Oh we go to get together
We got to get together
Oh when the music's over
When the music's over
Morrison floorshow
Wilderness of pain."

Babyshambles - Un Bilo Titled

"Wolfman and Bilo on the run
Wolfman said to Bilo "I'm calling it on""

Wolfman wrote For Lovers which was a solo hit for Pete Doherty a few years ago. Bilo is apparently one of Doherty's alter egos.

Chris and Carla - Velvet Fog

"Nirvana's on the jukebox
but Gene Pitney
owns this town
And it's a town without pity…"

Katy Carr - Turpin

"Travelling to the Spaniards Inn
then I'll meet Dick Turpin."

The Handsome Family - Amelia Earhart vs. the Dancing Bear

"Amelia,
Amelia Earhart, after her plane was torn apart
and bursting through the trees
She remembered picking lemons
with William Randolph Hearst
and how a spinning plane propeller
turned liquid in the sun."

The Sweet - Ballroom Blitz

"And the man in the back said everyone attack
And it turned into a ballroom blitz
And the girl in the corner said boy I want to warn you
It'll turn into a ballroom blitz.

The girl in the corner is a resident of Westcliff-On-Sea, not far from where I live. In January a short interview with her appeared in the local newspaper, The Evening Echo:

"...I was charged with being an accessory to a ballroom blitz and held on remand at Holloway prison. At the trial I testified that I had attempted to alert Brian Connolly (Sweet vocalist and star witness) that things were about to kick off. However in his witness statement Connolly claimed that, by the time I shouted my warning, the man in the back had already given the orders to attack and the ballroom blitz was in full swing. I was sentenced to five years in prison and banned for life from all ballrooms in Great Britain and its outlying colonies. In 2007 I failed to have this ruling overturned by the House of Lords. I am currently attempting to get the case referred to the European Court of Human Rights."

Levi Stubbs tears-Billy Bragg
Glenn Tipton-Sun Kil Moon
The day Hank Williams came to Town-Johnny Cash
Are you sure Hank done it this way-Waylon Jennings
Elvis Presley Blues -Gillian Welch.
When Smokey Sings-ABC
I'm at work so expect more during the day.

'Day In The Life' - 'he blew his mind out in a car/he didn't notice that the lights had changed'. This refers to Tara Browne who crashed his car and died after going through red light.

Teardrop Explodes - 'Reward': 'Death in solitude like Howard Hughes'

Less familiar - Destroy All Monsters - 'November 22 1963', well the clue's in the title. Niagara sings about Jackie holding JFK's brains, rather insensitively.

David Bowie - 'Andy Warhol' and 'Song for Bob Dylan'

Smiths - 'William It Was Really Nothing' - supposedly about Billy Mackenzie.

'Shine On You Crazy Diamond'

Dylan 'Hurricane' about the boxer Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter.

REM 'Exhuming McCarthy', also 'Lightin' Hopkins' from same album 'Document'.

...nine track concept EP titled Howard Wulkan is Bald which, as the title suggests, celebrates the baldness of Howard Wulkan - an employee at Earache records. The EP, which lasts just under 7 and a half minutes, includes such classics as A Conversation With Howard Wulkan and Howard Wulkan is Bald (Acoustic & Jazz Versions).

In spite of being recorded in 1995, it was not until six years later, in 2001, that 53 copies of Howard Wulkan is Bald were made available for purchase.

It's on America's tortured brow
That Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow.
Now the workers have struck for fame
'Cause Lennon's on sale again.

because that was written 3 or 4 years before bowie and lennon wrote "fame" together

yet the song mentions workers striking for "fame" cos lennons on sale again

did bowie and lennon write the song "fame" as a reference to the earlier song? or did bowie really have a time machine?

...what about self-reference in songs?

Off the top of my head, I can think of:

Phil Oakey/Human League in Love Action - "but this is Phil talking, I wanna tell you..."

Martin Fry/ABC in The Look of Love - "they say 'Martin, one day you'll find true love'..."

Alice Cooper in Be My Lover - "They told me that the singer's name was Alice..."

Plus, of course, the entire recorded output of Bo Diddley.

any more for any more?

Same old thing in brand new drag
Comes sweeping into view, oh ho ho ho ho ho
As ugly as a teenage millionaire
Pretending it's a whizz kid world
You'll take me aside, and say
"Well, David, what shall I do?
They wait for me in the hallway"
I'll say "Don't ask me, I don't know any hallways"
But they move in numbers and they've got me in a corner
I feel like a group of one, no-no
They can't do this to me
I'm not some piece of teenage wildlife

Ok, so which way was he going?

(Oh and before I forget, what stannous metal was it made from? BOOM BOOM)

Wonderful song written by Loudon Wainwright III to celebrate His Bobness reaching the big 5-0. From the first verse we have:

Yeah, you were hipper than Mitch Miller,
And Johnny Mathis, put together.

Then a bit later:

The labels were signin' up guys with guitars, Out to make millions, lookin' for stars.
Well, I figured it was time to make my move --
Songs from the West Chester County Delta country.

Yeah, I got a deal , and so did John Prine, Steve Forbert and Springsteen, all in a line.
They were lookin' for you, signin' up others,
We were "new Bob Dylans" -- your dumb-ass kid brothers.

Robyn Hitchcock not only goes round to Mark Ellen's house while he's at work to chat up his wife with the old "seen any good gigs lately?" line, but he brazenly admits it in song. These rock stars are shameless and incorrigible.

John Martyn's song to Nick Drake
Lennon's McCartney baiting "How Do You Sleep"
Dylan's "Positively 4th Street" supposedly written with Phil Ochs in mind, boy he must have really disliked him.
The self centred Grandmaster Flash adressing himself "Grandmaster talk faster" on "Wheels of Steel".
Blondie praising the vitues of 'G-flash " on "Rapture" In fact there are quite a few rappers who are either extolling the virtues of fellow rappers or threatening to shoot them.

We all came out to Montreux
On the Lake Geneva shoreline
To make records with a mobile
We didn't have much time
Frank Zappa and the Mothers
Were at the best place around
But some stupid with a flare gun
Burned the place to the ground
Smoke on the water, a fire in the sky, smoke on the water

Can't believe I just did that.

by American Music Club, fabulous!!1

Al Bowlly's in Heaven.

Allegedly Carter USM's Sheriff Fatman is a real person, real name not mentioned for fear of all too likely reprisals. Paul Simon was always at it - all those Cathys and Cecilias, and of course there's Sharona, now an estate agent in California and not property of that bloke out of The Knack any more. Oh, and Kayleigh by Fish out of Marillion.

The greatest self referral has to be the esteemed Mr Osterburg on the Lust For life album; on `Turn Blue` I think. "Jesus? This is Iggy". The prodigal prays for redemption for his girlfriend who has, and you may be ahead of me here, turned blue.

Kevin Rowland loved talking about himself (and why shouldn`t he? He is a massive talent. Cracked, but nonetheless a massive talent) from Liars A to E (poor old Kevin will be alright) to Kevin Rowland`s 13th Time (opens with `my name is Kevin Rowland` and mentions PC Barrington, a real coppah)

whereupon we could go on a Dexys tip...Bill Withers, Geno,Van Morrison (on Reminisce part One...hilarious..also includes Brendan Behan...again), but props to T-Rex, mentioned in `Kool In The Kaftan` by BA Robertson, `You Better You Bet` by The Who and `All The Young Dudes` and also numerous T Rex songs.

thats 'Retha Franklin, you dont remember the queen of soul?

Plainsongs masterpiece in search of Amelia Earhart has at least 2 songs namechecking her.

then of course there is Ian Dury with Reasons to be cheerful and Sweet Gene Vincent.

From a wide selection of refrences, my favourite is "I'm off to see the Bootleg Beatles, as the Bootleg Mark Chapman".

Other references of course include Nerys Hughes, Dicke Davies, Dean Friedman, Ted Moult, Fred Titmus, Rod Hull, Bob Todd, Jim Reeves and Len Ganley. And I think that's just the first CD.

........ she loved Johnny Fruin
Fall in love and blew em away."

B.A. Robertson's Bang, Bang featured a namecheck for then Managing Director of Warner Music in the UK, John Fruin. It also plugged Lord Nelson. the Marquis de Sade and a few others.

You're suitably at one with your body
and the sun
yes
you are!
You've read Karl Marx and you've taught yourself to dance

From When Will I Be Famous by Bros