Monday, June 2, 2014

VIP's mentioned in international songs


Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken - LLOYD COLE & THE COMMOTIONS (LP Rattlesnakes, 1984)
Lyrics: Listening to Arthur Lee records, making all your friends feel so guilty about their cynicism...
read Norman Mailer or get a new tailor

Bigmouth Strikes Again - THE SMITHS (LP The Queen Is Dead, 1986)
Lyrics: Now I know how Joan of Arc felt as the flames rose to her roman nose

Bittersweet - MARC ALMOND (LP The Stars We Are, 1988)
Lyrics: Watch me,  I'll set myself free, escape from situations Houdini would be proud of me I'll lie around like Byron And write verses to the moon

Born To Be Sold - TRANSVISION VAMP (LP Velveteen, 1989)
Lyrics: From Elvis Presley to Marilyn
Cassius Clay to Billy the Kid
From Jackie O to J.F.K.
Little Richard and Lady Day
From Valentino to Fonteyne
Al Capone to John Wayne
From Harley D to Lenny Bruce
Harry Dean to Betty Blue
From Sister Sue to Judy Teen
Marty Wilde to Morrisey
From Johnny Rotten to Charlie Chaplin
Madonna Ciccone to Little Satnin
And back to Elvis and Marilyn
Sugar Ray and Billy the Kid

Can't Get It Out Of My Head - ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA (LP Eldorado, 1974)
Lyrics: Robin Hood and William Tell and Ivanhoe and Lancelot

Closer To Fine - INDIGO GIRLS (LP Indigo Girls, 1989)
Lyrics: I went to see the Doctor of Philosophy with a poster of Rasputin and a beard down to his knee.

Country House - BLUR (LP The Great Escape, 1995)
Lyrics: He's reading Balzac, knocking back Prozac

Cult Of Personality - LIVING COLOUR (LP Vivid1988)
Lyrics: I'm the cult of personality Like Mussolini and Kennedy

Deep In Vogue - MALCOLM McLAREN
Lyrics: This has got to be a special tribute to the houses of New York, Le Beija, Extravaganza, Magnifique, St. Laurent, Omni, Ebony, Dupree.In my black tights just throwing shade

Der Mussolini - D.A.F. (LP Alles Ist Gut, 1981)
Lyrics: tanz den Mussolini. tanz den Adolf Hitler. beweg deinen hintern. und tanz den Jesus Christus

Don't Stand So Close To Me - THE POLICE (LP Zenyatta Momdatta, 1980)
Lyrics: It's no use, he sees her he starts to shake and cough just like the old man in that book by Nabokov

Electric - MADRUGADA (LP Industrial Silence, 1999)
Lyrics: Dylan Thomas, pass around

Endless Art - A HOUSE (LP I Am The Greatest, 1991)
Lyrics: All art is quite useless according to Oscar Wilde
Turner 1775 to 1851
Toulouse-Lautrec 1864 to 1901
Andy Warhol 1928 to 1987 RIP
Ernest Hemingway 1899 to 1961
George Orwell, Jimi Hendrix, William Butler Yeats, Jack B. Yeats
Richard Redgrave 1804 to 1888
Henry Moore 1896 to 1986
Henry Miller, Sid Vicious only 21, Brian Jones
Otis Redding 1941 to 1967 RIP
Claude Monet 1840 to 1926
Beethoven, Bach, Brahms
Elvis Presley 1935 to '77
Man Ray, Johnnie Ray
John Donne 1573 to 1631
Alfred Lord Tennyson 1809 to '92
Degeneration art, Joan Miro, RIP
Jackson Pollock 1912 to 1956
John Lennon '40 to '80
Henry Lamb, Cezanne, Paul Gauguin, William Shakespeare
Brendan Behan 1923 to 1964
Tennessee Williams 1912 to 1983
Gerard Manley Hopkins 1844 to 1889
Pissaro, Picasso, Degas RIP
Joseph Conrad 1857 to 1924
Jack Kerouac 1922 to 1969
Keith Moon 1946 to 1978
D. H. Lawrence, James Joyce, Mozart
Van Gogh 1853 to 1890
Ian Curtis, Salvador Dali, Johann Strauss, Richard Strauss, Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse RIP
All dead, yet still alive
In endless time, endless art

Englishman In New York - STING (LP ... Nothing Like The Sun, 1987)
the song refers to Quentin Crisp

Foule Sentimental - ALAIN SOUCHON (LP C'est Deja Ca, 1993)
Lyrics: On nous Claudia Schiffer, On nous Paul-Loup Sulitzer

Give Peace A Chance - PLASTIC ONO BAND (single, 1969)
Lyrics: Ev'rybody's talking about John and Yoko, Timmy Leary, Rosemary, Tommy Smothers, Bobby Dylan, Tommy Cooper, Derek Taylor, Norman Mailer, Allen Ginsberg, Hare Krishna,

He's The Greatest Dancer - SISTER SLEDGE (LP We Are Family, 1979)
Lyrics: Halston, Gucci, Fiorucci

I Am - ARMY OF LOVERS (LP The Gods Of Earth & Heaven, 1993)
Lyrics: I am a Liberace fan A mega star in glam I am, I am what Bobby is to Pam, Khashoggi to Iran I am

I Want The World To Stop - BELLE & SEBASTIAN (LP Write About Love, 2010)
Lyrics: This is your Balzac, your Brookside, and your Bach

King - UB40 (LP Sigming Off, 1980)
the song refers to Martin Luther King

Last Days Of The Century - AL STEWART (LP Last Days Of The Century, 1988)
Lyrics: You wore black clothes You quoted Shakespeare You still make me shake When you get this near You look like a still from Cecil B. DeMille

Left To My Own Devices - PET SHOP BOYS (LP Introspective, 1988)
Lyrics: but in the back of my head I heard distant feet, Che Guevara and Debussy to a disco beat

Lies - ELTON JOHN (LP Made In England, 1995)
Lyrics: lie for that sweet bird of youth I could be great like Tennessee Williams

Mr. Jones - THE COUNTING CROWS (LP August & Everything After, 1993)
Lyrics: I wanna be Bob Dylan... If I knew Picasso, I would buy myself a gray guitar and play

Mrs. Robinson - SIMON & GARFUNKEL (OST The Graduate, 1968)
Lyrics: Jesus loves you more than you will kno...  Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?... a nation turns its lonely eyes to you

No More Heroes - THE STRANGLERS  (LP No More Heroes, 1977)
Lyrics: Whatever happened to Leon Trotsky? He got an ice pick that made his ears burn Whatever happened to dear old Lenny? The great Elmyra, and Sancho Panza? All the Shakespearoes?

Nothing Ever Happens - DEL AMITRI (LP Waking Hours, 1989)
Lyrics: While American businessmen snap up Van Goghs for the price of a hospital wing

Paris, Paris - MALCOLM McLAREN (LP Paris, 1994)
Lyrics: Un trait de Sacré-Coeur et deux doight de Doisneau , Une Piaf, quelques moineaux et Joséphine Baker... Lá  une de Prévert, mais sans raton-laveur Prenons un dernier verre pres Bateau lavoir Une Sinone de Beauvoir et deux singes en hiver...

Puttin' On The Ritz - TACO (LP After Eight, 1982)
Lyrics: come, let's mix where Rockefellers walk with sticks or umbrellas

Rasputin - BONEY M (LP Nightflight To Venus, 1978)
Lyrics: Ra ra Rasputin, Lover of the Russian queen

Ringo - LORNE GREENE (single, 1964)
the song is based on the character of famous outlaw Johnny Ringo

She's Got All The Friends (That Money Can Buy) - CHUMBAWAMBA (LP WYS/WYG, 2000)
Lyrics:  Versace and Prada mean nothing to me, to me

She's So High - TAL BACHMAN (LP Tal Bachman, 1999)
Lyrics: She's So high like Cleopatra, Joan Of Arc or Aphrodite

Specialization - MARILYN MONROE & FRANKIE VAUGHN (OST Let's Make Love, 1960)
Lyrics: 
(Frankie Vaughn)
Maria Callas
Is booked in Dallas.
The carpet's rolled out and they're sold out clear to the skies.

(Frankie Vaughn)
When Elvis rotates,
Each creep notates.

(Frankie Vaughn)
Salome did it with veils.
Abe Lincoln did it with rails.
Toledo did it with scales
The Chinese built that Wall.

(Frankie Vaughn)
Marc Clement gives gals the tremors.
This Casanova sure has the roverest eyes.

(Frankie Vaughn)
The Farrows did it with springs.
And Darwin did it with links.
Some robbers did it with Brinks.
Carnegie used a Hall.

(Frankie Vaughn)
Van Cliburn caused us a high burn.
While we were blushin'
Some Russian gave him the prize.

Strong - ROBBIE WILLIAMS (LP I've Been Expecting You, 1998)
Lyrics: I look like Kiss but without the make up... And is this real cos I feel fake Oprah Winfrey Ricki Lake, Teach me things I don't need to know

Sympathy For The Devil - THE ROLLING STONES (LP Beggars Banquet, 1968)
Lyrics: and I was 'round when Jesus Christ, had his moment of doubt and pain, made damn sure that Pilate washed his hands and sealed his fate...   I stuck around St. Petersburg when I saw it was a time for a chang, killed the Czar and his ministers Anastasia screamed in vain...
I shouted out, 'Who killed the Kennedys?' when after all it was you and me

Tesla Girls - OMD (LP Junk Culture, 1984)
Lyrics:  Tesla Girls, Tesla Girls testing out theories, Electric chairs and dynamos

The Love Of Richard Nixon - MANIC STREET PREACHERS (LP Lifeblood, 2004)
Lyrics:  the love of Richard Nixon, death without assassination

The Magnificent Seven - THE CLASH (LP Sandinista! 1980)
Lyrics: Karlo Marx and Fredrich Engels came to the checkout at the 7-11, Marx was skint - but he had sense, Engels lent him the necessary pence... Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi went to the park to check on the game but they was murdered by the other team who went on to win 50-nil... Socrates and Milhous Nixon both went the same way - through the kitchen, Plato the Greek or Rin Tin Tin who's more famous to the billion millions?

The Mexican - BABE RUTH (LP First Base, 1972)
Lyrics:  Seniorita panned in: Chico, come-on-home! Santa Anna's losing You'll be the first to go Sam Whosman's laughin' Davy Crocket too Whenn Anna takes the Alamo The first to go is you

The Reflex - DURAN DURAN (LP Seven & The Ragged Tiger, 1983)
Lyrics: I sold the Renoir & the TV set

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised - GIL SCOTT HERON (LP Pieces Of A Man, 1971)
Lyrics: The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox
In 4 parts without commercial interruptions.
The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon
Blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John
Mitchell, General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat
Hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary.

The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by the
Schaefer Award Theatre and will not star Natalie
Woods and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia.
The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal.
The revolution will not get rid of the nubs.
The revolution will not make you look five pounds
Thinner, because the revolution will not be televised, Brother.

There will be no pictures of you and Willie May
Pushing that shopping cart down the block on the dead run,
Or trying to slide that color television into a stolen ambulance.
NBC will not be able predict the winner at 8:32
Or report from 29 districts.
The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
Brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
Brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of Whitney Young being
Run out of Harlem on a rail with a brand new process.
There will be no slow motion or still life of Roy
Wilkens strolling through Watts in a Red, Black and
Green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving
For just the proper occasion.

Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville
Junction will no longer be so damned relevant, and
Women will not care if Dick finally gets down with
Jane on Search for Tomorrow because Black people
Will be in the street looking for a brighter day.
The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no highlights on the eleven o'clock
News and no pictures of hairy armed women
Liberationists and Jackie Onassis blowing her nose.
The theme song will not be written by Jim Webb,
Francis Scott Key, nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom
Jones, Johnny Cash, Englebert Humperdink, or the Rare Earth.
The revolution will not be televised.

Tuff Enuff - THE FABULOUS THUNDERBIRDS (LP Tuff Enuff, 1986)
Lyrics:  I'd climb the Empire State Building, fight Muhammad Ali just to have you baby close to me

Vogue - MADONNA (LP I'm Breathless, 1990)
Lyrics: Greta Garbo, and Monroe, Dietrich and DiMaggio, Marlon Brando, Jimmy Dean On the cover of a magazine... Grace Kelly; Harlow, Jean Picture of a beauty queen Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire Ginger Rodgers, dance on air... They had style, they had grace Rita Hayworth gave good face Lauren, Katherine, Lana too Bette Davis, we love you

We Built This City - STARSHIP (LP Knee Deep In The Hoopla, 1985)
Lyrics: Marconi plays the mamba, listen to the radio

We Didn't Start The Fire - BILLY JOEL (LP Storm Front, 1989)
Lyrics: Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio

Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, "The King and I" and "The Catcher in the Rye"

Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye

Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc

Roy hn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dacron
Dien Bien Phu falls, "Rock Around the Clock"

Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland

Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Krushchev
Princess Grace, "Peyton Place", trouble in the Suez

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, "Bridge on the River Kwai"

Lebanon, Charlse de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkweather, homicide, children of thalidomide

Buddy Holly, "Ben Hur", space monkey, Mafia
Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go

U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, "Psycho", Belgians in the Congo

[Chorus]

Hemingway, Eichmann, "Stranger in a Strange Land"
Buildin' Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion

"Lawrence of Arabia", British Beatlemania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson

Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex
JFK, blown away, what else do I have to say

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock

Begin, Reagan, Palestine, terror on the airline
Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan

"Wheel of Fortune", Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide
Foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, crack, Bernie Goetz

Welcome To The Pleasuredome - FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD (LP Welcome To... 1984)
Lyrics: In Xanadu did Kublai Khan A pleasuredome erect


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