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[Music] Songs in which real people are namechecked in the title or the lyrics



marlowe

Well-known member
Dec 13, 2015
3,898
The rules are:
1. Either the full name, first name or surname must be mentioned in either the title or lyrics.
2. If only the first name or surname is used it must be in reference to an actual person.
3. Songs which are allegedly about a particular person but none of that person's names are used are not permitted. ("You're so Vain" allegedly about Mick Jagger or Warren Beatty is not permitted)
4. All name references must be to an actual person, living or dead, not to a fictional character.

I'll start the ball rolling with an exhaustive list of Bob Dylan songs who evidentally is something of a name dropper. In "Desolation Row" he namechecks seven people and in "I Shall be Free" he mentions eight. Can anyone beat this?

1. The Death of Emmett Till
2. The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carrol ("Hattie
Carrol", "William Zanzinger")
3. Joey* ("Joey" Gallo, "Nietzsche", "Wilhelm Reich",
"Jimmy Cagney")
4. Hurricane ("Rubin Carter", "Patty Valentine",* "Alfred Bello", "Arthur Dexter Bradley")
5. Sara (Sara Lownds, Dylan's wife)
6. Only a Pawn in their Game ("Medgar Evers")
7. Ballad of a Thin Man ("...Mr Jones" is Max Jones, a Melody Maker Journalist)
8. John Wesley Harding (about John Wesley Hardin..without the G)
9. Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream ("Jesus", "Captain Kidd", "Columbus"
10. As I Went Out One Morning ("Tom Paine")
11. Black Diamond Bay ("...old Kronkite" is Walter Kronkite)
12. Brownsville Girl* ("Gregory Peck")
13. Desolation Row* ("Abraham" the prophet, "Bette Davis", "Casanova", "TS Eliot", "Einstein", "Nero" "Ezra Pound"
14. From a Buick 6 ("Bo Diddley")
15. I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine
16. I Shall be Free ("President Kennedy" "Sophia Loren", "Brigitte Bardot", "Anita Ekberg", "Martin Luther King", "Richard Burton", "Elizabeth Taylor", "Olatunji")
17. Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie
18. Lenny Bruce
19. Like a Rolling Stone ("Napoleon")
20. Motorpsycho Nightmare ("Tony Perkins", "Fidel Castro")
21. Outlaw Blues ("Jesse James", "Robert Ford")
22. Tombstone Blues ("Paul Revere", "Belle Starr", "Jack the Ripper", "Cecil B DeMille", "Ma Rainey", "Beethoven")
23. When I Paint my Masterpiece ("Botticelli")
24. Who Killed Davey Moore
25. You Aint Goin Nowhere ("Genghis Khan")
26. You're Gonna Make me Lonesome When You Go ("Verlaine", "Rimbaud")
27. Billy 1 (Billy the Kid, "Pat Garrett")
 




Herr Tubthumper

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Jul 11, 2003
59,198
The Fatherland
That Guns and Roses track In The Ring name checks loads of people.....although not in the title. I reckon he beats Desolation Row though.

Edit. Just realized names don’t need to be in title.
 


Stat Brother

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Jul 11, 2003
73,370
West west west Sussex
Darts legend Jocky Wilson:-

 








Frutos

.
Helpful Moderator
NSC Patreon
May 3, 2006
35,493
Northumberland
REM - Man On The Moon

Name-checks Andy Kaufman in the lyrics.
 


Badger

NOT the Honey Badger
NSC Patreon
May 8, 2007
12,749
Toronto
Terry Wogan

 














Stato

Well-known member
Dec 21, 2011
6,525
Desolation Row* ("Abraham" the prophet, "Bette Davis", "Casanova", "TS Eliot", "Einstein", "Nero" "Ezra Pound"

Abraham isn't mentioned in 'Desolation Row'. He is mentioned in 'Highway 61 Revisited'. If biblical characters are accepted as real under your rules, he does mention Cain and Able and Noah, taking 'Desolation Row' to nine. If they're not, it's only six. Robin Hood could take it to ten. There is as much evidence for his existence as there is for any of the Biblical names.
 





















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