This Is Just A Meta Mix On A Blog

March 21, 2012

Inspired by the return of one of my favorite TV shows, the hyper self-aware Community (whose Abed could be considered the patron saint of meta-humor) and the self-referring “Simple Song” on the new Shins album out this week, I’ve made a mix of my favorite meta-referencing songs. By this I mean songs that specifically reference themselves in the lyrics (stuff like “it goes like this, the fourth, the fifth”, “take it to the chorus” and “Second verse, same as the first verse” are out). I chose 20 of my favorite self-referencing songs for this mix, of which you can download / read each meta lyric below or listen to the mix on Spotify. If you can think of any good ones I missed, let me know in the comments. Cool. Cool cool cool.

MP3 The Shins – Simple Song

Well this is just a simple song / To say what you’ve done

MP3 Belle & Sebastian –  This Is Just A Modern Rock Song

This is just a modern rock song / This is just a tender affair / I count “three, four” and then we start to slow / Because a song has got to stop somewhere

MP3 David Bowie – Five Years

I think I saw you in an ice-cream parlour / Drinking milk shakes cold and long / Smiling and waving and looking so fine / Don’t think you knew you were in this song

MP3 Pulp – Something Changed

I wrote this song two hours before we met / I didn’t know your name or what you looked like yet

MP3 Carly Simon – You’re So Vain

You’re so vain / You probably think this song is about you

MP3 Wilco – Someone Else’s Song

I know it sounds like someone else’s song / From a long time ago

MP3 The Beatles – Only A Northern Song

If you’re listening to this song / You may think the chords are wrong / But they’re not / We just wrote them like that

MP3 Coldplay – Yellow

I came along / I wrote a song for you / And all the things you do / And it was called Yellow

MP3 Neil Young – Borrowed Tune

I’m singin’ this borrowed tune / I took from the Rolling Stones / Alone in this empty room / Too wasted to write my own

MP3 The Magic Numbers – This Is A Song

This is a song / and these are the words

MP3 Steely Dan – Deacon Blues

I cried when I wrote this song / Sue me if I play too long

MP3 Billy Bragg – A New England

I was twenty-one years when I wrote this song / I’m twenty two now but I won’t be long

MP3 The Postal Service – Such Great Heights

And when you scan the radio / I hope this song will guide you home

MP3 Leonard Cohen – Bird on a Wire

But I swear by this song / By all I have done wrong / I’ll make it up to you

MP3 Islands – This Is Not A Song

If this is just a song / then why do I find it so hard to move on

MP3 Okkervil River – Get Big

And once we get to the end of this song / then another will begin

MP3 Ted Leo & The Pharmacists – Hearts of Oak

I was whistling a new song to myself  / And it went, it went something like this one

MP3 Elton John – Your Song

My gift is my song / And this one’s for you

MP3 Weezer – Across The Sea

I’ve got your letter / You’ve got my song

Spotify Playlist: This Is Just A Meta Mix On Spotify

Posted by Taylor in Mix