Lyrics about, or aimed at, critics

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Lots of bitter lyrics out there for certain.

Some examples:

Stereophonics: Mr. Writer
Genesis: Many Too Many
Wings: Silly Love Songs

Others....??

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 31 January 2004 00:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I believe Chuck D, when discussing the death of a critic, said "I guess the crew did it."

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 31 January 2004 00:15 (twenty-two years ago)

G'n'R "Get in the Ring" ownzzz

― Shakey Mo Collier, Saturday, 31 January 2004 00:22 (twenty-two years ago)

especially cuz Axl refused to back it up.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Saturday, 31 January 2004 00:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Prince - "All the Critics Love U in New York"

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Saturday, 31 January 2004 00:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Beatles - Glass Onion
Beatles - I Am The Walrus
Beatles - Ballad of John and Yoko
Bob Dylan - My Back Pages
Bob Dylan - Ballad of a Thin Man

― pete s, Saturday, 31 January 2004 00:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Fried Abortions: "Joel Selvin"

― no opinion, Saturday, 31 January 2004 00:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Ryan Adams, "Message to Jim DeRogatis"

― M Matos (M Matos), Saturday, 31 January 2004 00:31 (twenty-two years ago)

O well, then there's of course Naked City/ Zorn's "PERFUME OF A CRITIC'S BURNING FLESH", with Yamatsuka Eye on vocals.

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Saturday, 31 January 2004 00:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Also don't forget Prince: "Hello"

― Broheems (diamond), Saturday, 31 January 2004 00:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, Anthony, Public Enemy had a lot of that stuff... "Letter to the New York Post," and that song where Chuck D goes "why rip a rapper when he flows like water / I'd rather bum rush a television reporter."

― Ben Boyer (Ben Boyer), Saturday, 31 January 2004 00:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Fame, fame, fatal fame...

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Saturday, 31 January 2004 00:49 (twenty-two years ago)

how about Dylan's Positively 4th Street ?? (GOTTA LOVE THAT ONE!! RIGHT?? RIGHT?!?!? )

― wallace carothers's repentence, Saturday, 31 January 2004 00:55 (twenty-two years ago)

of montreal 'there is nothing wrong with hating rock critics'

― keith m (keithmcl), Saturday, 31 January 2004 01:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Now even this red cap gets a rap from these critics.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Saturday, 31 January 2004 01:37 (twenty-two years ago)

i love that negro problem song that calls out robert hilburn from the LA times. and, gary numan lovers, "critics."

― notfazed (notfazed), Saturday, 31 January 2004 01:44 (twenty-two years ago)

The entirety of "Bring the Noise" by Public Enemy was supposedly directed at then-SPIN senior writer, John Leland.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 31 January 2004 02:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Not quite as vitriolic, but Joan Baez's "Time Rag" from her 1977 album, Blowin' Away was directed at my humble employers. That bitch.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 31 January 2004 02:28 (twenty-two years ago)

"I don't know why you wanna impress Christgau"

― sym (shmuel), Saturday, 31 January 2004 02:53 (twenty-two years ago)

quite a lot of zappa, actually. "packard goose" being the most blunt.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Saturday, 31 January 2004 02:55 (twenty-two years ago)

"Seymour Stein" by Belle and Sebastian

― William R Henderson (Cabin Essence), Saturday, 31 January 2004 06:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Sonic Youth - I Killed Robert Christgau With My Big Fucking Dick.

― mzui, Saturday, 31 January 2004 07:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Scum by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. Aimed at former NME writer Mat Snow.

― Not Mat Snow, Saturday, 31 January 2004 09:46 (twenty-two years ago)

the chesterf!elds - "the critics can snipe, and they do, and they all go to town, but they won't get us down"

― fletcher dexter, Saturday, 31 January 2004 10:17 (twenty-two years ago)

whitehouse "wriggle like a fucking eel"

― the surface noise (electricsound), Saturday, 31 January 2004 10:51 (twenty-two years ago)

The Kinks-Mr. Reporter

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Saturday, 31 January 2004 12:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Ryan Adams, "Message to Jim DeRogatis"

I have to say I prefer the name of the MP3

Ryan Adam's "Ryan Adam's Whine"

― Jedmond, Saturday, 31 January 2004 13:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Bright Eyes, "To Love and To Be Loved"

― Simon H., Saturday, 31 January 2004 14:10 (twenty-two years ago)

He's not so much a critic as a reporter, but Chuck Philips was called out on Jay-Z's rap on one of the songs from Missy's Under Construction (sorry, I can't remember which one).

Raspberries' "Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)" would also seem to apply.

As would the Jefferson Starship's "Stairway to Cleveland" (a/k/a, the "Fuck you, we do what we want" song), which I bring up knowing full well I'm the only person on ILM who ever talks about the JS ...

― Joseph McCombs, Saturday, 31 January 2004 15:00 (twenty-two years ago)

"I don't give [choose one: a damn/two fucks] about your review" - The Jam, "In the City"

Also, Skull Kontrol's "New Rock Critic" (also responsible for the ugliest album cover of 1999!)

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Saturday, 31 January 2004 15:26 (twenty-two years ago)

I think Mat Snow, interviewing Cave, asked him about "Scum", and received the reply "I didn't write it about critics in general, I wrote it about YOU"

― Neil Willett (Neil Willett), Saturday, 31 January 2004 17:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Hmmm.. Interesting to see how many of these people have been acts that have (at least at the time) gotten mainly good reviews for their output....

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 31 January 2004 17:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Um, Neil Young - Ambulance Blues
critics "you're all just pissin' in the wind, you dont know it but you are"

― AndrewCM, Saturday, 31 January 2004 23:45 (twenty-two years ago)

The Ramones' It's Not My Place (In The 9 To 5 World) and REM's It's The End of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) both mention Bangs.

― Jim Robinson (Original Miscreant), Sunday, 1 February 2004 00:06 (twenty-two years ago)

I've heard that The Fall's "Hip Priest" (or should that be "Hip Priest-uh") is directed at critics. "He is not...apprec-iated-uh"

― Myonga Von Bontee, Tuesday, 3 February 2004 18:37 (twenty-two years ago)

if you're gonna mention the fall you'd better mention "mere psued mag ed"

my vote:
trumans water - "the aroma of gina arnold"

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 3 February 2004 19:09 (twenty-two years ago)

erm: "psued"

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 3 February 2004 19:10 (twenty-two years ago)

haha, i give up.

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 3 February 2004 19:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Speedway - Morrissey... Or did I misinterpret?

― Shooz (shooz), Tuesday, 3 February 2004 19:22 (twenty-two years ago)

i can't believe no one's brought up "Blue Monday" yet!

(though i do suppose that's what i'm here for. ;) )

― janni (janni), Friday, 13 February 2004 17:50 (twenty-two years ago)

lynyrd skynyrd - don't ask me no questions
mr. t experience - i wrote a book about rock and roll
lou reed - spiels between songs on *take no prisoners*
nick lowe - they called it rock
bunny brains - bring me the head of trent reznor (chuck eddy mix) (also they have an album called *Sin Gulls Goring St. Eddy*!!!)

but wasn't the p.e. leland song "don't believe the hype," not "bring the noise"? and i dunno about the prince song mentioned above, but the obvious one that comes to mind is "all the critics love you in new york."

― chuck, Friday, 13 February 2004 18:05 (twenty-two years ago)

and isn't the most famous one "positively fourth street" by bob dylan, supposedly directed to a critic at *sing out* who'd said he'd sold out from folk music??

― chuck, Friday, 13 February 2004 18:13 (twenty-two years ago)

sex pistols "anarchy in the u.k." -- "i use the n.m.e."

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 13 February 2004 18:23 (twenty-two years ago)

according to some Neil Young fans, 'Goin' Home' is at least in part about Shakey scribe Jimmy McDonnough.

― ben, Friday, 13 February 2004 18:38 (twenty-two years ago)

blue oyster cult's "in thee" is about patti smith, who wrote album reviews for creem magazine.

the dictators' "borneo jimmy" is about r. meltzer.

r. meltzer, chrissie hynde, neil tennant, patti smith, lester bangs, metal mike saunders, george smith, john petkovic, falling james moreland, wendy case, stephin merritt, l.d. beghtol, frank kogan, deborah frost, and sundry other critics have presumably written many songs about themselves.

― chuck, Friday, 13 February 2004 18:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Is he saying NME or enemy?

I always thought nobody knew what P4S is about. Did Dylan ever say?

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Friday, 13 February 2004 18:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Is he saying NME or enemy?

i've always heard it as an intentional double-entendre, though the way he pronounces it is closer to NME than to enemy, at least to my american ears.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 13 February 2004 18:53 (twenty-two years ago)

The B&S song is "Chickfactor," not "Seymour Stein."

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Saturday, 14 February 2004 06:02 (twenty-two years ago)

blue oyster cult's "in thee" is about patti smith, who wrote album reviews for creem magazine.

Haha, I put that song right before "Frederick" on my 1979 MP3 CDR without even knowing that!

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Saturday, 14 February 2004 06:13 (twenty-two years ago)

six years pass...

Taylor Swift, "Mean" (maybe)

― xhuxk, Saturday, 6 November 2010 00:58 (fifteen years ago)

Gary Numan, "I Die: You Die"

― margana (anagram), Saturday, 6 November 2010 07:39 (fifteen years ago)

"Go to Hell, Miss Rydell"

― the who cares (okamax), Saturday, 6 November 2010 08:21 (fifteen years ago)

"Pinball Wizard" was written after an early version of The Who's Tommy failed to impress critic Nik Cohn. Pete Townsend knew Cohn was a pinball fanatic, so he decided Tommy would be a pinball champ and quickly wrote the song to appease him (it worked.)

Serious pinball junkies (myself included) will discern that the lyrics reflect Townsend's unfamiliarity with the nuances of pinball.

― Lee626, Monday, 8 November 2010 01:03 (fifteen years ago)

Honestly think that "Mean" is about bullying and not necessarily about music critics.

― kkvgz, Monday, 8 November 2010 01:22 (fifteen years ago)

Ben (Keith?) mentioned "Ambulance Blues" six years ago, but he got the aimed-at-critics verse wrong; it's "So all you critics sit alone/You're no better than me for what you've shown/With your stomach pumps and your hook-and-ladder dreams/We could get together for some scenes." I'm guessing Neil meant critics in the more general sense of people who criticize, not the Lester Bangs variety.

― clemenza, Monday, 8 November 2010 01:28 (fifteen years ago)

pinpointing what a song's "about" is a mug's game (despite taylor being annoying and tempting everyone to focus on it) but "mean" is so obviously set in her pre-fame days, before she lived in a big city, so whether it's referring to the first critical audiences she performed to or high school bullies...it's certainly not national rock critics.

― lex lex lex lex lex on the track BOW (lex pretend), Monday, 8 November 2010 02:31 (fifteen years ago)

Sting - "Epilogue (Nothing 'Bout Me)"

― sandra lee, gimme your alcohol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 8 November 2010 02:34 (fifteen years ago)

Let's just say "Mean" works on a few different levels, and there's no requirement to take it as autobiography at all, when you get down to it. I definitely don't think it's mainly a song about critics, but it's not "obviously" anything. (Not even bullying -- could be child abuse!) And it will certainly be heard as being about people criticizing her singing in the here and now -- given that's when it's been released, and all. And it's a stretch to think that didn't Taylor didn't realize that, when she included it on a 2010 album. So it's kind of nit-picky to suggest it doesn't belong here.

― xhuxk, Monday, 8 November 2010 03:09 (fifteen years ago)

oliver wang, you don't know what gangsta is

― my sex drew back into itself tight and dry (abanana), Monday, 8 November 2010 04:12 (fifteen years ago)

Which leads to this.

― the who cares (okamax), Monday, 8 November 2010 04:43 (fifteen years ago)

G'n'R "Get in the Ring" ownzzz
― Shakey Mo Collier, Saturday, January 31, 2004 12:22 AM (6 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
especially cuz Axl refused to back it up.
― Shakey Mo Collier, Saturday, January 31, 2004 12:22 AM (6 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Did any of his targets actually challenge him?

― billstevejim, Monday, 8 November 2010 04:58 (fifteen years ago)

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