Songs about rock rivalries?

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I need your help! Which bands call out their rock rivals in songs? If you can, please tell me band/song title. Thank you!

― Molly, Sunday, 15 February 2004 03:27 (twenty-two years ago)

There was the Born Against song making fun of Sick of It All for threatening to beat them up.

― Jon Williams (ex machina), Sunday, 15 February 2004 03:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Alledgedly the Beatles' 'And Your Bird Can Sing' is addressed to Mick Jagger, the 'bird' in question being Marianne Faithfull.
This is unsubstansiated though.

Lennon's 'How Do You Sleep' is an attack on MCartney, as is 'Crippled Inside'. In response to 'Dear Friend' (i believe). George Harrison's 'Wah Wah' also attacks MCartney.

― pete s, Sunday, 15 February 2004 03:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Does the Clash's '1977' count?
'no elvis beatles or stones/in 1977'

― pete s, Sunday, 15 February 2004 03:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Lynard Skynard's "Sweet Home Alabama" is a rebuttal to Neil Young's "Southern Man". It mentions him by name several times.

― jim wentworth (wench), Sunday, 15 February 2004 03:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Brian Jonestown Massacre - "Not If You Were The Last Dandy On Earth"

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Sunday, 15 February 2004 04:00 (twenty-two years ago)

brian jonestown massacre 'courtney taylor'

― keith m (keithmcl), Sunday, 15 February 2004 04:39 (twenty-two years ago)

pavement's "range life" calls out the pumpkins and stp

― scott pl. (scott pl.), Sunday, 15 February 2004 05:16 (twenty-two years ago)

the wonder stuff -- "astley in the noose"
they might be giants -- "we're the replacements"

― notfazed (notfazed), Sunday, 15 February 2004 05:28 (twenty-two years ago)

tall dwarfs 'self-deluded dreamboy(in a mess)'

― keith m (keithmcl), Sunday, 15 February 2004 05:57 (twenty-two years ago)

cheap trick's "stiff competition" is about stiff records right?
g'n'r's "mr. brownstone" is about bronski beat

― cinniblount (James Blount), Sunday, 15 February 2004 06:20 (twenty-two years ago)

"Positively 4th Street" is about the Village folkies
"Rock Star" by Hole is about the riot grrls, perhaps?
Queen's "We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions" is about punk rockers

― Maxwell von Bismarck (maxwell von bismarck), Sunday, 15 February 2004 14:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, all that stuff from the Trent/Courtney/Dave/Tori/Marilyn wars: "Professional Widow", "Stacked Actors", "Awful", "Starfuckers Inc", etc etc.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Sunday, 15 February 2004 14:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Wings "Rock Show" rhymes "Jimmy Page" with "relic from another age" IIRC

― dave q, Sunday, 15 February 2004 14:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Does "Smoke On The Water" count? Deep Purple wrote it about the Mothers of Invention, right? Not sure if that was a rivalry.

― mike a, Sunday, 15 February 2004 14:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Similarly to Range Life, there are allegedly live versions of Pavement's "Billie" that directly address Billy Corgan.

― dog latin (dog latin), Sunday, 15 February 2004 15:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Charlie Daniels v. Devil

― ModJ (ModJ), Sunday, 15 February 2004 16:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Lennon's 'How Do You Sleep'
>> Macca's "Let Me Roll It"

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Sunday, 15 February 2004 16:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Redd Kross-"Ballad of a Lovedoll"

"To the bands that we all hate
You better split before it's too late
She Devils will die in a Lovedoll rage
Planets will collide when these bitches hit the stage!"

Actually, the first couple of lines are lifted from Venus & the Razorblades "Punkarama", but I can't remember anything else from that song.

― Arthur (Arthur), Sunday, 15 February 2004 17:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Zip Code Rapists, "Doctors Are Speading Disease"

― mike a, Sunday, 15 February 2004 18:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Anal Cunt "Face It, You're a Metal Band"
Anal Cunt "Johny Violent Gets His Ass Kicked By Morrisey"
Anal Cunt "Your Band's in the Cutout Bin"
Anal Cunt "Your Cousin is George Lynch"
Anal Cunt "311 Sucks"
Anal Cunt "No, I Don't Want to do a Split 7" With Your Stupid Fucking Band"
Anal Cunt "Hootie and the Blowfish"
Anal Cunt "You Went to See Dishwalla and Everclear (You're Gay)"
Anal Cunt "Kyle from Incantation Has a Mustache"
Anal Cunt "Rancid Sucks and the Clash Sucked Too"
Anal Cunt "Extreme Noise Terror is Afraid of Us"
Anal Cunt "Chris Barnes is a Pussy"
Anal Cunt "Limp Bizkit Think They're Black But They're Just Gay"
Anal Cunt "Anyone Who Likes the Dillinger Escape Plan is a Faggot"

― dave q, Sunday, 15 February 2004 18:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Tully Craft, "Pop Songs Your New Boyfriend's Too Stupid to Know About" calls out Green Day, U2, Lemonheads and Weezer, but is probably in the end more self-deprecating than rivalistic.

― J. Ellenberg, Sunday, 15 February 2004 19:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Anal Cunt "Rancid Sucks and the Clash Sucked Too"

Heroes and gods.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 15 February 2004 19:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Half Man Half Biscuit, 'The Ballad Of Climie Fisher'

― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Sunday, 15 February 2004 19:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Blur- Beetlebum

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Sunday, 15 February 2004 19:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Randy Newman "Story of a Rock and Roll Band"

― dave q, Sunday, 15 February 2004 19:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Lou Reed "New York Stars"

― dave q, Sunday, 15 February 2004 19:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Ben Folds- Rocking the Suburbs (KoRn)

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Sunday, 15 February 2004 19:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Ween 'I Hate the Smiths'

― Sym (shmuel), Sunday, 15 February 2004 19:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Sex Pistols, "New York" / Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers, "London Boys"

― morris pavilion (samjeff), Sunday, 15 February 2004 20:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Wings "Rock Show" rhymes "Jimmy Page" with "relic from another age"

Paul's talking about a guitar.
What's That Man Movin' Cross The Stage?
It Looks A Lot Like The One Used By Jimmy Page
Its Like A Relic From A Different Age

My guess would be an old Les Paul or a Supro.

― Speedy Gonzalas (Speedy Gonzalas), Sunday, 15 February 2004 20:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Teen Anthems - I hate Oasis (and I hate the beatles)
Teen Anthems - Paul Weller = Anti-christ

― ___ (___), Sunday, 15 February 2004 20:13 (twenty-two years ago)

"cry me a river"

― jody (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 15 February 2004 20:38 (twenty-two years ago)

haha - "toxic"!

― cinniblount (James Blount), Sunday, 15 February 2004 21:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Peter Paul & Mary called out Donovan, the Beatles, and Peter Paul & Mary on "I Dig Rock & Roll," if one wishes to go back that far.

And another McCartney vs. Lennon swipe: "Too Many People Preaching Practices."

― Joseph McCombs, Sunday, 15 February 2004 21:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Pet Shop Boys' "How can you expect to be taken seriously?" is apparently about George Michael or Bono or Sting or all of them probably.

There's also that song "I'm afraid of Britney Spears" by some girl I don't remember.

― Seb (Seb), Sunday, 15 February 2004 21:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Oasis early proclaimed that their second album was to be called "(What's The Story) Morning Glory".

At the time, there was this much hyped rivalry between those two band, and Blur's "Morning Glory/Life's a Different Story" line from their "Country House" single was read by a lot of people as aimed at Oasis...

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 15 February 2004 22:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Lynard Skynard's "Sweet Home Alabama" is a rebuttal to Neil Young's "Southern Man". It mentions him by name several times.

As well, Neil Young's "Walk On" serves as a rebuttal to "Sweet Home Alabama".

― J. Weiss (jweiss), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 00:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Reynolds Girls - "I'd Rather Jack (Than Fleetwood Mac)"
Foetus - "Sick Man" is about Nick Cave apparently ("walking round the parking lot / a man possessed - of not a lot")
Half Man Half Biscuit - "Styx Gig (Seen By My Mates Coming Out Of A)", although I can't imagine Styx have ever heard of HMHB so it's not really a rivalry as such. In fact, I can't imagine what Styx would make of them.

― udu wudu (udu wudu), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 01:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Didn't Travis sing 'What's a wonderwall anyway?' or something like that?

― Debito (Debito), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 01:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't really consider that rivalrous, just a sort of too-soon pop cultural reference. They also say some crap about a devil's haircut in your mind and a wonderwall to climb on the SAME DAMN ALBUM. Embarassing.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 01:58 (twenty-two years ago)

I always heard it like, 'This is just pop music, what the hell are you getting on about?'

― Debito (Debito), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 02:02 (twenty-two years ago)

one month passes...

Who's going to listen to a band who calls them selves "anal cunt" Well I guess that's what they are.

― *Just a fan of The Clash*, Saturday, 27 March 2004 00:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Well said!

― Vitamin Leee (Leee), Saturday, 27 March 2004 00:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Funkadelic's "Let's Take It To The Stage" cheerfully disses "Slufus", "Slick & The Family Brick", "Fool & The Gang", "Earth, Hot Air & No Fire", and even the Godmother (or Grandfather) himself! (All of whom were then [1975] outselling George Clinton and Gang FWIW.)

And around the same time, Parliament's "P-Funk Wants To Get Funked Up" razzed Blue Magic, Doobie Brothers, Main Ingredients and "David Boowie".

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Saturday, 27 March 2004 07:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Dead Finks Don't Talk by Brian Eno

― The Rebukes of Hazard (mjt), Saturday, 27 March 2004 07:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Gob's "Give Up The Grudge" and Stroke 9's "Kick Some @$$" were both about Fred Durst.

― C-4, Thursday, 1 April 2004 09:13 (twenty-two years ago)

The Blur "he's got Morning glory, life's a different story" was early enough to be back when the bands were vaguely supportive of each other.

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 1 April 2004 09:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Besides the aforementioned "Pop Songs...", Tullycraft also have a song which includes the lyrics "Not as bad/half as bad as the Ropers suck." And another song dissing Orange Cake Mix - though Sean has backpedaled on that one, saying he wanted a goodnatured East Coast-West Coast indiepop war.

― mike a, Thursday, 1 April 2004 14:35 (twenty-two years ago)

"The new groups are not concerned
With what there is to be learned
They got Burton suits, ha you think it's funny
Turning rebellion into money"

The Clash (White Man In Hammersmith Palais) on The Jam

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 1 April 2004 14:42 (twenty-two years ago)

...which Crass then responded to in "White Punks on Hope:"

"They said that we were trash,
Well the name is Crass, not Clash.
They can stuff their punk credentials
Cause it's them that take the cash."

― mike a, Thursday, 1 April 2004 14:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Alternative TV's Communication Failure isn't exactly complimentary about Jimmy Pursey.

Can anyone remember who The Adverts' Safety In Numbers was supposed to be about?

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 1 April 2004 15:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Morrissy - We hate it when our friends become successful - was about James wasn't it.

Ha
ha ha ha ha
ha ha ha ha
ha ha ha ha

― holojames (holojames), Thursday, 1 April 2004 15:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Mojo Nixon - "Don Henley must Die"

― Cacaman Flores, Thursday, 1 April 2004 18:49 (twenty-two years ago)

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