Songs where the context is shifted to be about what the subject (1st person) thinks of the band performing!

can you be more specific?

All The Kids Are Right by Local H seems to fit the bill....I think.

Mott the Hoople has to have at least one of these. There entire catalog is pretty much a band autobiography (and a good one).

In the fictional division: Sultans of Swing

I'm not entirely sure what Mark's after, but the title track of Sound Of Silver seems to be describing the cumulative emotional affect that the album up until that point has had on the listener - "sound of silver talks to you / makes you want to feel like a teenager / until you remember the feelings of / a real, live, emotional teenager".

OK try this:

Song text: people talking about the band that are performing.

e.g. "The one in the middle" Manfred Mann

or: "Bohemian Like You"

Antonym: "You Love Us" the Manics.

How would you describe that in one catchy line? My gift for eyecatching thread titles has deserted me temporarily.

except the first line is actually "sound of silver talk to me", somewhat confusingly.

TS food snobs vs grammar pedants vs lyric pedants

xpost

maybe steely dan's "show biz kid"

Oh, perfect example comes from our hero Zoogz Rift. First line from his classic "Island of Living Puke" album: "Oh no! Not another god damn Zoogz Rift Album!" (Retort: "It's The Island of Living Puke, you asshole.")

Followed, later, by the equally wonderful "Nightclub Sequence" where a couple of fans chat about Zoogz and life over his performance of "I'm Having A Heart Attack."

Given the general reaction Zoogz gets, I doubt any of this is ironic or sarcastic. Just accurate.

Kinda: Ciccone Youth, Two Cool Rock Chicks Listening To Neu! (talking about Dinosaur, J Mascis on guitar)

kinda:steely dan's "parker band" (?!)

are you talkin' about songs where the narrative shifts from third to first person in the middle of the song, from an outsider to the singer's point of view?...wow, tall order...drawing a blank here, but this makes me think of Alice Cooper's "Be My Lover", which was written by the guitarist (Mike Bruce) and perversely sung by Alice, in the voice of Mike Bruce: "she asked me why the singer's name was Alice"...

Kool and the Gang's "Hollywood Swingin'" is my favourite example of this.

SHOULD WE BREAK HIS SWEET HANDS?

Perfect example (um...I think...): the Who, "The Punk and the Godfather" :

PUNK:
You declared you would be three inches taller
You only became what we made you.
Thought you were chasing a destiny calling
You only earned what we gave you.
You fell and cried as our people were starving,
Now you know that we blame you.
You tried to walk on the trail we were carving,
Now you know that we framed you.

G.F.:
I'm the guy in the sky
Flying high Flashing eyes
No surprise I told lies
I'm the punk in the gutter
I'm the new president
But I grew and I bent
Don't you know? don't it show?
I'm the punk with the stutter.

Your ass (act?) belongs to a dying nation.

What a great song that is.

From the singer's POV to the outsider's: That weird thing in the "Sloan Party" disc where the guy in the bathroom asks what song the band is playing (the Stereolab/Canned Heat medley).

Both at the same time: "One Chord Wonders."

doesn't pretty much every other kevin rowland song qualify?
L

Wilco, The Lonely One

does rap count?

that bit in "what goes on" where john mumbles "we already told you why" after the second chorus

second verse, not chorus