Songs About Famous People

The Kinshasa Band (?) - Muhammad Ali (The Black Superman)
Jonathan Richman - Pablo Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, Walter Johnson
David Bowie - Andy Warhol, Song for Bob Dylan
The Kinks - Victoria
Gorillaz - Clint Eastwood
Serge Gainsbourg - Bonnie and Clyde
Le Tigre - What's Your Take On Cassavettes
etc.
etc.

Extra Credit: what famous person should [insert artist here] write a song about?

miss kitten ~ frank sinatra
l.a style ~ james brown is dead
phenomania ~ who is elvis? (can anyone confirm that this is really speedy j?!?!?!?!)
lee perry ~ lee van cleef (i didn't make this one up did i
belle & sebastian ~ like dylan in the movies (you see, you won i am indie!!)

I want to hear Missy E record a song Mark E Smith style called "I am Jandek". That would totally weird me out, but it would be great.

I am Damo Suzuki - The Fall
James Brown - Big Audio Dynamite
Peter Lorre - Jazz Butcher
Olaf Palme - Jazz Butcher
Harlan (Ellison) - Jazz Butcher
Just Like Betty Page - Jazz Butcher
President Reagan's Birthday Present - Jazz Butcher
Robert Deniro's Waiting - Bangles
Lee Remick - The Go Betweens

"Buddy Holly" Weezer
"Frank Sinatra" Cake
"Grace Kelly Blues" Eels
"Brian Wilson" Barenaked Ladies
"Be My Yoko Ono" Barenaked Ladies
"Cool As Kim Deal" Dandy Warhols
"Courtney Love" Nerf Herder
"Ballad of Tom Jones" Shite featuring Welsh Cunt
"Jackie Wilson Said" Van Morrison
"(Arrogant Like) Ben Lee" Klinger

Velvet Underground - Caroline (according to Doug Yule about a GTO-er)
Carly Simon - You're so Vain (Warren B no?)
Rickie Lee Jones' Chuck E's in Love
dEUS - Serpentine (Sean Penn)
Falco - Rock me Amadeus (hahaha)
TV Personalities - too many to list
Donna Summer - Dinner with Gershwin
Neneh Cherry - Buddy X (about Lenny Kravitz apparently)

Pooh Sticks: I know someone who knows someone who knows Alan McGee quite well

P5 - Twiggy Twiggy
Bananarama - Robert De Niro...
Milky - Jackie Onassis
Hayzee Fantayzee - John Wayne...
Laugh - Paul McCartney
Tomorrow's World - Leslie Phillips in Santiago ;-)
Heinz - Just Like Eddie

"Mr.Crowley" (about Alleister Crowley, father of Satanism) by Ozzy Osbourne.

"Robert Mitchum" by Julian Cope (on the SKELLINGTON album)

"Rober DeNiro is Waiting" by Bananarama

"Free James Brown (so he can run me down)" by Foetus

"Robert Tilton Handjob" by Cop Shoot Cop (Robert Tilton is a televangelist)

Lydia Lunch and Kim Gordon named a short-lived power trio after the quasi-celebrated cult author, Harry Crews. Snotty hardcore band JFA named themselves JODIE FOSTER'S ARMY in response to John Hinkley's obssession that led him to take a shot at ol' Ronny Reagan.

"Max Ernst" by Mission of Burma

"Joan Crawford (has risen from the grave)" by Blue Oyster Cult.

"The Right Profile" by the Clash (about Brit actor Montgomery Cliff)

Didn't someone write a song called "Steve McQueen"?

"Sid Vicious Was Innocent" by the Exploited

"Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes

"Alex Chilton" by the Replacements

"Bela Lugosi is Dead" by Bauhaus

SEEK OUT WESLEY WILLIS' ENTIRE CATALOGUE.

What's that Menswear song about Bobby Gillespie - Stardust?

"Mark E. Smith & Brix" by Barbara Manning circa 1989 (written about randomly encoutering her idol(s) in San Francisco).

Free Nelson Mandela - Special AkA

technically some of the abovementioned songs are not actually about famous people but mention them. (Bette Davis Eyes for example) In that vein though you also get Suzanne Vega's "Marlene on the Wall

Didn't someone write a song called "Steve McQueen"?

Prefab Sprout had a record called Steve McQueen...

Sean Penn Blues - Lloyd Cole

sonic youth - "tunic (song for karen)" and isn't "expressway" alternately titled "madonna, sean and me (the crucifixion of sean penn)"?

'Lee Remick' by the Go-betweens and covered by the Wannadies

Sheryl Crow's rubbish new single is called Steve McQueen-a couple more, Lorraine Bowen Experience Julie Christie, Teach in John Travolta[Teach me to dance] The Sweet Alexander Graham Bell-great song

I disapprove of songs with famous people's names as titles - I find it awfully lazy somehow - although inconveniently, I have written one myself.

Johnny Carson - the Beach Boys

sylvia plath (ryan adams), marlene dietrich favourite poem (peter murphy), antonin artaud (bauhaus) and the house that jack kerouac built (go-betweens) not really *about* jack, but still a good title nevertheless!

Peter Laughner - Sylvia Plath
Peter Laughner - Beaudelaire

Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Mojo Nixon

“Stuffin' Martha's Muffin" "Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant with My Two Headed Love Child."

"I wish I was John Peel's Son" by Jeremy

"Song for William S Harvey" by Felt

Redd Kross: Annette's Got The Hits (annette funicello), Linda Blair, Shonen Knife
Shonen Knife - Redd Kross
Motorhead - R.A.M.O.N.E.S.
John Lennon - Oh, Yoko, How do you sleep?
Daniel Johnston - The Beatles

Andy Warhol's Dead - Transvision Vamp
The Death of Sarah Lucas - Luke Haines
Mr & Mrs Solanas - Luke Haines
Germaine Greer - Carfax
Georgie Best "Belfast Boy" - Don Fardon

cornershop - brimful of ashsa
outkast - rosa parks
les sultans - go go trudeau

1.

Rock N' Roll McDonald's 2.

Larry Nevers/Walter Budzyn 3.

Rick Sims 4.

Outburst 5.

Chronic Schizophrenia 6.

Urge Overkill 7.

Skrew 8.

Tammy Smith 9.

Vampire Bat 10.

Elvis Presley 11.

Chicken Cow, The 12.

Kris Kringle Was A Car Thief 13.

Easy-E 14.

Jesus Is The Answer - (special appearance by the Wesley Willis Fiasco) 15.

He's Doing Time In Jail - (special appearance by the Wesley Willis Fiasco) 16.

I'm Sorry That I Got Fat - (special appearance by the Wesley Willis Fiasco) 17.

Aftab Noorani 18.

Norhwest Airlines 19.

I Wupped Batman's Ass 20.

Who Killed John Columbo 21.

Stabbing Westward 22.

Richard Speck

King Missile: "Martin Scorsese"
Nerd Herfer (ugh): "Van Halen"

"i'm henry the 8th" - henry the 8th

Nerd Herfer, eh?

Kool Keith, "Black Elvis."

"Shattner" by the Wedding Present (about William Shattner, a hang-up for those guys).

"Kennedy" by the Wedding Present (although it's anyone's guess if it'a actually about anyone named Kennedy).

And they had an album called GEORGE BEST.

I've heard that Television's "Little Johnny Jewel" is about Iggy Pop.

Nick Lowe-"Marie Provost"
Loudon Wainwright-"Rufus is a Tit Man"
Screamers-"I'm Going Steady with Twiggy"
Sugar Ray-"Danzig Needs a Hug"

"Revolution, Pt. 2" - Butthole Surfers - It's not in the title, but this is the song in which they start chanting "Garry Shandling" for no apparent reason.

Yeah, Nerd Herfer, because the first word is descriptive, and if I got it right, then I'd be giving them credit for a Star Wars reference.

Kylies Got a Crush on Us - Teenage Fanclub

I heard that John Mclaughlin's "Solid Air" is about Nick Drake.

Sonic Youth's "Sympathy for the Strawberry" is about Darryl Strawberry.

Jamaicans did this a lot in the 60s: Prince Buster's "Al Capone", The Skatalites' "Christine Keeler", "Fidel Castro", "Mr. Kruschev", "King Soloman", "Cleopatra", "Dick Tracy" (fictional but famous)

Also, Steve Martin - "King Tut"
Woody Guthrie - "Pretty Boy Floyd"
From Mermaid Avenue - "Walt Whitman's Niece", "Ingrid Bergman", "Joe DiMaggio"
Bob Dylan - "Song for Woody", "Hurricane", etc. etc.
From Sounds of the South - "Jesse James"
Steve Martin - "King Tut"
Boomtown Rats - "I Never Loved Eva Braun"
Clash - "Montgomery Clift" (or whatever it's titled)
Mojo Nixon - "Don Henley Must Die"
Meatmen - "Morrissey Must Die"

Chicks - Jackie Chan
Half Man Half Biscuit - Bob Wilson: Anchorman
Adverts - Gary Gilmore's Eyes
Hefner - The Day That Thatcher Dies
Hamell On Trail - Bill Hicks; John Lennon

I think Fritz would be disappointed if I didn't mention the following Redd Kross songs: "St. Lita Ford Blues", "Janus Jeanie and George Harrison", "Debbie & Kim" (Gibson and Gordon, that is), "Jimmy's Fantasy" (Page, that is). Also, "McKenzie" may be about McKenzie Phillips, I'm not sure.

Also, "Marty Feldman Eyes" by Bruce Baum.

hefner 'lee remick' supercute 'jamie theakston superstar' teen anthems 'paul weller is the anti-christ' teen anthems 'i hate oasis'

Ben Lee's "I wish i was him" is about Evan Dando

Surely someone's mentioned "John I'm Only Dancing"?

oh and "Harry Dean Stanton" is my favourite PWEI song

ha! you forgot "ghandi is dead", arthur! (i just pulled neurotica out again after a long time. still great. get that salami sandwich OUTTA HERE!)

"I love it when Joe Pesci swears" - Blood Duster "The Onenes of Adam Qadmon" - A Handful Of Dust "A Perry Mason Moment" - Antedeluvian Rockinghorse "The Devil listesn to Dean Martin" - The Frustrations "Jesse James" - Royal Trux "Che" - Suicide "Luke Vibert can kiss my indie-punk whiteboy ass" - Kid 606 "Stanley Kubrick" - Mogwai "Jesus' Tod" - Burzum

REM - Man on the moon

Birdsong – (for janis) - Grateful Dead God Save the Queen – sex pistols Jah Lives – Bob Marley Selassie in the Chapel – Marley When Smokey Sings – ABC Cindy C. –Prince

It's pretty amazing that no-one has written a song about the underwear of that bloke who is the NRA spokesperson and was in Planet of the Apes and Solyent Green.

"American Pie" by Don Maclean

"Cassius Clay" by Dennis Alcapone

Rasputina make too many of these – songs about famous people and/or historical events. It's their main gimmick besides the cellos and the Victorian undergarments, even their name stems from this trait.

"Rose K" features wheelchair-cound Rose Kennedy being pushed around on a beach, failing to reminisce about what her past could have been. Singing too sweet for my taste, as with the metaphors. ("They say a rose is a flower/and that it is red/it blooms, it grows/and then it is dead"–sheesh!)

"The Donner Party" (not a single person, I know, although famous) spoken word comparing plight of Donner party to colonial pilgrims. Track wears itself after two listens at most.

"Howard Hughes" naturally focuses on the germ-afraid madness of his latter life, not on airplanes.

"Dwarf Star" is about the guy from Fantasy Island. Lots of people who like the album hate this song because of 1. her monotonous, belligerent delivery; 2. More emphasis on beeps, clicks, whirs, i.e. non-cello sounds.

"Kate Moss" is not really about the model, it's a slowed-down spoken word and I can't understand a thing in it.

Checking Amazon for info, I see they have a new album with a track caled "PJ + Vincent & Matthew + Bjork". When will it stop???

which leads us to boney m's "rasputin"!

"Kennedy" by the Wedding Present (although it's anyone's guess if it'a actually about anyone named Kennedy).

"and now Ari's walked away with Johnny's wife..."

I saw them shortly after Jackie O's death (May 1994) and I requested this song in her tribute.