Songs About Other Bands : #2 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mike Watt

Bass player Mike Watt was a founder member of the freaky hardcore band Minutemen. "Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda Songs" comes from their 1983 album "What Makes a Man Start Fires?". "Political Song for Michael Jackson to Sing" is from their 1984 record "Double Nickels on the Dime".

In December 1985 singer/guitarist D. Boon died in a car accident. In 1986 Watt and Minutemen drummer George Hubley formed the band fIREHOSE, with Minutemen devotee Ed Crawford. "Under the Influence of Meat Puppets" is a track form their debut album "Ragin', Full-On" (1986).

The following year "If'n" contained the song "For the Singer of REM". 1991's "Flyin' The Flannel" had "Song for Dave Alvin" on it. "Intense song for Madonna to Sing" was from Mike Watt's solo debut "Ball-Hog Or Tugboat?" (1995). Watt didn't have a band back then, so he recruited a few friends. Word got out and before you knew it, the album had a pretty stellar line-up. Anyone who was anybody in the 'alterno-rock' underground was there: Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters), Nels Cline (guitarist, played with John Zorn and Wilco), Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam), J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr), Cris & Curt Kirkwood (Meat Puppets), Gary Lee Conner (Screaming Trees), Krist Novoselic (Nirvana), Carla Bozulich (Geraldine Fibbers), Michael Preussner (Nels Cline Trio), Joe Baiza (guitarist, played on some Minutemen records), Paul Roessler (Dc3), Danny Frankel (percussionist, played with Luscious Jackson, Marianne Faithful and Bebel Gilberto), Spot (SST records house producer), Evan Dando (Lemonheads), Bob Lee (Claw Hammer), Zander Schloss (Circle Jerks), John Strohm (Blake Babies, Lemonheads), Anna Waronker (that dog), Petra & Rachel Haden (that dog), Frank Black (Pixies), Stephen Perkins (Jane's Addiction), Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth), Epic Soundtracks (Swell Maps), Henry Rollins (Rollins Band), Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees), Brock Avery (Wayne Kramer), Mike D (Beastie Boys), Coco Hayley Gordon Moore (daughter of Thurston Moore & Kim Gordon), Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Pat Smear (Germs, Nirvana, Foo Fighters), Dave Pirner (Soul Asylum), Tiffany Anders, Richie West (Camper Van Beethoven), Kathleen Hanna (Bikini Kill, Le Tigre), Bernie Worrell (Funkadelic), King Adrock (Beastie Boys), Mario Caldato Jr (Beastie Boys), Tony Maxwell (that dog) ... and I probably forget a few people as well. These days Watt is a (touring) member of the legendary Stooges.

Answer: Call the Doctor

"Call the Doctor" was released in 1996. Their 1997 release "Dig Me Out" brought them wider attention. The chorus to "I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone" goes as follows: "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I wanna be your Joey Ramone. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Pictures of me on your bedroom door. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Invite you back after the show. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm the queen of rock and roll." Though in the second chorus they replace Joey's name with that of Thurston Moore.

Answer: Iggy Pop's Jacket

Those Naughty Lumps were formed in the summer of 1977, by Peter Hart, Kevin Wilkinson (later of China Crisis, Robert Fripp & The League Of Gentlemen and the Waterboys), Martin 'Armadillo' Cooper (later of O.M.D.), Tony Mitchell and Pete 'Kid' Younger (later of Wah! Heat). "Iggy Pop's Jacket" was released in 1979.

It was the second 7" on Zoo Records. Zoo records founders Bill Drummond (KLF) and David Balfe (The Teardrop Explodes) played guitar and bass on the single. The lyrics ran thus: "I touched/Iggy Pop's Jacket it was/made out of leather/Iggy Pop's Jacket I could/have worn it forever."

Answer: He told the audience at a London gig the actual address of the famous recluse.

In 2000 the band The Mr. T Experience released an EP called "The Miracle of Shame". On it was a song called "I Don't Know Where Dan Treacy Lives". It went: "Dan Treacy always was my idol. I still think of him whenever I'm. Feeling vaguely suicidal. Which is nearly all the time. So it's ominous and weird. That he's completely disappeared. I don't know where Dan Treacy lives. I heard he just dropped out of sight. And no one knows where Dan Treacy lives.

But I hope he's alright." Treacy had indeed dropped off the face of the earth. Between 1996 and 2004 no-one knew of his whereabouts.

It was rumoured that he was homeless or even dead. Then it turned out he was incarcerated, for drugs-related crimes, on a prison boat, in Dorset. In 2006 the Television Personalities made a brilliant comeback with the hugely entertaining and rather moving album "My Dark Places".

Answer: The Flaming Lips covered "7 Nation Army" by the White Stripes.

The Flaming Lips started covering "7 Nation Army" live on stage. A recording of this was released on a compilation album that the Flaming Lips put together themselves, called "Late Night Tales". This features their favourite bands: Björk, Miles Davis, Chris Bell, Faust, Roxy Music, Alfie, Aphex Twin, Mice Parade, Chameleons, Chemical Brothers, Love And Rockets, Lush, Psychedelic Furs, Nick Drake, Sebadoh, Radiohead, 10CC, Brian Eno, David Shrigley.

Answer: Daft Punk Is Playing At My House

LCD Soundsystem's debut single - "Losing My Edge" (2002) - was a genius pisstake of musical trainspotters; people who can't talk about anything but their record collections and the shows they've seen. Yup, like me. Anyway, it mentioned bands like Can ("I was there at the first Can show in Cologne"), Suicide ("I was there in 1974 at the first Suicide practices in a loft in New York City"), Captain Beefheart ("I was there when Captain Beefheart started up his first band. I told him, "Don't do it that way. You'll never make a dime."), Daft Punk ("I was the first guy playing Daft Punk to the rock kids. I played it at CBGB's"), Larry Levan, Beach Boys, Modern Lovers, Niagra, Yaz, This Heat, Pere Ubu, Outsiders, Nation of Ulysses, Mars, The Trojans, The Black Dice, Todd Terry, the Germs, Section 25, Althea and Donna, Sexual Harrassment, a-ha, Pere Ubu, Dorothy Ashby, PIL, the Fania All-Stars, the Bar-Kays, the Human League, the Normal, Lou Reed, Scott Walker, Monks, Joy Division, Lower 48, the Association, Sun Ra, Scientists, Royal Trux, 10cc, Eric B. and Rakim, Index, Basic Channel, Soulsonic Force, Juan Atkins, David Axelrod, Electric Prunes, Gil Scott Heron!, the Slits, Faust, Mantronix, Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines, the Swans, the Soft Cell, the Sonics, the Sonics, the Sonics, the Sonics ...

Answer: Debbie Gibson

You can find "Debbie Gibson is Pregnant With My Two-Headed Love Child" on the "Root-Hog Or Die" album. They also released songs called "Stuffin' Martha's Muffin'" (cfr. MTV VJ Martha Quinn, not Martha & The Muffins - 1986), "Elvis Is Everywhere" (1987) and "Don Henley Must Die" (Nixon solo - 1990).
The Pixies' drummer Dave Lovering was at one point obsessed with Debbie Gibson. That's why singer Black Francis wrote the song "Make Believe" for him/about her. It appeared on the b-side of the "Velouria" (1990) single, and later on the "Complete B Sides" (2001) compilation.

Answer: She'd sampled their heroes Public Enemy, without acknowledging them.

Madonna's "Justify My Love" single used the Public Enemy track "Security of the First World" as a rhythm track. Madonna denied any previous knowledge of the PE track and also said that Lenny Kravitz wrote the song, so she didn't know what had happened. Kravitz later claimed that he found the track on a cassette in his studio and had presumed it was something he'd knocked up earlier. Public Enemy used a lot of samples themselves, so they decided not to sue.

Answer: Foetus Making Foetus

Thirlwell has operated under a wide variety of variations on the name Foetus: Foetus Under Glass, You've Got Foetus On Your Breath, Phillip and his Foetus Vibrations, Foetus Over Frisco, Foetus Flesh, Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel, Foetus Art Terrorism, Foetus Of Excellence, Foetus All-Nude Review, Foetus Interruptus, Foetus Corruptus, Foetus Inc, Foetus In Excelsis Corruptus Deluxe, The Foetus Symphony Orchestra, and also as Wiseblood, Clint Ruin, Flesh Volcano, Steroid Maximus, Garage Monsters, DJ Otefsu, Manorexia, Baby Zizanie. Yup, he's a busy guy. "Free James Brown" was a feeling also expressed by the Beastie Boys, in their "Hey Ladies" video. And the band Big Audio Dynamite had a 1989 hit single called "James Brown" as well.

Answer: Brian Jones

"Stoned" (2005) was directed by Stephen Woolley and didn't have anything to do with the previous plans for making a film about Brian Jones. Genesis P-Orridge (ex-Throbbing Gristle) and his band Psychic TV recorded and entire soundtrack for that failed project. The songs were originally released on three separate recordings during the 80's. In 2004 they were finally compiled on a double cd.
Psychic TV also recorded a tribute to Joy Division singer Ian Curtis, called "I.C. Water".

Answer: Rick Allen

Brian Downey was in Thin Lizzy. Sale Griffin was in Mott The Hoople. And Mick 'Woody' Woodmansey played with David Bowie - he was one of the Spiders From Mars.
Rick Allen lost his arm in a car accident, on New Years Eve 1984. He'd joined the band at the age of 15, in 1978. Def Leppard waited until he was able to drum again, and only surfaced again in 1987.
The chorus of the Bloodhound Gang song seems to be a totally random line. In an interview on the lollipop.com website singer Jimmy Pop says: "The line 'the drummer from Def Leppard's only got one arm' I specifically remember writing. I was driving from Chucktown back to Philly in the snow, and I was thinking of all the musicians who'd had car crashes."

Answer: Can

Kenji 'Damo' Suzuki was Can's singer between 1970 and 1973. They discovered him busking on the streets of Munich. When he was asked to replace their first singer, Malcolm Mooney, he joined Can live on stage that very same evening. After four albums - which are generally considered to be their best - he left Can and retired from music, to become a Jehovah's witness.

In 1983 he started making music again, and to this day he performs with the Damo Suzuki Band: a very loosely composed band that completely improvises all their gigs.

Answer: Bob Dylan's Blues

The 2001 compilation was called "Wouldn't You Miss Me", and included seven songs from "The Madcap Laughs" (1970), nine from "Barrett" (1970) and four from the 'odds & sods' compilation "Opel" (1989). "Bob Dylan's Blues" was a pastiche of Bob Dylan's style: "Got the Bob Dylan blues. And the Bob Dylan shoes. And my clothes and my hair's in a mess.

But you know. I just couldn't care less." The chorus goes: "Cos I'm a poet. Doncha know it. And the wind, you can blow it. Cos I'm Mr. Dylan, the King. And I'm free as a bird on the wing." It was probably one of the first songs Barrett ever wrote, somewhere around 1963.

It was recorded during a session in early 1970 and was unearthed in Pink Floyd guitarist Dave Gilmour's private archive.

Answer: The Professionals

"The Magnificent" featured a send-up of the sound of John Lydon/Johnny Rotten's new band PiL - scratchy guitar and all - and lyrics like "Who put you on the wall? Who's the one who has to watch you fall? Who put you on a pedastal? Who's the one who ends up as the fool?" It was a bit of a 'hey, we-made-you'-statement, but it pales next to Lydon's own reflections on his past. Public Image Limited's debut single - "Public Image" (1978) - was a vitriolic attack on former manager Malcolm McLaren and on the way he was perceived by the public.

Then there was "Albatross", the opening track of their magnum opus "Metal Box" (1979), another scathing putdown of McLaren: "Getting rid of the albatross. Sowing seeds of discontent. I know you very well. You are unbearable." The third album, and its title track - "Flowers Of Romance" (1981) - referenced former Sex Pistols bass player Sid Vicious.

In 1976 Vicious had been in a band with Keith Levene (ex-the Clash, later of PiL), Viv Albertine and Palmolive (both later with the Slits), called The Flowers Of Romance; a name suggested by John Lydon.

The band was actually started by two other girls, Jo Faull and Sarah Hall, who used to be the girlfriends of Pistols Jones and Cook.

Answer: Motörhead

"R.A.M.O.N.E.S." appeared on the Motörhead album "1916" (1991). Even though Motörhead has always been labelled hard rock or metal, Lemmy and his gang had a big affection for the punk scene. For example, they released records on the Stiff records label, which was mostly a punk label (The Damned, The Adverts, Plasmatics ...). Singer Lemmy Kilminster also said: ""We are half punk, half metal and half rock and roll". That's three halves of course, but Motörhead has always possessed that little extra more.