The Beatles - The Ballad of John & Yoko
Mamas & Papas - Creeque Alley
The Ramones - R-A-M-O-N-E-S
The Clash - Clash City Rockers
The Clash - This Is Radio Clash
And, of course, The Killer, who can’t record a song without sticking his name in there somewhere.
Others?
Big Country, “In A Big Country”
The band Talk Talk’s first single was the song “Talk Talk”, taken from their self-titled debut EP.
I love self-referential rock and roll songs.
Two of my favorites:
“Elevature” by the Flashing Lights. (Loved seeing them do this live with the whole audience chanting “FLASH-ING LIGHTS! FLASH-ING LIGHTS!”)
…and my all-time champ, “Sublimation Hour” by Destroyer. Dan Bejar hitting those power chords with such obvious vehemence after the line “There’s a rumor goin’ 'round even Destroyers have a price” is one of the great lost moments in recent recorded rock history.
“My Name Is Prince” tickles the hell out me, mainly because after making it known that his name is Prince, Prince goes on to note that he is also funky.
Man, I saw FLASHING LIGHTS and for a split second I thought you were referring to Screaming Lord Sutch.
Hey hey, they’re the Monkees.
Jefferson Airplane - Fat Angel (even though it was a cover)
Alarm Calling and Alarm Alarm by The Alarm.
And let’s not forget “Like a Rolling Stone” (cover), by Mr. Jagger and company.
Talk Talk by Talk Talk
Uh, yeah. Good one!
Every Kid Rock song
Not quite.
Whooooo are you? Who? Who?
To clarify - the thread is for songs where bands sing about themselves specifically, which doesn’t apply to the last two.
Don’t forget track one from Wilco’s album Wilco called Wilco.
“Oh, oh, oh, oh, Wilco… Wilco… Wilco will love you, baby.”
The song never did much for me, but listening to it now it sounds better than I initially thought.
“Bad Company,” by Bad Company, from the album Bad Company.
“We Are The Pipettes” by The Pipettes, on the album “We Are The Pipettes”.
“Rock and Roll Band” by Boston from the album Boston with the lyrics “well, we were just another band out of Boston…” telling the story of their rise to fame.
KMFDM has done the self-song thing for years, and every one is great. (Although the argument can be made that they’re not rock. Electronica-pop-metalish stuff.)
In that case, “Wot” by Captain Sensible might fit the bill.