Most songs tend to address an anonymous, generic YOU or sometimes even a HE, HIM, SHE, HER, instead of using a specific name. Yet some songwriters do give their subjects proper names and today we explore the songs where names are actually named.
Blondie - Maria
This catchy tune was the first release from Blondie's 1999 album, No Exit. The song hit Number 1 in the UK and several other European countries, but only got as high as #82 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Regardless of the poor US showing, this is my favorite Blondie track ever!
The Beatles - Dear Prudence
Although credited to Lennon-McCartney, this song was written solely by John Lennon while taking part in a meditation retreat held by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at his ashram in Rishikesh. Mia Farrow and her younger sister, Prudence, were also attending. Prudence was seeking to delve deeper into meditation to recover from a horrific experience following her experimentation with LSD.. Prudence became rather obsessed with the meditation and began to seclude herself in her bungalow except for meals and lectures. Otherwise, she refused to leave and stayed in to mediate in hopes of speeding up her gaining enlightenment. Knowing of John's and George's previous experiences with LSD, Maharishi assigned them to be Prudence's team buddies and encourage her to interact with the group at the ashram. John declared Prudence to be "rather barmy" but after more than three weeks, she finally ventured out of the bungalow and rejoined the group. This song reflects the story of John's and George's efforts to reach Prudence.
The song was included on the White Album and was recorded at Trident Studios instead of their norm of using Abbey Road. The song is minus Ringo Starr as it was recorded during the time he quit The Beatles for three weeks. That's Paul McCartney sitting in for him at the drum kit. The song also debuted Lennon's newly acquired skill of finger picking, a technique of guitar playing taught to him by Donovan at the retreat in Rishikesh.
Simon & Garfunkel - Mrs Robinson
During the 1967 filming and post-production sessions for the movie The Graduate, Director Mike Nichols became quite obsessed with the music of Simon & Garfunkel. He approached Clive Davis about the possibility of having Simon compose a couple songs especially for inclusion in the movie.
At first, Simon was resistant to the idea as he saw it as selling out to the mainstream, but Garfunkel, Davis, and their manager were able to convince him to give it a shot. He wrote two songs, Punky's Dilemma and Overs but both failed to satisfy Nichols who demanded something more substantial. Mention was made of a song, Mrs Roosevelt, which Simon had been working on but had not yet finished. It was suggested that Robinson be substituted for Roosevelt and when demoed for Nichols, he fell in love with it.
Simon packed the song with a couple extra names, including Jesus and Joe DiMaggio. When asked by Dick Cavett during an interview why Joe DiMaggio, Simon laughed it off as Mickey Mantle didn't fit the tune. Joe DiMaggio even approached Simon with questions of why he said Jolting Joe had gone away and informed Simon he'd not gone anywhere except to the Mr Coffee commercials in which he was currently starring. Simon replied that he didn't mean the lines literally but was referring to DiMaggio's strong but gentle heroic nature and that such heroes were in short supply at that time. They shook hands and parted on good terms.
Three Dog Night - Eli's Coming
This band was formed in 1967 and scored 21 Billboard Top 40 hits between 1969 and 1975. They tended to record songs written by others and were largely responsible for the mainstream introduction of composers such as Paul Williams (Just An Old Fashioned Love Song) and Hoyt Axton (Joy To The World). Their unusual band name was suggested by vocalist Danny Hutton's then-girlfriend. She had just finished reading a magazine article about life for the Indigenous Australians. The article explained how these people kept warm on cold nights by sleeping in a hole with a dingo and including more dingoes as the temps fell. A night of freezing temperatures was termed a "Three-dog night."
Derek & /The Dominoes - Layla
Everyone knows the story of how Eric Clapton was inspired to write this song detailing his love for his best friend's wife (George Harrison & Pattie Boyd) after reading the 12th century Persian poem The Story of Layla and Majnun. Eric Clapton and Jim Gordon are cited as the writers of the song, with Gordon supposedly being the composer of the piano solo during the outro. However, Gordon's then-girlfriend, Rita Coolidge, was the actual composer of that solo and had performed it numerous times before Clapton heard Gordon playing it during a rehearsal session and asked him to include it in the song.
Special guest and good friend Duane Allman joined the group at Clapton's request during the recording sessions for this song and is credited as being co-lead guitarist with Clapton. Allman added all the bent notes and slide guitar which cement this song as the rock classic it has become. Clapton has never mastered the slide and live performances of Layla are missing this touch unless you happen to catch a performance with either Jeff Beck or Derek Trucks stepping in with Clapton. Both are masters of the slide.
R.E.M. - What's The Frequency, Kenneth?
The title of this 1994 R.E.M. song from their album Monster refers to the 1986 attack on Dan Rather in New York City by a then-unknown assailant. Michael Stipe has stated that the lyrics are an older critic's attempt to make sense of the phenomenon Generation X was having on mass media but he fails miserably at his quest.
In 1997, Rather's attacker was identified when a prison psychiatrist working with William Tager, who was in prison for the 1994 shooting death of an NBC sound technician, relayed to the NYPD that Tager had begun revealing details of the attack on Rather which were only known by Rather, his assailant and the police. When Mr Rather was shown a photograph of Tager, he readily identified him as the man who attacked him on Park Avenue in 1986, repeatedly asking "Kenneth, what's the frequency?" as he administered vicious kicks to Mr Rather while he was down.
What are some of your favorite songs that name names? Please share!
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