Playlist: MGMT's "Brian Eno" and Other Weird Musical Shout-Outs

MGMT pays a rather strange quasi-homage to the mack daddy of ambient music, Brian Eno.  The song, aptly titled “Brian Eno,” was described in this way by band member Andrew VanWyngarden:

“It’s kind of a vampire-punk-rock song about finding Brian Eno in like a cathedral in Transylvania. He’s like a dark wizard. We originally asked him to produce the track, but he hadn’t heard of us.”

“Dark wizards” were chiefly characterized by their ability to create pleasant, minimalist music?  I have to brush up on my fantasy stories, I guess, because I don’t remember anything that sounded like Another Green World in the Harry Potter movies.

This bizarre tribute got me to thinking about some of the other questionable shout-outs that have been done in song.  Here’s a brief list of my favorites.

1.  “Thunder On the Mountain” – Bob Dylan

The opening track of Dylan’s 2006 album, Modern Times, features lyrics that find him trying to explore the music of his album title’s era…albeit a little misguidedly.  Dylan was apparently quite taken with Alicia Keys, of all people, singing:

“I was thinking about Alicia Keys, couldn’t help from crying / When she was born in Hell’s Kitchen, I was living down the line / I’m wondering where in the world Alicia Keys could be / I been looking for her even clear through Tennessee.

Who knew Bob Dylan ever cared a lick about popular music?  Coming from a man who historically recoiled from next-big-things and radio singles, it’s startling that he would even know who Alicia Keys is, let alone confess to shedding tears over her in song.  Who’s going to crop up on his next album?  Rihanna, perhaps?

2. “Without Me” – Eminem

Moby, the cleanest-shaven man in techno, publicly expressed concerns in 2002 that many of Eminem’s lyrics were homophobic and otherwise hateful. Eminem responded with a cogent, well-thought-out address of those concerns through verse:

“And Moby?  You can get stomped by Obie / You 36-year-old bald-headed fag, blow me / You don’t know me, you’re too old / Let go, it’s over, nobody listens to techno.”

A classic point/counterpoint exchange between gentlemen.  It makes me wonder if Em was on the debate team in high school.  I can picture it now: “Abortion should continue to be legal, you fucking homo, drop that cause like I drop the beat.”

3. “Instant Club Hit (You’ll Dance to Anything)” – Dead Milkmen

If the Dead Milkmen’s lyrics are to be believed, there’s something far worse in the world than murdering people, driving over lawns in a brand-new bitchin’ Camaro, or “taking retards to the zoo,” as they put it in one song.  This one offense easily trumps these and so many others in their rule book: Do not, under any circumstances, resemble Siouxsie Sioux.

“Oh, baby, look at you / Don’t you look like Siouxsie Sioux? / How long’d it take to get that way / What a terrible waste of energy / You wear black clothes say you’re poetic / The sad truth is you’re just pathetic.”

Note to self: Don’t wear makeup or black clothing and I’ll get a killer boyfriend who’s just like the dudes in the Dead Milkmen.  I’ll finally get to carry out my lifelong dream of dating a guy who thinks a cartoon of a dead cow is the highest form of art.

There’s no video available for this song, but you can stream it here.

4.  “Party in the USA” – Miley Cyrus

One of the best things about this inescapable smash hit is that it prominently features the context-free lyric “the butterflies fly away,” which is hysterical.  Instead of hearing this line surrounded by similar OMGCUTE! subject matter such as glitter, kittens, glittery kittens and those Lisa Frank lunchboxes we all used to love so much, Cyrus sings about her night out at the club getting down to Jay-Z.

“And the Jay-Z song was on / So I put my hands up, they’re playing my song / The butterflies fly away / Nodding my head like, yeah / Moving my hips like, yeah.”

There’s comedy gold to be found here, if you look (funnier than non-sequitur butterflies, even): “I’ve never heard a Jay-Z song,” said Cyrus in an interview when asked which of HOVA’s songs she had had in mind when she recorded this song.  So, not only is this shout-out lame to begin with, it’s also a complete crock of shit.