Songs in response of other songs?

[DoctorRobert]

Hi,

I am looking for songs that are written in response to another song. To start with an obvious example: Lynard Skynard's 'Sweet Home Alabama' was a response to 'Southern Man' by Neil Young. And as a contra example: 'All Summer Long' from Kid Rock is not so much a response to, but a pastiche/re-use/rip-off (of the hook of) of Sweet Home Alabama (and Warren Zevon's 'Werewolves of London'). So that is not what I am looking for. Another example I can think of is '(I’ll Never Be) Your Maggie May' by Suzanne Vega, which obviously written in reaction to 'Maggie May' by Rod Steward.

What can you come up with?

And to our moderators, if I have put this question at the wrong location, or am violating some other rule on this, by now, huge site: correct me. It is easy to overlook here something.

And to everybody, please don't take this too seriously. I happen to like trivia.

 

[JustJones]

Neil Young 'Walk On' in response to 'Sweet Home Alabama'

Some get stoned, some get strange
But Sooner or later it all gets real,
Walk on

 

[DanielT]

Steely Dan 'Only A Fool Would Say That' a response to John Lennon 'Imagine'.

Something I read yesterday, not a song but a movie:

'Walk This Way' by Aerosmith.

Deciding to take a break from recording, band members and producer Jack Douglas went down to Times Square to see Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein. Returning to the studio, they were laughing about Marty Feldman telling Gene Wilder to follow him in the film, saying "walk this way" and limping.[4] Douglas suggested this as a title for their song.[6][7] But they still needed lyrics.

Walk This Way - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Mort]

Liz Phair's entire album 'Exile in Guyville' is a track-by-track response to The Stone's 'Exile on Main Street'.

 

[DoctorRobert]

And more music to listen to.

 

[JSmith]

This will become a long thread... as there have been plenty of response type songs.

“How Do You Sleep?” by John Lennon (1971) was a response to “Too Many People” by Paul McCartney (1971).

“Go Your Own Way” by Fleetwood Mac (1977) was Lindsey Buckingham’s message to Stevie Nicks. Nicks responded with “Dreams”, written during the same sessions... quite a weird one, internal band response songs on the same album.

There have been many in the hip hop/rap world too (known as diss tracks in that genre)... a few examples of those;

"No Vaseline" by Ice Cube (1991) was a response to N.W.A’s mocking of him, after he left the group, in "100 Miles and Runnin'" and "Real Muthaphuckkin G’s" by Eazy-E (1993) was a response to Dr. Dre’s "Dre Day" after the remainder of the group split.


JSmith

 

[Bland_username42069]

There is probably a near endless number of rap beef songs.

This is often cited as the first

Roxanne Wars - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[dpturner]

Lynard Skynard's 'Sweet Home Alabama' was a response to 'Southern Man' by Neil Young.

i had always heard it was in response to "Alabama" by Neil Young. probably both...

 

[Beave]

Paul Westerberg of The Replacements allegedly wrote "Kids Don't Follow" in response to U2's "I Will Follow."

 

[Sir Sanders Zingmore]

Some people believe that the British national anthem was written in response the The Sex Pistols "God Save the Queen"

 

[DoctorRobert]

i had always heard it was in response to "Alabama" by Neil Young. probably both...

Looking at the titles, you are probably right. Never trust an old man's memory, even if it is your own.

 

[DoctorRobert]

Some people believe that the British national anthem was written in response the The Sex Pistols "God Save the Queen"

 

[wadude]

Kitty Wells,’ “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.” A classic, “I’m doin’ it ‘cause you did it first” country fornication justifying tune.

 

[Mart68]

There is probably a near endless number of rap beef songs.

This is often cited as the first

Roxanne Wars - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Probably true. Only one I know of is 'Forgot About Dre' from the album '2001' but my relationship with hip-hop is only a passing one.

''The song is considered a response to diss tracks by Death Row artists on Suge Knight Represents: Chronic 2000, a compilation released by Suge Knight that takes its title from Dre's 1992 album The Chronic.''

Forgot About Dre - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[DavidEdwinAston]

Surely, Lulu's song, "F*** Off, was a direct response to "Do you love me", by The Contours?

 

[DavidEdwinAston]

And, a constant response song.
"Papageno, Papagena"?

 

[mhardy6647]

Well, there was a Hey, Paul in response to Hey, Paula.
(by Paul and Paula, of course)

The Fab Four's Sgt. Pepper's... was essentially an en bloc response to The Beach Boys' (Brian Wilson's) Pet Sounds.
The rivalry (in at least one direction) between Lennon/McCartney and Brian Wilson was probably one of the better things that happened to pop music in the '60s.

 

[mhardy6647]

Oh, and speaking of Sgt Pepper's...
Frank Zappa's (technically, The Mothers of Invention's) We're Only in it for the Money was a searing parody of same.

 

[mhardy6647]

I've long wondered whether the aforementioned Moptops' Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey was in some way inspired by or precipitated by the "Prefab Four" (i.e., the Monkees). The Monkees' Randy Scouse Git of course was Beatles themed (note the title) and name-checks the four kings of EMI just in case it wasn't clear enough.
That said, the two, umm, groups by all accounts and appearances actually got on rather well. Go figure.

Sitting stately on the floor...


Then again, the Monkees were always a little more interesting, maybe even hipper, than it would have seemed.

 

[Robin L]

Dan Bern made at least a couple of songs that can be considered a response to Bob Dylan. One is obvious, the other is perfect in its own way:

Loudon Wainwright was "the Second Bob Dylan" for a while, back when there were a bunch of those. So, naturally he had to address that: