h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Songs That Name Drop - A87936998
Author: Bluebottle - U43530

What is this nonsense?

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But it’s good nonsense
A couple of others come to mind, if you’re collecting:
Do you remember a particularly execrable soft soul thing called “Float On” (by the Floaters, natch)? That one not only introduced all the band in syrupy tones but inexplicably threw in their horoscopes as well.
And Bo Diddley recorded a song about Bo Diddley and even called it Bo Diddley. Or possibly it was the other way round and he took his stage-name from the song? Dunno, but FWIW the lyrics reveal a disturbing tendency to purloin animals and convert them into his partner’s wardrobe.
Does “Ga-ga-oo-la-la” in Bad Romance count? No, surely not. Nobody would reasonably brand her a self-publicist, now would they?
One minor correction: “Something...are” in the first line should be “Something...is”. You’d get away with that one but for criticising people’s grammar in the next paragraph.
Keep it up though. It’s fun, and nicely written.

What is this nonsense indeed, but I appreciate your analysis! Very educational about the Spice Girls and the lyrics to that song - the video is disturbing enough, but I hadn't appreciated the name dropping and the emphasis on 'It'...

I would of course class 'Invisible Man' as legitimate name dropping by Queen as they had to explain who they were to the child when the computer game came to life

It's nice to see you on the Alternative Writing Workshop, Bluebottle.

I've heard that the policy is to make song lyrics as simple as possible, because they're just for hanging the music on.

There are exceptions, of course, including Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen.

How is it possible for this not to include mentioning the Bonzos' 'The Intro and the Outro'?

I've added some more nonsense, I'm afraid…

Including a mention of Queen to keep Sasha happy, though I don't think of them as guilty. Despite this it is quite impossible for this entry to include every example of the phenomenon, although there's a couple of very good examples there – Bo Diddley and Bonzo Dog… And Lady Gaga definitely counts

Looks like this topic makes an interesting talking point.

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Brilliant section about the TV theme tunes that made it into the chart

I thought I'd better make the opening and closing sections less confrontational and more conciliatory.

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Unless you're somehow able to listen to Radio Merseyside, it is coincidental that their theme for this week is Songs that Namecheck the Artist

I didn't hear what the first song in the theme was, but the second one was Livin' in a Box. Today's was The Monkees

No, I don't get Radio Mersey, I'm afraid – not even on my DAB digital radio
I could probably get Radio Mersey on my laptop but without working sound it wouldn't do much good… Are they only doing one song a day?

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I'm currently indecisive about whether this should be in the Alternative Writing Workshop or Edited Guide Writing Workshop. What do people think – should I take it out of <./>RF5</.> and into <./>RF2</.>?

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Going somewhat on how things used to be, I’d suggest:
If you feel it to be complete pretty much as-is, then maybe the EGWW - if not straight into PR. The only thing that would keep this out of the EG would be an editorial opinion that its topic is too insubstantial. That sort of thinking is probably behind us though.
If on the other hand you’d like to see it keep growing through other people’s suggestions, then the AWW is a better place for unbounded projects that might yet go somewhere unexpected.

"No, I don't get Radio Mersey, I'm afraid – not even on my DAB digital radio "

Fascinating coincidence! Yes, they do one song per day in the theme - Monday's song was Big Country, and today's was Stray Cats

There's definitely Edited Guide Entry potential in there It would be great if there were two versions so one could be informative rather than definitive while the other one could be "unbounded projects that might yet go somewhere unexpected"

I would put it in Peer Review, but at the moment it is full – by which I mean I've reached the limit of the number of entries that I've written that can be in it at the moment, entries by other people are always wanted!

A few years ago I had 33 entries in Peer Review, which was frankly ludicrous. So I have developed a simple system to keep the number of my entries in Peer Review restricted. I consider each of my entries in Peer Review to be either 'Active' or 'Inactive' entries, and the aim is to have no more than 10 of my Active entries in Peer Review at a time. If an Active entry is picked I can replace it with another Active entry to maintain 10, but if an Inactive entry is picked I can't add another entry in to Peer Review. An Active entry becomes an Inactive entry once it has been in Peer Review for a year, or I can add additional Inactive entries on special occasions (New Year's Day, April Fool's Day etc). So at present I have 10 Active entries, 6 Inactive entries in Peer Review and any other entry I write has to queue in the Edited Guide Writing Workshop until an Active entry slot becomes available in Peer Review. Clear as glass, eh?

I'm glad that so far there's only one song in common to both my entry and Mersey Radio – I'm not deleting my reference to 'The Monkees', though, 'cos I got there first.

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"I'm glad that so far there's only one song in common to both my entry and Mersey Radio – I'm not deleting my reference to 'The Monkees', though, 'cos I got there first. "

Yes indeed you got there first!

Friday's song was The Who - Who Are You?