Track 6 of Dan Bern's second full-length album, fifty eggs is chock-full of references to artists I like or have been meaning to check out for some time.
Lyrics:
Well, this bald-headed girl I know
Sent me a tape of Bjork and Courtney Love
And P.J. Harvey
Called it "Brilliant Women"
I put it in my car
Heard it all the way down to the coast
Normally, if left to my own devices
I don't hear chick singers much
I guess it's guys I hear the most
Sometimes these days
Don't it seem like it's enough
For girls to love a girl
Or use the F word prominently
Masturbate in public
Or learn guitar tied up to a post
I thought of all this hearing Bjork and Courtney Love and PJ Harvey
In my car driving to the coast
Tori Amos, Liz Phair, Sinead O'Connor,
Suzanne Vega, Jill Sobule,
Melissa Etheridge
Tracy Chapman, Ani DiFranco,
Michelle Shocked
Every one of them
Has something kinda special that I like
But every now and then
While listening to them
I feel like when we were kids
I pulled their hair or stole their bike
These days, it seems like
There's a lot of girls who sing
And some of them are good
And some of them are not
But it's always kinda cool
That moment when they first step to the mike
If I was a girl
I could sing real high
And, also, then
I'd know what having breasts would be like
Chick singers
Chick singers
Chick singers
I started thinkin 'bout
Kate Bush, Patsy Kline, Billie Holiday
Janis Joplin, Bessie Smith, Patti Smith
Annie Lenox, Chrissie Hynde and Bonnie Raitt
Seems like there's an awful lot of women
In whose honor I would
Like to raise my glass
And give a toast
Some of them are still alive
And some, I hear their voices like a ghost
Maybe this Thursday, I'll throw a party
And invite every woman
That ever sang a song
This would be a party
That I think I would like to be the host
Thanks to the bald-headed girl
Whose tape of Bjork and Courtney Love and PJ Harvey
I heard driving to the coast
Chick singers
Chick singers
Chick singers
—Dan Bern