Dear Listeners,
The first time the Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg met one of his musical heroes, Alex Chilton of the underappreciated power-pop band Big Star, Westerberg suffered a sudden lapse in memory: “I’m in love with that one song of yours — what’s that song?” The title Westerberg was grasping for, according to Bob Mehr’s Replacements biography “Trouble Boys,” was “Watch the Sunrise.” But this would turn out to be a fruitful forgetting, since the incident gave Westerberg the lyrical hook to a song he’d later write about Chilton: “I’m in love — what’s that song?”
“Alex Chilton,” that sky-scraping rock anthem that appeared on the Replacements’ 1987 album “Pleased to Meet Me,” is among the greatest songs one musician has ever written in tribute to another. But that’s hardly an anomaly: Pop music history is full of artists paying tribute to predecessors or contemporaries they admire. Consider Bob Dylan’s early “Song for Woody” — or David Bowie’s “Song for Bob Dylan.”
Today’s playlist compiles 11 such tracks, from artists including Van Morrison, Florence + the Machine and Stevie Wonder. Because this playlist could be incredibly long if I didn’t limit my parameters a bit, I decided to stick with songs that directly consider another artist’s music and explicitly mention the other artist by name in their titles. That means that Leonard Cohen and the Grateful Dead’s Janis Joplin homages (“Chelsea Hotel No. 2” and “Bird Song”) were both ineligible, as was Charli XCX’s more recent but no less heartfelt ode to Sophie (“So I”). Don’t worry — this still left me with plenty to choose from.
I see many of these songs as a kind of musical correspondence across the history of pop music, providing unexpected connections and making visible certain lineages. Let me know if I missed your favorite.
Never travel far without a little Big Star,
Lindsay
Listen along while you read.
1. David Bowie: “Song for Bob Dylan”
“Oh hear this, Robert Zimmerman, I wrote a song for you,” begins this track from David Bowie’s 1971 LP “Hunky Dory” — a winking lyric that nods to Bob Dylan’s own “Song to Woody” (Guthrie, of course). With a vocal performance that’s subtly but unmistakably Dylanesque, the young buck Bowie pays homage to a more established Dylan in his own enigmatic way, finding common ground in their stylistic transformations and playful approaches to persona.
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2. Bob Dylan: “Song to Woody”
The young man born Robert Zimmerman wrote this plain-spoken folk song — one of only two originals on his 1962 self-titled album — shortly after meeting his musical hero for the first time. (Contrary to how it’s depicted in the recent biopic “A Complete Unknown,” that first meeting did not take place at Guthrie’s hospital bedside, but at his friends’ house in New Jersey.) Interpolating the melody of Guthrie’s “1913 Massacre,” Dylan bemoans a modern world “that looks like it’s a-dyin’” and introduces himself to his socially conscious idol as a sharply observant kindred spirit.
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3. Van Morrison: “Jackie Wilson Said (I’m in Heaven When You Smile)”
Van Morrison channels the style of the R&B singer Jackie Wilson on this jubilant 1972 hit, which mentions Wilson’s 1958 single “Reet Petite” in its opening lines. In 1982, the English pop group Dexys Midnight Runners released a faithful cover as the follow-up single to “Come on Eileen.”
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4. The Replacements: “Alex Chilton”
“Children by the millions scream for Alex Chilton when he comes ’round,” Paul Westerberg sings — a hopeful bit of revisionist history for an artist who was a cult hero but never a household name.
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5. Waylon Jennings: “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way”
Partially a salute to Hank Williams and partially a fiery manifesto against mediocrity in country music, Waylon Jennings dared the Nashville establishment to turn away from “countrypolitan” glitz and return to its roots on this 1975 single.
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6. Armani White: “Billie Eilish”
The Philly rapper Armani White pays homage to the Gen Z pop star’s signature style on this 2022 viral hit: “Big T-shirt, Billie Eilish.” During her headlining set at Quebec’s Osheaga Music and Arts Festival in 2023, Eilish invited White onstage to perform the song — much to the crowd’s delight. “I’ve never heard that many people scream in my [expletive] life,” White marveled afterward. “Billie Eilish has an army!!”
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7. John Cale: “Mr. Wilson”
This opening track off the Welsh musician John Cale’s 1975 solo album “Slow Dazzle” considers Brian Wilson during a troubled and creatively fallow time in the Beach Boys songwriter’s output. “Take your mixes, not your mixture, add some music to our day,” Cale urges. “Don’t believe the things they tell you, don’t let them get in your way.”
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8. Joni Mitchell: “Furry Sings the Blues”
On this track from her sparse 1976 LP “Hejira,” Joni Mitchell learns why it’s not always a good idea to meet (or sing about) your heroes. The song, which features some lonesome harmonica played by Neil Young, recounts in poetic and unsparing detail Mitchell’s meeting with the bluesman Furry Lewis, “propped up in his bed with his dentures and his leg removed.” Lewis wasn’t a fan of the song or Mitchell’s decision to use his name, but she doesn’t exactly let herself off the hook either, depicting herself as an outsider when she admits, “We’re only welcome for our drink and smoke.”
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9. Sonic Youth: “Tunic (Song for Karen)”
Written in the imagined voice of Karen Carpenter, who died in 1983 of complications from anorexia, this startlingly empathetic song appeared on Sonic Youth’s 1990 album “Goo.” While the Carpenters’ soft-rock sound was a far cry from the arty squall of Sonic Youth’s underground rock, “Tunic (Song for Karen)” builds a bridge between two very disparate bands, thanks in part to Kim Gordon’s affecting vocal delivery.
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10. Florence + the Machine: “Patricia”
“Oh, Patricia, you’ve always been my north star,” Florence Welch sings on this galvanic track off her band’s 2018 album “Hunger.” The Patricia in question? Patti Smith, who thanked Welch on Instagram shortly after the track was released. “The song is beautiful,” Smith wrote, “and it is wonderful to be so acknowledged by a fellow artist.” (Welch had more thoughtful things to say about Smith in our recent feature on her album “Horses,” too.)
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11. Stevie Wonder: “Sir Duke”
Finally, when the great Duke Ellington died in 1974, Stevie Wonder felt compelled to write a song paying homage to one of his most cherished musical idols. The result was this ecstatic 1977 hit, which appeared on his landmark album “Songs in the Key of Life.” “Sir Duke” also references a few other jazz pioneers (Count Basie, Glenn Miller, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald), but above all, it is a personalized love letter — signed, sealed, delivered — to music itself.
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The Amplifier Playlist
“11 Musical Love Letters From Artists to Their Heroes” track list Track 1: David Bowie, “Song for Bob Dylan” Track 2: Bob Dylan, “Song to Woody” Track 3: Van Morrison, “Jackie Wilson Said (I’m in Heaven When You Smile)” Track 4: The Replacements, “Alex Chilton” Track 5: Waylon Jennings, “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way” Track 6: Armani White, “Billie Eilish” Track 7: John Cale, “Mr. Wilson” Track 8: Joni Mitchell, “Furry Sings the Blues” Track 9: Sonic Youth, “Tunic (Song for Karen)” Track 10: Florence + the Machine, “Patricia” Track 11: Stevie Wonder, “Sir Duke”
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