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Musicians have long enjoyed fractious relationships with the journalists who write about them, but not many make those journalists the subjects of actual songs. Here are some great examples of songs that vent rage--or hurt, or contempt--at music critics.--Barney Hoskyns, Editorial Director, Rock's Backpages

Jimmy Webb: "Dorothy Chandler Blues" Gospel-rock riposte to reviewers who'd slammed Webb's debut performance at L.A.'s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. "You're sitting in your bow tie, gettin' kinda cross-eyed/Good evening, Mr. Critic…"

Nick Cave: "Scum" Witheringly bilious attack on RBP's Mat Snow and Antonella Gambotto: "You gave me a bad review/And maybe you think that it's all just water under the bridge/Well my UNfriend, I'm the type that holds a grudge…"

Pete Townshend: "Jool & Jim" Clipping NME's Tony Parsons and Julie Burchill around the ears for disparaging comments about Keith Moon. "Typewriter bangers on/You're all just hangers on/Everyone's human 'cept Jools and Jim/Late copy churners/Rock and Roll learners/Your heart's are melting in pools of gin…"

Graham Parker: "Don't Let It Break You Down" "Some people are in charge of pens, who should be pushing brooms/They have the nerve to rip up a man's life, in a paragraph or two."

The Jam: "The Modern World" "Don't have to explain myself to you/I don't give two $#&%'s about your review…"

The Stranglers: "London Lady" Decidedly un-gallant song about Melody Maker's Caroline Coon. "Oh London Lady, why did you lay me?/Your head is crowded with the names you've hounded…"

Gary Numan: "I Die: You Die" "They crawl out of their holes for me/And I die: You die/Hear them laugh, watch them turn on me/And I die: You die."

Neil Young: "Ambulance Blues" "So all you critics sit alone/You're no better than me for what you've shown/With your stomach pump and your hook and ladder dreams/We could get together for some scenes…"

Bob Dylan: "Ballad Of A Thin Man" Written about Jeffrey Jones, a Village Voice reporter who attempted to interview Dylan after the Newport Folk Festival, the song is tightly wound tirade against the laziness and ineptitude of the media who can see that clearly "something is happening here" but have no idea what it is.

Bob Dylan: "Last Thoughts On Woody Guthrie" "And you can't find it either in the no-talent fools/That run around gallant/And make all rules for the ones that got talent…"

The Flamin' Groovies: "Don't Put Me On" "From the start, I knew you missed the point…" The Groovies' response to a bad review from sometime supporter Nick Kent, culminating in calling him a "poltroon"--how often does that word turn up in a lyric?!  

The Go-Go's: "Robert Hilburn" Referred to the L.A. Times veteran as a "boring fart"  

The Cure: "Desperate Journalist" A retort to a negative Ian Penman review in NME. "He uses long words/Like s'emiotics' and 'semolina'/But I countered/With 'enigma' and 'metropolis'…"

Conflict: "As Others See Us" Probably the most vicious anti-critic song ever: "You dozy jerks, you write such $%&#…" Cracking song, though.

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