David Bowie's Hunky Dory (1971) features tribute songs to three different artists - "Song for Bob Dylan", "Queen Bitch" (for The Velvet Underground) and the one that I'll be discussing today: "Andy Warhol". Warhol's influence on rock music rivals any non-musician. He wasn't quite the rock and roll Diaghilev, but he wasn't far off. His influential handling of The Velvets alone (among the most important of American rock groups) would be enough to give him musical immortality, but he did much more for music and musicians, both directly and indirectly. For one thing, it seems like all the musicians who met him considered it an important moment in the development of their thinking and work. Warhol questioned ideas of authorship, originality, modernism and popular art, and the nature of fame and communication (I don't think anyone laughs at his "fifteen minutes" quote anymore). Essentially, he made it a requirement for an artist to deeply consider what they were doing and why - something rock definitely needed (and still most often does, in fact). He also led by example: he was an extremely hard worker. (Incidentally, the one trait common to all good music is hard work.)
So back to the song. It's a dramatic piece with unusual uses for common materials, which is appropriate to the subject matter. It uses chords from the keys of G and D, starting on an E minor. The chorus uses a chord progression unlike any other I've heard to set an equally original melody. The lyrics are a humorous tribute to Warhol as working artist, friend, ringleader and work of art:

Like to take a cement fix
Be a standing cinema
Dress my friends up
Just for show
See them as they really are
Put a peephole in my brain
Two new pence to have a go
I'd like to be a gallery
Put you all inside my show

Andy Warhol looks a scream
Hang him on my wall
Andy Warhol, Silver Screen
Can't tell them apart at all

Andy walking, Andy tired
Andy take a little snooze
Tie him up when he's fast asleep
Send him on a pleasant cruise
When he wakes up on the sea
Be sure to think of me and you
He'll think about paint
And he'll think about glue
What a jolly boring thing to do

Words (and music) worthy of their subject. Thought of the day: "Dress my friends up/ Just for show/ See them as they really are". (Essential viewing: Bowie playing Warhol in Basquiat - 1996)