The Oasis song "Live Forever" was written in response to "I Hate Myself And I Want To Die" by Nirvana. "Kids don't need to hear that nonsense," said Noel Gallagher.
Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl" is about Christie Brinkley, who he married, but it started as a song about Elle McPherson, who he also went out with.
In The Band song "The Weight," Nazareth ("Went down to Nazareth") refers to a town in Pennsylvania where the Martin Guitar company was located.
The Dixie Chicks got their name from the Little Feat song "Dixie Chicken." In 2020 they became "The Chicks" because Dixie refers to the American South in times of slavery.
The party tune "Mambo No 5 (A Little Bit Of)" was the theme song for the 2000 Democratic Convention (the party of Bill Clinton), until someone noticed the line, "A little bit of Monica in my life."
Neil Young later apologized for "Southern Man," calling it "accusatory and condescending" in its portrayal of the American South.
Do their first three albums have French titles? Is "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" really meaningless? See if you can tell in this Fact or Fiction.
After cutting his teeth on hardcore punk videos, Paul defined the grunge look with his work on "Hunger Strike" and "Man in the Box."
Rufus Wainwright on "Hallelujah," his album Unfollow The Rules, and getting into his "lyric trance" on 12-hour walks.
Billy Joel and Hall & Oates hated making videos, so they chose a director with similar contempt for the medium. That was Jay Dubin, and he has a lot to say on the subject.
Where words like "email," "thirsty," "Twitter" and "gangsta" first showed up in songs, and which songs popularized them.
Our chat with Barney Hoskyns, who covers the wild years of Woodstock - the town, not the festival - in his book Small Town Talk.