Al Green's "Take Me to the River" describes a baptism. Two years later, he became a reverend.
"99 Luftballons" by Nena is about a Cold War scare when balloons showed up on radar and were mistaken as a nuclear threat.
The "Ms. Jackson" in the OutKast song is Erykah Badu's mother. Andre 3000 had a child with Badu, and felt she was portraying him as a lousy dad.
"Airplanes" by B.o.B was written by Lupe Fiasco, who recorded it but decided to pass.
Tom Cochrane wrote "Life Is A Highway" to pull himself out of a funk following an exhausting humanitarian trip to Africa.
Writing with Phil Lynott, Scott saw their ill-fated frontman move to a darker place in his life and lyrics.
The writer of "Rainy Night in Georgia" and "Polk Salad Annie" explains how he cooks up his Louisiana swamp rock.
From the lake in "Roundabout" to Sister Bluebird in "Starship Trooper," Jon Anderson talks about how nature and spirituality play into his lyrics for Yes.
When televangelists like Jimmy Swaggart took on rockers like Ozzy Osbourne and Metallica, the rockers retaliated. Bono could even be seen mocking the preachers.
Jim talks about the impact of "The Middle" and uses a tree metaphor to describe his songwriting philosophy.
A founding member of the band War, Harold gives a first-person account of one of the most important periods in music history.
