"What I did do with that particular cover was read their lyrics, and understand that there is a good force and a bad force: the good force was music, creativity, and freedom of expression-and the bad force was anything that was contrary to that. The man is the hero of the story. That he is nude is just a classic tradition ... the pureness of his person and creativity without the trappings of other elements such as clothing. The red star is the evil red star of the Federation, which was one of Neil's symbols. We basically based that cover around the red star and that hero. Now, that hero and that kind of attitude about freedom of expression and the band having that kind of feeling ... at the time, it never ready occurred to me, to be honest with you, that they would adopt it quite so seriously as a logo. Because it's appeared just about everywhere, thereafter." - Hugh Syme, Creem interview, 1983

The Eagles' first single, "Take It Easy," was written by Jackson Browne, who was living in the apartment below Glenn Frey when he wrote it.

Sleigh bells aren't very punk, but they play throughout the Stooges classic "I Wanna Be Your Dog."

Bob Marley gave the songwriting credit for "No Woman No Cry" to his friend Vincent Ford, who ran a soup kitchen in Trenchtown, the area of Kingston where Marley grew up.

The line, "Gotta keep 'em separated" in "Come Out And Play" by The Offspring came to lead singer Dexter Holland when he was a medical student and needed to keep bacteria samples away from each other.

A section of verse lyrics in Rihanna's "SOS" is made up of titles from '80s hits - check out the part that starts, "Take me on, I could just die up in your arms tonight."

Steely Dan's engineer, Roger Nichols, built one of the first drum machines, which they used on "Hey Nineteen."
"Dead Skunk" became a stinker for Loudon when he felt pressure to make another hit - his latest songs deal with mortality, his son Rufus, and picking up poop.
The lead singer and pianist for Procol Harum, Gary talks about finding the musical ideas to match the words.
Fishbone has always enjoyed much more acclaim than popularity - Angelo might know why.
Graham Nash tells the stories behind some of his famous songs and photos, and is asked about "yacht rock" for the first time.
The Bush frontman on where he finds inspiration for lyrics, if his "machine head" is a guitar tuner, and the stories behind songs from the album The Kingdom.