Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" was originally called "Brown Skinned Girl," and was about an interracial relationship.
Elton John's songwriting partner Bernie Taupin wrote the original lyrics for Starship's "We Built This City." It was the first Hot 100 Top 10 hit Taupin wrote without John.
Kenny Loggins co-wrote the Doobie Brothers hit "What a Fool Believes," which is about a guy who just can't accept that an affair from long ago was meaningless to her.
"Piano Man" was inspired by Billy Joel's time playing at a piano bar in Los Angeles. The "real estate novelist" was a guy who always talked about writing a book, but spent all his spare time in the bar.
"Up Around The Bend" by Creedence Clearwater Revival had a different meaning to British listeners. In England, to go "Around the bend" means to go crazy.
"Constant Craving" by k.d. lang deals with principles of Buddhism, including the cycles of birth and death.
Armed with a childhood spent devouring books, Mike Scott's heart was stolen by the punk rock scene of 1977. Not surprisingly, he would go on to become the most literate of rockers.
Dokken frontman Don Dokken explains what broke up the band at the height of their success in the late '80s, and talks about the botched surgery that paralyzed his right arm.
Who writes a song about a name they found in a phone book? That's just one of the everyday things these guys find to sing about. Anything in their field of vision or general scope of knowledge is fair game. If you cross paths with them, so are you.
What happens when Kurt Cobain, Iron Maiden and Johnny Lydon are told to lip-synch? Some hilarious "performances."
The drummer and one of the primary songwriters in Grand Funk talks rock stardom and Todd Rundgren.
Tom stopped performing Thompson Twins songs in 1987, in part because of their personal nature: "Hold Me Now" came after an argument with his bandmate/girlfriend Alannah Currie.