"Diamonds From Sierra Leone" by Kanye West is about the "blood diamonds" mined using child labor in Africa. It also serves as a shout-out to Roc-A-Fella records, known for a diamond-shaped hand signal.
"Fight The Power" was written for the Spike Lee movie Do The Right Thing. It opens the film and serves as the motif.
The electronic instruments in "Atomic Dog" represent the coming computer age, which is balanced by the instinctual dog, who barks and pants throughout the song.
The first line of "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone" is "It was the 3rd of September," which is the day lead singer Dennis Edwards' father died.
Prince kept doves at his Paisley Park mansion. And yes, sometimes they did cry.
When the Velvet Underground song "Heroin" got screechy, Maureen Tucker stopped drumming, figuring it would bust the take, but her bandmates kept going. You can hear it at the 5:20 mark.
The trail runs from flying saucer songs in the '50s, through Bowie, blink-182 and Katy Perry.
Was "Pearl" Eddie Vedder's grandmother, and did she really make a hallucinogenic jam? Did Journey have a contest to name the group? And what does KISS stand for anyway?
The Christian rapper talks about where his trip to Haiti and his history of addiction fit into his songs.
MTV, a popular TV theme song and Madonna all show up in this '80s music quiz.
We ring the Hell's Bells to see what songs and rockers are sincere in their Satanism, and how much of it is an act.
The drummer for Anthrax is also a key songwriter. He explains how the group puts their songs together and tells the stories behind some of their classics.