The songs on Lady Gaga's The Fame Monster album represent a "fear" of some "monster." "Alejandro" is her "fear of sex" monster.
Korn's most popular song, "Freak On A Leash," is about their predatory record label making huge profits off the band. It was quite profitable, helping the Follow The Leader album sell over 5 million copies.
David Byrne says "Road To Nowhere" is about "how there's no order and no plan and no scheme to life and death and it doesn't mean anything, but it's all right."
"Sloop John B" is a traditional West Indian folk song, and it was a huge hit for The Beach Boys in 1966. They tweaked the lyric, "This is the worst trip since I've been born" to "...I've ever been on" as a wink to acid culture.
There are no actual drums on Queen's "We Will Rock You," just lots of foot stomping.
Keith Richards did some studio alchemy on the Rolling Stones song "Street Fighting Man," which is all acoustic except the bass.
"Mr. Jones" took on new meaning when the song about a misguided view of fame made Adam famous.
Gary Lewis and the Playboys had seven Top 10 hits despite competition from The Beatles. Gary talks about the hits, his famous father, and getting drafted.
Andrew Farriss on writing with Michael Hutchence, the stories behind "Mystify" and other INXS hits, and his country-flavored debut solo album.
The Scorpions and UFO guitarist is also a very prolific songwriter - he explains how he writes with his various groups, and why he was so keen to get out of Germany and into England.
The Def Leppard frontman talks about their "lamentable" hit he never thought of as a single, and why he's juiced by his Mott The Hoople cover band.
Soul music legend Bill Withers on how life experience and the company you keep leads to classic songs like "Lean On Me."