"Burning Down The House" by Talking Heads was inspired by chant band members heard at a P-Funk show where the crowd yelled, "burn down the house... burn down the house."
The UK band The Lightning Seeds of "Pure" fame got their name from a misheard line in Prince's "Raspberry Beret," mistaking "thunder drowns out what the lightning sees" for "thunder drowns out the lightning seeds."
At the end of the Doors song "Touch Me," Jim Morrison chants, "Stronger than dirt!" The line is from an Ajax commercial where a white knight rides around destroying dirt.
The Hollies hit "The Air That I Breathe" was written in part as a reaction to the smog in Los Angeles.
In Gary Numan's "Cars," the message is that cars lead to a mechanical society devoid of personal interaction. This didn't stop automakers from using it in commercials. Both Nissan and Oldsmobile have used it in ads.
The title of Al Stewart's "Year Of The Cat" comes from Vietnamese astrology. The Year of the Cat comes every 12 Years: 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011, 2023...
Songwriters have used cards and card games to make sense of heartache, togetherness, and even Gonorrhea.
The "All I Want" singer went through a long depression, playing some shows when he didn't want to be alive.
"When seeds that you sow grow by the wicked moon/Be sure your sins will find you out/Your past will hunt you down and turn to tell on you."
Faith No More's bassist, Billy Gould, chats to us about his two new experimental projects, The Talking Book and House of Hayduk, and also shares some stories from the FNM days.
