Pop Song 552 of 1000 'Way down in the hole' Tom Waits 1987
Pop Song 552 of 1000 'Way down in the hole' Tom Waits 1987
John Waits Live https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw2MjRcVO4g
"Way Down in the Hole" is a song written by the singer-songwriter Tom Waits. It was included on his 1987 album Franks Wild Years, which was first presented as a stage production put on by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company[1] in Chicago, Illinois.
The song was used as the theme for HBO's The Wire.[2][3] A different recording was used each season. Versions, in series order, were recorded by The Blind Boys of Alabama, Tom Waits, The Neville Brothers, DoMaJe, and Steve Earle. Season four's version, performed by the Baltimore teenagers Ivan Ashford, Markel Steele, Cameron Brown, Tariq Al-Sabir and Avery Bargasse, was arranged and recorded specifically for the show.[4] An extended version of the Blind Boys of Alabama recording was played over a montage in the series finale.
In 2004, music historian Kim Beissel said that the 1994 song "Red Right Hand" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds was loosely based on "Way Down in the Hole"
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Pop Song 551 of 1000 'I want you back' Jackson 5 1969
Pop Song 551 of 1000 'I want you back' Jackson 5 1969
MV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2bVIBwpCTA
Originally considered for Gladys Knight & the Pips and later for Diana Ross, as "I Wanna Be Free", "I Want You Back" explores the theme of a lover who decides that he was too hasty in dropping his partner. An unusual aspect about "I Want You Back" was that its main lead vocal was performed by a tween, a then-11-year-old Michael Jackson
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Pop Song 549 of 1000 'Life is a Highway' Tom Cochrane 1991
Pop Song 549 of 1000 'Life is a Highway' Tom Cochrane 1991
Watch the MV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3sMjm9Eloo
Cochrane has stated that "Life Is a Highway" was originally conceived in the 1980s as "Love is a Highway" while he was still a member of Red Rider, but was shelved at that time because he felt the unfinished song was unusable. Following a trip with his family to Eastern Africa with the World Vision famine relief organization, Cochrane revisited the song on the advice of his friend John Webster, an instrumentalist on the Mad Mad World album. In a 2017 interview with The Canadian Press to mark the song's 25th anniversary, Cochrane said Webster encouraged him to revisit the demo recording, which at that point only had mumbled vocals and improvised lyrics, but not the song's well-known chorus. "(The song) became a pep talk to myself... saying you can't really control all of this stuff, you just do the best you can," he says. Cochrane says he was trying to make sense of the poverty he witnessed on his trip, which he found "shocking and traumatic"
Whoo!
Mmm, yeah
Life's like a road that you travel on
When there's one day here, and the next day gone
Sometimes you bend, sometimes you stand
Sometimes you turn your back to the wind
There's a world outside every darkened door
Where blues won't haunt you anymore
Where the brave are free and lovers soar
Come ride with me to the distant shore
We won't hesitate
To break down the garden gate
There's not much time left today, yeah
Life is a highway
I wanna ride it all night long
If you're goin' my way
Well, I wanna drive it all night long
Through all these cities and all these towns
It's in my blood, and it's all around
I love you now like I loved you then
This is the road, and these are the hands
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Pop Song 548 of 1000 'Killing in the name' Rage against the Machine 1992
Pop Song 548 of 1000 'Killing in the name' Rage against the Machine 1992
Watch Rage against the Machine live https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8de2W3rtZsA
The lyrics were inspired by the police brutality suffered by Rodney King and the subsequent 1992 Los Angeles riots.[13][14][15] The refrain "some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses" draws what the band views as a link between the Los Angeles Police Department and the Ku Klux Klan.[16] According to BBC News, "Killing in the Name" rails against "the military–industrial complex, justifying killing for the benefit of, as the song puts it, the chosen whites
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Pop Song 546 of 1000 'Kryptonite' 3 Doors Down 1999
Pop Song 546 of 1000 'Kryptonite' 3 Doors Down 1999
MV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPU8OAjjS4k
The song was written by the band's vocalist and drummer, Brad Arnold, in a mathematics class when he was 15; it was one of the first songs he ever wrote.[5]
About the song's meaning, Arnold has said:
"That song seems like it's really just kind of like asking a question. Its question is kind of a strange one. It's not just asking, "If I fall down, will you be there for me?", because it's easy to be there for someone when they're down. But it's not always easy to be there for somebody when they're doing good. And that's the question it's asking. It's like, "If I go crazy, will you still call me Superman?" It's asking, "If I'm down, will you still be there for me?" but at the same time, "If I'm alive and well, will you be there holding my hand?" That's kind of asking, "If I'm doing good, will you be there for me? Will you not be jealous of me?" That's the basic question that song's asking, and maybe throughout the years of singing that song, I might have come up with more meanings for it than it actually might have originally had."
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Pop Song 547 of 1000 'You are my sunshine' Jimmie Davis 1939
Pop Song 547 of 1000 'You are my sunshine' Jimmie Davis 1939
"You Are My Sunshine" is a standard of American old-time country music and one of the official state songs of Louisiana. Though its original writer is disputed, according to the performance rights organization BMI in 2000, the song had been recorded by over 350 artists and translated into 30 languages.
Written and recorded as early as 1939, the song was first published and copyrighted in 1940 by Jimmie Davis and Charles Mitchell. Davis went on to be governor of Louisiana from 1944 to 1948 and again from 1960 to 1964, and used the song for his election campaign. In 1977, the Louisiana State Legislature decreed "You Are My Sunshine" the state song in honor of Davis. Its best-known covers include a recording by Johnny Cash in 1989
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Pop Song 545 of 1000 'Layla' Derek and the Dominos Eric Clapton 1970
Pop Song 545 of 1000 'Layla' Derek and the Dominos Eric Clapton 1970
Watch Clapton live https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX5USg8_1gA
The song was inspired by a love story that originated in 7th-century persian and later formed the basis of The Story of Layla and Majnun by the 12th-century Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi,[1] a copy of which Ian Dallas had given to Clapton. The book moved Clapton profoundly, because it was the tale of a young man who fell hopelessly in love with a beautiful young girl, went crazy and so could not marry her.[2][3][4] The song was further inspired by Clapton's secret love for Pattie Boyd, the wife of his friend and fellow musician George Harrison. After Harrison and Boyd divorced, Clapton and Boyd eventually married.
See if you can spot this one
What will you do when you get lonely?
No one waiting by your side
You've been running hiding much too long
You know it's just your foolish pride
Layla
Got me on my knees
Layla
Begging darling please
Layla
Darling won't you ease my worried mind?
Tried to give you consolation
When your old man had let you down
Like a fool I fell in love with you
You turned my whole world upside down, Layla
Got me on my knees
Layla
Begging darling please
Layla
Darling won't you ease my worried mind?
Make the best of the situation
'Fore I finally go insane
Please don't say we'll never find a way
Tell me all my love's in vain
Layla
Got me on my knees
Layla
I'm begging darling please
Layla
Darling won't you ease my worried mind?
(Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah)
Layla
Got me on my knees
Layla
Begging darling please
Layla
Darling won't you ease my worried mind?
(Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah)
Layla
Got me on my knees
Layla
Begging darling please
Layla
Darling won't you ease my worried mind?
Layla
Got me on my knees
Layla
Begging darling please
Layla
Darling won't you ease my worried mind?
Thank you
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Pop Song 544 of 1000 'Tom Sawyer' Rush 1981
Pop Song 544 of 1000 'Tom Sawyer' Rush 1981
Thank you to @dakotabailey9133 for Rush request!
MV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auLBLk4ibAk
Tom Sawyer was a collaboration between myself and Pye Dubois, an excellent lyricist who wrote the lyrics for Max Webster. His original lyrics were kind of a portrait of a modern day rebel, a free-spirited individualist striding through the world wide-eyed and purposeful. I added the themes of reconciling the boy and man in myself, and the difference between what people are and what others perceive them to be—namely me, I guess
A modern-day warrior
Mean, mean stride
Today's Tom Sawyer
Mean, mean pride
Though his mind is not for rent
Don't put him down as arrogant
His reserve a, quiet defense
Riding out the day's events
The river
What you say about his company
Is what you say about society
Catch the mist, catch the myth
Catch the mystery, catch the drift
The world is, the world is
Love and life are deep
Maybe as his skies are wide
Today's Tom Sawyer, he gets high on you
And the space he invades, he gets by on you
No, his mind is not for rent
To any god or government
Always hopeful, yet discontent
He knows changes aren't permanent
But changes is
And what you say about his company
Is what you say about society
Catch the witness, catch the wit
Catch the spirit, catch the spit
The world is, the world is
Love and life are deep
Maybe as his eyes are wide
Exit the warrior, today's Tom Sawyer
He gets high on you and the energy you trade
He gets right onto the friction of the day!
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Pop Song 543 of 1000 'Centerfold' J. Geils Band 1981
Pop Song 543 of 1000 'Centerfold' J. Geils Band 1981
Watch the MV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqDjMZKf-wg
The song is about a man who is shocked to discover that his high school crush appeared in a centerfold spread for an unspecified men's magazine. The song's narrator is torn between conflicting feelings: his disappointment due to her loss of innocence, and his lust until the end of the song.
Come on!
Does she walk? Does she talk? Does she come complete?
My homeroom, homeroom angel always pulled me from my seat
She was pure like snowflakes no one could ever stain
The memory of my angel could never cause me pain
Years go by, I'm lookin' through a girly magazine
And there's my homeroom angel on the pages in-between
My blood runs cold, my memory has just been sold
My angel is the centerfold, angel is the centerfold
My blood runs cold, woo, my memory has just been sold
Angel is the centerfold
Slipped me notes under the desk while I was thinkin' about her dress
I was shy, I turned away before she caught my eye
I was shakin' in my shoes whenever she flashed those baby blues
Something had a hold on me when angel passed close by
Those soft, fuzzy sweaters, too magical to touch
To see her in that négligée is really just too much
My blood runs cold, yeah, my memory has just been sold
My angel is the centerfold, angel is the centerfold
My blood runs cold, my memory has just been sold
Oh yeah, angel is the centerfold
Now listen, it's okay, I understand, this ain't no never-never land
I hope that when this issue's gone, I'll see you when your clothes are on
Take your car, yes we will, we'll take your car and drive it
We'll take it to a motel room and take 'em off in private
A part of me has just been ripped, the pages from my mind are stripped
Oh no, I can't deny it, oh yeah, I guess I gotta buy it
My blood runs cold, my memory has just been sold
My angel is the centerfold, angel is the centerfold
My blood runs cold, woo, my memory has just been sold
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Pop Song 542 of 1000 'Something stupid' Carson Parks 1966 cover by Sinatras
Pop Song 542 of 1000 'Something stupid' Carson Parks 1966 cover by Sinatras
Watch Frank and Nancy Sinatra https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLEQvWt0axk
"Somethin' Stupid", or "Something Stupid", is a song written by C. Carson Parks. It was originally recorded in 1966 by Parks and his wife Gaile Foote, as Carson and Gaile. A 1967 version by Frank Sinatra and his daughter Nancy Sinatra became a major international hit.
I know I stand in line, until you think you have the time
To spend an evening with me
And if we go someplace to dance, I know that there's a chance
You won't be leaving with me
And afterwards we drop into a quiet little place
And have a drink or two
And then I go and spoil it all
By saying something stupid like "I love you"
I can see it in your eyes, that you despise the same old lies
You heard the night before
And though it's just a line to you
For me it's true, it never seemed so right before
I practice every day to find some clever lines to say
To make the meaning come through
But then I think I'll wait until the evening gets late
And I'm alone with you
The time is right your perfume fills my head
The stars get red and oh, the night's so blue
And then I go and spoil it all
By saying something stupid like "I love you"
The time is right your perfume fills my head
The stars get red and oh, the night's so blue
And then I go and spoil it all
By saying something stupid like "I love you"
I love you
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Pop Song 541 of 1000 'The beautiful people' Marilyn Manson 1996
Pop Song 541 of 1000 'The beautiful people' Marilyn Manson 1996
Watch MV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ypkv0HeUvTc
The title of the song comes from Marylin Bender's 1967 book The Beautiful People,[5] which exposed the world of scandal within the "jet-set" lifestyle of the 1960s, and the culture of beauty as it pertained to fashion and politics.[5][6] In the context of the album's concept, the song refers to the privileged class of elites whom the titular character, a populist demagogue called Antichrist Superstar, fulminate against. Lyrically, it discusses what Manson refers to as "the culture of beauty".
And I don't want you and I don't need you
Don't bother to resist, or I'll beat you
It's not your fault that you're always wrong
The weak ones are there to justify the strong
The beautiful people, the beautiful people
It's all relative to the size of your steeple
You can't see the forest for the trees
You can't smell your own shit on your knees
There's no time to discriminate
Hate every motherfucker
That's in your way
Hey you, what do you see?
Something beautiful or something free?
Hey, you, are you trying to be mean?
If you live with apes man, it's hard to be clean
The worms will live in every host
It's hard to pick which one they eat the most
The horrible people, the horrible people
It's as anatomic as the size of your steeple
Capitalism has made it this way
Old-fashioned fascism will take it away
Hey you, what do you see?
Something beautiful or something free?
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Pop Song 540 of 1000 'Yellow moon' The Neville Brothers 1989
Pop Song 540 of 1000 'Yellow moon' The Neville Brothers 1989
Watch The Neville Brothers live https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDzraECGfUY
The lyrics of Yellow Moon are poetic and reflective. They tell the story of a man who is haunted by the past and searching for a new beginning.
The narrator of the song is haunted by the memory of a lover who has left him. He sees her in the moon and feels her presence everywhere he goes. He longs to find a way to move on from the pain of the past and start a new life.
Yellow Moon is a song about love, loss, and the search for redemption. It explores the universal theme of how we deal with the pain of the past and find the strength to move on. The yellow moon in the song represents hope and new beginnings. It is a symbol of the possibility of redemption and a new life.
The song speaks to the human experience of love and heartbreak. It reminds us that even when we have lost everything, there is always the possibility of starting over. It encourages us to find the strength to let go of the past and embrace the future.
Yellow moon, yellow moon,
why you keep peeping in my window?
Do you know something I don't know?
Did you see my baby
walking down the railroad tracks?
You can tell me if the girls
ever coming back.
Is she hid out with another
or is she trying to get back home?
Is she wrapped up in some other's arms?
Or is the girl somewhere all alone?
Can you see if she is missing me,
or is she having a real good time?
Has she forgotten all about,
or is the girl still mine all mine?
With your eye so big a shiney
You can see the whole damn land
Yellow moon can you tell me
If the girl's with another man?
Refrain:
Oh yellow moon,
have you seen that creole woman
You can tell me,
Now ain't you a friend of mine.
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Pop Song 539 of 1000 'Jerry was a race car driver' Primus 1991
Pop Song 539 of 1000 'Jerry was a race car driver' Primus 1991
Watch the MV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBQ2305fLeA
Watch them live https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-JsDjVYPEI
The song tells the stories of two characters, Jerry, an ill-fated race car driver who collides with a telephone pole while driving intoxicated (hence the use of "was", in the title) and Captain Pearce, a retired fireman.
Jerry was a race car driver,
And he drove so god-damn fast.
He never did win no checkered flag,
But he never did come in last.
Jerry was a race car driver,
He'd say "el sob number one."
With a Bocephus sticker on his 442
He'd lighten up just for fun.
Captain Pierce was a fireman.
Richmond engine number three,
I'd be a wealthy man
When I get a dime for all the things that man
Had taught to me.
Captain Pierce was a strong man.
Strong as any man alive.
He got stuck in his crawl that they
Made him retire at the age of 65.
Jerry was a race car driver.
22 years old.
Had one to many cold beers one night,
Wrapped himself around a telephone pole.
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Pop Song 538 of 1000 'Sour Times' Portishead 1994
Pop Song 538 of 1000 'Sour Times' Portishead 1994
The song uses a sample from Argentine composer Lalo Schifrin's "Danube Incident", from the 1967 album, More Mission: Impossible. Portishead sped up the sample to a desired tempo which took Schifrin's arrangement up nearly a semitone, giving the song a dissonant kind of "hip-hop tuning"
To pretend no one can find
The fallacies of morning rose
Forbidden fruit, hidden eyes
Courtesies that I despise in me
Take a ride, take a shot now
'Cause nobody loves me, it's true
Not like you do
Covered by the blind belief
That fantasies of sinful screens
Bear the facts, assume the dye
End the vows no need to lie, enjoy
Take a ride, take a shot now
'Cause nobody loves me, it's true
Not like you do
Who am I, what and why
'Cause all I have left is my memories of yesterday
Oh these sour times
'Cause nobody loves me, it's true
Not like you do
After time the bitter taste
Of innocence, decent or race
Scattered seeds, buried lives
Mysteries of our disguise revolve
Circumstance will decide
'Cause nobody loves me
It's true
Not like you do
'Cause nobody loves me
It's true
Not like you
Nobody loves me
It's true
Not, like you do
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Pop Song 536 of 1000 'You Spin Me Round' Dead or Alive 1984
Pop Song 536 of 1000 'You Spin Me Round' Dead or Alive 1984
MV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGNiXGX2nLU
How did I write "Spin Me"? I listened to Luther Vandross's 'I Wanted Your Love'. It's not the same chord structure, but then that's the way I make music – I hear something and I sing another tune over it. I didn't sit and study the Luther Vandross album – I heard the song and it locked. [...] I'm trying to structure the music and I know what I want. [...] It's like do this, do this, do this – and suddenly it hits. I don't want to do Luther Vandross's song, but I can still sing the same pattern over it. And there was another record, by Little Nell, called "See You 'Round Like a Record". [...] So I had those two, Van Dross [sic] and Little Nell and – bingo! – done deal.
— Pete Burns, Freak Unique (2007
If I, I get to know your name
Well, if I could trace your private number, baby
All I know is that to me
You look like you're lots of fun
Open up your lovin' arms
I want some, want some
I set my sights on you
(And no one else will do)
And I, I've got to have my way now, baby
All I know is that to me
You look like you're havin' fun
Open up your lovin' arms
Watch out, here I come
You spin me right 'round, baby, right 'round
Like a record, baby, right 'round, 'round, 'round
You spin me right 'round, baby, right 'round
Like a record, baby, right 'round, 'round, 'round
I (I, I, I), I got to be your friend now, baby
And I (I, I, I) would like to move in just a little bit closer
(To move in just a little bit closer)
All I know is that to me
You look like you're lots of fun
Open up your lovin' arms
Watch out, here I come
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Pop Song 537 of 1000 'Do Wah Diddy Diddy' Manfred Mann 1963
Pop Song 537 of 1000 'Do Wah Diddy Diddy' Manfred Mann 1963
Thanks to my friend Lonesome Aleks https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJCIEcCGfhWRl2O_dHQyhwA for the request!
MV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooeRA8ZhcoQ
"Do Wah Diddy Diddy" is a song written by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich and originally recorded in 1963, as "Do-Wah-Diddy", by the American vocal group the Exciters. Cash Box described the Exciters' version as "a sparkling rocker that bubbles over with coin-catching enthusiasm" and said that the "great lead job is backed by a fabulous instrumental arrangement."[3] It was made internationally famous by the British band Manfred Mann
There she was just a-walkin' down the street, singin'
'Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do'
Snappin' her fingers and shufflin' her feet, singin'
'Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do'
She looked good (Looked good)
She looked fine (Looked fine)
She looked good, she looked fine
And I nearly lost my mind
Before I knew it she was walkin' next to me, singin'
'Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do'
Holdin' my hand just as natural as can be, singin'
'Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do'
We walked on (Walked on)
To my door (My door)
We walked on to my door
Then we kissed a little more
Whoa-oh, I knew we was falling in love
Yes, I did
And so I told her all the things
I'd been dreamin' of
Now we're together nearly every single day, singin'
'Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do'
A-we're so happy, and that's how we're gonna stay, singin'
'Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do'
Well, I'm hers (I'm hers)
She's mine (She's mine)
I'm hers, she's mine
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Pop Song 535 of 1000 'Wake me up' Avicii i 2013
Pop Song 535 of 1000 'Wake me up' Avicii i 2013
MV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcrbM1l_BoI
Live https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey7D6FVvBNM
It was written by Avicii, Mike Einziger, and American soul singer Aloe Blacc, who provides vocals for the track
Aloe Blacc, who is not credited on the track, explained to The Huffington Post: "I started writing the lyrics at the top of 2013, travelling back from Switzerland. I started in hip hop music back in the 90s and I never expected to be singing and have an actual career as a musician, but I'm travelling all over the world and I thought 'Life is a dream, wake me up when it's all over'. I was invited to the studio with Avicii and Mike Einziger from Incubus, and when I got to the studio they had already come up with a chord progression of the song. I came in with the lyrics and I just developed the melody as I heard the chords, and we all thought it was something very strong. We finished the song that night as an acoustic version, then Avicii made the dance mix in a couple of days, and that's what we released to the world, and that was his release.
The official video for "Wake Me Up" was released a month after the lyric video on 29 July 2013. It was directed by celebrity photographer Mark Seliger and co-directed and edited by CB "Barney" Miller (former guitarist for 1980's pop band Miller Miller Miller & Sloan). It features a woman and a young girl, clearly sisters: The older woman is Russian fashion model Kristina Romanova, and the younger girl is Laneya Grace. It depicts them and how they are different from the people in their dreary village, said people are seen looking at the two often with disgust and revulsion except for one of them. One morning, Kristina gets up early and rides off on a horse to a nearby city. Once in the city, she finds how welcoming and accepting the people are of her. She notices a woman with the Avicii logo birthmark like the one on her lower arm. They meet others and then jump into a truck and are then shown to be attending an Avicii concert. The next morning, Kristina rides back home on the horse and tells Laneya that she found "somewhere they belong" as they pack up all their belongings and depart the village for good. The video ends with them walking down the highway as they move into the city and shots from the concert and one of the staring villagers from the beginning seeming to notice and depressed by the sisters' departure before resuming her uninspired life.
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Pop Song 534 of 1000 'We just disagree' Dave Mason 1977
Pop Song 534 of 1000 We just disagree' Dave Mason 1977
Watch Dave Mason Live https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8_FOQ7-P30
[Verse 1]
Been away, haven't seen you in a while
How've you been, have you changed your style?
And do you think that we've grown up differently?
Don't seem the same, seems you've lost your feel for me
[Chorus]
So let's leave it alone, 'cause we can't see eye to eye
There ain't no good guy, there ain't no bad guy
There's only you and me and we just disagree
Ooh-hoo-hoo, oh-oh-ho
[Verse 2]
I'm going back to a place that's far away
How bout you, have you got a place to stay?
Why should I care when I'm just trying to get along?
We were friends, but now it's the end of our love song
[Chorus]
So let's leave it alone, 'cause we can't see eye to eye
There ain't no good guy, there ain't no bad guy
There's only you and me and we just disagree
Ooh-hoo-hoo, oh-oh-ho
[Chorus]
So let's leave it alone, 'cause we can't see eye to eye
There ain't no good guy, there ain't no bad guy
There's only you and me and we just disagree
Ooh-hoo-hoo, oh, oh-oh-ho
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Pop Song 533 of 1000 'Crazy' Gnarls Barkley 2005
Pop Song 533 of 1000 'Crazy' Gnarls Barkley 2005
MV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N4jf6rtyuw
Watch them live! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOjFhKg4h3s
Musically, "Crazy" was inspired by film scores of Spaghetti Westerns, in particular by the works of Ennio Morricone, and the song "Last Men Standing" by Gian Piero Reverberi and Gian Franco Reverberi from the 1968 Spaghetti Western Django, Prepare a Coffin, an unofficial prequel to Django. "Crazy" samples the song, and also utilizes parts of the main melody and chord structure.[6] Because of this, the Reverberis are credited as songwriters along with CeeLo Green and Danger Mouse.
The lyrics for the song developed out of a conversation between Danger Mouse and Green. According to Danger Mouse, "I somehow got off on this tangent about how people won't take an artist seriously unless they're insane... So we started jokingly discussing ways in which we could make people think we were crazy... CeeLo took that conversation and made it into 'Crazy', which we recorded in one take.
I remember when
I remember, I remember when I lost my mind
There was something so pleasant about that place
Even your emotions have an echo in so much space
And when you're out there without care
Yeah, I was out of touch
But it wasn't because I didn't know enough
I just knew too much
Does that make me crazy?
Does that make me crazy?
Does that make me crazy?
Possibly
And I hope that you are having the time of your life
But think twice, that's my only advice
Come on now, who do you, who do you, who do you
Who do you think you are
Ha ha ha, bless your soul
You really think you're in control
I think you're crazy
I think you're crazy
I think you're crazy
Just like me
My heroes had the heart to lose their lives out on the limb
And all I remember is thinking I want to be like them
Ever since I was little
Ever since I was little it looked like fun
And it's no coincidence I've come
And I can die when I'm done
But maybe I'm crazy
Maybe you're crazy
Maybe we're crazy
Probably
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Pop Song 532 of 1000 'Killing me softly' Lori Lieberman covered by Roberta Flack 1971
Pop Song 532 of 1000 'Killing me softly' Lori Lieberman covered by Roberta Flack 1971
Watch MV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrudT410TAI
In November 1971, Lieberman, then 20, went out with her friend Michele Willens (daughter of millionaire Harold Willens) to see Don McLean perform at the Troubadour nightclub in Los Angeles.[1] McLean's hit song "American Pie" was rising in the charts, but Lieberman was strongly affected by McLean singing another song: "Empty Chairs".[7][8] This song spurred her to write poetic notes on a paper napkin while he was performing the song.[9] Willens confirms that Lieberman was "scribbling notes" on a napkin as soon as McLean began singing the song. After the concert, Lieberman phoned Gimbel to read him her napkin notes and share her experience of a singer reaching deep inside her world with his song.[1] Lieberman's description reminded Gimbel of a song title that was already in his idea notebook, the title "killing us softly with some blues".[10] Gimbel expanded on Lieberman's notes, fleshing them out into song lyrics. Gimbel said in 1973 that "Her conversation fed me, inspired me, gave me some language and a choice of words."[1] Gimbel passed these lyrics to Fox, who set them to music
Strumming my pain with his fingers
Singing my life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song
Telling my whole life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
I heard he sang a good song,
I heard he had a style
And so I came to see him,
To listen for a while
And there he was this young boy,
A stranger to my eyes
Strumming my pain with his fingers
Singing my life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song
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Pop Song 531 of 1000 'Heart-Shaped Box' Nirvana 1993
Pop Song 531 of 1000 'Heart-Shaped Box' Nirvana 1993
Please watch the MV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6P0SitRwy8
Please watch Nirvana live https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92fK3K8nagk
In the 1993 Nirvana biography Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana, Cobain told author Michael Azerrad that "Heart-Shaped Box" was written about children with cancer. "Every time I see documentaries about little kids with cancer I just freak out", he explained. "It affects me on the highest emotional level, more than anything else on television."[2] As Azerrad noted, however, the song's lyrics were more likely about Love. Charles R. Cross, author of the 2001 Cobain biography Heavier Than Heaven, described the lyric, "I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black" as "what has to be the most convoluted route any songwriter undertook in pop history to say 'I love you'".[14] Garr wrote that "while the song does reference [cancer], the lyrics appear more to address the physical and emotional dependencies inherent in relationships."[13]
Cobain's unused liner notes for In Utero, first described in Heavier Than Heaven and published in Journals the following year, featured an explanation for "Heart-Shaped Box" that "fell completely apart", according to Cross, "but touched on The Wizard of Oz, 'I Claudius', Leonardo da Vinci, male seahorses (who carry their young), racism in the Old West, and Camille Paglia".[14]
The song's title was inspired by the collection of heart-shaped candy boxes Love kept in the front room of the Fairfax apartment she and Cobain lived in.[2] However, early versions of the song featured the word "coffin" rather than "box". According to Bailey, the song also featured the working title "New Complaint."[15] In a 1993 interview with Circus, Cobain explained that the chorus lyrics "Hey/ Wait/ I've got a new complaint" were a reference to how he believed he was often perceived by the media.
She eyes me like a Pisces when I am weak
I've been locked inside your heart-shaped box for weeks
I've been drawn into your magnet tar pit trap
I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black
Hey! Wait!
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Hey! Wait!
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Hey! Wait!
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Your advice
Meat-eating orchids forgive no one just yet
Cut myself on angel hair and baby's breath
Broken hymen of Your Highness, I'm left black
Throw down your umbilical noose so I can climb right back
Hey! Wait!
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Hey! Wait!
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Hey! Wait!
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Your advice
She eyes me like a Pisces when I am weak
I've been locked inside your heart-shaped box for weeks
I've been drawn into your magnet tar pit trap
I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black
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Pop Song 530 of 1000 'Where the streets have no name' U2 1987
Pop Song 530 of 1000 'Where the streets have no name' U2 1987
Please watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzZWSrr5wFI
The lyrics were inspired by a story that Bono heard about Belfast, Northern Ireland, where a person's religion and income were evident by the street on which they lived.[13] He contrasted this with the anonymity he felt when visiting Ethiopia, saying: "the guy in the song recognizes this contrast and thinks about a world where there aren't such divisions, a place where the streets have no name. To me, that's the way a great rock 'n' roll concert should be: a place where everyone comes together... Maybe that's the dream of all art: to break down the barriers and the divisions between people and touch upon the things that matter the most to us all."[14] Bono wrote the lyrics while on a humanitarian visit to Ethiopia with his wife, Ali; he first wrote them down on an airsickness bag while staying in a village.[15]
According to him, the song is ostensibly about "Transcendence, elevation, whatever you want to call it."[16] Bono, who compared many of his lyrics prior to The Joshua Tree to "sketches", said that "'Where the Streets Have No Name' is more like the U2 of old than any of the other songs on the LP, because it's a sketch—I was just trying to sketch a location, maybe a spiritual location, maybe a romantic location. I was trying to sketch a feeling."
I wanna run, I want to hide
I wanna tear down the walls
That hold me inside
I wanna reach out
And touch the flame
Where the streets have no name
I wanna feel sunlight on my face
I see the dust-cloud
Disappear without a trace
I wanna take shelter
From the poison rain
Where the streets have no name
Where the streets have no name
Where the streets have no name
We're still building and burning down love
Burning down love
And when I go there
I go there with you
(It's all I can do)
The city's a flood, and our love turns to rust
We're beaten and blown by the wind
Trampled in dust
I'll show you a place
High on a desert plain
Where the streets have no name
Where the streets have no name
Where the streets have no name
We're still building and burning down love
Burning down love
And when I go there
I go there with you
(It's all I can do)
Our love turns to rust
We're beaten and blown by the wind, blown by the wind
Oh, and I see love
See our love turn to rust
And we're beaten and blown by the wind, blown by the wind
Oh when I go there
I go there with you
(It's all I can do)
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Merry Christmas Everyone! God bless us all!
Merry Christmas Everyone! God bless us all!
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2
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Pop Song 529 of 1000 'Black Betty' Ram Jam 1977 version, Lead Belly 1939
Pop Song 529 of 1000 'Black Betty' Ram Jam 1977 version, Lead Belly 1939
Watch the MV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_2D8Eo15wE
"Black Betty" (Roud 11668) is a 20th-century African-American work song often credited to Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter as the author, though the earliest recordings are not by him. Some sources say it is one of Lead Belly's many adaptations of earlier folk material
The origin and meaning of the lyrics are subject to debate. Historically, the "Black Betty" of the title may refer to the nickname given to a number of objects: a bottle of whiskey, a whip, or a penitentiary transfer wagon.
David Hackett Fischer, in his book Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America (Oxford University Press, 1989), states that "Black Betty" was a common term for a bottle of whisky in the borderlands between northern England and southern Scotland; it later became a euphemism in the backcountry areas of the eastern United States. In January 1736, Benjamin Franklin published The Drinker's Dictionary in the Pennsylvania Gazette offering 228 round-about phrases for being drunk. One of those phrases is "He's kiss'd black Betty."[2][3] Other sources give the meaning of "Black Betty" in the United States (from at least 1827) as a liquor bottle
In Caldwells's Illustrated Combination Centennial Atlas of Washington Co. Pennsylvania of 1876, a short section describes wedding ceremonies and marriage customs, including a wedding tradition where two young men from the bridegroom procession were challenged to run for a bottle of whiskey. This challenge was usually given when the bridegroom party was about a mile from the destination-home where the ceremony was to be had. Upon securing the prize, referred to as "Black Betty", the winner of the race would bring the bottle back to the bridegroom and his party. The whiskey was offered to the bridegroom first and then successively to each of the groom's friends.[6]
John A. and Alan Lomax's 1934 book, American Ballads and Folk Songs describes the origins of "Black Betty":
"Black Betty is not another Frankie, nor yet a two-timing woman that a man can moan his blues about. She is the whip that was and is used in some Southern prisons. A convict on the Darrington State Farm in Texas, where, by the way, whipping has been practically discontinued, laughed at Black Betty and mimicked her conversation in the following song." (In the text, the music notation and lyrics follow.)
— Lomax, John A. and Alan Lomax, American Ballads and Folk Songs.
John Lomax also interviewed blues musician James Baker (better known as "Iron Head") in 1934, almost one year after Iron Head performed the first known recorded performance of the song.[7] In the resulting article for Musical Quarterly, titled "'Sinful Songs' of the Southern Negro", Lomax again mentions the nickname of the bullwhip is "Black Betty".[8] Steven Cornelius in his book, Music of the Civil War Era, states in a section concerning folk music following the war's end that "prisoners sang of 'Black Betty', the driver's whip."[9]
In an interview conducted by Alan Lomax with former Texas penal farm prisoner Doc "Big Head" Reese, Reese stated that the term "Black Betty" was used by prisoners to refer to the "Black Maria" — the penitentiary transfer wagon.
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam)
Black Betty had a child (Bam-ba-lam)
The damn thing gone wild (Bam-ba-lam)
She said, "I'm worryin' outta mind" (Bam-ba-lam)
The damn thing gone blind (Bam-ba-lam)
I said oh, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam)
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam)
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam)
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam)
She really gets me high (Bam-ba-lam)
You know that's no lie (Bam-ba-lam)
She's so rock steady (Bam-ba-lam)
And she's always ready (Bam-ba-lam)
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam)
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam)
Get it!
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam)
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam)
She's from Birmingham (Bam-ba-lam)
Way down in Alabam' (Bam-ba-lam)
Well, she's shakin' that thing (Bam-ba-lam)
Boy, she makes me sing (Bam-ba-lam)
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam)
Whoa, Black Betty
Bam-ba-laaam, yeah, yeah
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Pop Song 528 of 1000 'Play that funky music' Wild Cherry 1976
Pop Song 528 of 1000 'Play that funky music' Wild Cherry 1976
Watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHcYFxU4fMo
Wild Cherry was a hard rock cover band, but with the advent and popularity of the disco era, it began to be difficult to get bookings because audiences wanted to dance. Parissi told the band that if they wanted to get bookings, they were going to have to start to include dance tunes in their sets, but the band resisted becoming a disco band. While playing at the 2001 Club on the North Side of Pittsburgh to a predominantly black audience, a patron said to band member Beitle during a break, "Are you going to play some funky music, white boys?" Parissi grabbed a pen and order pad and wrote the song in about five minutes. The lyrics literally describe the predicament of a hard rock band adjusting to the disco era.
Hey, once I was a boogie singer
Playing in a rock 'n' roll band
I never had no problems, yeah
Burning down the one-night stands
Then everything around me, yeah
It got to start to feeling so low
And I decided quickly, yes, I did, heh
To disco down and check out the show
Yeah, they were dancing and singing
And moving to the grooving
And just when it hit me
Somebody turned around and shouted...
"Play that funky music, white boy
Play that funky music right
Play that funky music, white boy
Lay down the boogie and play that funky music 'til you die" (heh, heh)
'Til you die, yeah, uh
Here, here, ha
Well, I tried to understand this (yeah)
Heh, I thought that they were out of their minds
How could I be so foolish? How could I?
To not see I was the one behind?
So still I kept on fighting
Well, losing every step of the way (hey, what'd you do?)
I said, "I must go back there," I got to go back
And check to see if things still the same
Yeah, they were dancing and singing
And moving to the grooving
And just when it hit me
Somebody turned around and shouted...
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