Songs Lyrics and YT- Youtube Music Videos

Queen - Coming Soon

Queen - Coming Soon Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Game
Released: 1980

Coming Soon Lyrics

Ooh
Oh Oh Oh
I get some headaches when I hit the heights
Like in the morning after crazy nights
Like some mother in law in her nylon tights
They're always
They're always
They're always
They're always
Coming Soon
Coming soon on the outside of the tracks
You take 'em
The same old babies with the same old toys
The neighbors screaming when the noise annoys
Somebody naggin' you when you're out with the boys
They're always
They're always
They're always
They're always
Coming soon
Coming soon on the outside of the track

They're always
They're always
They're always
They're always
Coming soon
Coming soon on the outside of the track
Coming soon
Coming soon on the outside of the track
Yeah yeah yeah

Writer/s: TAYLOR, ROGER MEDDOWS /
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Coming Soon

Written by Queen drummer Roger Taylor, this was the first song they recorded using synthesizers (June 1979). The keyboard in question belonged to Roger and was an Oberheim OBX.

Queen - Dragon Attack

Queen - Dragon Attack Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Game
Released: 1980

Dragon Attack Lyrics

Ooh yeah, ha, yeah
Take me to the room where the red's all red
Take me out of my head -'s what I said
Yeah, ow
Hey, take me to the room where the green's all green
And from what I've seen it's hot, it's mean
Eh

Gonna use my stack
It's gotta be Mack
Gonna get me on the track
Got a dragon on my back

Take me to the room where the beat's all round
Gonna eat that sound yeah yeah yeah yeah
Take me to the room where the black's all white
And the white's all black, take me back to the shack shack

She don't take no prisoners
She gonna give me the business
Got a dragon on my back
Hey it's a Dragon Attack

Get down, I said so, wooh
Hey hey, alright, yeah, oh yeah eah eah eah

Low down - she don't take no prisoners
Go down - she gonna give me the business
No time - yeah chained to the rack
Show time - got a dragon on my back
Show down - go find another customer
Slow down - I gotta make my way
From me yeah oh
Oh wrong way yeah
Oh wrong way
Hey
Alright
Oh look out

Writer/s: MAY, BRIAN HAROLD
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Dragon Attack

Most of the track evolved from a jam session the band had at the studio while they were bladdered. That's how the basic loop of bass and drums came out. Brian May then added lyrics and melody, the latter being surprisingly similar to "We Will Rock You" (compare "Buddy you're a boy make a big noise playing in the street" with "Take me to the room where the red's all red take me").

It came as quite the musical surprise in the running order on the album - both that the rock-orientated May wrote it (as opposed to the more funk/disco leaning Deacon and Mercury) and after the very traditionally Queen "Play The Game." However, it does work on easing the listener in to "Another One Bites The Dust".

"Dragon Attack" is one of several songs on The Game which best demonstrates Queen's experimentation with more minimal recording techniques during this period. They had a new producer, Mack, and were working in high-tech studios in Munich, away from their regular producer Roy Thomas Barker (with whom they had developed their hugely complex sound) for the first time.

Brian May spoke about this new approach: "Yeah, that was when we started trying to get outside what was normal for us. We turned our whole studio technique around in a sense, because Mack had come from a different background from us. We thought there was only one way of doing things, like doing a backing tracks: We would just do it until we got it right. If there were some bits where it speeded up or slowed down, then we would do it again until it was right. We had done some of our old backing tracks so many times, they were too stiff. Mack's first contribution was to say, 'Well you don't have to do that. I can drop the whole thing in. If it breaks down after half a minute, then we can edit in and carry on if you just play along with the tempo.' We laughed and said 'Don't be silly. You can't do that.' But in fact, you can. What you gain is the freshness, because often a lot of the backing tracks is first time though. It really helped a lot. There was less guitar on that album, but that's really not going to be the same forever; that was just an experiment."

The Cure - Boys Don't Cry

The Cure - Boys Don't Cry Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Boys Don't Cry
Released: 1980

Boys Don't Cry Lyrics

I would say I'm sorry
If I thought that it would change your mind
But I know that this time
I have said too much
Been too unkind

I try to laugh about it
Cover it all up with lies
I try and laugh about it
Hiding the tears in my eyes
Because Boys Don't Cry
Boys don't cry

I would break down at your feet
And beg forgiveness
Plead with you
But I know that it's too late
And now there's nothing I can do

So I try to laugh about it
Cover it all up with lies
I try to laugh about it
Hiding the tears in my eyes
Because boys don't cry

I would tell you
That I loved you
If I thought that you would stay
But I know that it's no use
That you've already
Gone away

Misjudged your limit
Pushed you too far
Took you for granted
I thought that you needed me more

Now I would do most anything
To get you back by my side
But I just keep on laughing
Hiding the tears in my eyes
Because boys don't cry
Boys don't cry
Boys don't cry

Writer/s: SHEERAN, ED / WILLIAMS, TYLER / LEWIS, RYAN / HAGGERTY, BEN / KARP, JOSHUA / ARUNGA, OWUOR / RAWLINGS, JOSHUA
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Boys Don't Cry

This is about maintaining the manly image and hiding your tears behind your eyes. Tough guys still sometimes don't get the girl.

Nathan Larson covered this in 1999, and his version was used as the title song of the film Boys Don't Cry, for which Hilary Swank won the 1999 Oscar for Best Actress. Larson is the husband of Nina Persson , the lead singer of the Swedish pop group The Cardigans.

"Boys Don't Cry" was The Cure's second ever single release in June 1979 and it wasn't a hit at the time. In 1986 a new version was released as a single in which the original track was remixed and the vocals re-recorded. This time it reached #22 in the UK charts.

Oleander recorded this for their album February Son and released their version as a single. Reel Big Fish often plays the song in concert, and Razorlight performed this at The Cure's "MTV Icon" ceremony in 2004.

The track also provided the title for British Children's laureate Malorie Blackman's 2011 young adult novel. The book tackles issues of masculinity and teenage fatherhood.

Iron Maiden - Remember Tomorrow

Iron Maiden - Remember Tomorrow Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Iron Maiden
Released: 1980

Remember Tomorrow Lyrics

Unchain the colors before my eyes,
Yesterday's sorrows, tomorrow's white lies.
Scan the horizon, the clouds take me higher,
I shall return from out of fire.

Tears for remembrance, and tears for joy,
Tears for somebody and this lonely boy.
Out in the madness, the all seeing eye,
Flickers above us, to light up the sky.

Unchain the colours before my eyes,
Yesterday's sorrows, tomorrow's white lies.
Scan the horizon, the clouds take me higher,
I shall return from out of fire.

Writer/s: ANDREWS, PAUL / HARRIS, STEPHEN PERCY
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Remember Tomorrow

Written by bassist Steve Harris and lead singer Paul Di'Anno, this was Iron Maiden's first low-mid tempo ballad ever released, and it appeared on their debut album. It's a marked change from most power ballads witnessed on many other Iron Maiden songs such as "Revelations," "Hallowed Be Thy Name" and "Fear of the Dark."

According to Paul Di'Anno, the title and concept of this song came from his grandfather. Di'Anno told us : "I lost him in 1980, when I was on tour. He was a diabetic. They cut off his toe and his heel, then he lost his leg from the knee down, and he just sort of gave up.

'Remember Tomorrow,' that is what he always used to say - that was his little catch phrase. 'You never know what is going to happen, remember tomorrow, it might be a better day.'"

The Outlaws - (Ghost) Riders In the Sky

The Outlaws - (Ghost) Riders In the Sky Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Ghost Riders
Released: 1980

(Ghost) Riders In the Sky Lyrics

An old cowpoke went riding out one dark and windy day
Upon a ridge he rested as he went along his way
When all at once a mighty herd of red-eyed cows he saw
A'plowin' through the ragged skies and up a cloudy draw

Yi-pi-yi-ay, Yi-pi-yi-o
Ghost riders in the sky
Their brands were still on fire and their hooves were made of steel
Their horns wuz black and shiny and their hot breaths he could feel

A bolt of fear went through him as they thundered through the sky
For he saw the riders comin' hard and he heard their mournful cry
Yi-pi-yi-ay, Yi-pi-yi-o
Ghost riders in the sky

Their faces gaunt, their eyes were blurred, and shirts all soaked with sweat
They're ridin' hard to catch that herd but they ain't caught them yet
They've got to ride forever in that range up in the sky
On horses snortin' fire, as they ride on, hear their cry

Yi-pi-yi-ay, Yi-pi-yi-o
Ghost riders in the sky
As the riders loped on by him, he heard one call his name
"If you want to save your soul from hell a' ridin' on our range"

"Then cowboy change your ways today or with us you will ride"
"A-tryin' to catch the Devil's herd across these endless skies."
Yi-pi-yi-ay, Yi-pi-yi-o

Ghost riders in the sky
Ghost riders in the sky

Writer/s: MURPHY, JOHN/HUGHES, DAVID/JONES, THOMAS
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

(Ghost) Riders In the Sky

This was written and originally recorded by Stan Jones in 1948. Jones was a forest ranger who wrote songs on the side. After recording his version of the song, artists like Burl Ives, Bing Crosby, Gene Autry and Johnny Cash all recorded it, and the song became a cowboy standard.

The melody is based on the song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home."

The song presents an image of cowboy hell - riders who are doomed to chase the Devil's cattle for all eternity.

Dead Kennedys - Holiday In Cambodia

Dead Kennedys - Holiday In Cambodia Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables
Released: 1980

Holiday In Cambodia Lyrics

So, you've been to school
For a year or two
And you know you've seen it all
In daddy's car
Thinking you'll go far
Back east your type don't crawl

Playing ethnicky jazz
To parade your snazz
On your five-grand stereo
Braggin' that you know
How the niggers feel cold
And the slum's got so much soul

It's time to taste what you most fear
Right Guard will not help you here
Brace yourself, my dear
Brace yourself, my dear

It's a Holiday In Cambodia
It's tough, kid, but it's life
It's a holiday in Cambodia
Don't forget to pack a wife

You're a star-belly snitch
You suck like a leech
You want everyone to act like you
Kiss ass while you bitch
So you can get rich
While your boss gets richer off you

Well, you'll work harder
With a gun in your back
For a bowl of rice a day
Slave for soldiers
Till you starve
Then your head is skewered on a stake

Now you can go where the people are one
Now you can go where they get things done
What you need, my son...
What you need, my son...

Is a holiday in Cambodia
Where people are dressed in black
A holiday in Cambodia
Where you'll kiss ass or crack

Pol Pot, Pol Pot, Pol Pot, Pol Pot

It's a holiday in Cambodia
Where you'll do what you're told
It's a holiday in Cambodia
Where the slums got so much soul
Pol Pot

Writer/s: BOUCHER PKA BIAFRA/PEPPERELL/LYALL/
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Holiday In Cambodia

This song is about an American kid who expects to go off to college and thinks he knows everything about the ghetto ("Braggin that you know how the niggers feel cold and the slums got so much soul") and then gets drafted and sent to Vietnam. Pol Pot was the dictator of Cambodia during that time.

While playing this song live, Jello would act like a dumb American kid who suddenly ends up in Vietnam and gets shot.

This is one of the few Dead Kennedys songs that was written by the entire band - most were composed solely by Biafra. In our 2013 interview with Biafra , he said it was still his favorite song, and explained how it came together:

"The original 'Holiday in Cambodia' is more a straight punk song. We called them 'chainsaws' back then, 'chainsaw punk' after the Ramones song ('Chainsaw'). The other guys didn't like it. They didn't want to play it. I was heartbroken, I was crestfallen, they'd never done that to me before. And then Klaus (Flouride - bass player) began noodling around on what became that signature bass line. I thought, 'Hey, wait a minute. That's cool. What would happen if we swiped everything from my 'Holiday in Cambodia' song - verse, chorus, bridge - but used that as the original root rhythm?'

Actually, we had a three-chord chorus and bridge that came from the original, and then the verse we swapped out. Eventually, Ray (guitarist East Bay Ray) came up with that signature guitar part when he enters the song. It was taking a while; we didn't even play it at our first show, although we knew we had it under our belt. It was a pretty chief song for making me decide I ought to stick with these guys and it might turn into something really unusual, because I was playing around with some other people, too.

Before we played, I came back out of the bathroom and back to Ray's garage and heard that lick, and I was like, 'Yow!' And Ray told me he'd seen Pink Floyd with Syd Barrett at Winterland when he was a kid, and I took note of that. So when I was trying to get something to put on top of Klaus' riff, I kept trying to get it to fit there, and fit there, and fit there, and finally, it appeared."

The line, "You're a star-belly sneech" is a reference to a Dr. Seuss character in his story The Sneetches.

Despite this being one of the most popular Dead Kennedys songs, this actually caused a whole lot of controversy and turmoil between Jello Biafra and the other band members. In the late '90s, the Levi's clothing company asked permission to use the song in an ad for Dockers; although the other band members were OK with the song's usage, Jello refused, citing his anti-corporate stance and what he believed to be Levi's unfair work practices. This led to the rest of the band suing him for unpaid royalties, which eventually led to Jello losing all publishing rights to the DK catalog. The commercial eventually aired using a Pretenders song - it showed a guy catching a mouse and putting it in a cage when his girlfriend felt sorry for it.

Kate Bush - Babooshka

Kate Bush - Babooshka Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Never for Ever
Released: 1980

Babooshka Lyrics

She wanted to test her husband
She knew exactly what to do
A pseudonym to fool him
She couldn't have made a worse move

She sent him scented letters,
And he received them with a strange delight.
Just like his wife
But how she was before the tears,
And how she was before the years flew by,
And how she was when she was beautiful.
She signed the letter

"All yours,
Babooshka, Babooshka, Babooshka-ya-ya!
All yours,
Babooshka, Babooshka, Babooshka-ya-ya!"

She wanted to take it further,
So she arranged a place to go,
To see if he
Would fall for her incognito.
And when he laid eyes on her,
He got the feeling they had met before.
Uncanny how she
Reminds him of his little lady,
Capacity to give him all he needs,
Just like his wife before she freezed on him,
Just like his wife when she was beautiful.
He shouted out, "I'm

All yours,
Babooshka, Babooshka, Babooshka-ya-ya!
All yours,
Babooshka, Babooshka, Babooshka-ya-ya!
All yours,
Babooshka, Babooshka, Babooshka-ya-ya!"

Writer/s: Bush, Kate
Publisher: EMI Music Publishing
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Babooshka

This is about futile situations and how we often ruin things for ourselves. In the song, a man is tested by his wife when she starts sending anonymous scented letters. Seeing his reaction, she takes it further by arranging a meeting with her in disguise. Not knowing it is his own wife, he is reminded of his wife when she was younger and more amorous.

The word "Babooshka" is Russian for grandmother. It's also the name of a type of headdress. The title was chosen through a series of coincidences: Kate turned on the TV and someone was singing about Babooshka; looking through a magazine she came across an opera titled Babooshka, and a friend had a cat named Babooshka.

They went through a lot of boxes of broken crockery to get the right sound at the end of the song.

This reached #1 in Australia, #3 in France, and cracked the Top 10 in Canada and Ireland.

Bob Seger - Her Strut

Bob Seger - Her Strut Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Against The Wind
Released: 1980

Her Strut Lyrics

Her Strut

For this song, Seger was inspired by Jane Fonda, and her famous strut in the movie Barbarella.

Bob Marley & the Wailers - Could You Be Loved

Bob Marley & the Wailers - Could You Be Loved Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Uprising
Released: 1980

Could You Be Loved Lyrics

Could You Be Loved and be loved?
Could you be loved and be loved?

Don't let them fool ya
Or even try to school ya! Oh, no!
We've got a mind of our own
So go to hell if what you're thinking is not right!
Love would never leave us alone
A-yin the darkness there must come out to light

Could you be loved and be loved?
Could you be loved, wo now! and be loved?

(The road of life is rocky and you may stumble too
So while you point your fingers someone else is judging you)
Love your brotherman!
(Could you be, could you be, could you be loved?
Could you be, could you be loved?
Could you be, could you be, could you be loved?
Could you be, could you be loved?)

Don't let them change ya, oh!
Or even rearrange ya! Oh, no!
We've got a life to live
They say: only, only
Only the fittest of the fittest shall survive
Stay alive! Eh!

Could you be loved and be loved?
Could you be loved, wo now! and be loved?

(You ain't gonna miss your water until your well runs dry
No matter how you treat him, the man will never be satisfied)
Say something! (Could you be, could you be, could you be loved?
Could you be, could you be loved)
Say something! Say something! (Could you be, could you be, could you be loved?)
Say something! (Could you be, could you be loved?)
Say something! Say something! (Say something!)
Say something! Say something! (Could you be loved?) Say something!
Say something! Reggae, reggae!
Say something! Rockers, rockers!
Say something! Reggae, reggae!
Say something! Rockers, rockers!
Say something! (Could you be loved?) Say something! Uh!
Say something! Come on!
Say something! (Could you be, could you be, could you be loved?)
Say something! (Could you be, could you be loved?)
Say something! (Could you be, could you be, could you be loved?)
Say something! (Could you be, could you be loved?)

Writer/s: BOB MARLEY
Publisher: BLUE MOUNTAIN MUSIC LTD.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Could You Be Loved

Written by Marley in 1979, "Could You Be Loved" starts with a spare yet distinctive guitar riff that repeats under the track's relentless beat and one of the best known opening lines in history: "Don't let them fool ya! Or even try to school ya!"

The interpretation of this opener and the other lyrics depends on what you think the song's about. Some think it's a love song. Others say Marley wrote it as a ballad to the poverty and struggle he witnessed, while still others claim he wrote it on a plane from Brazil in response to how much love he received when he performed there. Some even see it as being about a man reaffirming his faith in the face of personal struggle. Those familiar with Rastafarianism and Marley's lyrical style (in which he often referred to himself as "you" while simultaneously referring to everyone else, a concept that comes from the Rasta belief that all are one) believe Marley uses the song to convey an urgent message to himself and others: at all cost, stay mentally and spirituality fit inside Babylon's system.

The true meaning probably lies somewhere in a melange of all these theories.

Followers of Rastafarianism see capitalism, government corruption, and even the gold-backed monetary system as part of "Babylon" and live lives as divorced from it as possible.

By the time Uprising was released, Marley and the Wailers had come full circle. Originally a group of shanty dwellers from Jamaica's slums in 1963, the late '70s saw a different Wailers story - and tax bracket. The group was successful, with the trappings that come with it: money, fame, women. This, according to many, caused Marley to have a growing sense of conflict about success in the very system lambasted in his lyrics. As the Wailers began work on what would be their last album, he was also frequently ill as he had lived with the 1977 diagnosis of the cancer that would kill him a year after Uprising's release.

Lyrics to this song read like a disjointed sermon/prayer, where psalms and Bible verses encapsulated into one liners marry preeminent Rastafarian themes like righteousness and revolution. Some examples:

"Love would never leave us alone" could be a reference to Jah, or God, as "love." When combined with the next line, "darkness that must come out the light" - a reference to the Bible verse, "For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad." (Luke 8.17), the lyrics might mean, "Jah will never leave you, so don't worry about anything oppressing you because Jah will reveal and destroy it." All things done in darkness coming to light is an oft-used allegory in Rasta teachings for good overcoming evil.

"Don't let them change ya! Or even re-arrange ya!" reinforce the opening lines. Both lines could be warnings against allowing agents of Babylon to tamper with the righteousness of Jah's children. Marley's exclamations, "Only the fittest of the fittest shall survive! Stay alive! Yeah!", in light of the lyrics prior to it could certainly be another reminder that spiritual fitness is needed to survive in Babylon's system.

Toward the end of the song, the backup singers the I-Threes sing lines from Marley's first single, "Judge Not," a Ska tune about morality released in 1962: "The road of life is rocky, and you may stumble too. So while you point a finger, someone else is judging you."

These lines are likely based on the Biblical admonishment, "Judge not lest ye be judged." Marley's repetition of this lyric from a previous song may have been done to drive home his point about the importance of morality.

This was the first reggae song to get prominent airplay on major American radio stations. It was first played by Frankie Crocker at the New York radio station WBLS. Thanks to this airplay, the song became one of the Wailers' most successful hits and was later used in several films, including I Love You to Death, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Blue Crush, 50 First Dates and Fool's Gold.

While it's hard to be sure exactly what this song is about, use of the cuica in the beginning of the song - the other instrument in the intro that's not the guitar - lends credibility to the theory that the song has something to do with Brazil. The cuica, or "friction drum" is a Brazilian instrument.

Marley wrote this song with hit potential in mind. He wanted to break into the American market ahead of a big tour that took him into the States (this Uprising tour was his last). He figured that his Reggae music would not be easily accepted among mainstream black audiences, so he wrote this song with a faster, almost Disco beat.

The Clash - The Street Parade

The Clash - The Street Parade Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Sandinista!
Released: 1980

The Street Parade Lyrics

When I was waiting for your phone call
The one that never came
Like a man about to burst
I was dying of thirst

Though I will never fade
Or get lost in this daze
Though I will disappear
Into The Street Parade

It's not too hard to cry
In these crying times
I'll take a broken heart
And take it home in parts
But I will never fade

I was in this place
By the first church of the city
I saw tears on the face
The face of a visionary

Though I will disappear
To join the street parade
Disappear and fade
Into the street parade

Writer/s: STRUMMER, JOE / JONES, MICK
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

The Street Parade

"The Street Parade" was, despite only being a largely unappreciated track, one that was highly rated by The Clash. It featured in most of their 1981 concerts, and was the uncredited final bonus track on the Clash on Broadway compilation - rumored to be uncredited as the band were determined to get the song on the compilation even though the record label were happy with the tracks already picked from Sandinista!.

The lyrics could be viewed as a hint towards Joe Strummer's struggles with depression later in the 1980s, after The Clash had broken up. Even though at the time of the song's writing, it seems he was struggling with identity and being detached from the real life he was trying to represent in songs with The Clash by the trappings of fame ("It's not too hard to cry, In these crying times"). The idea of losing himself in a crowd is clearly an appealing one, wanting to escape into a situation where no-one recognizes him ("Though I will disappear, To join the street parade, Disappear and fade, Into the street parade").

The recording of this song is much like most songs on the Sandinista! album, with many extra instruments adding to the sound - in this case, a floating horn section and snatches of Caribbean marimbas.

X - Los Angeles

X - Los Angeles Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Los Angeles
Released: 1980

Los Angeles Lyrics

She had to leave...

Los Angeles

All her toys wore out in black and her boys had too
She started to hate every nigger and Jew
Every Mexican that gave her lotta shit
Every homosexual and the idle rich
She had to get out
She gets confused
Flying over the dateline her hands turn red
Cause the days change at night change in an instant the days
Change at night change in an instant
She had to leave
Los Angeles
She found it hard to say goodbye to her own best friend
She bought a clock on Hollywood blvd the day she left
It felt sad she had to get out

Writer/s: CHAPMAN, SEAN / DAVIS, ANDRE / JUAREZ, MOISES / MCEWAN, MATTHEW RYAN / SALMON, PATRICK
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Los Angeles

X was known for songs about the seedy side of Los Angeles, covering the shady characters and unsavory places instead of the glamourous side commonly portrayed in the media. This song is about a very racist person that feels compelled to leave the city for a less diverse environment. It's not about a real person, but a type of person X vocalist Exene Cervenka came across. Explaining how the song is not to be taken as an endorsement of this behavior, she told BAM in 1980: "'Los Angeles' is supposed to be this racist song. You wouldn't write, 'She hated every negro and other people too,' if you're being truthful about the character. You'd write, 'She hated every nigger and Jew,' because she didn't hate negroes she hated niggers. It's not a personal she. People don't understand. When you read a book, you don't think the narrator's the person who wrote the book. There's a separation."

The lead singer of X, John Doe, wrote this with Cervenka and sang lead on the track with her. He appeared as Julianne Moore's husband in the movie Boogie Nights.

Los Angeles was the first album X released, and it was on a small independent label called Slash. The album sold over 50,000 copies, which was excellent for a debut independent release, but the band was pretty much unknown outside of southern California. X put out one more album with Slash before signing with the major label Elektra for their third release, Under The Big Black Sun, which gave them a bigger marketing push and landed the album at #76 on the national charts. (Get much more on X in our interview with John Doe.)

Careful if you're near a mosh pit when this song comes on - there was a lot of slam dancing going on when X would perform this in the Los Angeles punk clubs like The Masque. The song stayed in their set even after they became much more popular and graduated to venues that held thousands of people instead of hundreds.

Kate Bush - Army Dreamers

Kate Bush - Army Dreamers Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Never for Ever
Released: 1980

Army Dreamers Lyrics

"B.F.P.O."
Army Dreamers
"Mammy's hero"
"B.F.P.O."
"Mammy's hero"

Our little army boy
Is coming home from B.F.P.O.
I've a bunch of purple flowers
To decorate a mammy's hero

Mourning in the aerodrome
The weather warmer, he is colder
Four men in uniform
To carry home my little soldier

"What could he do?
Should have been a rock star"
But he didn't have the money for a guitar
"What could he do?
Should have been a politician"
But he never had a proper education
"What could he do?
Should have been a father"
But he never even made it to his twenties
What a waste
Army dreamers
Ooh, what a waste of
Army dreamers

Tears o'er a tin box
Oh, Jesus Christ, he wasn't to know
Like a chicken with a fox
He couldn't win the war with ego

Give the kid the pick of pips
And give him all your stripes and ribbons
Now he's sitting in his hole
He might as well have buttons and bows

"What could he do?
Should have been a rock star"
But he didn't have the money for a guitar
"What could he do?
Should have been a politician"
But he never had a proper education
"What could he do?
Should have been a father"
But he never even made it to his twenties
What a waste
Army dreamers
Ooh, what a waste of
Army dreamers
Ooh, what a waste of all that
Army dreamers
Army dreamers
Army dreamers, oh

"B.F.P.O."
Did-n-did-n-did-n-dum
Army dreamers
Did-n-did-n-did-n-dum
"Mammy's hero"
"B.F.P.O."
Army Dreamers
"Mammy's hero"
"B.F.P.O."
No harm heroes
"Mammy's hero"
"B.F.P.O."
Army dreamers.
"Mammy's hero"
"B.F.P.O."
No harm heroes
Writer/s: BUSH, KATE
Publisher: EMI Music Publishing
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Army Dreamers

This song is about a young man who has just been killed in a war. He joined the Army because he didn't know what else to do with his life, and became just another casualty. It's a very depressing and effective anti-war song.

Redgum - I Was Only Nineteen (A Walk In the Light Green)

Redgum - I Was Only Nineteen (A Walk In the Light Green) Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Caught In The Act
Released: 1980

I Was Only Nineteen (A Walk In the Light Green) Lyrics

I Was Only Nineteen (A Walk In the Light Green)

This is about the Vietnam War. The "Light Green" refers to the area on a map of Vietnam. Dark green was an area where there had been no defoliants ("Agent Orange," for instance) and where there was plenty of cover. Light green meant it had been cleared, but there were likely minefields and probably Vietnamese around (because it had been cleared).

The areas named in the first part of the song: Puckapunyal, Townsville, Shoal Water, Nui Dat and Vung Tau are all real places. Puckapunyal was a training center for army recruits. Townsville is a town in Queensland; Shoal Water was used for military training exercises, and Nui Dat and Vung Tau were Australian bases in Vietnam. The "SLR" is the Self Loading Rifle, the standard armament of Australian Infantry in Vietnam. "Greens" in the lyrics are simply camo uniforms. "Chinooks" are helicopters, or "Choppers," and VB is a type of Australian beer - it stands for Victorian Bitters.

There's some dispute over whether the lyrics say "Asian Orange" or "Agent Orange." Either could make sense.

The "Rash that comes and goes" was a common side effect of working with Agent Orange. It could persist until you died, basically.

Being "Dusted Off" means an evacuation of a soldier due to medical reasons. "Contact" means, in this case, either that the soldiers had sighted an enemy or spotted a mine. "Hooked in there for hours" refers to grenades.

"The Grand Hotel" was a hotel in Vung Tau that had been converted for Army use. ANZAC stands for "Australian and New Zealand Army Corps." "Pieces" are shrapnel.

All the proceeds from this song were donated to the Australian Vietnam Veterans Association.

The song precipitated a Royal Commission into the use and effects of chemical agents in the Vietnam War by the Australian military.

Since the moon landing was on the 20th of July, the line, "And Frankie kicked a mine the day that mankind kicked the moon. God help me, he was going home in June" means that Frankie was still 11 months from going home.

Gary Numan - Remind Me to Smile

Gary Numan - Remind Me to Smile Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Telekon
Released: 1980

Remind Me to Smile Lyrics

We'll take a taxi to the show
We could report by phone
We could remind ourselves that
We must laugh

Reconsider: 'fame'
I need new reasons
This is detention it's not fun at all

[Chorus]
Remind Me to Smile
You know, 'the old friends' line
It gets so I feel like
I'm in this cold, glass, cage

I've got the horrors
Check, over my shoulder
I punch the air and fight but
No-one's there

You you oh no
Old scars don't show
We fall you see
Crawl crawl in love
I dive so clean
Young things don't scream
Toys toys so far
Boys boys you are

[Chorus]

Get off the car
Get off the phone
Move from my window, leave me alone

Keep your revivals
Keep your conventions
Keep all your fantasies that's all we are

Writer/s: Webb, Gary Anthony James
Publisher: Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Remind Me to Smile

This anthemic song finds Gary Numan reacting to his sudden celebrity and the apparently overwhelming adulation of his fans. He recalled to Mojo magazine December 2013: "I was really struggling with fame. It wasn't what I expected. My issues were connected with Asperger's. I was young, had this personality problem and suddenly I was famous. Not famous in a band, I was solo. I didn't have a manager; I was with a record company that had no success of their own, and I did everything – wrote, produced, did the album sleeves, played almost everything. So every bit of interest, pressure and hostility was directed right in my face. And I was just this little f---ed up mentalist trying to deal with it. I was totally unprepared."

The song was released as a promo single in the US, but Numan surprisingly declined to issue it as a 45 in his home country.

OMD - Enola Gay

OMD - Enola Gay Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Organisation
Released: 1980

Enola Gay Lyrics

Enola Gay

The Enola Gay was the American plane that dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima in World War II. It was named after Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the plane's pilot, Paul Tibbets. So why did the electronic music group OMD write a song about it? In our 2010 interview, we asked their lead singer Andy McCluskey, who replied: "Many people simply don't know what it's actually about. Some even thought it was a coded message that we were gay. We were both geeks about WWII airplanes. The most famous and influential single bomber was Enola Gay. Obvious choice for us, really."

OMD is the shortened form of the band's full name: Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark. This was the first of 7 Top-10 UK singles for the group; their only US hit was "If You Leave," which was written for the 1985 movie Pretty In Pink.

OMD played this in the 1981 cult film Urgh! A Music War, which is a collection of Punk and New Wave band performances.

Andy McCluskey of OMD explained in a September 2010 interview with CMU how the OMD duo create a track. "The music always comes first, usually inspired by a noise or drum pattern, or a sample or something. But I do have ideas about songs I want to write, lyrically or thematically. In the early days I was Mr. Anorak, I had a ring binder full of proposed song titles and ideas that I tried to marry with the music we made and I'd go, 'Oh, that might go on that'. So the music always comes first and the words go on top."

Joe "King" Carrasco & the Crowns - Party Weekend

Joe "King" Carrasco & the Crowns - Party Weekend Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Party Weekend
Released: 1980

Party Weekend Lyrics

I said, a-hey, little girl, what do you do?
I've been a-waiting all week for something like you
Because it's Friday night, and everybody's in the streets
I say, come on, come on, come on with me
Hey

It's a Party Weekend
Gonna be some rock and rollin'
Everybody's gonna get you
It's a party, a party, party weekend

It's a party, it's a party, party
It's a party, a party, party weekend
It's a party, it's a party, party
It's a party, a party, party weekend

I go here, I go there
Wherever it is, I'm gonna get my share
Because I got three days, I got three nights
Ain't nothin' gonna stop my appetite
Hey

It's a party weekend
Gonna be some rock and rollin'
Everybody's gonna get you
It's a party, a party, party weekend

Hey

I said, a-hey, little girl, what do you do?
I've been a-waiting all week for something like you
Because it's Friday night, and everybody's in the streets
I say, come on, come on, come on with me
Hey

It's a party weekend
Gonna be some rock and rollin'
Everybody's gonna get you
It's a party, a party, party weekend

It's a party, it's a party, party
It's a party, a party, party weekend
It's a party, it's a party, party
It's a party, a party, party weekend

It's a party, it's a party, party
It's a party, a party, party weekend
It's a party, it's a party, party
It's a party, a party, party weekend

I said, a-hey, little girl, what do you do?
I've been a-waiting all week for something like you

Writer/s: JOHN KING CARRASCO, BRAD KIZER
Publisher: BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Party Weekend

Joe "King" Carrasco wrote this song with the Crowns' bass player, Brad Kizer. The song is about looking forward to a fun-filled weekend, which is exactly what they were doing when they got the idea. In our interview with Carrasco , he explained that they were hanging out on Guadalupe Street in Austin, Texas when the inspiration struck. "It was a Friday night and I said, 'Brad, it looks like a party weekend,'" Carrasco said. "I went, 'Wow, that's a good song title.'"

Featuring Vox and Farfisa organs played by Kris Cummings, this song is a musical throwback to the organ-heavy dance songs of the '60s. The song Carrasco was trying to duplicate was "A Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)" by The Swingin' Medallions. "Let's Dance" by Chris Montez was also an influence.

When MTV went on the air in 1981, they were desperate for fun videos by American artists, and the "Party Weekend" clip fit their criteria. The video was shot on South Padre Island in Texas when the band was there for a spring break performance. It was shot on the cheap by the sister of the band's manager, who captured the band and various spring breakers having a good time - exactly what the song is about.

The best we can tell, the clip marks the first appearance of crowd surfing in a music video, as we see Carrasco do a daring leap into the audience and go for a ride.

MTV would sometimes have artists customize songs for them, and they had Carrasco record this as "Party Christmas" for a 1982 Christmas video featuring the MTV staff.

Yes - Run Through The Light

Yes - Run Through The Light Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Drama
Released: 1980

Run Through The Light Lyrics

I asked my love to give me shelter
And all she offered me were dreams
Of all the moments spent together
That move like never ending streams.

Run to the light
Everything is alright
Run thro' the light of day
You run to the light of night

And every movement made together
Till every thought was just the same
And all the pieces fit forever
In the game.

Welcome to the light
Now everything is okay
Run thro' the light of night
You run to the light of day.

Writer/s: HOWE, STEVE JAMES/SQUIRE, CHRIS/WHITE, ALAN (GB 1)/DOWNES, GEOFF/HORN, TREVOR CHARLES
Publisher: Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Run Through The Light

This is based on the demo "Dancing Through The Light" that was recorded with Jon Anderson during the aborted Paris recording sessions of 1978 following the Tormato album.

This is the only Yes song with bass guitar on it that was not played by Chris Squire . Trevor Horn played the bass and Squire played piano.

The single edit of this song almost completely removed Steve Howe's guitar work except for the underlying acoustic part.

Pat Benatar - Hell Is For Children

Pat Benatar - Hell Is For Children Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Crimes Of Passion
Released: 1980

Hell Is For Children Lyrics

They cry in the dark
So you can't see their tears
They hide in the light
So you can't see their fears
Forgive and forget
All the while
Love and pain become one and the same
In the eyes of a wounded child

Because hell, Hell Is For Children
And you know that their little lives can become such a mess
Hell, hell is for children
And you shouldn't have to pay for your love
With your bones and your flesh

It's all so confusing this brutal abusing
They blacken your eyes and then apologize
"Be daddy's good girl, and don't tell mommy a thing"
"Be a good little boy, and you'll get a new toy
Tell grandma you fell from the swing"

Because hell, hell is for children
And you know that their little lives can become such a mess
Hell, hell is for children
And you shouldn't have to pay for your love
With your bones and your flesh

[Repeat: x3]
Hell, hell is for hell
Hell is for hell
Hell is for children

Hell is for children
Hell is for children

Writer/s: NEIL GERALDO, PAT BENATAR, ROGER CAPPS
Publisher: BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Hell Is For Children

Benatar wrote this song with her guitarist (and future husband) Neil Giraldo, and her bass player Roger Capps. The song is about child abuse. When we spoke with Giraldo, he explained: "That song was inspired by an article that Patricia read in the New York Times about child abuse. That started the lyric off, and the lyric went from her to Roger. Roger added a few lines to that. And then some form of the melody started being constructed. I got a hold of it and I finished writing the melody and I worked on the chorus, and I did the outro section to build it up, because I wanted the whole song to be very sad as the beginning. I wanted to make it intense so you could really feel the pain of what the song was about. So by the time it ended, you've got to be exhausted. And that was the point. 'Hell is for hell,' like a very powerful moment." (Here's our full interview with Neil Giraldo .)

In an interview with Portfolio Weekly, Benatar explained: "I was living in New York when we wrote it and the New York Times did a series of articles about child abuse in America. I came from a really small town on Long Island and I had no idea that this existed, not in the little gingerbread place I came from. I was stunned. It affected me so much. I was moved by the articles. Whenever that would happen I would write. I said to Neil, 'I want you to do something to the music that it sounds like pain. I want the intense pain that's happening to these children in the notes,' and so he did and it turned out just great. It became an anthem. I always wonder if other people have lofty intentions. I didn't.

We started a foundation for abused children. Then we had all these grownups writing letters saying no one had addressed this in this way before and that it was so great having someone in rock-n-roll doing this. It turned into this other thing that I don't think any of us foresaw. The anguish is there. Every time I sing it I really remember the afternoon when we talked about it."

Many listeners thought Benatar was singing about her own experience with child abuse, but that was far from true. Neil Giraldo told us: "Everybody thought that it was real. They thought that Patricia was abused as a child, which wasn't the case. She had a great upbringing. You couldn't get more Happy Days-like than her. She had the perfect Happy Days life. There was other abuse happening in my family, but it was a different type of thing, more verbal, but not physical like the song depicts.

I'm glad it turned out the way it did. It's one of my favorite songs that we wrote, and it really has a very powerful effect on people. And it's great to play, it's great to sing, great to hear, great to feel."

On the Crimes Of Passion album, this follows "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," a song whose writer, Eddie Schwartz, told us is about empowerment, not masochism or abuse.

Pretenders - Talk Of The Town

Pretenders - Talk Of The Town Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Pretenders II
Released: 1980

Talk Of The Town Lyrics

Such a drag to want something sometime
One thing leads to another I know
Was a time wanted you for mine
Nobody knew
You arrived like a day
And passed like a cloud
I made a wish, I said it out loud
Out loud in a crowd
Everybody heard
'Twas the Talk Of The Town

It's not my place to know what you feel
I'd like to know but why should I?
Who were you then, who are you now?
Common laborer by night, by day highbrow
Back in my room I wonder, then I
Sit on the bed, look at the sky
Up in the sky
Clouds rearrange
Like the talk of the town

Maybe tomorrow, maybe someday
Maybe tomorrow, maybe someday
You've changed your place in this world
You've changed your place in this world

Oh but it's hard to live by the rules
I never could and still never do
The rules and such never bothered you
You call the shots and they follow
I watch you still from a distance then go
Back to my room, you never know
I want you, I want you but now
Who's the talk of the town?

Writer/s: HYNDE, CHRISSIE
Publisher: EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Talk Of The Town

This song was named after a real London nightspot. Located in Leicester Square, it opened in 1900 as "The London Hippodrome," and it hosted various circus acts, variety shows and musical performances. In 1958 is was renovated and reopened as "The Talk of the Town," becoming a cabaret restaurant where many artists would perform, including Frank Sinatra and The Temptations. It closed in 1982 and was revived as a nightclub called "The Hippodrome." In 2009, it was once again closed, this time with plans to make it a casino.

The lyrics are filled with a longing for a seemingly unobtainable love. It is thought that they refer to Ray Davies, the frontman of the Kinks who later fathered Chrissie Hynde's child.

Chrissie Hynde shared the inspiration for the song during a performance on the BBC Songwriters Circle program in 1999: "I had in mind this kid who used to stand outside the soundchecks on our first tour... I never spoke to him. I remember that the last time I saw him I just left him standing in the snow, I never had anything to say to him. I kind of wrote this for him, so, in the unlikely event that you're watching this, I did think about you."

Rosanne Cash - This Has Happened Before

Rosanne Cash - This Has Happened Before Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Right or Wrong
Released: 1980

This Has Happened Before Lyrics

This Has Happened Before

It was only after penning this ballad that Cash felt she could write proper songs. She recalled to American Songwriter magazine: "When I was 18, I had gone on the road with Dad. I was trying to make my songs rhyme and trying to muddle through on the forms of songs I had inherited. Then, I wrote 'This Has Happened Before'; I remember working so hard on that song and realizing that it didn't have to fit all those forms I was trying to force on it; that was the moment that I felt like could do this."