Songs Lyrics and YT- Youtube Music Videos

ABBA - Slipping Through My Fingers

ABBA - Slipping Through My Fingers Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Visitors
Released: 1981

Slipping Through My Fingers Lyrics

Schoolbag in hand, she leaves home in the early morning
Waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile
I watch her go with a surge of that well known sadness
And I have to sit down for a while
The feeling that I'm losing her forever
And without really entering her world
I'm glad whenever I can share her laughter
That funny little girl

Slipping Through My Fingers all the time
I try to capture every minute
The feeling in it

Slipping through my fingers all the time
Do I really see what's in her mind
Each time I think I'm close to knowing
She keeps on growing
Slipping through my fingers all the time

Sleep in our eyes, her and me at the breakfast table
Barely awake I let precious time go by
Then when she's gone, there's that odd melancholy feeling
Ans a sense of guilt I can't deny
What happened to the wonderful adventures
The places I had planned for us to go
Well, some of that we did, but most we didn't
And why, I just don't know

Slipping through my fingers all the time
I try to capture every minute
The feeling in it

Slipping through my fingers all the time
Do I really see what's in her mind
Each time I think I'm close to knowing
She keeps on growing
Slipping through my fingers all the time

Sometimes I wish that I could freeze the picture
And save it from the funny tricks of time
(Slipping through my fingers)
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Schoolbag in hand, she leaves home in the early morning
Waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile

Writer/s: BENNY ANDERSSON, BJOERN K ULVAEUS, BJORN ULVAEUS
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Slipping Through My Fingers

Bjorn Ulvaeus wrote the lyrics after watching his 7 year old daughter Linda go off to school, realizing she was beginning to "Slip through his fingers" and grow up. It's one of his favorites; Ulvaeus said of the song, "Every parent knows that feeling, even if you were with them every waking hour you'd still feel that you were missing something."

The lead vocal is performed by Linda's mother (and Bjorn's ex-wife) Angetha. They also had a son named Christian together before their divorce.

The Clash - Cool Confusion

The Clash - Cool Confusion Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Super Black Market Clash
Released: 1981

Cool Confusion Lyrics

Between Cool Confusion
And kung fu in the car park
Could the weekend be losing
That reactive spark

Even in the shebeen
Or down in the meat rack
Longtime I feel cold
To send Cinderella's shoe back

Along the length of the wire
Party jam on the line
I can't hear a thing
Can't get no number nine

Now we must get in touch
If the night is to burn
Someone out there in luck
Lend me your star for a turn

As heroes fix their hair
Some are saving their breath
Just on the walkways tonight
For a glue bag death

Screens flick in unison
Some gaze at the soul
From the tiers and the heights
Go for the fifteenth floor stroll

It's immediately obvious;
Anybody star-gilt
Would have left this club
Way before it was built

This strikes you so late
As the guy with the broom
Sweeps you and the bottles
Right out of the room

Now I wash in the factory
Confess in the tile house
I don't need to bleed anybody
To strike out

Today my godfather
He sent a note from the jail
Said go get 'em kid
But don't get chained to the rail

Between cool confusion
And kung fu in the car park
Could the weekend be losing
That romantic spark

Even in the shebeen
Or down in the meat rack
Long time I feel cold
To send Cinderella's shoe back

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

Cool Confusion

Collectively credited to the band as a whole, the lyrics were mostly written by singer Joe Strummer, who explained his inspiration for them: a visit to New York's famous Studio 54 disco nightclub. "I started to notice that stars with big egos would always swan into places, make an appearance, and swan out again. Whenever we went out, we'd always be in a place for the duration."

The lyrics reflect this, with references to superficial celebrity: "lend me your start for a turn, as heroes fix their hair."

"Cool Confusion" was recorded in the Combat Rock sessions at the Electric Lady studios in November/December 1981, and though it didn't make the album, it became one of the B-sides to the US release of "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" It ended up not getting a UK release until it appeared on the rarities compilation Super Black Market Clash.

The song is described by the band as "semi-electro dub-funk," and shows influences from their former producer and Dub Reggae star Lee "Scratch" Perry.

Rick James - Super Freak

Rick James - Super Freak Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Street Songs
Released: 1981

Super Freak Lyrics

She's a very kinky girl,
The kind you don't take home to mother;
She will never let your spirits down,
Once you get her off the street.

She likes the boys in the band,
She says that I'm her all time fav'rite;
When I make my move to her room,
It's the right time; she's never hard to please.

That girl is pretty wild now;
The girl's a Super Freak;
The kind of girl you read about
In the new wave magazines.
That girl is pretty kinky;
The girl's a super freak;
I'd really like to taste her
Ev'ry time we meet.
She's all right; she's all right;
That girl's all right with me yeah.
She's a super freak, super freak,
She's super freaky; super freak, super freak.

She's a very special girl,
From her head down to her toenails;
Yet she'll wait for me at backstage with her girlfriends,
In a limousine.

Three's not a crowd to her, she said;
"Room 714, I'll be waiting."
When I get there she's got incense, wine and candles;
It's such a freaky scene.

That girl is pretty wild now;
The girl's a super freak;
The kind of girl you read about
In the new wave magazines.
That girl is pretty kinky;
The girl's a super freak;
I'd really like to taste her
Ev'ry time we meet.
She's all right; she's all right;
That girl's all right with me yeah.
She's a super freak, super freak,
She's super freaky; super freak, super freak.
Temptations sing; oh, super freak,
Super freak, the girl's a super freak; oh.

She's a very kinky girl,
The kind you don't take home to mother;
She will never let your spirits down,
Once you get her off the street.

Writer/s: ALONZO MILLER, RICK JAMES
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Super Freak

This song is about a girl who is very adventurous sexually, especially with members of a band. A "Freak" is slang for someone willing to try various fetishes, thus a "Super Freak" will try just about anything. James was famous for his penchant toward "freakish" behavior, which got him in trouble with the law when he and his girlfriend were arrested for kidnapping another girl for sex.

This was the biggest hit for James. He had just modest success on the Hot 100 (where he never scored a Top 10 hit) but had four #1 R&B hits and was a prolific producer and innovator of Funk. Explaining how he came up with this song, he told Musician magazine in 1983: "I wanted to write a silly song. I was in the studio and everything else for the album (Street Songs) was done. I just put 'Super Freak' together really quickly. I wanted a silly song that had a bit of new wave texture to it. So I just came up with this silly little lick and expounded on it. I came up with the bass part first. Then I put a guitar on it and keyboards, doing the 'ehh ehh,' silly keyboard part. Then I found a tuning on my Oberheim OB-Xa that I'd been wanting to use for a long time – it sounds like ghosts. And I put a very operatic vocal structure on it 'cause I'm really into opera and classical music. You probably hear a lot of that in my music. So I put (sings in a deep voice) 'She's all right'; very operatic, sort of funny, stuff."

The famous bass line in this song was sampled by MC Hammer for his biggest hit, "U Can't Touch This." James filed suit against Hammer, which ended in an out-of-court settlement giving James a songwriting credit on the track. This resulted in James' only Grammy Award when "U Can't Touch This" won in 1991 for Best R&B Song.

This was released on Motown Records, and featured backup vocals by The Temptations, something James points out in the song when he screams: "Tempations sing." One of their members, Melvin Franklin, was Rick James' uncle.

"Super Freak" was released about five months after MTV went on the air, and Rick James made a slick video for the song hoping it would get some spins on the network. At the time, however, MTV refused to play videos by black artists, and they rejected this clip, continuing to feed America a steady stream of Rock and EuroPop. This refusal to play black music was a holdover from radio station programming, where conventional wisdom was that you would lose your white listeners if you played black music. The first black artist to make MTV with a new song was Musical Youth, who despite adapting a song about smoking marijuana, was a lot less scary to network executives than the glitter-vested James singing about kinky sex. This color barrier was shattered by Michael Jackson, who brought a new sound and sophistication to the network with the videos for his Thriller album.

Even though the network didn't play this video, Rick James eventually made peace with MTV and put their co-founder, Les Garland, in the video for Eddie Murphy's song "Party All the Time," which James produced. As for exactly why MTV passed on "Super Freak," their director of acquisitions, Carolyn Baker, explained in the book I Want My MTV: "It wasn't MTV that turned down 'Super Freak.' It was me. I tuned it down. You know why? Because there were half-naked women in it, and it was a piece of crap. As a black woman, I did not want that representing my people as the first black video on MTV."

Over the years, the word "Freak" became very popular and Hip Hop and R&B lyrics. It's a versatile word that can be used as both a verb ("Freak Me") and a noun ("The Freaks Come Out At Night"). Use of the word peaked in the mid-'90s with the phrase, "Get your freak on."

The Dutch dance duo The Beatfreakz covered this in 2006. Their version reached #7 in the UK, the first time this song charted in Britain as Rick James original version wasn't a hit there.

In the movie Little Miss Sunshine, the little girl Olive does a wonderfully inappropriate dance to this song in the Little Miss Sunshine pageant.

When James implores, "Blow, Danny!," he's talking to his sax player Daniel LeMelle just before his solo.

A Los Angeles DJ named Alonzo Miller is credited as a writer on this track along with James. Miller worked on the lyrics with James, helping tone them down so the song had a better chance of getting airplay and crossing over to a white audience. Miller was able to get the song played at the station where he worked, KACE.

Aneka - Japanese Boy

Aneka - Japanese Boy Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Aneka
Released: 1981

Japanese Boy Lyrics

He said that he loved me, never would go, oh oh, oh oh.
Now I find I'm sitting here on my own, oh oh, oh oh.
Was it somtehing I've said or done,
That made him pack his bags up and run?
Could it be another he's found?
It's breaking up the happy home.

Mister, can you tell me where my love has gone?
He's a Japanese Boy.
I woke up one morning and my love was gone,
Oh, my Japanese boy, ooh, I miss my Japanese boy.

People ask about him every day, oh oh, oh oh.
Don't know what to tell them, what can I say? Oh oh, oh oh.
If only he would write me or call
A word of explanation, that's all.
It would stop me climbing the wall.
It's breaking up the happy home.

Mister can you tell me where my love has gone?
He's a Japanese boy.
I woke up one morning and my love was gone,
Oh, my Japanese boy, ooh, I miss my Japanese boy.

Was it something I've said or done,
That made him pack his bags up and run?
Could it be another he's found?
It's breaking up the happy home.

Mister can you tell me where my love has gone?
He's a Japanese boy.
I woke up one morning and my love was gone,
Oh my Japanese boy.

Mister can you tell me where my love has gone?
Mister can you tell me where my love has gone?

Writer/s: ROBERT RAYMOND HEATLIE
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Japanese Boy

This song is a plea by Aneka for her absent lover to return home.

This combined a mix of styles, including New Wave, Disco and Asian.

Aneka (real name Mary Sandeman) was a Scottish folk singer who sang in Gaelic with the Scottish Fiddle Orchestra. She wore a kimono and Japanese wig and made up Japanese style to perform this, which was her only Top 40 hit. Sandeman found the name "Aneka" by looking through the Edinburgh phone book - the name she found was actually "Anika," but she changed it to avoid upsetting person she took it from.

This was a hit on the European continent as well and it was the first #1 in Britain by a British artist for the German company Hansa. It was not a hit in Japan as it was rejected by Hansa's Japanese record label for sounding too Chinese.

Sanderman's follow up song "Little Lady" reached only #50 in the UK. She then returned to performing Gaelic music.

Bobby Heatlie, former member of the Scottish rock band The Headboys, was also Aneka's arranger. He recalls in 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh, "Japanese Boy was a complete accident. I'd been working with Mary on some Scottish folk albums, when she said to me she'd love to have a bash at some Pop songs. Now keep in mind that she was almost six feet tall, spoke in a frightfully posh voice and was the respectable wife of a small town GP with two children. I never thought in a million years that she had a chance of making it in the Pop world. Anyway, she kept pestering me and I kept forgetting to write something for her, until one day she called me to say that the studio had been booked to record a song that I hadn't written yet. To cut a long story short I wrote the chorus, and I threw the whole thing together by taking bits from other songs that I had written years before. It was recorded as a demo, and was turned down by every major company. Then the German company took it on and it went straight into the charts, and eventually #1 all over the world. There was a massive panic as to what to about her image. Then someone came up with the wig and kimono. A complete transformation."

Adam & The Ants - Stand and Deliver

Adam & The Ants - Stand and Deliver Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Prince Charming
Released: 1981

Stand and Deliver Lyrics

I'm the dandy highwayman who you're too scared to mention
I spend my cash on looking flash and grabbing your attention
The devil take your stereo and your record collection! (oh-oh)
The way you look you'll qualify for next year's old age pension!

Stand and Deliver your money or your life!
Try and use a mirror no bullet or a knife!

I'm the dandy highwayman so sick of easy fashion
The clumsy boots, peek-a-boo roots that people think so dashing
So what's the point of robbery when nothing is worth taking? (oh oh)
It's kind of tough to tell a scruff the big mistake he's making

Stand and deliver your money or your life!
Try and use a mirror no bullet or a knife!

And even though you fool your soul
Your conscience will be mine
All mine

We're the dandy highwaymen so tired of excuses
Of deep meaning philosophies where only showbiz loses
We're the dandy highwaymen and here's our invitation (oh oh)
"Throw your safety overboard and join our insect nation"

Stand and deliver your money or your life!
Try and use a mirror no bullet or a knife!

And even though you fool your soul
Your conscience will be mine
All mine

Qua qua da diddley qua qua da diddley
Qua qua da diddley qua qua da diddley

Stand and deliver your money or your life!
Stand and deliver your money or your life!
(repeat)

Writer/s: MARCO PIRRONI, ADAM ANT
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Stand and Deliver

In the book 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh, Adam Ant said: "It's just stealing people's attention. I'm a very big history fan of certainly the Georgian era and I like the flamboyance and sexuality and bawdiness of the time. I've seen films like Tom Jones and I grew up going to Saturday morning pictures and seeing all these other influences. I put them all together and Stand And Deliver was just purely grabbing people's attention and using the whole sort of classical English highwayman feel as a theme."

The extravagant video was directed by Mike Mansfield and helped sell the song. It contained a hanging sequence that was considered too violent by some music program producers, so an edited version was issued which excluded the scene altogether. In Kutner and Leigh's book, Ant said: "The idea of the Stand And Deliver video was to create a Hollywood movie in 3 minutes."

This was Adam and the Ants' best selling single in the UK, selling 985,000 copies.

Ant's look in the video was based on the costume David Hemmings' character wore in the 1968 film The Charge of the Light Brigade. It was a 19th century British military look that Ant adapted. The video was a huge part of the song's success, as it gave an image to Ant's "dandy highwayman" character.

Yoko Ono - Nobody Sees Me Like You Do

Yoko Ono - Nobody Sees Me Like You Do Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Season Of Glass
Released: 1981

Nobody Sees Me Like You Do Lyrics

I see your face looking into the space,
All tired and worried.
Why does it have to be like this, you and I,
I wanted us to be happy.

No one can see me like you do.
No one can see you like I do.

I see your face with a trace of life,
Being a wife and a woman.
If I ever hurt you, please, remember,
I wanted you to be happy.

Is there anything I want more,
More than your trust and understanding?

No one can see me like you do.
No one can see you like I do.

I wanna quit moving,
I wanna quit running,
I wanna relax and be tender.
I wanna see us together again,
Rocking away in our walnut chairs.

Even with your warmth and closeness,
The feeling of loneliness hangs over like a curse.

No one can see me like you do.
No one can see you like I do.

Even with our dreams and yearnings,
The feeling of loneliness hangs over like a thirst.

No one can see me like you do.
No one can see you like I do.

No one can see me like you do.
No one can see you like I do.

Writer/s: Ono, Yoko
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Nobody Sees Me Like You Do

Yoko, throughout her career, has been judged as an evil person and not an artist. Yoko appreciated the fact that John recognized her artistry, and captured this feeling in this song.

Kate Bush - Sat In Your Lap

Kate Bush - Sat In Your Lap Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Dreaming
Released: 1981

Sat In Your Lap Lyrics

I see the people working,
And see it working for them.
And so I want to join in,
But then I find it hurts me.

Some say that knowledge is something Sat In Your Lap.
Some say that knowledge is something that you never have.

I see the people happy,
So can it happen for me?
'Cause when I am unhappy,
There's nothing that can move me.

Some say that knowledge is something that you never have.
Some say that knowledge is something sat in your lap.
Some say that heaven is hell.
Some say that hell is heaven.

I must admit, just when I think I'm king,
(I just begin.)
Just when I think I'm king, I must admit,
(I just begin.)
Just when I think I'm king,
(I just begin.)

I've been doing it for years.
My goal is moving near.
It says, "Look! I'm over here."
Then it up and disappears.

Some say that knowledge is something sat in your lap.
Some say that knowledge is ho-ho-ho-ho.

I want to be a lawyer.
I want to be a scholar.
But I really can't be bothered.
Ooh, just gimme it quick, gimme it, gimme gimme gimme gimme!

Some say that knowledge is ho ho ho.
Some say that knowledge is ho ho ho.
Some say that heaven is hell.
Some say that hell is heaven.

I must admit, just when I think I'm king,
(I just begin.)
Just when I think I'm king, I must admit,
(I just begin.)
Just when I think everything's going great,
(I just begin,)
Hey, I get the break,
Hey, I'm gonna take it all--
(I just begin.)
When I'm king--
(-- just begin.)

In my dome of ivory,
A home of activity,
I want the answers quickly,
But I don't have no energy.

I hold a cup of wisdom,
But there is nothing within.
My cup, she never overfloweth,
And 'tis I that moan- and groaneth.

Some grey and white matter,
"Give me the karma, mama!"
I'm coming up the ladder,
"A jet to Mecca,"
I'm coming up the ladder,
"Tibet or Jeddah,
Up the ladder...
"To Salisbury,
A monastery,
The longest journey,
Across the desert,
Across the weather,
Across the elements,
Across the water!"

Writer/s: BUSH, KATE
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Sat In Your Lap

This song is about the kind of people who want to have knowledge but can't be bothered to do the things they should in order to get it. It implies that the more you know, the more ignorant you realize you are; when you get over one wall, you will find an even bigger one.

The Dreaming was Bush's first album as a solo producer, allowing her to experiment musically in areas that were new to her.

The video for this song was intentionally made to be comical rather than serious. It contained images indicating lack of knowledge such as dunces and jesters.

Atlanta Rhythm Section - Alien

Atlanta Rhythm Section - Alien Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Quinella
Released: 1981

Alien Lyrics

The sun just went behind a cloud again
Down crowded streets he walks alone
He's a stranger out of place
A number not a face
And all day long, all day long

(CHORUS)
He's feelin like an Alien
Feelin like he don't belong
Have mercy, cried the alien
Help him find his way back home
The feelin that he feels he can't explain
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, they're all the same
He's lost and all alone
A heart without a home
Standin like a statue in the rain

(CHORUS)
Now, now and then we all are aliens
Feelin like we don't belong
Have mercy, cried the alien
Help him find his way back home
Feelin like an alien
he's feelin like he don't belong
Have mercy, cried the alien
Help him find his way
Help him find his way

Writer/s: BUIE/MCRAY/LEWIS
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Alien

The southern rock band Atlanta Rhythm Section charted for the last time with this song, which was written by their producer Buddy Buie along with Randy Lewis and Steve McRay.

In spite of the title, it's not about extraterrestrials or illegal immigrants; it's an existential song about loneliness, alienation, and being disconnected from virtually every aspect of one's life and surroundings. It put the group back in the limelight, but afterwards, the group went through a number of changes in both sound and personnel. They continued to perform at festivals and other events, and retained a loyal following.

Gabrielle - Teenage Love

Gabrielle - Teenage Love Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Not Released On An Album
Released: 1981

Teenage Love Lyrics

Teenage Love

This was the first ever song penned by Gabrielle. She told The Independent in November 2013 about the first time she performed the tune: "I started singing in the school canteen I was 11 and I'd written my first song, called 'Teenage Love,' so I got up on the canteen table and started singing it," she recalled. "I remember being amazed that the dinner-monitoring ladies didn't kick me off. Everyone stopped and listened. I thought, this is so cool. My voice wasn't huge back then, it was just different."

The Clash - This Is Radio Clash

The Clash - This Is Radio Clash Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Essential Clash
Released: 1981

This Is Radio Clash Lyrics

Interrupting all programs

This Is Radio Clash from pirate satellite

Orbiting your living room,
Cashing in the bill of rights
Cuban army surplus or refusing all third lights
This is radio clash on pirate satellite

This sound does not subscribe
To the international plan
In the psycho shadow of the white right hand
Then that see ghettology as an urban Vietnam
Giving deadly exhibitions of murder by napalm

This is radio clash tearing up the seven veils
This is radio clash please save us, not the whales
This is radio clash underneath a mushroom cloud
This is radio clash
You don't need that funeral shroud

Forces have been looting
My humanity
Curfews have been curbing
The end of liberty

Hands of law have sorted through
My identity
But now this sound is brave
And wants to be free - anyway to be free

This is Radio clash on pirate satellite
This is not free Europe
Not an armed force network
This is Radio Clash using audio ammunition
This is Radio Clash can we get that world to listen?
This is Radio Clash using aural ammunition
This is Radio Clash can we get that world to listen?
This is Radio Clash on pirate satellite
Orbiting your living room,
Cashing in the bill of rights
This is radio Clash on pirate satellite
This is radio Clash everybody hold on tight

A-riggy diggy dig dang dang

Go back to urban 'nam

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

This Is Radio Clash

The initial idea for "This Is Radio Clash" apparently came from a conversation between singer Joe Strummer, aide Kosmo Vinyl and manager Bernie Rhodes about the band setting up their own radio station. Having read Dispatches by Michael Herr, Strummer wrote the line "ghettology is an urban Vietnam" and later fleshed out the lyrics at Marcus Music in Kensington in April 1981 in the inaugural sessions before the song was completed at the Electric Lady studios in New York in November of that year.

Joe Strummer admitted in an interview with Melody Maker in 1988 that he had nicked the bassline from the Queen hit "Another One Bites The Dust" (which in itself shares many similarities with another Disco classic, Chic's "Good Times").

The song as a whole is the band's tribute to New York rap acts such as the Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five - indeed, Strummer's sinister high-pitched laugh at the start of the song was directly inspired by Grandmaster Flash's "The Message."

Two sets of lyrics exist for "This Is Radio Clash" - the original, featuring references to the Bill of Rights, Napalm and the American Armed Forces Network, and a separate set that was recorded onto another take, later named just "Radio Clash." Confusingly they are both identical tracks bar the lyrics, and even feature as A and B sides on the single, which led to some mistakes in later re-releases - on the Story of the Clash Volume 1 compilation, the tracklisting lists "This Is Radio Clash," but it is in fact the "Radio Clash" version on the CD.

After the musical mish-mash of the Sandinista! album, many critics were hoping the band would get back to more traditional sound, which probably explains some of the more scathing reviews of this song when it came out, as critics tired of the band's dalliance with Hip-Hop influences. Gavin Martin, usually a supporter of the band, ripped it apart upon release in NME: "Another rag-bag of musical clichés and political simplifications sprawling, splintered fantasy which presents the zombified vision of would-be guerillas with rampant hysteria."

It's worth noting that many UK critics really took against The Clash from 1980 onwards when the band started spending more and more time in America, which in turn meant the band resented coming home more and more. Ironically, by the time of the 30th Anniversary of London Calling's release, NME were desperately trying to backtrack on their more negative comments from 1979-83, claiming that their original review of the album was highly rated. It wasn't!

Don Letts' music video for "This Is Radio Clash" drew on footage shot for the unreleased Clash on Broadway film, which was a documentary shot by Letts during 1981 as he accompanied The Clash on their New York residency in Bonds Casino, including two full gigs from their 16-gig stay at the venue across two weeks and footage of the band backstage and living life in New York. It was mooted for a November 1982 release, but perhaps due to turmoil within the band, the project was quietly forgotten about, and by 1994 Joe Strummer told Mojo magazine that "as far as I know the reels were stored in a rental place in New York. Bernie (Rhodes, their manager) forgot to pay the rent and the footage was destroyed."

A cutting copy of 30 minutes' worth of footage was found by Letts in a cupboard in the mid-1990s, and what is left of the film was put together for release on the Westway to the World DVD. One of the few surviving live performances from the Bonds shows is, ironically, of "This Is Radio Clash" in one of it's first live outings.

Elton John - The Fox

Elton John - The Fox Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Fox
Released: 1981

The Fox Lyrics

Being wiry and thinking loudly
About the things sent to make you move
You can't help it, there's no one in the world
Knows you just, just the way you do
So we keep darting through the holes
As the hunter and The Fox
Run the gauntlet's savage road

Winter's heavy and partly cloudy
And the snowfall leaves the tracks that catch a few
Bit if you're wiley, you will leave them lying
Snared up in the traps that they set for you
And it's an evergreen affair
As temptation taunts the fox
Into the hunter's waiting lair

And for mile after mile you'll never see me tire
You'll never see me slow down, for a while
Cause I am the fox, like it or not
I'm always gonna be there running over the rock
Yes I am the fox, a fascinating cross
Of sharp as a whip and tough as an ox
Yes I am the fox

It may sound crazy but it's often lonely
And the restless heart should be captured once in a while
Then you can use them, and you often fool them
Into believing whatever you desire
So I'll keep moving through the night
The hunter and the hunted
On their designated flights

Writer/s: JOHN, ELTON / TAUPIN, BERNIE
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

The Fox

Elton is "The Fox." He wrote it about how he ignores the American critics who do nothing but badmouth his music. Hence: "I'm always gonna be there running over the rocks"; Elton won't quit music just because some critics told him to.

Elton John - Elton's Song

Elton John - Elton's Song Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Fox
Released: 1981

Elton's Song Lyrics

Staring all alone
And your grace and style
Cut me to the bone
With your razor blade smile
I watched you playing pool
It's all around the school that I love you

I love your gypsy hair
And dark brown eyes
Always unprepared
For your pointed replies
Cynical and lean
I lie awake and dream about you

If you only knew
What I'm going through
Time and again I get ashamed
To say your name
It's hard to grin and bear
When you're standing there
My lips are dry
I catch your eye and look away

Sitting in my room
I've got it bad
Crying for the moon
They think I'm mad
They say it isn't real
But I know what I feel and I love you

But I would give my life
For a single night beside you

Writer/s: JOHN, ELTON / ROBINSON, TOM
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Elton's Song

As the title implies, this is a very personal song for Elton. Lyrics for most of Elton's songs come from Bernie Taupin, but this one had a lyric written by Tom Robinson, a British singer whose songs include "2-4-6-8 Motorway" and "(Sing If You're) Glad To Be Gay." Unlike Taupin, Robinson is gay, and wrote words that Elton could relate to on that level.

Elton was not yet public in his homosexuality (he would marry a woman in 1984), and the song is not gender-specific. Elton, however, heard it as a boy-meets-boy love song, and says it reminded him of a 1968 movie called If, which is set at a school for boys in England. "It was the first gay song that I actually recorded as a homosexual song," Elton told Rolling Stone.

ABC - Tears Are Not Enough

ABC - Tears Are Not Enough Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Lexicon of Love
Released: 1981

Tears Are Not Enough Lyrics

Tears for souvenirs
Tears Are Not Enough
Tears for shields and spears
Tears are not enough

Searching for certainty
When it's such an unstable world
Searching for something good
And I'm looking for the real McCoy
Blueprint: That says that boy meets girl
Picture: Girl meets boy
A blueprint that says that the boy meets the girl
Picture in a magazine

Yes you've shown your feelings
Yes you've shown you're tough
Said things worth believing
Tears are not enough

Slam that door, slap my face
I don't love you anymore
Dry your eyes Sink or swim
You surmise you can't win
We all make great mistakes

Would I lie
Should I lie
Could I lie to you?
Excuses had their uses
But now they're all used up, all used up

Yes you've shown your feelings
Yes you've shown you're tough
Said things worth believing
Tears are not enough

Tears for souvenirs
Tears are not enough
Tears for shields and spears
Tears are not enoug
Writer/s: Fry, Martin / Lickley, Mark / Singleton, Stephen / White, Mark
Publisher: EMI Music Publishing, BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Tears Are Not Enough

ABC's first single was a spare funk tune produced by Steve Brown in which Martin Fry contends that "tears are not enough" to prove that a girl's emotions are genuine. The song peaked at #19 on the UK singles chart, whilst in the US, it was released as the B-side of "Poison Arrow."

The version that can be heard on the Lexicon of Love album was re-recorded by the band and produced by Trevor Horn. It features lavish orchestration by Art Of Noise's Anne Dudley, one of several on the LP. According to Horn, they were her first ever string arrangements.

Minor Threat - Straight Edge

Minor Threat - Straight Edge Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Minor Threat
Released: 1981

Straight Edge Lyrics

Straight Edge

This is the song that coined the term "Straight Edge," which represents a lifestyle free of drugs, alcohol and casual sex. Often abbreviated "sXe," the music associated with this lifestyle is Hardcore and Punk. The lyrics to many Minor Threat songs helped define "Straight Edge."

Stevie Nicks - Edge Of Seventeen

Stevie Nicks - Edge Of Seventeen Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Bella Donna
Released: 1981

Edge Of Seventeen Lyrics

Just like the white winged dove
Sings a song
Sounds like she's singing
Ooh ooh ooh
Just like the white winged dove
Sings a song
Sounds like she's singing
Oh baby oh said oh

And the days go by
Like a strand in the wind
In the web that is my own
I begin again
Said to my friend, baby
Nothin' else mattered

He was no more than a baby then
Well he seemed broken hearted
Something within him
But the moment that I first laid
Eyes on him all alone
On the Edge Of Seventeen

Just like the white winged dove
Sings a song
Sounds like she's singing
Oh baby oh said oh
Just like the white winged dove
Sings a song
Sounds like she's singing
Oh baby oh said oh

I went today maybe I will go again
Tomorrow
And the music there it was hauntingly
Familiar
When I see you doing
What I try to do for me
With the words from a poet
And the voice from a choir
And a melody nothing else mattered

Just like the white winged dove
Sings a song
Sounds like she's singing
Oh baby oh said oh
Just like the white winged dove
Sings a song
Sounds like she's singing
Oh baby oh said oh

The clouds never expect it
When it rains
But the sea changes colors
But the sea
Does not change
And so with the slow graceful flow
Of age
I went forth with an age old
Desire to please
On the edge of seventeen

Just like the white winged dove
Sings a song
Sounds like she's singing
Oh baby oh said oh
Just like the white winged dove
Sings a song
Sounds like she's singing
Oh baby oh said oh

Well then suddenly
There was no one left standing
In the hall yeah yeah
In a flood of tears
That no one really ever heard fall at all
I went searchin' for an answer,
Up the stairs and down the hall
Not to find an answer
Just to hear the call
Of a nightbird singing
Come away come away

Just like the white winged dove
Sings a song
Sounds like she's singing
Oh baby oh said oh
Just like the white winged dove
Sings a song
Sounds like she's singing
Oh baby oh said oh

Well I hear you in the morning
And I hear you
At nightfall
Sometime to be near you
Is to be unable to hear you
My love
I'm a few years older than you

Just like the white winged dove
Sings a song
Sounds like she's singing
Oh baby oh said oh

Writer/s: NICKS, STEVIE
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Edge Of Seventeen

Nicks wrote this song about the death of her uncle and the death of John Lennon. The line about the "Words from a poet and a voice from a choir" refers to Lennon.

Speaking about the song in commentary for her Live In Concert video recorded on her Bella Donna tour, she explained: "I was in Australia when John Lennon was shot. Everybody was devastated. I didn't know John Lennon, but I knew Jimmy Iovine, who worked with John quite a bit in the '70s, and heard all the loving stories that Jimmy told about him. When I came back to Phoenix I started to write this song.

Right when I got to Phoenix, my uncle Bill got cancer, got very sick very fast, and died in a couple of weeks. My cousin John Nicks and I were in the room when he died. There was just John and I there. That was part of the song when I went running down the hallways looking for somebody - I thought where's my mom? Where's his wife and the rest of the family? At that point I went back to the piano and finished the song."

Speaking further in her video commentary, Nicks spoke about the "white-winged dove" and what this song means to her: "It became a song about violent death, which was very scary to me because at that point no one in my family had died. To me, the white-winged dove was for John Lennon the dove of peace, and for my uncle it was the white-winged dove who lives in the saguaro cactus - that's how I found out about the white-winged dove, and it does make a sound like whooo, whooo, whooo. I read that somewhere in Phoenix and thought I would use that in this song. The dove became exciting and sad and tragic and incredibly dramatic. Every time I sing this song I have that ability to go back to that two-month period where it all came down. I've never changed it, and I can't imagine ending my show with any other song. It's such a strong, private moment that I share in this song."

Stevie came up with the title when she was recording "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" with Tom Petty. When she asked Tom Petty's wife Jane when they met, Jane said, "At the age of seventeen," but she had a very strong southern accent and Stevie thought she said "the edge of seventeen," which makes a great song title. Telling the story in a 1981 interview with Los Angeles disc jockey Robert W. Morgan, Nicks said she told Jane: "It's got to be 'edge.' 'The Edge of Seventeen' is perfect. I'm going to write a song."

Bella Donna was Stevie's first solo album. This was the third single; the first two were duets: "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" with Tom Petty and "Leather And Lace" with Don Henley. The album proved that Nicks had enormous appeal outside of Fleetwood Mac, and this song in particular gave her tremendous confidence, as it's a very personal track that resonated with listeners and went over very well live.

When Nicks toured for Bella Donna, it was just a 12-date trek, as she had to return to Fleetwood Mac to start work on the Mirage album. The tour imbued her with the strength she needed to carry on in the group, where there was lots of lingering tension, notably between her and Lindsey Buckingham.

When Nicks played this as the last song at the last stop on her Bella Donna tour at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles, California, she walked across that stage and collected various gifts audience members brought for her as she finished the song. This became a tradition, with Nicks ending up with a mountain of flowers and stuffed animals at the end of her solo shows which she always donates to local children's hospitals. Performing with Fleetwood Mac, she can't do this as there are five stars in the band.

Nicks always ends her concerts with this song, sticking with the same arrangement. "It's such a strong, private moment that I share with people in this song."

Nicks' performance from her Live In Concert video, which aired on HBO, serves as the music video for this song. It was directed by Marty Callner, who also did the clips for "I Can't Wait" and "Rooms On Fire."

This song is featured in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV, developed by Rockstar Games and distributed by Take-Two Interactive for multiple video game consoles. The game features fictional in-game radio stations that can be heard when the player gets in a car; this song is featured on the "Liberty Rock Radio 97.8" station along with other rock songs such as "1979" by the Smashing Pumpkins and "The Seeker" by The Who. (thanks, Rob - Saratoga Springs, NY)

Destiny's Child sampled the famous guitar riff on this track for their song "Bootylicious." Some of Stevie's fans were horrified, but she loved it, and even appeared in the video. Stevie met the group when she was on the The Rosie O'Donnell Show promoting her Trouble In Shangri-La album, and Destiny's Child was in the same building rehearsing for Saturday Night Live.

This featured prominently throughout American Horror Story: Coven (2013) as the Stevie Nicks-obsessed, hippie witch Misty Day, played by Lily Rabe, used it as her anthem. Nicks would guest star towards the end of the season.

Rush - Broon's Bane

Rush - Broon's Bane Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Exit... Stage Left
Released: 1981

Broon's Bane Lyrics

Broon's Bane

This is an instrumental guitar solo by Alex Lifeson.

The song is named after their longtime producer Terry Brown (T.C. Broonsie), who produced this and Rush's first 11 albums. (thanks, Mike - Mountlake Terrace, Washington, for above 2)

Rush - Vital Signs

Rush - Vital Signs Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Moving Pictures
Released: 1981

Vital Signs Lyrics

Unstable condition
A symptom of life
In mental
And environmental
Change

Atmospheric disturbance
The feverish flux
Of human interface
And interchange

The impulse is pure
Sometimes our circuits get shorted
By external interference

Signals get crossed
And the balance distorted
By internal incoherence

A tired mind become a shape-shifter
Everybody need a mood lifter
Everybody need reverse polarity

Everybody got mixed feelings
About the function and the form
Everybody got to deviate
From the norm

An ounce of perception
A pound of obscure
Process information
At half-speed

Pause
Rewind, replay
Warm memory chip
Random sample
Hold the one you need

Leave out the fiction
The fact is
This friction
Will only be worn by persistence

Leave out conditions
Courageous convictions
Will drag the dream into existence

A tired mind become a shape-shifter
Everybody need a soft filter
Everybody need reverse polarity

Everybody got mixed feelings
About the function and the form
Everybody got to elevate
From the norm

Writer/s: NEIL PEART, GEDDY LEE WEINRIB, ALEX LIFESON
Publisher: OLE MEDIA MANAGEMENT
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Vital Signs

Neil Peart (Guitar for the Practicing Musician, 1986): "At the end of an album it's impossible for us to judge which songs will truly be popular and which won't. We're inevitably surprised. And then there are songs like "Vital Signs" from our Moving Pictures album. At the time it was a very transitional song. Everybody had mixed feelings about it, but at the same time it expressed something essential that I wanted to say. That's a song that has a marriage of vocals and lyrics I'm very happy with. But it took our audience a long time to get it, because it was rhythmically very different for us and it demanded the audience to respond in a different rhythmic way. There was no heavy downbeat; it was al counterpoint between upbeat and downbeat, and there was some reflection of reggae influence and a reflection of the more refined areas of new wave music that we had sort of takes under our umbrella and made happen. That song took about three tours to catch on. It was kind of a baby for us. We kept playing it and wouldn't give up. We put it in our encore last tour-putting it in the most exciting part of the set possible-and just demanded that people accept it because we believed in it. I still think that song represents a culmination-the best combination of music, lyrics, rhythm. It opens up so many musical approaches, from being very simplistic and minimal to becoming very overplayed. Everything we wanted in the song is there. So that song was very special to us. But we had to wait. We had to be patient and wait for the audience to understand us." (thanks, Mike - Mountlake Terrace, Washington)

In the Moving Pictures tour book, Peart added: "'Vital Signs' was the ultimate result, eclectic in the extreme, it embraces a wide variety of stylistic influences, ranging from the sixties to the present. Lyrically, it derives from my response to the terminology of 'Technospeak,' the language of electronics and computers, which often seems to parallel the human machine, in the functions and interrelationships they employ. It is interesting, if irrelevant, to speculate as to whether we impose our nature on the machines that we build, or whether they are merely governed by the inscrutable laws of Nature as we. (Perhaps Murphy's Laws?) Never mind!" (thanks, Nathan - Wichititty, KS)

Vocalist Geddy Lee recalled to The Plain Dealer newspaper in a 2011 interview: "That was a hoot to write. We wrote it in about 5 minutes in the studio. We just put it together quickly and had a lot of fun doing it. It's still fun to play. It's the quirkier side of Rush's sound, and I think there's always a need for that, to give your sound diversity."

Rush - The Camera Eye

Rush - The Camera Eye Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Moving Pictures
Released: 1981

The Camera Eye Lyrics

Grim-faced and forbidding
Their faces closed tight
An angular mass of New Yorkers
Pacing in rhythm
Race the oncoming night
They chase through the streets of Manhattan
Head-first humanity
Pause at a light
Then flow through the streets of the city

They seem oblivious
To a soft spring rain
Like an English rain
So light, yet endless
From a leaden sky

The buildings are lost
In their limitless rise
My feet catch the pulse
And the purposeful stride

I feel the sense of possibilities
I feel the wrench of hard realities
The focus is sharp in the city

Wide-angle watcher
On life's ancient tales
Steeped in the history of London
Green and Grey washes
In a wispy white veil
Mist in the streets of Westminster
Wistful and weathered
The pride still prevails
Alive in the streets of the city

Are they oblivious
To this quality?
A quality of light
Unique to every city's streets

Pavements may teem
With intense energy
But the city is calm
In this violent sea

Writer/s: NEIL PEART, GEDDY LEE WEINRIB, ALEX LIFESON
Publisher: OLE MEDIA MANAGEMENT
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

The Camera Eye

This song highlights the cultural differences between the cities of New York and London.

At 10:56, this was the last song Rush recorded that was over 10 minutes long.

This is the #1 fan requested song for Rush to perform live. Rush has not performed it completely live since Tour of the Nadars in 1982. They performed it in an abbreviated version the following tour, and it was last played live May 1983. (thanks, Mike - Mountlake Terrace, Washington, for all above)

8:56 into the song, in the background you can hear what appears to be Geddy, burp and say "Oh gawd." Most Rush fans believe this is an "English greeting," something like, "Ello, Mornin' Gov'ner." Another possibility is that he's saying, "More Dub," requesting a monitor adjustment in his headphones. (thanks, Eddy - Ilion, NY)

Rick Springfield - Jessie's Girl

Rick Springfield - Jessie's Girl Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Working Class Dog
Released: 1981

Jessie's Girl Lyrics

Jessie is a friend,
Yeah I know he's been a good friend of mine
But lately something's changed
It ain't hard to define
Jessie's got himself a girl
And I want to make her mine
And she's watching him with those eyes
And she's lovin' him with that body, I just know it
And he's holding her in his arms late, late at night

You know I wish that I had Jessie's Girl
I wish that I had Jessie's girl
Why can't I find a woman like that

I'll play along with this charade
That doesn't seem to be a reason to change
You know I feel so dirty when they start talking cute
I want to tell her that I love but the point is probably moot
'Cause she's watching him with those eyes
And she's lovin' him with that body, I just know it
And he's holding her in his arms late, late at night

You know I wish that I had Jessie's girl
I wish that I had Jessie's girl
Why can't I find a woman like that?

Like Jessie's girl
I wish that I had Jessie's girl
Why can't I find a woman
Why can't I find a woman like that

And I'm lookin' in the mirror all the time
Wonderin' what she don't see in me
I've been funny; I've been cool with the lines
Ain't that the way love's supposed to be
Tell me why can't I find a woman like that

You know I wish that I had Jessie's girl
I wish that I had Jessie's girl
Why can't I find a woman like that?
Like Jessie's girl

I wish that I had Jessie's girl
I want, I want Jessie's girl

Writer/s: SPRINGFIELD, RICK
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Jessie's Girl

Who is Jessie's girl? We may never know, but in our interview with Rick Springfield , he told us the story. Said Rick: "I don't know her name. It was a brief relationship I had when I was making stained glass for a while. I was going to a stained glass class in Pasadena, and I met this guy and his girlfriend. I was completely turned on to his girlfriend, but she was just not interested. So I had a lot of sexual angst, and I went home and wrote a song about it. Then about 4 months later I stopped going to the class and lost contact with them. The only thing I remember is his name was Gary, so I changed the name, because 'Gary' didn't sing very well. But the whole thing is absolutely what I was feeling. He was getting it and I wasn't, and it was really tearing me up. And sexual angst is an amazing motivator to write a song. Actually, Oprah's people tried to find her, and they got as far back as finding the stained glass guy. I couldn't remember his name, but I said it was late '70s; they found him, and he had died 2 years earlier, and they'd thrown all his papers out a year after that. So we missed finding out who she was by a year."

This was Springfield's second Top 20 hit (the first being "Speak To The Sky" in 1971) and it was his only #1, where it stayed for two weeks in August, 1981. The popularity of the song and album that summer was bolstered by the fact that Springfield, also an actor, had landed the role of Dr. Noah Drake on the soap opera General Hospital earlier that spring. Springfield began acting in the mid-'70s when his music career had stalled and his then-girlfriend, actress Linda Blair, suggested he try it.

Speaking of Linda Blair, when Springfield and Blair were dating, Blair was just 15 years old while Springfield was 25. They only lived together for one year, and according to an interview on VH1's Behind the Music, Blair said, "He's someone I'll always love" while Springfield says that of all his former girlfriends, Blair is the only one he remains friends with. Remember that this was 1974, when standards were a little more relaxed, and median age of consent for most of Springfield's native country of Australia is 16. (thanks, Dawn - Highlands Ranch, CO)

Spingfield's take on relationships: "We’re clueless. Desperately clueless. Everybody is on relationships. Truly, I remember being a jerk because I thought that’s what girls wanted. You only really learn about women when you get into a long relationship, unless you got a really great dad – a really clued-in father – or a really open mom."

This was the #1 song in the United States when MTV launched on August 1, 1981. The video became a favorite on the fledgling network, as the photogenic Springfield starred in a well-produced promo where he used his acting skills to portray his angst.

Springfield says it's his only video where he took creative control, storyboarding it himself. The scene where he smashes the mirror remains an iconic clip; it was the most expensive part of the video, since Rick estimates that went through 24 mirrors.

In the category of weird covers, this song was covered by The Chipmunks, using the same instrumental backing track, no less. Check out their 1982 album Chipmunk Rock if you just have to have it.

This song was used in the movie 13 Going On 30 starring Jennifer Garner. (thanks, Julian - Anaheim, CA)

Dan Fogelberg - Same Old Lang Syne

Dan Fogelberg - Same Old Lang Syne Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Innocent Age
Released: 1981

Same Old Lang Syne Lyrics

Met my old lover in the grocery store
The snow was falling Christmas Eve
I stood behind her in the frozen foods
And I touched her on the sleeve

She didn't recognize the face at first
But then her eyes flew open wide
She went to hug me and she spilled her purse
And we laughed until we cried

We took her groceries to the check out stand
The food was totaled up and bagged
We stood there lost in our embarrassment
As the conversation lagged

We went to have ourselves a drink or two
But couldn't find an open bar
We bought a six-pack at the liquor store
And we drank it in her car

We drank a toast to innocence
We drank a toast to now
We tried to reach beyond the emptiness
But neither one knew how

She said she's married her an architect
Who kept her warm and safe and dry
She would have liked to say she loved the man
But she didn't like to lie

I said the years had been a friend to her
And that her eyes were still as blue
But in those eyes I wasn't sure if I saw
Doubt or gratitude

She said she saw me in the record stores
And that I must be doing well
I said the audience was heavenly
But the traveling was Hell

We drank a toast to innocence
We drank a toast to now
We tried to reach beyond the emptiness
But neither one knew how

We drank a toast to innocence
We drank a toast to time
Reliving, in our eloquence
Another "Auld Lang Syne"

The beer was empty and our tongues were tired
And running out of things to say
She gave a kiss to me as I got out
And I watched her drive away

Just for a moment I was back at school
And felt that old familiar pain
And, as I turned to make my way back home
The snow turned into rain

Writer/s: Fogelberg, Dan
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Same Old Lang Syne

As Fogelberg tells it on his official website, the song is totally autobiographical. He was visiting family back home in Peoria, Illinois in the mid-'70s when he ran into an old girlfriend at a convenience store.

After Fogelberg's death from prostate cancer in 2007, the woman who he wrote the song about came forward with her story. Her name is Jill Greulich, and she and Fogelberg dated in high school when she was Jill Anderson. As she explained to the Peoria Journal Star in a December 22, 2007 article, they were part of the Woodruff High School class of 1969, but went to different colleges. After college, Jill got married and moved to Chicago, and Dan went to Colorado to pursue music. On Christmas Eve, they were each back in Peoria with their families when Jill went out for egg nog and Dan was dispatched to find whipping cream for Irish coffee. The only place open was a convenience store at the top of Abington Hill, at Frye Avenue and Prospect Road, and that's where they had their encounter. They bought a six pack of beer and drank it in her car for two hours while they talked.

Five years later, Jill heard "Same Old Lang Syne" on the radio while driving to work, but she kept quiet about it, as Fogelberg also refused to reveal her identity. Her main concern was that coming forward would disrupt Fogelberg's marriage.

Looking at the lyrics, Jill says there are two inaccuracies: She has green eyes, not blue, and her husband was not an architect - he was a physical education teacher, and it's unlikely Fogelberg knew his profession anyway. Regarding the line, "She would have liked to say she loved the man, but she didn't like to lie," Jill won't talk about it, but she had divorced her husband by the time the song was released.

The single was released about eight months ahead of the album, which was certified double platinum. The Innocent Age is a concept album consisting of a song cycle describing the many stages of life from cradle to grave. (thanks, Charles - Charlotte, NC)

"Auld Lang Syne" is a traditional song that is often sung on New Year's Eve. That's the reference in the title.

The melody phrase at the beginning of each verse ("Met my old lover at the grocery store...") was taken by Fogelberg from Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture." (To get the effect, just sing that lyric twice, slightly speeded up. Maybe add a few fireworks explosions for good measure.) This song is one of several Pop tunes that have phrases or entire melodies ripped off from classical composers - Paul Simon's "American Tune" (from J.S. Bach), Billy Joel's "This Night" (from Beethoven), among others. (thanks, Peter - Little Silver, NJ)

When Fogelberg started writing this song, he considered it "a joke," essentially laughing at himself as he looked back on the fateful encounter at the convenience store. When he finished the song, he realized it was an important one so he saved it for his album The Innocent Age. It ended up being his best-known song, exemplifying the gentle but very emotional stories his lyrics portrayed.

In late 2007, Fogelberg died at age 56 due to prostate cancer.

Fogelberg performed this song long before he recorded it, including at benefit shows for Colorado senator Gary Hart, who would later be a top presidential candidate before getting caught in a sex scandal.

In 2008, Abingdon Street in Peoria, which was the location of the convenience store where the events of this song took place, was designated "Fogelberg Parkway" in honor of the singer.

This was released as a single in December 1980. Fogelberg's record company expected the album to follow soon after, but the singer had an epiphany when he sat down to sequence it on New Year's Eve: it should be a double album with a "song cycle" starting with nostalgia and coming up to the present. Fogelberg spent another six months writing new songs.

When "Same Old Lang Syne" peaked on the Hot 100 at #9 in February 1981, there was no album for fans to rush out to buy, which drove the record company nuts. Finally, the album emerged in August with "Lang Syne" the last song on the first disc. The wait was worth it: Three more singles were released, each making the US Top 20, and the album sold over two million copies.

Smooth jazz giant Michael Brecker played soprano saxophone on this song. His part is featured in the ending, and is an improvised, jazzy snippet of the classic holiday tune "Auld Lang Syne." Brecker died of leukemia (a blood cancer) in January of 2007 at age 57. (thanks, Tony - NYC, NY and Annabelle - Eugene, OR)