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U2 - The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)

U2 - The Miracle (of Joey Ramone) Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Songs of Innocence
Released: 2014

The Miracle (of Joey Ramone) Lyrics

I was chasing down the days of fear
Chasing down a dream before it disappeared
I was aching to be somewhere near
Your voice was all I heard

I was shaking from a storm in me
Haunted by the spectres that we had to see
Yeah, I wanted to be the melody
Above the noise, above the hurt

I was young, not dumb
Just wishing to be blinded
By you, brand new
And we were pilgrims on our way

I woke up at the moment
When the miracle occurred
Heard a song that made some sense
Out of the world
Everything I ever lost
Now has been returned
In the most beautiful sound I'd ever heard

We got language so we can't communicate
Religion so I can love and hate
Music so I can exaggerate my pain
And give it a name

I was young, not dumb
Just wishing to be blinded
By you, brand new
And we were pilgrims on our way

I woke up at the moment
When the miracle occurred
Heard a song that made some sense
Out of the world
Everything I ever lost
Now has been returned
In the most beautiful sound I'd ever heard

We can hear you, hear you
We can year you
We can hear you, hear you

I woke up at the moment
When the miracle occurred
I get so many things I don't deserve
All the stolen voices
Will someday be returned
The most beautiful sound I'd ever heard

Your voices will be heard
Your voices will be heard

Writer/s: CLAYTON, ADAM / EVANS, DAVE / HEWSON, PAUL DAVID / MULLEN, LARRY
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

The Miracle (of Joey Ramone) Song Chart

U2 kick off their Songs of Innocence album with this tribute to one of their earliest influences, the late Ramones vocalist Joey Ramone. "I found my voice through Joey Ramone," Bono told Rolling Stone, "because I wasn't the obvious punk-rock singer, or even rock singer. I sang like a girl - which I'm into now, but when I was 17 or 18, I wasn't sure. And I heard Joey Ramone, who sang like a girl, and that was my way in."

U2 surprised the music world on September 9, 2014 when it was announced at an Apple event that Songs of Innocence would be made available for free to anyone with an iTunes account until its physical release on October 13, 2014. "The most personal album we've written could be shared with half a billion people - by hitting send," Bono said. "If only songwriting was that easy."

The surprise announcement was compared to Beyoncé, who dropped her self-titled album without warning on iTunes in December 2013. Other acts who have used unusual launch strategies for their albums include Radiohead who initially released In Rainbows in 2007 as a pay-what-you-want download, and Prince, who has allowed CDs to be given away with newspapers.

Joey's brother, Mickey Leigh, worked with Apple to gain approval for the use of the late Ramones singer's image without knowing exactly what it was being used for. He told MTV News, "It made me feel so good… [When I] finally found out what it was all about, my jaw dropped right away."

Leigh first heard song at a friend's house. "I had to keep my heart going there, it's so beautiful," he recalled. "I loved it. It's Bono's interpretation and his spirit, but it also captures Joey's spirit. He described my brother's spirit well. I think he got just what Joey would have wanted out of it."

The last song that Joey Ramone listened to before he died was U2's All That You Can't Leave Behind track "In A Little While."

A number of iTunes account holders were unhappy that Songs of Innocence appeared in their music libraries without having the option to opt-out. Bono apologized during a Facebook Q&A session. "Oops. I'm sorry about that," he said. "I had this beautiful idea and we got carried away with ourselves. Artists are prone to that kind of thing. Drop of megalomania, touch of generosity, dash of self-promotion, and deep fear that these songs that we poured our life into over the last few years mightn't be heard. There's a lot of noise out there. I guess we got a little noisy ourselves to get through it."

According to Apple, within the first month of the release of Songs of Innocence, 81 million users listened to it and 26 million downloaded the entire record.

Songs of Innocence was named Best Album of 2014 by Rolling Stone. They said: "There was no bigger album of 2014 - in terms of surprise, generosity and controversy. Songs of Innocence is also the rebirth of the year."

"Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. put their lives on the line: giving away 11 songs of guitar rapture and frank, emotional tales of how they became a band out of the rough streets and spiritual ferment of Seventies Dublin. This is personal history with details."

"The four members of U2 went to see the Ramones playing in the state cinema in Dublin without thinking about how we were going to get in," Bono wrote in the Songs of Innocence liner notes. "We had no tickets and no money... My best friend Guggi had a ticket and he snuck us through a side exit he pried open. The world stopped long enough for us to get on it. Even though we only saw half the show, it became one of the great nights of our life...." (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Sweet Home Alabama

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Sweet Home Alabama Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Second Helping
Released: 1974

Sweet Home Alabama Lyrics

Big wheels keep on turning
Carry me home to see my kin
Singing songs about the south-land
I miss 'ole' 'bamy once again and I think it's a sin

Well I heard Mister Young sing about her
Well I heard ole Neil put her down
Well, I hope Neil Young will remember
A southern man don't need him around anyhow

Sweet Home Alabama
Where the skies are so blue
Sweet home Alabama
Lord, I'm coming home to you

In Birmingham they love the Gov'nor, boo-hoo-hoo
Now we all did what we could do
Now Watergate does not bother me
Does your conscience bother you, tell the truth

Sweet home Alabama
Where the skies are so blue
Sweet home Alabama
Lord, I'm coming home to you, here I come

Now Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers
And they've been known to pick a song or two (yes they do)
Lord they get me off so much
They pick me up when I'm feeling blue, now how bout you?

Sweet home Alabama
Where the skies are so blue
Sweet home Alabama
Lord, I'm coming home to you

Sweet home Alabama, oh sweet home
Where the skies are so blue and the governor's true
Sweet home Alabama
Lord, I'm coming home to you

Writer/s: VAN ZANT, RONNIE / ROSSINGTON, GARY ROBERT / KING, EDWARD C.
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Sweet Home Alabama Song Chart

Lynyrd Skynyrd is from Jacksonville, Florida. They wrote this song about their impressions of Alabama and as a tribute to the studio musicians at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios , where they recorded from 1970-1972. The studios gained fame during the '60s and '70s when it became the vogue thing for bands to record there. Artists like Bo Diddley, Aretha Franklin, and many big southern rock groups recorded there. "The Swampers" was a name Leon Russell's producer Denny Cordell came up with for the musicians, and when Russell earned a Gold Record for his 1971 album Leon Russell and the Shelter People (recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios), he gave one to the guys that said, "Presented to The Swampers." (These commemorative gold records were often given to folks who helped create or market the album, and they often went to record executives or radio stations). Lynyrd Skynyrd saw the record, and when they included the line, "Muscle Shoals has got The Swampers" in this song, they popularized the nickname and brought a lot of attention to these Alabama players who worked behind the scenes on many famous recordings. To find out how the nickname originated in the first place, we asked a Swamper - bass player David Hood, who told us: "We had been working with Leon, we had been working with Denny Cordell, who was his producer. I think Denny came up with the name. We did an album called The Shelter People. And on the album there were musicians on some tracks from Tulsa - Carl Radle and some of the guys from out there - and tracks by us. And to differentiate, he wrote down "The Muscle Shoals Swampers" on the ones we did, and the Tulsa one, I don't know what he called them, but the Tulsa people on the others. And that just kind of took.

As for Skynyrd's Muscle Shoals output, they recorded a full album there in 1972 which wasn't released until nine of the tracks were included on their 1978 album (after their tragic plane crash) Skynyrd's First and... Last. According to David Hood, the tape from the sessions, which included their song "Free Bird," got kinked at some point after it left the studio, and when the band's manager would play it for record companies, it was flipped and sounded terrible. The band wasn't happy with the Muscle Shoals crew at the time, but put aside any hard feelings when they found out the recordings were fine if played correctly. These early Skynyrd recordings were produced by Muscle Shoals house musician Jimmy Johnson; the band's first release was produced by Al Kooper.

One of the verses is an attack on Neil Young: "I hope Neil Young will remember a southern man don't need him around anyhow." Young had written songs like "Southern Man" and "Alabama," which implied that people in the Southern US were racist and stuck in the past. Skynyrd responded with this, a song about Southern pride and all the good things in Alabama. The feud between Lynyrd Skynyrd and Neil Young was always good-natured fun; they were actually big fans of each other. Ronnie Van Zant often wore Neil Young T-shirts on stage and is wearing one on the cover of Street Survivors, the last Skynyrd album before his death.

Neil Young performed this once: He played it at a memorial to the three members of Lynyrd Skynyrd who died in a plane crash in 1977.

The guitar solo in the song is actually played in the wrong key. Producer Al Kooper noticed that Ed King played the solo in the key of G instead of D, the first chord in the progression. He was so vexed that he took to tune to California, and played it for his guitarist friend Michael Bloomfield. In fact, the song is in G, and King himself rips the exuberant, melodic blues lines in the E minor pentatonic Blues scale, which in the song functions as the G pentatonic scale. (from Guitar Edge magazine - July/August 2006)

This was the lead track on the album, and it became Skynyrd's first hit. The song was written during the sessions for the group's first album, Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd, but they decided to save it so they would have a big song to open Second Helping. (thanks, Saint - New Orleans, LA, for above 2)

At the beginning, when Ronnie Van Zant says, "Turn it up," it was not planned. He was telling an engineer to turn up the volume in his headset before recording his track. The comment sounded good, so they left it in the final mix.

If you listen carefully to the line, "Well, I heard Mr. Young sing about her," immediately following it, someone in the background sings, "Southern Man." Some people thought it was a recording of Neil Young, but it was their producer, Al Kooper, impersonating Young.

This was Skynyrd's first single to chart. They have never been a "singles" band, as their fans tend to buy the albums.

This was the first Skynyrd song to use female backup singers. The band never met the three women who sang on this, since they were recorded separately.

Guitarist Gary Rossington came up with the idea for this song. Ed King, another Skynyrd guitarist, wrote the intro, and Ronnie Van Zant wrote the lyrics. It came together quickly and easily.

The voice at the beginning that does the count-in is Ed King.

Country group Alabama did a rendition of this for a Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute album.

George Wallace was the governor of Alabama when this was released. He loved the song, especially the line, "In Birmingham they love the governor," and he made the band honorary Lieutenant Colonels in the state militia. Wallace may not have listened very carefully however, as Ronnie Van Zant explained: "The lyrics about the governor of Alabama were misunderstood. The general public didn't notice the words 'Boo! Boo! Boo!' after that particular line, and the media picked up only on the reference to the people loving the governor." Van Zant added, "We're not into politics, we don't have no education, and Wallace don't know anything about rock and roll." (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)

In 2002, this was featured in two movies, one that used the song as the title. In Sweet Home Alabama, Reese Witherspoon stars as a girl who must decide between her ex-husband in Alabama or her fiancé in New York. In 8 Mile, Eminem does a rap version of the song, making fun of his mother's bumpkin boyfriend and changing the chorus to "I live at home in a trailer." The version of Sweet Home Alabama on the soundtrack was recorded by Jewel. (thanks, Shawn - Loganville, GA)

This was featured in the video game NASCAR Thunder 2001. EA Sports, the developer of this game, sponsored their first NASCAR race at Talladega Superspeedway, a racetrack in Alabama. The song is normally played once during NASCAR races ran at Talladega Superspeedway, an Alabama racetrack. (thanks, Joseph - Old Bridge, NJ)

An acoustic version sung by Johnny Van Zant is featured on Lynyrd Skynyrd's 1994 album Endangered Species. (thanks, Aaron - Twin Cities, MN)

This is featured in the 1997 movie Con Air. The escaped convicts listen to it during a party on the plane after getting away from an US Marshals raid. One of the characters, a serial killer played by Steve Buscemi, remarks: "Ironic, isn't it? Flying an airplane while listening to a song played by a band whose members got killed in a plane crash." (thanks, Maciej - Lublin, Poland)

This plays in the movie Forrest Gump near the end of the film when Forest and Jenny are reunited.

This returned to the UK chart in 2008 thanks to Kid Rock's hit "All Summer Long," which namechecks this song and borrows its guitar melody.

Al Kooper confirmed with us that near the end of the song, Ronnie Van Zant says, "Montgomery's got the answer," a reference to the Alabama state capitol. It's hard to make out what he's saying, and Q magazine, perhaps to mess with people, printed in their August 2008 issue a story that Ronnie Van Zant treated himself to a box of doughnuts before the session, which were eaten by his bandmates, prompting him to say, very angrily, "My doughnuts! Goddamn!"

In 2009 the state of Alabama began printing the words "Sweet Home Alabama" as an official slogan on its motor vehicle license plates. The state's previous plate featured another song, the jazz standard, "Stars Fell On Alabama."

U2 - This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now

U2 - This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Songs of Innocence
Released: 2014

This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now Lyrics

This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now Song Chart

This song was inspired by a Clash concert that U2 attended in 1977. "After we saw the Clash, it was a sort of blueprint for U2," Bono told Rolling Stone. "We knew we couldn't possibly hope to be as cool, and that's proven to be true, but we did think we could get behind a sort of social justice agenda."

Del Shannon - Runaway

Del Shannon - Runaway Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Runaway With...
Released: 1961

Runaway Lyrics

Runaway Song Chart

This is about a guy whose girl leaves him, and he is left to wonder what went wrong. A lot of Shannon's songs were about broken relationships. He once said he wrote the words to this about himself because he was forever running away from relationships.

Shannon and his keyboard player, Max Crook, came up with this while they were playing a club in their hometown of Battle Creek, Michigan. Crook played a keyboard called a "Musitron" on the song. (thanks, Jeff - Boston, MA)

Del Shannon (from 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh): "We were on stage and Max (Crook) hit an A minor and a G and I said, 'Max, play that again, it's a great change.'" The drummer, Dick Parker, followed them and after 15 minutes, the manager of the club shouted, 'Knock it off, play something else.'" The next day Shannon wrote some lyrics: "That night I went back to the club and I told Max to play an instrumental on his musitron for the middle part, and when he played that solo, we had 'Runaway.'"

In the UK, this was the biggest-selling single of 1961. (thanks, Edward Pearce - Ashford, Kent, England, for above 2)

Shannon re-recorded this for the Michael Mann TV series Crime Story, which ran from 1986-1988.

This was Shannon's biggest hit. His career trailed off a few years later, and he killed himself in 1990.

Tom Petty makes reference to this in "Runnin' Down A Dream." The line is, "It was a beautiful day, me and Del were singing, a little runaway."

This was used in the movie American Graffiti, a film that used many 1950s and '60s American pop, rock and doo-wop songs to create a jukebox-style soundtrack. As the film is set in 1962 ('Where Were You in '62?' was the tagline for the film), Shannon's "Runaway" is an appropriate period song for the film.

The famous musitron bridge was used pretty much note for note in the instrumental bridge to the 1982 song "Goodbye To You" by Scandal (with lead singer Patty Smyth). (thanks, Caren - Detroit area, MI)

The song has been covered many times. Queen and Paul Rodgers produced a version during The Cosmos Rocks sessions, with Brian May playing the musitron bridge solo section on guitar in his distinctive style. The song was an iTunes exclusive bonus track when the album was released in 2008.

Iron Maiden - The Aftermath

Iron Maiden - The Aftermath Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: The X Factor
Released: 1995

The Aftermath Lyrics

Silently to silence fall
In the fields of futile war
Toys of death are spitting lead
Where boys that were our soldiers bled
war horse and war machine

Curse the name of liberty
Marching on as if they should
Mix in the dirt our brothers' blood

In the mud and rain
What are we fighting for
Is it worth the pain is it worth dying for
Who will take the blame
Why did they make a war
Questions that come again
Should we be fighting at all

Once a ploughman hitched his team
Here he sowed his little dream
Now bodies arms and legs are strewn
Where mustard gas and barbwire bloom
Each moment's like a year
I've nothing left inside for tears
Comrades dead or dying lie
I'm left alone asking why

After the war
Left feeling no one has won
After the war
What does a soldier become

Writer/s: GERS, JANICK / HARRIS, STEPHEN PERCY / COOKE, BAYLEY
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

The Aftermath Song Chart

This song is one of Blaze Bayley's most significant contributions to Iron Maiden. The former Wolfsbane lead singer took over on vocals for Maiden starting with the The X Factor album and continuing through their 1998 release Virtual XI. He wrote the song with bassist Steve Harris and guitarist Janick Gers.

The song deals with World War I, and is written from the perspective of a soldier in the trenches. Blaze Bayley's great-grandfather fought and died in that war; Blaze had a photo of him in his notebook which triggered the memory and led to this song.

By all accounts, World War I battles were horrific. That's reflected in the lyric as we hear about the carnage and the soldier questions why he is there in the first place.

Blaze Bayley had been reading a lot of poetry from the World War I era when he composed this song. In particular, Bayley read the work of Siegfried Sassoon, a British poet who fought on the front lines in France and later became disillusioned with the war. Sassoon gained widespread acclaim in America for his novel, Memoirs of a Fox-hunting Man.

Blaze Bayley has a very emotional connection with this song, which hits him hard when he performs it. In our 2014 interview with Bayley , he said: "It's a song that I occasionally do in my setlist, but it's heavy in a very emotional way, so I find myself getting very bound up with that song and sometimes mentally it's a dark place to go. So I don't always do it in my set."

Pink Floyd - Run Like Hell

Pink Floyd - Run Like Hell Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: The Wall
Released: 1979

Run Like Hell Lyrics

Run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run
Run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run.
You better make your face up in
Your favorite disguise.
With your button down lips and your
Roller blind eyes.
With your empty smile
And your hungry heart.
Feel the bile rising from your guilty past.
With your nerves in tatters
When the conch shell shatters
And the hammers batter
Down your door.
You'd better run.

Run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run,
Run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run.
You better run all day
And run all night.
Keep your dirty feelings
Deep inside.
And if you're taking your girlfriend
Out tonight
You'd better park the car
Well out of sight.
'Cause if they catch you in the back seat
Trying to pick her locks,
They're gonna send you back to mother
In a cardboard box.
You better run.

"Hey, open up!"
"Hammer, hammer"

Writer/s: WATERS, ROGER/GILMOUR, DAVID JON
Publisher: Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., IMAGEM U.S. LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Run Like Hell Song Chart

Like the last few songs on The Wall, this can be summarized as Hitler's rise into power and downfall into hell just as Pink's life did in the movie The Wall. This isn't as detailed as "Waiting For the Worms", but it is a look into Hitler's terror. The entire theme is based on the dreaded Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass translated from German) on November 9th, 1938 which came during Hitler's order of terror. Nazis raided Jewish businesses and synagogues, places of recreation, even homes; throwing people out, destroying what they could. Many were killed and hundreds injured, and 7,500 business and 177 synagogues were destroyed. This is the terror that Pink in The Wall brought over citizens of his own kind. (thanks, J.I. - Pittsburgh, PA)

Producer Bob Ezrin convinced the band to use a Disco beat on this. Even though dance music was not what Pink Floyd was about, they got a good, catchy sound by putting a beat to this.

This was one of the last songs Roger Waters and Dave Gilmour wrote together. By the time they started working on The Wall, there was a lot of tension between them, which got worse on their next album and became real nasty in 1986 when Waters left and Gilmour continued Pink Floyd without him.

When they first recorded this, it was a lot longer. They had to cut it down so it would fit on the album. There was a limited amount of space on vinyl records.

If Waters and Gilmour could get along, they could go back to the master tapes and produce a longer version of this as they had recorded originally. They have not spoken in years, and Waters has no intention of ever again working with Gilmour.

Waters sang lead on this. In 1987, when Pink Floyd toured without him, Gilmour did the vocals. They usually played it as an encore.

The stage show for the tour of The Wall was very theatrical. As the band played, 340 enormous bricks formed a wall in front of them, representing the distance between the performers and their audience. During this, the wall was knocked down.

In the movie version of The Wall, the main character, a rock star named "Pink," rampages a village with a group of Skinheads. "Pink" was played by Bob Geldof.

On July 21, 1990, Waters staged a production of The Wall in Berlin to celebrate the destruction of The Berlin Wall. The 200,000 people who attended cheered wildly he played this.

The female rock group Kittie covered this in 2002.

The Wall is a concept album about a rock star whose disturbed past and excessive lifestyle causes him to slowly go insane. (thanks, Jamie - Sydney, Belgium)

On the inner sleeve of the vinyl album, both "Run, run, run..." lines Aren't printed. What's there instead is the line "You better run like hell." (thanks, Elies - Surrey, Canada)

Artist Gerald Scarf came up with the symbol of the two hammers crossed. When he was doing the animation for The Wall he wanted to have an army of hammers marching but couldn't figure out how to make a hammer "march." He then realized that two hammers together gives the illusion of two legs, so he used that method in the animation and the "crossed hammer" symbol was born. (thanks, Dogma - Alexandria, LA)

Iron Maiden - The Edge Of Darkness

Iron Maiden - The Edge Of Darkness Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: The X Factor
Released: 1995

The Edge Of Darkness Lyrics

I've looked into the heart of darkness
Where the blood red journey ends
When you've faced the heart of darkness
Even your soul begins to bend

For a week I have been waiting
Still I am only in Saigon
The walls move in a little closer
I feel the jungle call me on

Every minute I get weaker
While in the jungle they grow strong
What I wanted was a mission
And for my sins they gave me one

They brought it up just like room service
Cause everyone gets what they want
And when that mission was all over
I'd never want another one

I know, captain that you've done this work before
We've got a problem you can help us all I'm sure
The colonel's gone rogue
and his methods are unsound
You'll take a PBR up river track him down

There's a conflict in every human heart
And the temptation is to take it all too far
In this war things get so confused
But there are some things which can not be excused

He's acting like a god an insane lunatic
Your mission, exterminate with extreme prejudice
The route is dangerous and your progress may be slow
Here is the file and it's all you need to know

Here I am the knife in my hand
And now I understand why the genius must die

Now I stand alone in darkness
With his blood upon my hands
Where sat the warrior the poet
Now lie the fragments of a man

Writer/s: GERS, JANICK / HARRIS, STEPHEN PERCY / COOKE, BAYLEY
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

The Edge Of Darkness Song Chart

Written by lead singer Blaze Bayley, bassist Steve Harris and guitarist Janick Gers, this song was based on the move Apocalypse Now. The 1979 film takes place during the Vietnam War, and shows how ordinary men can compromise their beliefs in the face of atrocity. Both the movie and the song examine this conflict.

Like many Iron Maiden songs, this one doesn't have a standard chorus. In our interview with Blaze Bayley, he explained: "There's quite a few Iron Maiden songs that don't have conventional chorus or conventional fallouts, but they make sense as musical pieces. We call them 'songs' as a convenient name. That was a big part of the experience in Iron Maiden."

Pink Floyd - Another Brick In The Wall (part II)

Pink Floyd - Another Brick In The Wall (part II) Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: The Wall
Released: 1979

Another Brick In The Wall (part II) Lyrics

Another Brick In The Wall (part II) Song Chart

Roger Waters wrote this song about his views on formal education, which were framed during his time at the Cambridgeshire School for Boys. He hated his grammar school teachers and felt they were more interested in keeping the kids quiet than teaching them. The wall refers to the wall Waters built around himself because he wasn't in touch with reality. The bricks in the wall were the events in his life which propelled him to build this proverbial wall around him, and his school teacher was another brick in the wall.
Waters told Mojo, December 2009, that the song is meant to be satirical. He explained: "You couldn't find anybody in the world more pro-education than me. But the education I went through in boys' grammar school in the '50s was very controlling and demanded rebellion. The teachers were weak and therefore easy targets. The song is meant to be a rebellion against errant government, against people who have power over you, who are wrong. Then it absolutely demanded that you rebel against that."

The chorus came from a school in Islington, England, and was chosen because it was close to the studio. It was made up of 23 kids between the ages of 13 and 15. They were overdubbed 12 times, making it sound like there were many more kids.
The addition of the choir convinced Waters that the song would come together. He told Rolling Stone: "It suddenly made it sort of great."

Pink Floyd's producer, Bob Ezrin, had the idea for the chorus. He used a choir of kids when he produced Alice Cooper's "School's Out" in 1972. Ezrin liked to use children's voices on songs about school.

There was some controversy when it was revealed that the chorus was not paid. It also didn't sit well with teachers that kids were singing an anti-school song. The chorus was given recording time in the studio in exchange for their contribution; the school received 1000 pounds and a platinum record.

The Disco beat was suggested by their producer, Bob Ezrin, who was a fan of the group Chic. This was completely unexpected from Pink Floyd, who specialized in making records you were supposed to listen to, not dance to. He got the idea for the beat when he was in New York and heard something Nile Rodgers was doing.

Pink Floyd rarely released singles that were also on an album. They felt their songs were best appreciated in the context of an album, where the songs and the artwork came together to form a theme. Producer Bob Ezrin convinced them that this could stand on it's own and would not hurt album sales, and when the band relented and released it as a single, it became their only #1 hit. Two more songs were subsequently released as singles from the album: "Run Like Hell" and "Comfortably Numb."

The concept of the album was to explore the "walls" people put up to protect themselves. Any time something bad happens, we withdraw further, putting up "another brick in the wall."

The Wall was one of 2 ideas Waters brought to the band when they got together to record in 1978. His other idea was The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking, which he ended up recording as a solo album.

Water's original demo for this was just him singing over an acoustic guitar, and he saw it as a short interstitial piece for the album. He explained in Mojo magazine: "It was only going to be one verse, a guitar solo and out. Then the late Nick Griffths, the engineer at Britannia Row, recorded the school kids, at my request. He did it brilliantly. It wasn't until I heard the 24-track tape he sent while we were working at Producer's Workshop in Los Angeles that I went, 'Wow, this now a single.' Talk about shivers down the spine."

When they first recorded this song, it was one verse and one chorus, and lasted 1:20. Producer Bob Ezrin wanted it longer, but the band refused. While they were gone, Ezrin made it longer by inserting the kids as the second verse, adding some drum fills, and copying the first chorus to the end. He played it for Waters, who liked what he heard.

This is often paired with "Happiest Days of Our Lives" when played on radio stations, and it follows "Happiest" on the album. "Happiest Days of Our Lives" depicts how childhood was great and there was nothing to worry about, until the teachers came along and tried to oppress and suppress the children. Waters then describes that the teachers must have it rough in their own homes, and take out their frustration on the students. (thanks, Patrick - Conyers, GA)

To make this album, they came up with the concept of the character "Pink." Bob Ezrin wrote a script, and they worked the songs around the character. The story was made into the movie The Wall, starring Bob Geldof as "Pink." Many people believe you have to be stoned to enjoy the film.

For the stage show, a giant wall was erected in front of the band using hidden hydraulic lifts as they played. It measured 160x35ft when completed, and about halfway through the show, the bricks were gradually knocked down to reveal the band.

Waters sang lead. When he left Pink Floyd and the band toured without him, Gilmour sang it.

The original idea for the concept of the actual Wall they wanted to create came from a problem Roger Waters was having during their concerts. When he started thinking about the show, he wanted to isolate himself from the public because he couldn't stand all the yelling and shouting. "The Wall" was not just a symbol and a concept, but a way of separating the band from their audience. (thanks, raul - Buenos Aires, Argentina)

The line "We don't need no education" is grammatically incorrect. It's a double negative and really means "We need education." This could be a commentary on the quality of the schools.

On July 21, 1990, Waters staged a production of The Wall in Berlin to celebrate the destruction of The Berlin Wall.

The 1998 movie The Faculty has a version of this song remixed by Class Of '99. (thanks, Riley - Elmhurst, IL)

In England, this was released in November 1979 and became the last UK #1 of the '70s. (thanks, Alan - Blackpool, Lancs, England)

Part 1 of this song is often overlooked. It is saying that because Pink's father went off and died in WWII, he built The Wall to protect him from other people. In the movie you see him at the playground with the other kids and their fathers, then one of the kids leaves with his father and Pink tries to touch the father's hand. The father pushes him away quite aggressively then leaves. (thanks, Andres - Santa Rosa, CA)

In 2004, Peter Rowan, a Scottish musician who runs a royalties firm, started tracking down the kids who sang in the chorus, who were by then in their 30s. Under a 1996 copyright law, they were entitled to a small amount of money for participating on the record. Rowan was no so much interested in the money as in getting the chorus together for a reunion.

On July 7, 2007, Roger Waters performed this as the Live Earth concert at Giants Stadium in New Jersey. Live Earth was organized to raise awareness of global warming, and the slogan for the event was "Save Our Selves" (S.O.S.). Waters poked fun at Pink Floyd and the event by flying a giant inflatable big overhead, which was a classic Pink Floyd stage prop, except this one was emblazoned wit the words "Save Our Sausages." (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)

Roger Waters did the Scottish voices on the track. He told Mojo magazine December 2009 laughing, "I can do mad Scotsman and high court judges."

The teacher character in this song shows up again in Pink Floyd's next album, The Final Cut (1983), notably in the song "The Hero's Return." He is based on the many men who returned from war and entered the teaching profession, as they had no other opportunities.

Hawksley Workman - They Decided Not to Like Us

Hawksley Workman - They Decided Not to Like Us Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Songs from The God That Comes
Released: 2013

They Decided Not to Like Us Lyrics

They Decided Not to Like Us Song Chart

"They Decided Not to Like Us" is the epilogue of Hawksley Workman's one-man show, The God That Comes based off of the Greek tragedy by Euripides, The Bacchae. The song serves as almost a modern-day version of the story because of the similar themes. The Bacchae revolves around the King of Thebes, Pentheus, being upset that his people are engaging in disgraceful activities involving alcohol consumption and coitus.

"They Decided Not to Like Us" speaks about feeling badly about oneself after a night of partying and possibly being judged for partaking in those same kinds of events as in the play.

The idea of "They Decided Not to Like Us" being a present day version of the story is evident in the first two verses with the lyrics mentioning alcohol and worrying about people seeing revealing photos:

Nudie pictures on your mobile phone
Forgotten in the back of a cab
You were just going home
You were too drunk to know

And you'll wake up at seven
With your guts in a knot
Wondering if the world has seen
All the close-ups you took
That you texted to me

The song is different than any other because it was the only one not written for the play. Workman wrote it with Hot Hot Heat's lead singer, Steve Bays, before they had started their Canadian rock supergroup, Mounties.

In our interview with Workman , he revealed what inspired the song. "I sort of had a night of excessiveness and then the next day I had all the self-loathing and guilt that comes with those kinds of nights," he said. Hawksley went on to explain how some people did not like the tune included at the end of the play, but that the point of it was to bring the whole show into the present.

Pink Floyd - Sheep

Pink Floyd - Sheep Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Animals
Released: 1977

Sheep Lyrics

Hopelessly passing your time in the grassland away
Only dimly aware of a certain unease in the air
You better watch out,
There may be dogs about
I've looked over Jordan, and I have seen
Things are not what they seem

What do you get for pretending the danger's not real
Meek and obedient you follow the leader
Down well trodden corridors into the valley of steel
What a surprise!

A look of terminal shock in your eyes
Now things are really what they seem
No, this is no bad dream

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want
He makes me down to lie
Through pastures green He leadeth me the silent waters by
With bright knives He releaseth my soul

He maketh me to hang on hooks in high places
He converteth me to lamb cutlets,
For lo, He hath great power, and great hunger
When cometh the day we lowly ones,

Through quiet reflection, and great dedication
Master the art of karate,
Lo, we shall rise up,
And then we'll make the bugger's eyes water

Bleating and babbling we fell on his neck with a scream
Wave upon wave of demented avengers
March cheerfully out of obscurity into the dream

Have you heard the news?
The dogs are dead
You better stay home
And do as you're told
Get out of the road if you want to grow old

Writer/s: WATERS, ROGER
Publisher: Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Sheep Song Chart

Along with pigs and dogs, sheep are one of 3 animals represented on the album. The sheep represents the mindless people who follow the herd.

Pink Floyd started performing this in 1974. It was known as "Raving And Drooling," but was changed to fit the animal theme of the album.

This was the only song from Animals included on Pink Floyd's 2001 retrospective album Echoes.

After Pink Floyd toured for this album, they took some time off, got back together, and recorded their legendary album The Wall.

There is a "subliminal" message on this song that is a parody of the "Lord's Prayer". It is heard beneath the music in a robotic, distorted voice, with sheep heard in the background. "The Lord is my shepherd, He converteth me to lamb cutlets....". (thanks, Shawn - Boston, MA)

Hawksley Workman - Smoke Baby

Hawksley Workman - Smoke Baby Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Lover/Fighter
Released: 2003

Smoke Baby Lyrics

In your underclothes
You went out for a smoke
I call you in
Just before the storm begins
Your last breath of smoke
You let out in the room
It makes a cloud
Like the greyist
Perfect plume

Smoke Baby, smoke baby
More alcohol baby
Cocaine in Montreal
And back out on a plane baby
An early flight will leave
And on it will be me
I'll be half asleep
And you'll get up at three

Casual as a light
Flickers before it's night
Sadness comes
And the daylight turns and runs
As the sun is setting you'll be betting
I'll be getting through
I'll find a payphone baby
Take some time to talk to you

And I have never felt
Quite this close to hell
All this rock and roll baby
Only time will tell
But we're young now, having fun now
On the town now, get around now
It's fine for now
But someday we'll settle down
But not now

Smoke baby

Who'll give you time to cry?
And time to find yourself?

Writer/s: CORRIGAN, RYAN MATTHEW / MCKINNEY, MARTIN DANIEL N
Publisher: Peermusic Publishing, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Smoke Baby Song Chart

This is the eighth track on Hawksley Workman's critically acclaimed and commercially successful album, Lover/Fighter. Workman co-wrote this song with renowned producer, Doc McKinney, best recognized for his work with The Weeknd and Drake.

Workman has written songs with McKinney numerous times throughout his career and "Smoke Baby" was the first one they wrote together. The song was drastically different from any that Workman had previously written. It opened his songwriting world up to a whole new process he had never explored before. "Smoke Baby" was written in a studio to a beat that McKinney created. In our interview with Workman , he explained what it was like working with him. "The beats that he would cook up always felt to me to be a little cooler," he said. "You just could always feel that Doc was onto something."

It was the beginning of Workman realizing that there were other ways of writing than just sitting down at a piano like he was used to doing. This would later become a norm for Workman when he would take songwriting trips to London, England, Stockholm, Sweden, Los Angeles, and New York to work with pop producers trying to breed radio hits.

Lyrically "Smoke Baby" talks about Workman believing his own hype at the time. "I was kind of this cult star in France and I was living an excessive lifestyle," he told us. "The lyrics now serve me more as an embarrassment than they do as me proudly wearing my rock and roll badge of honor."

The outlandish rock and roll lifestyle Workman mentions is evident in these lyrics:

And I have never felt
Quite this close to hell
All this rock and roll, baby
Only time will tell

And specifically in the chorus, too:

Smoke baby, smoke baby
More alcohol, baby
Cocaine in Montreal
And black out on the plane, baby

Pink Floyd - Arnold Layne

Pink Floyd - Arnold Layne Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Relics
Released: 1967

Arnold Layne Lyrics

Arnold Layne had a strange hobby
Collecting clothes
Moonshine washing line
They suit him fine
On the wall hung a tall mirror
Distorted view, see through baby blue
Oh, Arnold Layne
It's not the same, takes two to know
Two to know, two to know
Why can't you see?
Arnold Layne, Arnold Layne, Arnold Layne, Arnold Layne

Now he's caught, a nasty sort of person
They gave him time
Doors bang, chain gang, he hates it
Oh, Arnold Layne
It's not the same, takes two to know
Two to know, two to know
Why can't you see?
Arnold Layne, Arnold Layne, Arnold Layne, Arnold Layne

Don't do it again

Writer/s: BARRETT, SYD
Publisher: Peermusic Publishing
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Arnold Layne Song Chart

Original member Syd Barrett wrote this about a cross-dresser named "Arnold Layne" who used to steal bras and panties from clotheslines in Cambridge, England. Barrett lived near Roger Waters growing up. Their mothers both lost underwear to Arnold Layne.

Pink Floyd's first single; it was not used on an album. In promotional materials to accompany the single, the band's record company, EMI, wrote: "Pink Floyd does not know what people mean by psychedelic pop and are not trying to cause hallucinatory effects on their audience."

The group was set to make their Top Of The Pops debut with a performance of this song in April 1967, but were dropped when it fell three places on the UK chart that week. They first appeared on the show July 6, performing "See Emily Play."

Barrett was the group leader and an excellent songwriter, but he did a lot of drugs and lost his mind over the next year, becoming England's first high-profile acid casualty. He was kicked out of the band the next year, replaced by David Gilmour.

Radio London banned this song, since it was about a man who steals women's undergarments. The far more conservative BBC played it, indicating they either didn't have a problem with this particular subject matter or didn't understand it.

Before the band came out at their shows in the late '80s, this played while video of Pink Floyd in 1967 was shown on the giant screens.

This had a blues sound the band was known for. Pink Floyd's name originated from Syd Barrett. His two favorite blues artists, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council, appeared to him in what he referred to as a "vision," giving Syd the idea for the name. (thanks, Anthony - Wantagh, NY)

The promotional black-and-white music video displayed the band with Syd. During the video, the band dressed up a mannequin and took it to a beach. (thanks, Andy - Cleveland, OH)

The song made an unexpected appearance in the live sets of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour during his 2006 tour promoting his solo album, On an Island. Later in the year, two live recordings of the song, from Gilmour's On an Island shows at the Royal Albert Hall were released as a live single, which peaked at #19 on the UK singles chart. One version had guest vocals by David Bowie, the other by Floyd's Richard Wright.