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‘Bilie Jean’ – Michael Jackson (1983)
Written and composed by Michael Jackson, off the Thriller album, the lyrics describe a woman, Billie Jean, who claims that the narrator is the father of her newborn son.
Jackson said that "Billie Jean" was based on groupies he and his brothers encountered while they performed as the Jackson 5:
"They would hang around backstage doors, and any band that would come to town they would have a relationship with, and I think I wrote this out of experience with my brothers when I was little. There were a lot of Billie Jeans out there. Every girl claimed that their son was related to one of my brothers."
According to Jackson's biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli, "Billie Jean" was inspired by letters Jackson received in 1981 from a woman claiming he was the father of one of her twins. Jackson, who regularly received letters of this kind, had never met the woman and ignored those claims. However, she continued to send letters stating that she loved him and wanted to be with him, asking how he could ignore his own flesh and blood. The letters disturbed him so much that he began to suffer nightmares.
Eventually, Jackson received a parcel containing a photograph of the fan, a gun, and a letter instructing him to die at a particular time. The fan would do the same once she had killed "their" baby, so they could be together in the "next life". The Jacksons later discovered that the fan had been sent to a psychiatric hospital.
By the Way:
Jackson was so absorbed in the song, writing it in his head, that he did not notice that his car was on fire. Someone on a bike pointed it out to him.
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(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction – Rolling Stones (1965)
On May 6, 1965, The Rolling Stones played to about 3,000 people at Jack Russell Stadium in Clearwater, Florida while on their first US tour. According to an article in the St. Petersburg Times, about 200 young fans got in an altercation with a line of police officers at the show, and The Stones made it through just four songs as chaos ensued. That night, Keith Richards woke up in his hotel room with the guitar riff and lyric "can't get no satisfaction" in his head. He recorded it on a portable tape deck, went back to sleep, and brought it to the studio that week. The tape contained his guitar riff followed by the sounds of him snoring.
Mick Jagger wrote all the lyrics except the line "can't get no satisfaction." The lyrics deal with what Jagger saw as the two sides of America: the real and phony. The song is about a man looking for authenticity but not being able to find it through the haze of marketing. Jagger experienced the vast commercialism of America in a big way on their tours and later learned to exploit it, as The Rolling Stones made truckloads of money through sponsorships and merchandising in the US.
By the Way:
In the UK, the song initially was played only on pirate radio stations, because its lyrics were considered too sexually suggestive.
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‘Sounds of Then’ – GANGajang (1985)
Written by GANGajang front man, Mark "Cal" Callaghan, who provides lead vocals and guitar, the song has been described as "a defining portrait of the nation."
Callaghan recalled that it started as a poem in his notebook, reflecting on the time that his family moved from England to Bundaberg in Queensland, a major culture shock for him:
"We lived half way between Bundaberg and the ocean, all around was bush scrub and cane fields. And walking up to the top of the street to catch the school bus, one morning you turn around and there's fire. It's one of those songs where if your goal was only to sell records, whatever it took to do it, then the song would have been called 'This is Australia'. But it's not about that. It's a brick veneer drama. My parents got divorced when they came to Australia, it was a horrible period of my life. And the song is actually about how smells and sounds and sensations can rekindle a memory – which is what music does so successfully for people:'I think I hear the sounds of then and people talkingScenes recalled by minute movementAnd songs they fall from the backing tape…'."
By the Way:
Formed in 1984, the group’s name GANGgajang is meant to replicate the sound of a guitar playing a loud chord.
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‘Hallelujah’ – Leonard Cohen (1984)
Written by Canadian singer Leonard Cohen, the song achieved little initial success. It found greater popular acclaim through a new version recorded by John Cale in 1991. Which in turn inspired a 1994 recording by Jeff Buckley. The song achieved widespread popularity after Cale's version of it was featured in the 2001 film Shrek. "Hallelujah" experienced renewed interest following Cohen's death in November 2016 and re-appeared on international singles charts, including entering the American Billboard Hot 100 for the first time.
When at age 50 Cohen first recorded the song, he described it as "rather joyous", and said that it came from "a desire to affirm my faith in life, not in some formal religious way, but with enthusiasm, with emotion." He later said "there is a religious hallelujah, but there are many other ones. When one looks at the world, there's only one thing to say, and it's hallelujah".
Journalist Larry Sloman, who knew Cohen well and interviewed him often, described the song as one part biblical, one part the woman that Cohen slept with last night, citing an unidentified critic saying that Cohen was most interested in "holiness and horniness".
Canadian singer k.d. lang said in an interview shortly after Cohen's death that she considered the song to be about "the struggle between having human desire and searching for spiritual wisdom. It's being caught between those two places."
By the Way:
Cohen wrote about 80 verses for the song, settling on six he
included. Some of the extra verses he would sometimes use when he performed the
song live.
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