Posted June 3, 2011 at 10:12 am | No comments
“Europa” is one of Santana’s most popular instrumental songs, showing off his more relaxed side and his incredible ability to build energy in a solo. The song did not originate as “Europa,” however. After seeing his friend have a horrible experience with the psychedelic drug mescaline (peyote), Santana wrote a song called “The Mushroom Lady’s Coming to Town,” which included the beginning lick to Europa. He put the song away and didn’t touch it for a while after that. Later on, Santana toured with Earth, Wind and Fire, and in Manchester, England he played this song with their keyboardist Tom Coster who added some input on chords. The result was renamed “Europa (Earth’s Cry Heaven’s Smile)” and has since been a classic.
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Posted June 2, 2011 at 10:57 am | No comments
Bullet For My Valentine continues the long-lived metal tradition of over-the-top violent lyrics with “Scream Aim Fire”, the first single from their sophomore album of the same name. Combining speed metal thrashing guitars/drums with hardcore-influenced breakdowns, BFMV create a constantly driving song that makes it almost impossible not to throw up a rock fist. While the majority of the lyrics are sung, the lines “Over the top! Over the top!” and “Scream, aim, fire!” are screamed with intense conviction. The lyrics are evocative of a battlefield, where “the only way out is to die”. They may not be the most creative when it comes to metal lyrics, but they rock hard, and the guitars are the focal point anyway.
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Posted June 1, 2011 at 10:23 am | No comments
“Summer of ’69” is one of those songs everybody knows the words to even if they’ve only heard it once or twice, probably because of all the cliches in the lyrics. But it’s those cliches that helped make Bryan Adams famous. Adams and Jim Vallance have given different accounts of the subject matter of “Summer of ’69”, but whether it’s about the sex position or the actual year, it’s the nostalgia that counts. Instantly relatable to anyone with a past, Bryan Adams set the standard for nostalgic naivety with this feel-good number. One of the few songs that is on both best-of lists (Blender’s Top 500 Songs of the 80s-00s, Charattack’s 50 Best Canadian Singles of All Time, and more) and worst-of lists (Time magazine’s Top 10 Worst Songs of Summer and others), “Summer of ’69” is timeless nonetheless. Play this, and everyone will sing along when you get to “those were the best days of my life!”
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Posted May 31, 2011 at 7:05 am | No comments
The only song, so far, released by Pennsylvania Alternative Rock band Breaking Benjamin, to reach the number one spot on the charts, “The Diary of Jane” is one of the band’s biggest and well-known singles. The band is also known for the phobias that their lead singer Benjamin Burnley possesses, including a fear of flying that has prevented the band from ever touring outside of Canada and the U.S., is currently on hiatus while Burnley seeks treatment for an illness that is related to his alcoholism, which he has been open about in recent months, admitting that he wished he’d never drank a drop of booze in his life.
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Posted May 30, 2011 at 6:58 am | No comments
Originally written for the band Loverboy, “You Give Love a Bad Name” would instead be recorded by Bon Jovi, going on to become the band’s fire Number 1 Hit on the Billboard charts. The song would return to the charts in 2009 after it was performed on American Idol by then contestant Blake Lewis. Listed by VH1 as the 20th Greatest Hard Rock of All Time, the song was supposedly written by Jon Bon Jovi as a tribute to his them girlfriend Diane Lane, but the iconic singer has never confirmed this in the press.
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Posted May 29, 2011 at 8:05 am | No comments
After a long night of partying, Jon Bon Jovi woke up in his hotel room feeling highly hungover. Instead of taking aspirin and sleeping in, the singer grabbed a pen and paper, put his current state of mind and feelings into song form, and wrote on the band’s biggest hits, “Bed of Roses.” The song also marked a shift in the band’s image from their ‘80s Glam Band roots, to a more mature sound that would continue in their later releases. It is also one of the last successful Power Ballads, as Grunge would quickly erase any memory of Metal and ‘80s Rock only a few months later.
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Posted May 28, 2011 at 8:23 am | No comments
With lyrics derived from a speech given by Marcus Garvey, Bob Marley’s 1980 hit song “Redemption Song” is one of his, and the Wailers’, most enduring classics. At the time he wrote the song, Marley had been diagnosed with Cancer, that would later cause his early death, and writing the song was seen as therapeutic as he was in a lot of pain at the time. The song was recorded in a solo, acoustic setting, which was rare for the Reggae star, but that allows the song to stand out in his enormously successful catalogue of releases.
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Posted May 27, 2011 at 8:15 am | No comments
Originally written in 1965 by the Wailers, and recorded in a ska style, Bob Marley’s 1977 release “One Love” has become one of his most popular and longest enduring hits. While many people who grew up with Marley’s music will recognize the song from the ’77 recording, a whole new generation of listener’s have been exposed to the song, and therefore Marley’s music, ever since the song was coopted by the Jamaican Tourism Board and used in their commercials to promote vacations on the Caribbean island. Regardless of whether or not the song reaches one’s ears from the radio, a TV commercial or otherwise, it is a timeless classic by a timeless artist.
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Posted May 26, 2011 at 9:55 am | No comments
Written from the point of view of a man that has just killed his local Sheriff, but does not admit to killing the Sheriff’s deputy, “I Shot the Sheriff” was an enormous hit for Bob Marley when it was first released in 1973. As well, the song became a massive chart topper for British blues legend Eric Clapton when it was recorded for his 461 Ocean Boulevard album, becoming the only single by Slow Hand to reach number 1 on the Billboard charts during his long and successful career. When Body Count released their song “Cop Killer,” an argument was made that there was no similar uproar over Clapton’s version when it topped the charts in 1974.
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Posted May 25, 2011 at 9:55 am | No comments
Released on his 1978 album Kaye, “Is This Love” has since become one of Bob Marley’s biggest hits, and one of his most cherished songs by fans across the globe. The song, which was part of the Legend compilation, peaked at number 9 in the U.K., and a live version of the song was also highly popular after it was featured on the 1978 album Babylon by Bus, which was recorded live in Paris. A music video was shot for “Is This Love,” and it featured a then seven year old Naomi Campbell, before she was an international supermodel and phone-throwing celebrity.
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