Bloc Party | Helicopter The Song That Refuses Explanation Bloc Party’s “Helicopter” is built on paradox: a title disconnected from its lyrics, a political anthem that isn’t political, and a riff borrowed from a band they got compared to but never actually listened to. Here’s a song where the title never appears in the lyrics. […]
Nobody Knows What “Helicopter” Is About Read More »
Peter Gabriel | Sledgehammer The Taxi Was Waiting Peter Gabriel’s biggest hit was a last-minute jam recorded as the musicians were literally leaving the studio. It became his only #1, knocked Genesis off the top spot, and spawned the most awarded music video in history. Manu Katché had called a taxi. The French drummer was
The Last Song Recorded for So Made Peter Gabriel Read More »
Foo Fighters | Everlong The Song That Wasn’t a Hit “Everlong” never charted on the Billboard Hot 100 and only peaked at #3 on Alternative Airplay. By any normal measure, it wasn’t a hit. But it crossed a billion Spotify streams, tops practically every “Best Foo Fighters Song” list ever made, and somehow became the
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Arctic Monkeys | Do I Wanna Know? The Weight of a Riff Arctic Monkeys wrote the most-streamed rock song in history on a guitar Alex Turner bought as a joke, and when he first played the riff for the band, he was worried they’d gone too far. Here’s what gets me about the making of
The Joke Guitar That Launched 2.7 Billion Streams Read More »
Velvet Underground | Pale Blue Eyes A Sealed Envelope A reel-to-reel tape sealed in 1965 held the earliest recording of “Pale Blue Eyes”, and sat unopened for over fifty years. When archivists finally cracked it open, they found the origin of a love song built almost entirely on beautiful lies. The eyes weren’t even blue.
The Eyes Were Hazel Read More »
Daft Punk | Get Lucky The Paradox A 15-second TV teaser became a 10-hour YouTube loop, and a song built to reject the internet broke Spotify’s all-time streaming record, the contradiction at the heart of “Get Lucky” never really resolved itself. Somewhere in early 2013, somebody took a 15-second television clip and looped it into
Daft Punk Built an Analog Temple. The Internet Worshipped It. Read More »
Television | Marquee Moon The Take Nobody Planned In the fall of 1976, Television recorded their ten-minute guitar epic in a single take at A&R Studios. The drummer thought it was a rehearsal. The engineer, Andy Johns, who’d worked with Led Zeppelin and the Stones, initially thought they couldn’t play, then took the finished tapes
One Take to Change Guitar Music Forever Read More »
Coldplay | Yellow A Letter and a Phone Book Jon M. Chu wrote a careful letter asking Coldplay to license ‘Yellow.’ Chris Martin got the title off a phone book. The tension between those two truths defines the song. On December 8, 2017, a filmmaker sat down at a typewriter and wrote a love letter
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Tame Impala | The Less I Know The Better The Almost-Gift Kevin Parker tried to give his best song to Mark Ronson. Ronson sent it back, and it went on to outstream everything else Parker ever made. Kevin Parker spent days pacing a hallway somewhere in America, rehearsing a conversation he kept trying to talk
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Dire Straits | Romeo and Juliet Through the Bars of a Rhyme Mark Knopfler admitted he couldn’t write a love song ‘the way it’s meant to be’, then wrote maybe the best love song in rock, born from a real breakup and a 1937 resonator guitar at The Power Station in 1980. Here’s a song
She Called It a Scene. He Made It Immortal. Read More »
