Collective Soul - You

This is one of two songs on the "Rabbit" album hat were a collective writing effort by the band, a rarity in Collective Soul's recording history. "We've never written together as a band," Roland told Billboard magazine, "so it was a new experience. I think it's the confidence that the other guys have gotten in their music skills and the songwriting and also, for lack of a better term, me letting go of my ego a little bit and going, 'You know what? These guys can do this.' And it was a lot of fun."

Rammstein - Du Hast

Although the German phrase does not translate to English, "Du hast" can mean "you have," but it can also mean "you hate." Therefore the song has two meanings. One being sort of "You hate me but still want to marry me" (the song is about marriage) and the other being "You want to marry me but I don't want to."

Better Than Ezra - Absolutely Still

This song reflects on the fragility of love and relationships. Frontman Kevin Griffin remarked in publicity materials that this song, "is about when you're with someone, and you have those fleeting moments of clarity when everything is right between the two of you, and you can block out all the chaos and noise outside. You don't have to say anything and everything is understood. Before it all goes wrong, there are all those perfect moments of bliss."

Auróra - Ez a város

Between 1984 and 1988 the band was playing under false names in order not to attract the attention of the “old friends”, the Hungarian Secret Service. At this time the band caught the attention of some Austrian punks who invited “Aurora” to play in Vienna. This was the first time the band played a cocncert outside Eastern Europe.

Auróra - Kifacsart citrom

Aurora was founded in Győr, Hungary by the young local punks “Vigi” (guitar vocals), “Galacs” (bass), “Polyak” (drums) and “Dauer” (vocals). This was in 1982, at the height of the Hungarian punk blast, a period in which a punk gig caused big agitation, occasionally by starting riots.
“ We started criticizing the Soviet Army a little bit too early. It wasn’t really a surprise when the authorities sent us for a trial because of anticommunist lyrics. Our original singer “Dauer” had to spend two years in prison because according to the authorities he had chosen a the “wrong words”, Vigi reminds of the old, “romantic” days.

12 Stones - Bulletproof

This is the second single from the band's fourth studio album. They released an official lyric video for it, but didn't make a real music video.

Nickelback - When We Stand Together

Nickelback wanted it to look like they were performing in the Serengeti for the music video, so director Justin Francis  brought the band to a field 30 miles outside of Los Angeles and digitally erased the city from the background in the wide shots. The clip also includes shots of people standing together during times of crisis.

Damien Rice - The Blower's Daughter

Like many great songwriters, Damien Rice was part of the proletariat before he earned a living in music. Growing up in Kildare County, Ireland, he found himself working at a call center in the late '90s. His job was to cold call households and try to sell them products like insurance and mortgages. As anyone who has engaged a telemarketer in conversation is aware, this is a miserable job and one that requires a bit of mental dissociation. On one of Rice's calls, a woman answered the phone and began such a dialogue.

As Rice told the story when he would introduce the song at concerts, he enjoyed speaking to this lady and became smitten. They spoke for about an hour that day, not about financial products but about their hopes and dreams, developing quite a rapport by the end of the talk. For months, Rice "followed the lead" by calling her during his shifts, where they would continue their increasingly intimate chats.

Then one day she stopped answering. In these days before the proliferation of the internet, tracking down an unrequited love was more complicated than a Google search, but Rice was determined to find this woman. From his call list, he determined the address associated with the phone number, and he hopped a bus to the residence. He hid in the bushes until the woman emerged, and when she did, she was on her way to school - the woman was just a girl, maybe 16 years old.

Crestfallen, Rice realized that when he had called, she was on summer vacation, and she stopped answering when it was time to return to school. She had been using him for entertainment, and Rice was devastated. "The Blower's Daughter" was the song he wrote about the incident.

Csík Zenekar - Csillag vagy fecske

This is a traditional hungarian folk cover of a great hungarian alternative song.

Metallica - Hell And Back

This song was recorded for the band's Death Magnetic sessions but had not been released on the album itself. It was later released on the Beyond Magnetic EP.

The Airborne Toxic Event - All I Ever Wanted

A great song from The Airborne Toxic Event's second album.

Korn - Narcissistic Cannibal

Frontman Jonathan Davis on the song's meaning: "It's about me watching people who are so narcissistic destroy themselves. They basically eat themselves alive because of their narcissism. That's the gist of the story."

Daughtry - Crawling Back To You

The song's music video is a simple one of the band performing the song. Talking about the clip, Chris Daughtry said, "We wanted it to be a performance video not necessarily based on any narrative or story." The singer added, regarding his philosophy of filming visuals: "Whenever I do a video I have a hard time faking it. I always lose my voice at the end of a video shoot because I give it all every single take."

U2 - Sweetest Thing

Bono wrote this as a birthday present to his wife, Ali. On her birthday, he was working on recording The Joshua Tree, so he was trying to make up for it.

U2 recorded this for The Joshua Tree, but left it off because they felt it did not fit in on the album. It was originally released as the B-side to a 7" single that also included "Where The Streets Have No Name" and "Silver And Gold."

 

 

U2 - With Or Without You

The Edge used a distortion device called an "Infinite Guitar" to create the wail. It was invented by Michael Brook, who The Edge worked with on the soundtrack for The Captive. Brook created the Infinite Guitar by replacing the pickup on a guitar with a magnetic device that vibrates the strings. Co-producer Daniel Lanois told Mojo magazine January 2008 about the recording of this song: "'For 'With Or Without You' we had the rhythm and the chords then we were testing Michael Brook's Infinite Guitar Invention. I asked Edge just to play a little something with it. He did two takes and those are the ones in the ultimate mix of 'With Or Without You.' Beautiful sounds, stratospheric."

Cavo - Let It Go

Cavo frontman Casey Walker told Artist Direct about the meaning of this track: "It's a very meaningful song. It's the most personal song I've ever written. In my opinion, the first line of the second verse is the catalyst of the song—'There's a chance to change or stay the same.' I was at a point in my life where I realized that I had two options. I could either change or go down the other road and stay the same. Thankfully, I chose the right option. I can go back and think about that moment in time every single night that we play live and know I made the right choice."

U2 - Even Better Than The Real Thing

This song began with the title "The Real Thing" during the Rattle And Hum sessions. It's a play on the Coca-Cola slogan "It's The Real Thing," and the song was intended to make a statement about commercialism.

U2 performed this on the Zoo TV tour with huge monitors flashing messages and video clips behind the band. It was mocking the advertising messages that were constantly bombarding the public.

Richard Branson asked to use this to launch his Virgin Cola, a competitor of Coke, but U2 refused.

 

 

U2 - Mysterious Ways

While recording this in Berlin, U2 came up with the basis for their song "One." In a rush of creativity, they put together "One" and finished "Mysterious Ways" later. This was very refreshing for the band - they were having a hard time coming up with anything and even considered breaking up.

The Beach Boys - Wouldn't It Be Nice

This innocent love song is told from the perspective of a young man who is deeply in love and enjoys spending every waking moment his sweetheart. In an era when most Americans married in their early 20s, these kind of songs often ended in wedding vows, but Brian Wilson took a different approach, making it a song about savoring their time in the present, as they are too young to be married. Even though he was very sophisticated musically, Wilson was looking for ways to relate to the teen audience and hit upon the "too young to be married" theme for this song.

Sum 41 - Motivation

This song is about having a lack of motivation. Deryck Whibley said in an interview that this song is like your Sunday, when you can't be bothered doing anything.

Bruce Springsteen - We Take Care Of Our Own

The song's music video was directed by Thom Zimmy and shot in early January 2012 in an abandoned theater in Asbury Park. Reflective close-ups and slow-motion images of working class Americans augment shots of Bruce performing. "You work with spontaneity," explained Zimmy to Uncut magazine. "The end of that video, for instance, where the people are walking, wasn't planned. The weekend we were shooting, the Light of Day charity concert event took place in town, so we gathered up some fans and people in the streets of Asbury Park and had that shot happen, then incorporated it into the video. With Bruce, you're planning, but you're always open to the moment."

Sum 41 - Makes No Difference

This was Sum 41's first single and their first video. The video was filmed in Toronto, where DMX was working on the movie Exit Wounds. He crossed paths with the band and offered to make a guest appearance, which Sum 41 accepted.

Sting - Shape Of My Heart

Sting said in 1993: "I wanted to write about a card player, a gambler who gambles not to win but to try and figure out something; to figure out some kind of mystical logic in luck, or chance; some kind of scientific, almost religious law. So this guy's a philosopher, he's not playing for respect and he's not playing for money, he's just trying to figure out the law - there has to be some logic to it. He's a poker player so it's not easy for him to express his emotions, in fact he doesn't express anything, he has a mask, and it's just one mask and it never changes."

Sting - Englishman In New York

Sting wrote this song about famed gay author Quentin Crisp and his experiences as an outcast. Crisp moved from London to New York in 1986, and Sting spent several days with the author.