Numero CINCO!

Not often can one come up with a definite answer to a question that can never be fully answered. Well let's back up, the question is - - "What's your top 5 favorite songs?". Yeah, I know that means you'll have to put your thinking caps on for this one! It's really hard trying to go through a steadily growing list of artist and pick your top favorites. You can have several or even hundreds of different artist that you like. But to pick that one to be called a top. That's truly a task beyond tasks. Unless you're just one of those who listen to one artist and like only one song. Then you would be missing the point, and there would be no real reason for you to continue reading. That makes you the weakest link, goodbye! But for those who actually care and are interested in knowing what I picked as my "Top 5". Keep reading and soon you shall discover the truth.

5) Arcade Fire, "Cold Wind" (2005)

Although there is no definite answer to what the true meaning to the song is. There's a sense of mystery hidden behind the lead singer's cracked-vocals. Not featured on any of their studio albums. "Cold Wind" is one of the best songs by Arcade Fire. It's a good Indie song that stands out from the bunch.

4) Nirvana, "All Apologies" (1993)

One of the best songs by Nirvana. Not because it was played on "Six Feet Under". But the songs is still great. Interesting lyrics and a hardcore edgy style music structure. The song was dedicated to Kurt Cobain's wife and daughter. To summarize the song, "peaceful, happy and comfort".

3) Radiohead, "Creep" (1994)

The song starts off rather mellow with depressing lyrics. As the chorus approaches. Jonny Greenwood plays three dead notes on his guitar as the chorus roars in. In retrospect however, just from those "dead notes" being played. That 'human error' really made the song. The whole song itself is very nicely arranged. Although it was considered to depressing to be mainstream. It's still one of the best by Radiohead

2) Flyleaf, "Tiny Heart" (2009)

Flyleaf is known for hardcore edgy rock songs. But going from hardcore loud to mellow alternative sounding isn't easy. But "Tiny Heart" does this with a good sound. The lyrics are very straight forward. With great vocals and nicely done song structure. When you can make a mellow song sound just as good as your hardcore ones. Then you're on the right track.

1) The Beatles, "She Said, She Said" (1966)

This song has an interesting origin. John Lennon and Peter Fonda were on an Acid Trip. When Peter Fonda told John Lennon he knew what it was like to be dead. After this statement. John was freaked out and decided to write a song based on that statement. That's how the song came to life. With backing vocals from George Harrison, this has to be one of the best examples of Acid Rock at its best.

Devon M

Song Facts

Deftones 'Knife Party'

This is about going to a shooting gallery - a place where people go to inject themselves with drugs. In the first line they say "My knife is sharp and chrome." A chrome knife is another name for a syringe used for injecting drugs into your bloodstream. "Come see inside my bones" is probably talking about injecting himself. "I can float here forever" is describing getting high. The other lines in the song all work with the same theme as well. The album title is a reference to high grade cocaine.

UnderOath 'Writing On The Wall'

This song is about a family that is broken apart (step dad, dad, mom, son and step sister). The step dad is abusive and the real dad tries to stop him from abusing the daughter. The step dad and dad get in a fight and the step dad ends up killing the dad.

Rise Agaisnt 'Ready to Fall'

This song deals with pollution and its effects on the environment. The video shows how animals suffer from the actions of man. Rise Against is active with PETA, and are all vegans.

Story of the Year 'Swallow the Knife'

This song about cutting yourself and how much it bleeds. They said that it's mostly about someone who is depressed and feels like that person wants to killed himself or how much it bleeds.

Nirvana 'Pennyroyal Tea'

This song is about making a tough decision, the difficult choices around it, and the guilt following it. The reference to laxatives and cherry-flavored antacids implies the song is about heroin addiction. Many junkies have laxatives around to combat the chronic constipation that opiates bring. The lyrics could be Kurt thinking he's a lazy, weak figurehead who is depressed and sad and wants a new life. Some lyric analysis:"I'm on my time with everyone" - He was usually late for interviews."I have very bad posture" - Childhood Scoliosis made him appear hunched over."Sit and drink pennyroyal tea" - This could be a drug he took to calm his stomach pains, but it is also a play on words with penny royalty, meaning a cheap figure head."Distill the life that's inside of me" - He wants to cleanse his life and start fresh. The line, "I'm on warm milk and laxatives." could be about Cobain's dependence on DXM, scientifically known as dextromethorphan, which is available in most drug stores. As a result of consuming so much DXM (in the form of Robotussin), he developed stomach pains. One of the long term affects from this is the deterioration of the kidney and liver. The pain that you get from this physically addicting drug is unimaginable. It drove him to do heroine, which didn't last long so he used other remedies to cure his stomach pain.

Thursday 'Autumn Leaves Revisited'

This song is about a young boy or girl who loses their father in the war. The line, "Did you hear the trumpets play the day your father died?" suggests a military funeral; "Did the drums in the street make the people dance, or fall to their knees as the sound" compares it to a leaf falling from a tree in the summer (tree = family tree). The child wishes it could be summer forever: "there must be somewhere... and the leaves don't abandon their trees to the light where the skies are clear and the summer never ends" because if summer didn't end no one would fall from life as leaves. However, the father will still be there when the child dies, the message being, don't fear death.

Bad Religion 'American Jesus'

This was written in response to US President George H. W. Bush's comment that the US would win the Gulf War (the first one) because God is on their side. It's pretty much a satirical view on the general American thought that the United States is the most powerful nation in the world because it is "One nation under God."

John Lennon 'I Found Out'

In this angry and bitter song Lennon attacks a number of falsehoods such as the idolatry of the Beatles and how he is the focus for many of those involved in the peace movement. This song includes the line: "The freaks on the phone won't leave me alone, so don't give me that brother, brother." Lennon explained the lyric to the January edition of Rolling Stone. He said: "I'm sick of all these aggressive hippies or whatever they are, the "Now Generation," being very up-tight with me. Either on the street or anywhere, or on the phone, demanding my attention, as if I owed them something." Ringo Starr played drums on this track. After the break-up of the Beatles, Lennon continued to have a good relationship with Ringo. He explained why to Rolling Stone: "In spite of all the things, the Beatles could really play music together when they weren't uptight, and if I get a thing going, Ringo knows where to go, just like that, and he does well. We've played together so long, that it fits. That's the only thing I sometimes miss is just being able to sort of blink or make a certain noise and I know they'll all know where we are going on an ad lib thing. But I don't miss it that much."

Gaslight Anthem 'The '59 Sound'

The line "I hope we don't hear Marley's Chains we forged in life" is a reference to the ghost of Jacob Marley from Dickens' A Christmas Carol. This is one of many quotes and references from novels, films and songs on The '59 Sound. Singer guitarist Brian Fallon explained to Jam! Music: "I look at our music as a soundtrack and I look at the lyrics like a movie script. And I try and write them so that people are watching the images go by in their head as they're hearing the lyrics. And when I reference another song it's because it's playing during a scene in that movie. At least, that's how I see it in my head."

Taking Back Sunday 'You Know How I do'

This is a song about a guy and his girlfriend who both lead a life of partying, drinking and drugs. The guy says he's had enough of it, but his girlfriend hasn't so it's either give it up or he's going to dump her. The song title came from the movie Made starring Vince Vaughn and Jon Faverau. Vaughn's character, Ricky Slade, says, "You know how I do" throughout the film.

Song Facts Part Two

Nirvana "Serve the Servants"
This is Kurt Cobain's most autobiographical song. The lyrics contain references to his father, his wife Courtney Love and his own success.
The witch reference about Courtney Love in the first verse was Cobain's frustration with the press for constantly vilifying Love as a horrible house wife, mother, drug addict and detriment to Nirvana.
The divorce of Cobain's parents inspired the line "That legendary divorce is such a bore."

Radiohead "Paranoid Android"
Lead singer Thom Yorke decided to bar-hop in L.A. one night, but what began as a festive evening soon became a nightmare as Yorke found himself surrounded by parasitic scenestalkers intent on extracting a pound of Yorke-flesh. "The people I saw that night were just like demons from another planet." That night inspired "Paranoid Android", a song that sums up "OK Computer's" claustrophobic blend of melancholic beauty and nerve-rattling aggression.
Yorke: It's about being exposed to God. It was that one night, really. We'd been rehearsin the song for months, but the lyrics came to me at five o' clock in the morning. I was trying to sleep when I literally heard these voices that wouldn't leave me alone. They were voices of the people I'd heard in the bar. It turned out to be a notrious, coke-friend place, but I didn't know that. Basically it's just about chaos, chaos, utter f--king chaos".
The song's structure is patterned after "Happiness is a warm gun" by The Beatles. Both clearly a collection of other, shorter pieces of songs put together into one.
Many radio stations asked for a shorter version, but Radiohead refused.
The guitar solo at the end of the song was written by guitarist Jonny Greenwood. It was not originally intended for the song, but something was needed to close the song and this solo was in the right key and right tempo. Some parts of this closing solo are played forward and other parts are played backward.

Alkaline Trio "Stupid Kid"
This song is about how miserable life can be if you develop a crush on one of your teachers in high school. The video tells a story of a little boy in elementary school who is in love with his teacher, doing whatever he could to please her. He gets made fun of my the other students, and soon the teacher ridicules him in front of the whole class, making him a laughing stock. After he leaves outside the room toward her window, he takes off the hat that he's been wearing the entire video, revealing two horns. The teacher can be seen struggling, surrounded in flames. Of course this video lead to controversy, and it was banned until it got edited so the student has no horns and the teacher is wrestling with nothing

Blind Melon "St. Andrew's Fall"
This song tells the story of a man who becomes overwhelmed with grief and throws himself off a 20 story building.

Faith No More "Epic"
This is a mix of funk, white-boy rap, crunchy heavy metal, and faux-Classical keyboard/piano. It contains utterly nonsensical lyrics. The lyrics frequently allude to "it," without ever explaining what "it" is. The chorus simply consists of the band shouting, "It's it!," while vocalist Mike Patton responds with "What is it?" The title is not mentioned in the lyrics.

Kings Of Leon "Molly's Chamber"
This song is about a girl that is very attractive and can make any man drop to his knees and worship her. She can be a tease: "And when you think she's let you in that's when she fades away." And if you're thinking about abstaining from sex, she'll break your will: "Molly's Chambers goin' change your mind."
The title comes from a line in the Thin Lizzy version of "Whiskey In A Jar": "Being drunk and weary I went to Molly's chamber.

Nine Inch Nails "The Perfect Drug"
The "Perfect Drug" is Absinthe, which is a French green liquor. One of the ingredients contains wormwood. Wormwood contains a substance called thujone, which is an epileptic and can cause renal failure in extremely high doses. The effect of absinthe is sometimes compared to the effects of opium and marijuana.

The Rolling Stones "Paint it Black"
This is written from the viewpoint of a person who is depressed. He wants everything to turn black to match his mood.
The song seems to be about a lover who died:
"I see a line of cars and they're all painted black" - The hearse and limos.
"With flowers and my love both never to come back" - The flowers from the funeral and her in the hearse. He talks about his heart being black because of his loss.
"I could not foresee this thing happening to you" - It was an unexpected and sudden death.
"If I look hard enough into the setting sun, my love will laugh with me before the morning comes" - This refers to her in Heaven.
The Rolling Stones wrote this as a much slower, conventional Soul song. When Bill Wyman began fooling around on the organ during the session doing a takeoff of their original as a spoof of music played at Jewish weddings. Co-manager Eric Easton (who had been an organist), and Charlie Watts joined in and improvised a double-time drum pattern, echoing the rhythm heard in some Middle Eastern dances. This new more upbeat rhythm was then used in the recording as a counterpoint to the morbid lyrics.

The White Stripes "Icky Thump"
Jack White explained that he had heard his British wife, model Karen Elson, use the expression "Ecky Thump," a Northern English phrase that means "What The Heck." He changed it to the more American sounding "Icky" (meaning disgusting) so that teenagers would get it, citing how Led Zeppelin dropped the "A" in "Lead" for the same reason. Jack liked the expression and wrote the song around it with his bandmate Meg White.
The song is a commentary on immigration, and how immigrants are treated unfairly in America.
The lyrics, "I'm gonna sing around the collar" is a play on "Ring around the collar," which refers to the tough-to-remove sweat and dirt stains on the inside of shirt collars. It is typically used in laundry detergent commercials.
Candy cane is a traditional American red and white striped Christmas candy. The White Stripes use only these colors (often in stripes) and black in their sets and costumes.
The "Dry Ice" mentioned in the lyrics refers to solid carbon dioxide, which is typically used in horror films to create artificial fog.


The Beatles "Blue Jay Way"
George Harrison wrote this in a house he rented in Los Angeles on a street named Blue Jay Way. He was waiting for his friend Derek Taylor when he came up with the song.
The line "Don't Be Long" is repeated 29 times.
The vocals, organ, and drums were played on 2 tape machines slightly out of sync to get the phasing effect.
When the ending is reversed, it sounds suspiciously like "Paul is bloody." This added to the "Paul is Dead" hoax.

Saving Abel "Addicted"
Vocalist Jared Weeks wrote this song about sexual escapades in the early days of Saving Abel. He recalled on the band's website: "I used to work at a hospital. I'd have to be there at 4:30 in the morning drawing blood. I'd wake people up and stick a needle in their arm. I'd be walking around the hospital, singing 'Addicted' in my head, writing down the lyrics on patients' clipboards and doctor script pads.
"Saving Abel got its name from the Biblical story of Cain and Abel. Guitarist Jason Null explained on his band's website: "I googled the story of Cain and Abel and found a line about 'there was no Saving Abel,' which just jumped out at me."
Abel was a son of Adam and Eve. As a shepherd, he made burnt offerings of meat to God, which were more acceptable than the fruits offered by his brother Cain. The jealous Cain then murdered Abel.

Local H "Bound for the floor"
This song is written from the viewpoint of someone who is concerned for another. The verses are this person mocking what he thinks the other is feeling, saying that the person he is concerned about is acting as if there is no point to life, that he was born to have bad things happen to him. The chorus is the concerned person telling the other to fight against it.
The key to unlocking the song is understanding the chorus, and in order to do so, you must know the term "copacetic." Copacetic is a slang term meaning fine, completely satisfactory, and okay. The lyrics, "And you just don't get it, you keep it copacetic" mean that this person doesn't understand that he can't keep it all inside and pretend that everything is okay. The lines, "And you learn to accept it, you know you're so pathetic" mean that this person is pathetic for trying to hide his true feelings and accept all the bad things that are happening to him.

Thrice "The melting point of wax"
There are references to Greek Mythology in this song. The speaker is Icarus from The Flight of Icarus, who created wings made of wax that melted when he flew too close to the sun. The song is about determination and the joys of flight, both literally and metaphorically. The Thrice song "Daedalus" is written from the perspective of Icarus' father.

Red Hot Chili Peppers "Can't Stop"
For this song, lead singer Anthony Kiedis wrote the lyrics around the music. The words are a somewhat random collection of thoughts, with some creative rhyming thrown in to fit the rhythm of the song ("Can I get 2 maybe even 3 of these, come from space to teach you of the pleiades"). The song encourages the listener to live with passion and individuality ("This life is more than just a read-through"), something the Chili Peppers have done throughout their career.

Song Meanings (Part Five)

Nine Inch Nails
"Head Like a Hole" is about the control that money has over people, and the pain and suffering associated with it. "God Money" is just that. Money has become a god unto itself. Trent Reznor is basically saying, he'd rather die than give in to temptation.

Smashing Pumpkins
"Bullet With Butterfly Wings" was written to express lead singer's (Billy Corgan) pain that comes from being a rock star. The lyrics are exceptionally dramatic, and Corgan has said they are bit of a joke.

Nirvana
"Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle"
In this song it appears Kurt Cobain is likening himself to Frances Farmer. While Frances was almost infamous for her difficulty to work with and her battle with her movie studio, which forced her into bad roles. She demanded much and later all she got for it was a series of mental collapses and a failed battle with alcoholism. Kurt related Farmer's battles against her contracts with corporate Hollywood with his difficulty with his record label, which he felt was holding him back and stifling his art, making him release poppy stuff he was never satisfied with. Farmer was born in Seattle, but Kurt had a lot more to do with the city than she did, which leads me to believe this is not a musical biography... not Kurt's style.

The Used
"Blue and Yellow"
"It's a song about me and [frontman] Bert McCracken's friendship," guitarist Quinn Allman explained. "When the band started to really pick up and people started to really get interested, we were almost not being friends anymore because we were focusing so much time on the band and not on each other."
The colors in the title could have some meaning. The color blue belongs to the Planet Venus, the giver of Love, devotion and harmony. The musical note of blue is G, a favorite key for the composer of romantic music. The color yellow belongs to the planet Mercury, and is said to stimulate the nerves of the brain and body. Mercury instills a quick intellect by stimulating the nervous system, so nothing can remain stagnant under the influence of this planet.


Deftones
"My Own Summer (Shove it)
"Cloud come shove the sun aside" - sadness against happiness.
"And no sun in my summer" - The bad luck of being sad and poor in this world.
"There are no crowds in the streets" - Loneliness caused by social discrimination.
"The shade is a tool, a device, a savior" - Living in the shade is a solution to get far away from this.
"I try and look up to the sky, but my eyes burn" - Someone wants to bring us down everyday.
"Shove It" - These people don't care for anyone but themselves. These people are the "sky" (because they've got the cash), and when we try to get next to them, we want to return to our shade and just say, "Shove It."

Greatest Guitar Riffs?

(These songs are considered to have the best guitar riffs. Well from my friend's point of view.)

"Enter Sandman"--Metallica: "Master Of Puppets" or "For Whom The Bells Tolls" or even "Fight Fire With Fire" might make for better overall riffs, but "Enter Sandman" has a presence that everyone in the room feels and I've seen some pretty bad bar bands tackle this one and still come out sounding as if they knew something about music.

"Black Dog"--Led Zeppelin: Jimmy Page figured out the 1970s before anyone. As a guitar player he wasn't about to let a lead singer score all the girls, so he made sure that his band based their tunes not on quaint little pop hooks, but guitar riffs that would send every teenager in America back to their bedrooms to woodshed and to scrutinize how it was done. Then he gave the songs titles that no one could figure out.

"Jumping Jack Flash"--The Rolling Stones: Less a riff than a conglomeration of chords, but the Stones mastered the art of the chunky riff. Some would take "Brown Sugar." I'd prefer "Gimme Shelter" by a hair. But of this old beast's catalog, this still sounds fresh to me, while many others have grown tired thanks to the conspiracy of classic rock radio.

"I Feel Fine"--The Beatles: All said, I'd take "She Said, She Said" or "And Your Bird Can Sing," but we'll stick with the tunes that the band and their record company pushed on the public as hit singles. This one with its use of (gasp) feedback (were people conservative and corny back then or what?) and its string mangling complexity make you wonder why they bothered. I guess they wanted a challenge. This could've been a hit even without the difficult riff.

"Walk This Way"--Aerosmith: That this riff worked so well in a hip-hop context just goes to show you don't know what you have even when you have it. I'm sure Joe Perry and Brad Whitford knew they had a decent riff to work off of when they played it back in the mid-'70s, but I'm also pretty sure that they didn't hear it as being revolutionary or probably that much better than many of their other riffs. At this point, you wonder if they ever want to play it again. That is, until the money rolls in and then it probably seems like a good idea.

"Day Tripper"--The Beatles: Another one from the Fab Four where the riff is more important than the rest of the tune. And it's a nice tune. But everyone tries to play this for the joy of the riff and who gets around to the rest of the song? Nobody.

"Heartbreaker"--Led Zeppelin: Just another great Jimmy Page riff. The only problem with listing any Led Zep riff is you're immediately reminded of all the ones you're leaving behind...so, yes, "The Ocean," "The Immigrant Song," "Living Loving Maid," "In the Evening," "Kashmir," the list goes on...

"Smells Like Teen Spirit"--Nirvana: I don't know whether I'm voting for the four chords that run throughout the song or the two notes that ring out when the chords fall away. Either way, it's impossible to explain how weird, unusual and right this sounded the very first time I heard it. And how everyone argued over whether it was too easy to be for real. As a simpleton, I like simple.

"Crazy Train"--Ozzy Osbourne: This almost sounds like an Indian music scale if you play it a certain way. Ozzy says Randy saved his career and remembers the man with great reverence and if I met someone who gave me a riff that delivered a career comeback like "Crazy Train" did for Ozzy, well, yeah, I'd be pretty thankful as well. And name a couple of kids after him.

"Voodoo Child"--Jimi Hendrix: Another great riff remembered as much for how many other people screw it up. Stevie Ray Vaughan could pull it off note for note, but the guys who show up to woodshed at the local open mics need to stop murdering this legendary lick. It's like a game of "Are You Serious?"

"Another One Bites The Dust"--Queen: I didn't include any bass guitar riffs because I didn't want to make things more confusing but I had to include this one. It gave bass players a reason to live. And as readers of this fine column know, I'm well aware that bass players frequently suffer from low self-esteem and feelings that the other people in the band don't think very highly of them. This isn't paranoia. This is usually dead on.

"Iron Man"--Black Sabbath: Black Sabbath are another band chock full of great riffs for aspiring guitar players. Guys who can't sing love to play Sabbath tunes because they know as the guitar player they get to be the real focal point of the band. So whether it's "War Pigs," "Paranoid," "Sweet Leaf," "Children Of The Grave," "Hole In The Sky" or "Iron Man," the guy holding the guitar controls the destiny of the band. Such power!

"Whole Lotta Love"--Led Zeppelin: Just had to sneak one last Jimmy Page riff in here. His tone alone is shivering. The tension of the little snap-back you hear weirds me out. How many notes are actually happening here? It counts out as two, but feels like five.

"Purple Haze"--Jimi Hendrix: I've heard hundreds of people play this lick. No one sounds like Hendrix. And it isn't just a matter of tone. It's a matter of feel. The word genius gets thrown around pretty carelessly. "Oh, look, Jim parallel parked the car today. He's a genius." No, that's luck. This is genius.

"(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"--The Rolling Stones: Here's the proof that sometimes what is simplest is best. Occam's Razor as it applies to music. The extra fuzztone helped, but really writing this lick must now feel like discovering water or having written "Happy Birthday." It's that obvious.

"Smoke On The Water"--Deep Purple: I was never in a band that actually played this song. I've never known anyone who's been in a band that's played this song. But I've never met a guitar player who didn't play the opening lick for hours upon receiving their first electric guitar. It's so prevalent, it's more like a catchphrase than a riff.

Devon M