‘SONG EXPLOSION’ series
“Sitting On A Cornflake”
When John Lennon heard that schools were studying his songs for their meaning, he decided to make things interesting. He wrote a song that meant nothing. With Cornflakes, an Eggman, a van, police men, tower climbing, a pornographic priestess and… a walrus.
“I’m Gonna Fight ‘Em All”
When Jack White was a small boy he would mistakenly call The Salvation Army the ‘Seven Nation Army’. Little did he know he would have a use for this little error down the track. Years later at a sound check at The Corner Hotel in Melbourne, he spontaneously started playing 7 notes on repeat. He had formed a pattern that would become one of the most recognisable riffs of all time. Pairing this riff with his childhood reference, White would write a song about smoking a cigarette and thinking about all the gossip surrounding himself and Meg White at the time. With everything from blood, hell hounds and the Queen of England, to escaping to the fields of Wichita.
“I Live By The River”
After reading apocalyptic headlines and hearing talk of Cold War in London, Joe Strummer got fired up to write a song. He penned a tale of a city falling apart. In his vision London sees an ice age, war, famine, phony Beatle Mania and a great fear of those living by the river... flooding.
“It’s Like A Jungle Sometimes”
When the Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five’s Melle Mel co-wrote a song at the dawn of the 80s, the group didn’t like it very much. Instead of the party raps the group were known for, his song dished out the harsh realities of life in the ghettos. But with their tale of guns, drugs, violence, unemployment, and the inevitability of a jail cell, the group unknowingly opened up a whole new purpose for the future of hip hop.
“On A Dark Desert Highway”
When the Eagles drove from the Midwest towards Los Angeles they saw a city glowing in the distance, promising movie stars, Hollywood, palm trees, beaches and bikinis. They wrote a song, choosing a hotel to represent all the excess that California had sold them.
“Hey! Wait!”
After Nevermind Kurt Cobain struggled to write the first single for the band’s next album. But somewhere between jamming and a small closet in Hollywood he had soon formed an intense tune, full of mysterious symbolism. With a Pisces, cancer, angel’s hair, meat-eating orchids, baby’s breath, a magnetic star, an umbilical noose and... a heart-shaped box. He’s since had listeners hotly debating its meaning to this day. Is it about a box of love letters from Billy Corgan? Courtney’s body? Or just a big love trap Kurt can’t get out of? You decide.
