Lady Gaga Explores Seamy Side of Fame on "Monster" Re-Release

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"I think re-releases are unfair," Lady Gaga told Rolling Stone last week. "It's artists sneaking singles onto an already finished piece of work in an effort to keep the album afloat. Originally [my label] only wanted me to put out three songs and now it's much more than that. It's a new album's worth of material."

She wasn't kidding: Lady Gaga has revealed the details of her upcoming The Fame Monster, featuring the Hot Diva's breakthrough debut album plus eight songs that explore the sordid side of fame. The album is due out November 24th, with the official version of the leaked "Bad Romance" being released as the first single in early November. In addition to RedOne, who produced "Bad Romance" as well as "Just Dance" and "Poker Face," Gaga will also collaborate with producers like Teddy Riley, Rodney Jerkins, Ron Fair and Fernando Garibay on Monster.

Check out Lady Gaga's wildest wardrobe moments.

"On my re-release The Fame Monster, I wrote about everything I didn't write on The Fame," Gaga said in a statement. "While traveling the world for two years, I've encountered several monsters, each represented by a different song on the new record: my 'Fear of Sex Monster,' my 'Fear of Alcohol Monster,' my 'Fear of Love Monster,' my ‘Fear of Death Monster,’ my 'Fear of Loneliness Monster,' etc." The themes seems to echo what Gaga was teasing with her and Kanye West's "Fame Kills" tour, but as Rolling Stone previously reported, that trek was canceled last week. Instead, Gaga will embark on her own solo tour.

"I spent a lot of nights in Eastern Europe, and this album is a pop experimentation with industrial/Goth beats, '90s dance melodies, an obsession with the lyrical genius of '80s melancholic pop, and the runway. I wrote while watching muted fashion shows and I am compelled to say my music was scored for them," Gaga said of what inspired the new tracks on Monster. "I also composed a ballad for the album, 'Speechless,' a song for my father, and it's my favorite work of all. I wrote every piece on the road — no songs about money, no songs about fame. I wrote it for my fans, so I wrote everything in between."

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Song Stories

“V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F.”

Fishbone | 1985

Quite a few musicians have utilized initials for song titles -- Michael Jackson's "P.Y.T.," Abba's "S.O.S.," Donald Fagen's "I.G.Y.," etc. But the more curiously initialed tune has to be "V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F.," short for "Voyage to the Land of the Freeze-Dried Godzilla Farts." Fishbone's original guitarist, Kendall Jones, explained to Rolling Stone, "When Norwood [Fisher] wrote it, he introduced it to the band saying, 'Man, I've been hearing about all these Nazi right-wing groups on the news saying the Holocaust was staged. So what if America said it never dropped two atom bombs on Japan, that it was actually Godzilla popping a couple off?' Only Norwood would come up with something that out." The same year "V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F." was released, the film Godzilla 1985 appeared in North America.

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