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Song Stories

“Bang the Drum All Day”

Todd Rundgren | 1982

This ode to carefree skin pounding was initially only a minor hit. But it later became a rock staple when radio stations across the country began playing its popular refrain -- "I don't want to work, I want to bang on the drum all day" -- on Friday afternoons to get listeners hyped about the weekend. "It's always good to be somewhere in the public consciousness," Rundgren said of the song's second wind. "You've done something that very few people have accomplished, which is to find a place in the culture, more or less, that transcended anything that you originally tried to accomplish."

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Song Stories

“Youth Knows No Pain”

Lykke Li | 2011

“Like on 'Youth Knows No Pain' — we are the ones that should demonstrate, because we can take it,” Likke Li said. “We can pierce ourselves, take Ecstasy, dance all night and still go to work at our McDonald's jobs.” Despite the hedonistic sentiment in the song, the Swedish singer also admitted in hindsight her youth had repercussions. “I remember when I was 18-19 and feeling that I know it all,” Li said. “I always feel that I know it all. But that song is about realizing you don’t, and reflecting, ‘Boy, if I only knew what would follow.’”

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