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Song Stories

“Blackout”

Scorpions | 1982

There must have been a hell of a night that inspired this tale of waking up with someone that is not exactly your normal taste and not knowing how you got there or what day it is. The famed album cover, of a bandaged man with forks in his eyes, is a self-portrait of Austrian artist Gottfried Hellnwein. Though never a critical favorite, the Scorpions broke into the top 10 for the first time with this album and Metal Assault hailed the "Heavy riffs, blazing solos and endlessly catchy hooks."

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“Try a Little Tenderness”
Otis Redding | 1966
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“The Killing Moon”
Echo & The Bunnymen | 1984

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Song Stories

“Everyday People”

Sly and the Family Stone | 1968

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.

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