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Song Stories

“Divine Hammer”

The Breeders | 1993

Kim Deal explored and questioned her religious upbringing through "Hammer." "It's not fair that folk singers preach a happy message and the goodness of living off the land and 'If I had a hammer, I'd hammer in the morning,'" Deal told Rolling Stone. "That doesn't exist. That's what I'm saying in 'Divine Hammer.' It's mainly about looking for something so hard through your life that people said was there. When I grew up and went to Sunday school, they said it was going to be really great … I believe everything everybody told me. And that's why I'm so pissed off now."

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“Possession”
Sarah McLachlan | 1993
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“My Mother Was a Chinese Trapeze Artist”
The Decemberists | 2001

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Song Stories

“Is It True”

Brenda Lee | 1964

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."

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