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Song Stories

“For Free”

Meat Puppets | 1995

A scrap of backward-tape sound gives way to one of the Meat Puppets' more conventional vocal harmony-driven rockers on "For Free," which vaguely alludes to a battle for the future that's been won, though the band doesn't sound at all thrilled with the victory. The song's been interpreted as a lament for the death of Kurt Cobain, a friend of composer Curt Kirkwood. "The title says it all," Kirkwood said. "It's not really for Cobain, per se. I did it because I've known a lot of people who've killed themselves in the name of this garbage scene."

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“As Tears Go By”
Marianne Faithfull | 1964
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“Walk Like an Egyptian”
The Bangles | 1986

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Song Stories

“Karma Chameleon”

Culture Club | 1983

Boy George has said this song was about standing by what you believe in. However, at the time, he was involved in a secret affair with Culture Club drummer Jon Moss. "Now people can understand the songs better," he said. "They were written about my relationship with Jon, and they were also written about being a gay man in a homophobic world." The lines "If I listen to your lies, would you say/I'm a man without conviction/I'm a man who doesn't know how to sell a contradiction," described his life at the time, he said. "I was selling this big lie."

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