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Song Stories

“I'm in Trouble”

The Replacements | 1981

The A side to the Replacements' first single, this Paul Westerberg song also showed up on their debut album, Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash. It was, according to Westerberg, the first song that he was proud of and a watershed moment in his songwriting. "It was an actual song with a beginning, a middle, an end and a bridge," he recaled. "Also, it was melodic and it rocked. It had everything I wanted and it was easy to write." Leaving in the "trash," the song was recorded live in the studio with few overdubs.

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“History Lesson — Part II”
The Minutemen | 1984
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“Louder Than a Bomb”
Public Enemy | 1988

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Song Stories

“He Will Break Your Heart”

Jerry Butler | 1960

A lightly swinging Latin-influenced, almost cha-cha groove and close harmonies decorated Jerry Butler's early soul hit "He Will Break Your Heart," delivering a stately warning that his rival would never love his girl like he did. The melody came to Butler as he was driving on the highway from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Philadelphia with Curtis Mayfield, and as Butler told Rolling Stone, "I just sang the melody and Curtis put the chords to it." The song's premise, Butler added, "was something that I'd lived ...The lyric was an experience rather than a revelation. Whereas music is usually a revelation."

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