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Song Stories

“Kill for Peace”

The Fugs | 1966

At a time when widespread opposition to the Vietnam War had only just started to build, the Fugs satirized the absurdity of war by putting the lyrics of "Kill for Peace" to a crude rocker reminiscent of "Twist and Shout." An offer for the Fugs to perform on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show was rescinded when the band's Ed Sanders insisted they be allowed to sing "Kill for Peace." The number originated, said Sanders, when his Fugs partner Tuli Kupferberg "spotted the sentence 'Pray for Peace' on a letter and then, in his noggin, sprouted the idea for a modification."

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Song Stories

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

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