.

Song Stories

“One (Blake's Got a New Face)”

Vampire Weekend | 2008

Whenever a song is named after a person, listeners and critics alike want to know if it was based on somebody specific. Who was this supposed Blake with a brand new face? “Well, I had the melody long before the lyrics,” Ezra Koenig, Vampire Weekend’s lead singer, explained. “And we had all sorts of stupid stuff that we were considering. And then I met this friend of my girlfriend’s named Blake, someone she went to high school with, and it kind of just popped into my head after meeting him. So there is an actual person named Blake.”

prev
Song Stories Main Next

blog comments powered by Disqus

Song Stories

“Satisfied”

Tom Waits | 2011

Only the genius of Tom Waits could combine the subject of mortality, a reoccurring theme in his work, with wordplay that name checks both Mick and Keith, whom he calls "Mr. Jagger" and "Mr. Richards," and the title of their magnum opus, "Satisfaction." And to show just how cool Waits really is, he even got Mr. Richards to play along, one of nine guest appearances the guitarist has made on three Waits albums. "This growling roadhouse stomp is a late-breaking response to the Stones' greatest hit," Rolling Stone said of the track.

More Song Stories entries »