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Song Stories

“Piss Factory”

Patti Smith | 1974

As a teenager, Patti Smith worked summers at a depressing factory that made baby buggies. While inspecting pipes and reading Rimbaud's A Season in Hell in the factory basement, Smith dreamed of a better future -- "I'm gonna be somebody," as this song later declared. "I was saying that as a young person, I still had desire -- desire to do well," she told Rolling Stone. "Perhaps some of the people in the factory lost all desire. I can understand how that can happen ... What 'Piss Factory' is about is: someone who in the midst of the dead felt alive."

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“Clouds”
Hole | 1991
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“Danny's Song”
Loggins & Messina | 1971

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Song Stories

“Let My Love Open the Door”

Pete Townshend | 1980

A peppy, hopeful love song, "Let My Love Open the Door" became a U. S. Top Ten hit for Pete Townshend in 1980, anchored by the kind of repeating synthesizer figures that he'd used in some of the Who's recordings in the previous decade. Although Townshend brushed the song off as "just a ditty" in Rolling Stone shortly after its release, in 1996 he revealed it was about love of the holiest sort. "It's supposed to be about the power of God's love," he remarked. "That when you're in difficulty, whether it's major or minor, God's love is always there for you."

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