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Song Stories

“Sabotage”

Beastie Boys | 1994

By the time the Beastie Boys released Ill Communication, their transformation from frat-boy rappers to surprisingly adept funk-rock instrumentalists was complete. But what about fuzz rock? "[Adam] Yauch came in one day with this idea for a song," explained Adam Horovitz, "where the fuzz bass keeps playing, and we would all do these hits and stops to bring, like, suspense and drama." Not only did the song create that suspense and drama but so did its Spike Jonze-directed Seventies-cop-TV-spoof video, complete with car chases, wigs and drooping 'staches.

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“I Can See for Miles”
The Who | 1967
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“Wild Horses”
The Rolling Stones | 1971

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Song Stories

“Everyday People”

Sly and the Family Stone | 1968

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.

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