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Song Stories

“Shout At the Devil”

Motley Crue | 1983

Heavy metal came under fire for supposed satanic messages during the Eighties, and while Mötley Crüe's title track from their 1983 album, Shout at the Devil, seemed to be about standing up to Beelzebub, it was originally titled "Shout With the Devil" -- reflecting Nikki Sixx's interest in black magic at the time. But after a spooky encounter at Sixx's apartment, A&R man Tom Zutaut set the band straight. "I swear to God I saw this with my own eyes, a knife and fork rose off the table and stuck into the ceiling just above where I was sitting," he recalled. "I looked at Nikki and freaked out. 'There is no more "Shout With the Devil." If you keep shouting with the devil, you're going to get killed.'" 

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Song Stories

“(We're Not) The Jet Set”

George Jones and Tammy Wynette | 1973

George Jones and Tammy Wynette were still married when they recorded the tongue-in-cheek "(We're Not) The Jet Set." The lyrics, written by Nashville songwriter Bobby Braddock, who also penned Wynette's "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" and Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today," make fun of the good life by declaring, "We're not the Jet Set/We're the old Chevrolet set." Braddock recalled that while writing the song, he needed the name of a city that evened out the rhyme he had with "Riviera" and "Missourah." “I got out a Rand McNally atlas," he said. "In the first part are the maps. The last part is an alphabetical listing of cities. I wanted a rustic, small-time sound. I went to the listing for Missouri. And I found 'Festus.' I loved the sound of it."

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