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Song Stories

“That's When I Reach for My Revolver”

Mission of Burma | 1980

A popular track from the landmark Signals, Calls and Marches EP, this Clint Conley song highlighted the Boston postpunk band's poppier side. The song's title alludes to an essay by author Henry Miller, which in turn makes reference to an infamous line from the pro-Hitler 1933 play Schlageter, by playwright Hanns Johst, a member of the Nazi Party. "I wasn’t too happy to hear about that because I don't want to be linked to that sort of thing," Conley later said of the Nazi reference. "But it was a phrase, it had power, I had this riff." The song also features a rare example of bass solo in a studio-recorded rock song.

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“South Bronx”
Boogie Down Productions | 1986
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“History Lesson — Part II”
The Minutemen | 1984

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Song Stories

“1999”

Prince | 1982

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.

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