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Song Stories

“Yonkers”

Tyler, the Creator | 2011
Tyler, the Creator opens his debut album with “Yonkers,” a disturbed confessional told through his alter ego Wolf Haley. The head of the Odd Future collective fantasizes about stabbing Bruno Mars in his “goddamn esophagus” among other deviant acts of vengeance. “That’s me and him going at it in my head,” Tyler told the Swedish Web site PSL about the song’s tussle with his alter ego. “Every line that I say is like contradicting itself.” The song capped off a year of hype after Odd Future’s self-produced mix tapes hit the Internet and the artist was criticized for misogynist and homophobic lyrics.
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Song Stories

“I Can See for Miles”

The Who | 1967

A foreboding accusation of lies and deception, "I Can See for Miles" was given a psychedelic hard-rock veneer by Pete Townshend's whiplash guitar riffs and Keith Moon's thundering drums. The song helped break the Who as stars in the United States, giving them a Top Ten hit in late 1967. "I swoon when I hear the sound," boasted Townshend in Rolling Stone. "The words, which aging senators have called 'drug oriented,' are about a jealous man with exceptionally good eyesight. Honest."

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