Lyrics

‘Sultans of Swing’ was both the first single from Dire Straits’ debut album and a revealing first-person account of the average working band’s hardscrabble, often thankless existence playing British pubs during the '70s. It’s only fitting, therefore, that Dire Straits leader Mark Knopfler was inspired to write the tune in a pub, pint in hand, whilst watching just one such band calling themselves – you guessed it – the Sultans of Swing.

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Arguably, no heavy metal singer wielded greater influence over the length and breadth of heavy metal’s long history than the sorely missed Ronnie James Dio. Now, now, don't get worked up! Simple math tells us this is so, by

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It's tough separating Talking Heads' lyrics from their music. After all, they were famous for their innovative use of rhythm, and brought African and other musical ideas from around the world long before Paul Simon and other pop stars got there. But even as they became global-music stars, slipping polyr

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Billy Joel's extensive catalog is filled with all kinds of songs: character studies, narrative-driven portraits, silly love song, serious love songs, political statements and songs about what it was like to grow up on Long Island in the late-'50s and early-'60s. But the Top 10 Billy Joel Lyrics reveal more about New Yorke

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In Feb. 1963, John Lennon and Paul McCartney were sitting in the back of a tour bus, seeing if they could rise to the occasion. With ‘Please Please Me’ riding high on the British charts, producer George Martin had issued the Beatles’ budding songwriters a challenge: bring a new composition of equal quality to their next studio session.

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By 1968, Simon & Garfunkel had produced a string of folk-rock hits that included ‘The Sound of Silence,’ 'I Am a Rock' and ‘Mrs. Robinson.' But their chart success brought the duo criticism from folk music purists.

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'God Is Dead?,' the lead single from Black Sabbath's forthcoming reunion project '13,' includes some of Ozzy Osbourne's most probing -- and topical -- lyrics to date. He drills deep into questions about God's place in the order of things as troubled times give way to terror attacks in the name of religion.

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As long as they were bucking the odds by crafting an amazing reunion album 28 years after breaking up, Van Halen apparently figured they might as well take over for the recently retired R.E.M. as rock's environmental advocates too. Don't believe us? Check out their new planet overcrowding anthem, 'Outta Space.'

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When Neil Young performed 'Rockin in the Free World' for the first time on February 21, 1989, in Seattle, the song was just hours old. In fact, Crazy Horse guitarist Frank 'Poncho' Sampedro claimed that most of the band didn't even know the song when they first played it.

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Yes, it's that time of year again, when we sort through all of our receipts and forms and pay more than our fair share to Uncle Sam. As we've been trying to figure out just how much we owe, one song in particular has been going through our heads repeatedly, 'Taxman' by the Beatles.

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