Carl

Wow, Cat Stevens did write this. I knew Stewart didn't, and assumed it was one of his covers written by a fairly obscure folk singer (see "Reason To Believe.") Rod does a great version, and Sheryl Crow's isn't bad either. I haven't heard about any Patti Smith connection - I'd be interested to hear if there is one. I love the imagery in the song of the first love leaving a scar. Everyone remembers their first love, and it definitely leaves a mark. Smokey Robinson, who I consider a master songwriter, did the same thing with "Tracks Of My Tears," where emotional pain manifests in physical harm as the tears leave tracks down the face of the heartbroken lover. It's no wonder songs like this last forever. And please check out the Bill Withers stuff- I promise "Ain't No Sunshine" will make you cry.

I saw a sneak preview of Miracle the other day. It's the story of the 1980 US Olympic hockey team, who won the gold in Lake Placid against some serious odds. As the Patriots have proven twice in the last 3 years, teamwork is a powerful force, and you will not forget this after watching the movie. I was pleased that Miracle did not cheese out on the hockey scenes by using quick, distracting editing to make up for the fact that actors cannot skate. From what I could tell, these guys were really skating and the action on the ice was quite realistic. This is refreshing after seeing a movie like Bend It Like Beckham where the soccer scenes show a girl kicking a ball followed by a quick cut of the ball going in the net. I'm still trying to figure out why people liked that one. Another great thing Miracle did to avoid a common cop-out was to give us an update on what the players are doing now. Here's where the music portion of this post comes in: as the closing credits start, "Dream On" plays, and they show each player in the movie with the credit for who played him and his current job title. It's really interesting because these are all guys who followed their dreams and managed to pull off a sports "miracle," and now many of them are financial advisors or consultants. They aren't what you would think of as "dream jobs," but it makes you consider a few things- Does your job define who you are? Can you follow your dreams and still end up selling insurance? I say yes. Can you follow your dreams within a mundane-sounding job, or is that reserved for firefighers, actors, athletes and musicians? Again I say yes. If you are passionate and dedicated to your job, that's what matters. I know someone who works in customer service and takes great pride in helping people solve their problems. This movie has to do with a lot more than hockey, and I really enjoyed it.

There's a great scene in this movie that makes a lot more sense if you read the songfacts for Crossroads. It's been a while since I've seen it, but I think the character's name is Tommy Johnson, and he's clearly based on Robert Johnson, a Blues singer who supposedly sold his sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his musical inspiration (kind of like Led Zeppelin). Ken is right, this is a really good movie with great use of music.

But all 41 artists have "eve" in the title, from Steve Miller to Everclear. It's because the computer is doing what I think is called a "contains" search. We thought it was the best option because otherwise, if you wanted The Steve Miller Band and typed in "Steve Miller," nothing would show up. And yes, this means a search for The Who will also bring up The Guess Who. Carl

That is a good idea. We didn't do it in the past because so many people would get them wrong, and we figured it would be easier to dig through our trusy discographies for the info. As more and more Songfacts come in, it would definitely help us out, especially since many of the people who submit Songfacts have proven to be extremely accurate. We'll work on the code and see what we can do.

Congratulations to Eric from Suffern, NY. He wins a clean and comfortable Songfacts T-shirt. Here are the answers: What musician used to be known as Romeo Blue? - Lenny Kravitz He wore blue contact lenses to get the look. Popular guesses were Prince, Billy Idol, and Lil' Romeo. What rock star was injured recently when he crashed his all-terrain vehicle? - Ozzy Osbourne He took a nasty spill, but is making a recovery. When he appeared on The Arsenio Hall Show campaigning for president, what song did Bill Clinton play on sax? - Heartbreak Hotel Our favorite wrong answer was "Play The Funky Music, White Boy." A lot of people thought it was "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow," which was his campaign song, but doesn't translate well to the sax. What famous pop singer has a best-selling children's book? - Madonna The book is called The English Roses. What R.E.M. song was used as the theme song for a TV show? - "Stand" It was the theme song to Get A Life, starring Chris Elliot as a middle-aged paper boy. It ran on Fox from 1990-1992. Fox was a new network, and willing to try just about anything. This didn't work so well, but another show that came on around that time did - The Simpsons. What famous singer got her start touring with Michael Jackson as a backup singer? - Sheryl Crow She had big hair and got to duet with him on "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" during the Bad tour. What singer filmed a part for the movie Spiceworld that was edited out when he got arrested? - Gary Glitter The guy famous for "Rock And Roll, Part 2" got arrested for having child pornography on his computer. What singer is named after an African word for "Fire"? - Chaka Khan Popular guesses: Ashanti, Shakira, Sade, Aaliyah and Erykah Badu. It's also clear that no one remembers how to spell India Arie. What band took their name from a group mentioned in the movie A Clockwork Orange? - Heaven 17 What famous song is based on a movie about a town that is destroyed by a hurricane? - "Bad Moon Rising" by Creedence Clearwater Revival The movie was The Devil And Daniel Webster. Good guesses include "Galveston," "My Hometown" and "Key Largo." Tiebreaker: How many CDs did the Songfacts staff get for Christmas? - 5 Thanks to everyone who took the quiz, and be sure to take the new one here.

I had a chance to listen to their CD. It's straight-up Rock, and very clean. Good production and you can understand every word. It sounds like they have something to say, but it might be a few more listens before I figure it out - that's not a bad thing. Another positive - the songs don't all sound alike. It's clear these guys have honed their skills and might be ready to (catch phrase alert) go to the next level.

You would think we would have some Joe Walsh by now, especially songs like "Life's Been Good" and "Funk 49," but somehow we don't. We'll keep an eye out and try to get some of his stuff into the database. In the mean time, if anyone has some Joe Walsh info, please send it in.

When we interviewed Ron Cornelius, who played guitar on several Dylan albums, I asked him about what he thought some of Dylan's lyrics meant. His answer was something like, "If anyone tries to tell you they know what Bob Dylan was thinking when he wrote a song, they're lying." Dylan's a tough one. His songs mean a lot, but they mean different things to different people. Dylan himself rarely says what they mean to him.

Thanks to Sara, Song Fallacies has a new look. We also cleaned up the questions and added some new ones. Give it a shot.

As I write this, VH1 is running a special on Britney vs. Christina. What do I have to do to get on one of these shows and give commentary? If these unknown commedians and out-of-work actors are somehow qualified to give their opinions, certainly some of us are. Anyway, here's the dirt, courtesy of my friend Rob: Don't count Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, who started their careers together in "The Mickey Mouse Club" and both bussed Madonna at September's MTV Video Music Awards, as kissin' kin. In the December issue of Blender magazine, Aguilera, 23, says of Spears: "She seemed very distant, even during rehearsals.... She seems to me like a lost little girl, someone who desperately needs guidance." Spears, 22, hasn't taken Aguilera's comments lightly. As reported by the Associated Press, the pop princess recalls in the magazine's January issue a story about seeing former friend Aguilera for the first time in two years. "She comes up to me in a club in front of all these people and tries to put her tongue down my throat!," says Spears. "I say, 'It's good to see you,' and she goes, 'Well, you're not being real with me.' I was like, 'Well, Christina, what's your definition of real? Going up to girls and kissing them after you haven't seen them for two years?' "A lost girl? I think it's probably the other way around," adds Spears. "I can't believe she said that about me. When someone has been rude to you so many times, it's like, 'You know what, Christina, I'm really not about the fake ... anymore. Spears also reportedly told Aguilera to her face: "You're scary and I feel really dark when I'm around you.'" Happy New Year, ladies.

We've started adding visuals to some of the Songfacts. Check out Sara's original art.

We've been working on lyrical pursuit for a while. It will be a game that will test your knowledge of song lyrics. It will function in a way similar to Song Fallacies, which will keep us from having to write too much code. It will be an interesting game - it will test my theory that many people listen to lots of music and know the words to a lot of songs. At some point, we'd like to put a nice design together for both Song Fallacies and Lyrical Pursuit. Right now it's fairly basic. Carl

Here's the info we received: Tom got the idea for this one from a pilot he saw on TV. The pilot said how it wasn't hard learning to fly.. the hardest part was coming down. We'll try to get this on Songfacts in our next update.

girlcharisse from Rock Steady, CA John from Philadelphia, PA Both win a clean and comfortable Songfacts T-shirt. Here are the answers: What band has a drummer who lost an arm in a car accident? - Def Leppard What rock singer recently recorded an album of standards that sold over 4 million copies? - Rod Stewart The album is called It Had To Be You... The Great American Songbook. What singer or band has the biggest-selling album in the history of Motown Records? - Lionel Richie - Can't Slow Down Common guesses were Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson. I think a lot of people thought Thriller was a Motown album, but it wasn't. Who was the first Irish-born artist inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame? - Van Morrison What group was named after a sculpture in Seattle? - Soundgarden What 2 famous musicians have the Detroit Tigers baseball logo tattooed on their forearm? - Kid Rock and Eminem In what city did The Rolling Stones play to their biggest crowd? - Toronto 500,000 fans were at a SARS benefit on July 30, 2003. What hit by Styx contains some lyrics in Japanese? - "Mr. Roboto" What band got their name from a phrase used on the TV show CHiPs? - Seven Mary Three What band was named Best New Artist of 1978 by both Rolling Stone and Creem magazines? - The Cars Tiebreaker: How many times has the Songfacts staff seen Finding Nemo? - 3 Thanks to everyone who took the quiz, and be sure to take the new one here.

If you haven't done so already, dig into the Who's Who's Next album.

Or "Route 66." There's also "Heart Of Rock And Roll" by Huey Lewis. I'm 80% sure they customized that, so radio stations played versions that mentioned local citys.

Jenni- Glad you like the Top 10 list. It's not broken, it just seems like Night Moves has a lot of fans. Hopefully we'll see a bunch of different songs up there each day. I like your Woodstock. Carl

For reasons I can't really explain, Lionel Richie's Back To Front album.

Here in CT, we have a venue problem. There are some great 700-1000 seat clubs, a wonderful 5,000 seat theater, a big outdoor venue and the good ole' Hartford Civic Center, which shows up on the Rock And Roller Coaster ride at Disney World if you're really paying attention. Anyway, there are a lot of great acts that fit nicely into a 3,000 seat theater, and most of them avoid Connecticut. There is a hall in Hartford that holds about that number, and that's where we saw Barenaked Ladies, but they are more of an off-Broadway kind of place and rarely have concerts. It's great being part of the masses for a fantastic arena show by a band you love, and it's also fun to catch some great music in small clubs, but a nice, mid-sized theater can draw some great acts and provide a very comfortable listening experience. At least we have Northampton, Mass nearby. That city leads the league in music venues per capita.

Mike is the guitarist for Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers. He's the guy who came up with the tracks for songs like "Refugee" and "You Got Lucky." He has also produced many of their songs and worked with Don Henley on "Boys Of Summer" and "Heart Of The Matter." It's rare that you go a day without hearing a song he wrote, produced, or played on. Check out some of these songs: http://www.songfacts.com/factsearch.lasso?category=campbell&-search

The former lead singer of Men At Work spoke with us about some of their songs. You might be surprised to learn what "Down Under" is really about. This group made some really interesting music that was very popular around the world. By not taking themselves too seriously, they were huge hits on MTV back when the channel was just getting noticed. Here's the link to their songs: http://www.songfacts.com/factsearch.lasso?category=menwork&-search

We were close to getting some real good Songfacts on "Brown Eyed Girl," but for some reason we didn't. From what I can remember, Van hated the song. He put it together as a pop confection to prove he could sell albums if he wanted to, but chose artistic integrity instead. This came after his album Astral Weeks , which is considered a classic, but caused some problems when it was released. If anyone knows more, please post.

We got some Songfacts about "Knocking On Heaven's Door," which I didn't know was written for a movie - Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid. It's such an emotional song, but I guess it was about a character in the film. Anyone know more? Dylan was also in the movie. It's interesting that guys like Dylan, John Lennon and Mick Jagger showed up in a lot of fairly obscure movies.

Aditya from Dubai, United Arab Emirates is the winner of a clean and comfortable Songfacts T-shirt . Here are the answers: What former Beatle appeared in a Madonna movie? - George Harrison. He was in Shanghai Surprise. A lot of people guessed Ringo. What popular singer from the '60s and '70s converted to Islam and stopped recording secular music? - Cat Stevens What magazine has used rappers Nelly, Ludacris, Outkast and Ja Rule as guest photographers? - Playboy This was a tough one. Most guesses were Vibe, Source, Jet or Spin. What band has a mascot named Eddie? - Iron Maiden Who made a surprise appearance at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards and asked, "Heard Any Good Jokes Lately"? - Paul Reubens, better known as Pee Wee Herman What musician appeared on the first episode of <i>Sesame Street</i>? - Luther Vandross He was with a group called Listen My Brother. What song that Marilyn Manson covered did he say was "More depressing and offensive than anything I've ever written." - "Suicide Is Painless" (theme from M.A.S.H.) What is the best-selling single by a female group? - "Wannabe" by The Spice Girls Most guesses for this were songs by Destiny's Child, The Bangles, The Go-Gos, and TLC. Who was the first rapper or rap group to earn a gold record? - Kurtis Blow ("The Breaks") Just about everyone guessed Run-DMC. A few people guessed The Sugarhill Gang, Will Smith or The Beastie Boys. Frank is the only one who got this right. What band is being sued by fans after leaving the stage at a concert this summer after playing for just 17 minutes? - Limp Bizkit The show was in Chicago, and the crowd turned hostile in response to derogatory comments from lead singer Fred Durst. Tiebreaker: How many pumpkins did the Songfacts staff buy for Halloween? - 1, but we had plenty of gourds. Some people thought we bought hundreds of pumpkins. Thanks to everyone who took the quiz, and be sure to take the new one here.