It started with a scribble on the back of an envelope on a wintery New York street, in Jan. 1985 and was fully completed in May 1985 in a London studio, when the verse "unicorns and cannonballs, palaces and piers' was added.
The Waterboys was founded in 1982 by Mike Scott (Dec. 14th 1958), In fact the Waterboys is Mike Scott, picking musicians for recording and live peforming.
First recording for the Waterboys started December 1981 in London, first live performance was Febr. 19th 1984 in the Batschkapp club , Frankfurt Germany.
First long time contributer till 1986, was Anthony Thistlewaite, mainly on saxophone. After that from 1986 till today is Irishman Steve Wickham (fiddle).
Multi instrumentalist Karl Wallinger from Wales played with Mike Scott on two albums, Pagan Place (2nd, 1983) and This is the Sea (3rd, 1985) on which he contributed only on piano and keyboards.
From September 1991 untill May 2000, Mike Scott worked and recorded as a solo artists. Since June 16th the Waterboys is again his vehicle to record and perform his music.
"The Cave" by Mumford & Sons is based on the philosophy of Plato and his work called "Allegory of the Cave."
"Stay" by Lisa Loeb was the first #1 hit by an unsigned artist. It got a boost from Ethan Hawke, who got it into a movie he starred in called Reality Bites.
After Cher revived "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss)" in 1990, Salt-N-Pepa released "Shoop" and Whitney Houston had a #1 hit with "Exhale (Shoop Shoop)."
The song "Don't Worry Be Happy" doesn't use any instruments - it's all Bobby McFerrin using various parts of his body to make the sounds.
The first version of The Beatles' "Helter Skelter" was a 27-minute jam, so you can imagine what Ringo was going through pounding away on drums. To convince the guys he needed a break, he screamed, "I've got blisters on my fingers!" This was included on the fadeout.
Kid Rock's "All Summer Long" is a mashup of "Werewolves Of London" and "Sweet Home Alabama." The album it came from was released in October, 2007, but they held off until summer, 2008 for a more seasonable release.
She thinks of herself as a "song interpreter," but back in the '80s another country star convinced Emmylou to take a crack at songwriting.
The former Dead Kennedys frontman on the past, present and future of the band, what music makes us "pliant and stupid," and what he learned from Alice Cooper.
Songs about drugs, revolution and greed that have been used in commercials for sneakers, jeans, fast food, cruises and cars.
The man who brought us "Red Skies" and "Saved By Zero" is now an organic farmer in France.
An interview with Frankie Valli, who talks about why his songs - both solo and with The Four Seasons - have endured, and reflects on his time as Rusty Millio on The Sopranos.
Our chat with Barney Hoskyns, who covers the wild years of Woodstock - the town, not the festival - in his book Small Town Talk.