When you come right down to it, there are probably only about 3 or 4 different types of song inspiration that make up for about 90% of the stuff we listen to.
That sounds a bit depressing but the good news is that there is still plenty of weird stuff in the other 10% for us to marvel at.
Ben – Michael Jackson
When Mike appeared as a hologram at a recent music awards show I was willing a hologram rat to appear beside him. Sadly, this ended up as yet another example of the world not turning out like I hoped it would. This is a love song / buddy song to a rat.”Ben, you’re always running here and there”, the King of Pop crooned. Well, that’s what rodents do, buddy.
Maxwell’s Silver Hammer – The Beatles

The Fab Four famously made a whole bunch of weird songs about walruses, octopuses, racoons and other unlikely stuff. However, perhaps their strangest moment came with this song about a guy who kills people with a silver hammer. They recorded it while Yoko Ono lay injured on a double bed in the studio. Lennon hated it, Harrison called it “fruity” and everyone just wondered exactly how many drugs The Beatles had started taking.
Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana
This one’s about, like, teenage angst, dude, isn’t it? It may well be but, rather fantastically, the title is based on a female deodorant aimed at teenagers. Kurt Cobain woke up at a party and found the slogan “Kurt smells like Teen Spirit” scrawled on the wall. Thinking that it was some sort of compliment on his rebellious nature he used it as a song title. After recording the song he discovered that it was a brand of deodorant. Ok, so the song isn’t really about the benefits of dry armpits but it’s a great story all the same.
Money for Nothing – Dire Straits

Surely at least once in your life to date you have wondered why this song has lyrics about people delivering domestic appliances. Let’s face it; the heady world of fridge and microwave transport is a relatively untapped source of musical inspiration. It turns out that Mark Knopfler was inspired by, well, people delivering domestic appliances. He had the good fortune to overhead a couple of these guys complaining about their work one day and turned their gripes into a worldwide guitar smash.
Down Under – Men at Work
This is one of those songs which I love to hear come on the radio, which to be fair only happens about twice in any given decade. What is all about, though? All that talk of vegemite sandwiches, flowing beer and chundering makes me a bit queasy whenever I hear it. I guess it’s about Aussies travelling the world and meeting other antipodeans on the way but did they have to make it so weird?
Enola Gay – OMD
If you are a budding songwriter who is short of inspiration here’s an idea for you; write a cheery dance track about dropping a nuclear bomb. It worked for OMD.
Warren Zevon – Werewolves of London

I lived in London about a decade ago and have only just got over the post traumatic stress of using the bloody Tube every day. Anyway, the point is that at no point during my time in the UK capital did I ever have a lycanthropic encounter. Not once.
