Songs of true stories that happened to the songwriter(s)

Avalon, Roxy Music

Brian Ferry stayed up on a Saturday night to

write the lyrics for this song. The recording 

studio in London would let local Haitian Bands 

come in and do demos on slow Sundays. He

was on a coffee break and heard Yanick

Etienne sing and was amazed with her voice.

Her bf/ manager came in and they told him 

what they wanted with the song. She spoke no English. She was told to freestyle it at the end 

and if you’ve heard this song you will be

amazed with her voice. It still gives me chills

to this day. He was so impressed with her

he named the album “Avalon” after the song 🎼💜

"Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You)" - A Flock of Seagulls (82)

https://www.youtube/watch?v=opkzgLMH5MA 

This song is about a real person. The night before their first trip they ever took to America he (Mike Score) met a girl. After the date, he didn't want to forget her and told her they were going on tour and he'll be back. He wanted a photograph of her. She told him no, because he was going to be famous and he would forget her. He started thinking about it and wrote the song. It wasn't recorded until two years later. Good song.

The band broke up in 86, Mike Score started FLOS up again in 88 with different people in the lineup for years. And he did some solo stuff. The original band got together in 2018 and 2021 to record albums with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. Ascension and String Theory.

Here is a 2019 video of a live performance of this song (not the original lineup) 

Miss the hairdo 😊

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6120BIDOJ0 

"At This Moment" - Billy Vera & The Beaters (81)

Billy Vera (William McCord Jr.) wrote part of the song when dating a girl that had just broken up with a boyfriend and she told the details and he wrote about what he was probably feeling. He couldn't finish the song, he wasn't sure how it ended. Then several months later she broke up with him and he could finish the song. He offered the song to several artists and no one would record it. The group then got a label to record it themselves. It stalled a bit on the charts (#79) and his record label pulled out of the market shortly after. He went into acting. Then an episode of Family Ties tv show featured it on a "break-up episode" and everyone wanted to know who and how to get it. They got another record label (Rhino) and recorded the song. Was number one in 1987.

(81) - single - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkfyqF2NRA0 

(86) - single - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe32FjJYLzg 

(88) - Live (and he relates the story) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO01sRRLKkk 

"Every Rose Has It's Thorn" - Poison - 1988 - Brett Michaels wrote this about the rose being the growing career of his music and the thorn was the cost of his relationship with Tracy Lewis. He called her while on tour and heard a man's voice in the background. A Dallas country station actually played this before the rock stations did. Was #1 in Pop, Rock and Top 40 Country. Their record label almost didn't let them release it cause they thought it didn't fit the band's image.

1988 Video "Every Rose Has It's Thorn" - Poison

In 2010 Bret Michaels did a country version - Every Rose - (featuring Brad Arnold, Chris Cagle and Mark Willis) on his album Custom Built

Fire and rain, James Taylor, 1970

The song follows his reaction to the

suicide of his childhood friend, Suzanne

Schnerr. It also is about his experiences

with drug addiction and fame

"Sleep's Dark and Silent Gate" - Jackson Browne ('76) -

 Written after his wife committed suicide and left their small child.  Lyrics

"I'm Losing You" - John Lennon (also known as Winston O'Boogie)

 --- Written in June 1980 when he thought something was wrong with his relationship with Yoko because he could not get her on the phone. They producers first brought in Cheap Trick's guitarist Rick Nielsen and drummer Bun E. Carlos to play for the recording (12 August 1980), however, they brought in studio musicians for the 1980 release (a few weeks before his murder). The Cheap Trick version was included on the 1998 Lennon Anthology.

Cheap Trick on the original recording.

from Double Fantasy album

Cheap Trick did a cover version (2001 I think)

Cover of the Rolling Stone, Dr. Hook&

the Medicine Show

Satirizes success in the music business. In

the song they lament never being on the

Cover of RS, despite their superficial

attributes. As the song was riding high on

the charts, RS finally caved and put them 

on the cover, but in caricature form and only

of 3 of the 7 members. Their groups name

was not used, the caption read What’s-their-

names-make the cover. Satirical indeed 🎼💜

"Broken" - Seether (Not to be confused with other "Broken" titles)

Written when Shaun Morgan and the band were moving to the U.S. and his wife and daughter wouldn't go with him and broke apart the marriage and family. It was put on their 2002 album.

In 2004, while he was dating Amy Lee of  Evanescence, Shaun reworked the song into a duet and wrote strings into it. The song was included in the movie "The Punisher".

First version - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bHbCib2k6E 

Second version with Amy Lee - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPC2Fp7IT7o 

"Bitter Taste" - Billy Idol (2021)

-- In 1990, Billy ran a stop sign on his Harley and was hit by a car. Nearly lost his leg. Had a steel rod in leg and a hole and a fractured arm. He decided it was a wake up call and got clean from drugs. Lost the part he was going to play in the 'Terminator 2: Judgment Day' movie. He wasn't able to write about it for 30 years. During the pandemic, he wrote this song about the accident. Written with with his guitarist and co-writer Steve Stevens, along with writers Tommy English and Joe Janiak.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHndHseXKQU