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

Jeremy - Pearl Jam

Written by Eddie Vedder after reading a newspaper article about Jeremy Wade Delle who committed suicide at school.  It reminded him of a Jr. High classmate who brought a gun to school and shot up a classroom.

"How Long?" - by Ace  written by Paul Carrack. 

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

Most people thought it was about a guy with a cheating lover.  .But it was about the band's bass player was sneaking around playing with a few other bands (shopping I guess). So they felt cheated when they found out. Cheating though still. 😊

Just A Song Before I Go  -  CSN

In his autobiography, Graham Nash said his driver (and drug dealer!) made him a bet that he couldn’t write a song in the fifteen minutes it would take them to get to the airport. Nash immediately came up with this one!

Ballroom Blitz - Sweet

Inspired by a gig at the Grand Hall in Kilmarnock, Scotland where they were run off the stage by the audience.

"Semi-True Story" - Jimmy Buffet and Mac McAnally

The words aren't exactly the whole story (thus "semi"). But it is an interesting story.

In 1974, Jimmy had just finished recording "God's Own Drunk" and went to a hotel bar with Sammy Creason (drummer) to celebrate. A lot of tequila later, he and Sammy went to find the car. He had a hard time finding it so stood on a Cadillac to have a better view. That cad happened to belong to Buford Pusser. After telling Jimmy to stay there he was under arrest, Jimmy said he could kiss something. Buford followed them to their car and gave them both a beating. They didn't get arrested, but were lucky to be alive. Pusser died in a car accident later that year.

In another of his songs "Presents To Send You", Jimmy wrote a paragraph about this event also.

Love Shack, B-52’s

The inspiration for this song came from a

cabin around Athens, GA with a tin roof

(in the lyrics) where the band conceived

“Rock Lobster”It was located off the

Atlanta Highway (in the lyrics) Kate 

Pierson lived there in the ‘70’s and it

burned down in 2004. I often wonder 

what else was conceived in this cabin

besides a song lol

"Don't Call Us, We'll Call You" - Sugarloaf

After their hit "Green Eyed Lady", they lost their label. This song tells how they had a lot of rejection, using the industry cliches they heard. Claridge took them and this song became a hit, in 1975.
CBS Records was one of the labels that turned them down. Sugarloaf got retribution by revealing an unlisted phone number of CBS Records near the beginning of the song with the sound of the touch-tones that would be dialed. If you figured it out, you could dial those number that matched the tones. When the song became a hit, CBS Record had that number changed. The end of the song has another set of tones to the White House. The band got a visit from the State Department asking why so many callers mentioned Sugarloaf.

Dude (Looks Like a Lady) - Aerosmith

The song is about Mötley Crüe frontman Vince Neil's long blonde hair which caused the band (Aerosmith) to mistake him for a woman one evening in a bar.

"No Sugar Tonight" - The Guess Who

--- came to Randy Bachman from an experience he had walking in downtown Berkeley, California. He was walking and talking with a band mate when he saw four big biker guys walking on the same sidewalk coming towards them. He decided to cross the street instead of confronting the bikers, then he heard the skidding of car tires. The car came to a skidding stop and a biker lady got out of the car, walked over to one of the bikers and engaged in a heated conversation with him. When the argument was over the she walked back to the car, turned around, then shouted to the biker, 'One more thing honey, you're not getting any sugar tonight. The car took off, Randy crossed the street went back to his hotel and started writing the song.

" Ain't Got Nothin' " -  Oasis

Written by Liam Gallagher after the hotel bar brawl in Munich in 2002, in which he lost two front teeth.