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

Jump they say, Bowie

 It deals with Bowies feelings for his

schizophrenic half brother, who died 

by suicide. He has also stated his own

feelings about jumping into the unknown

metaphysically

Who’ll Stop The Rain - CCR

Fogerty said that he wrote it the day he got home from Woodstock after seeing the kids out in the rain, all muddy, cold, and “huddled together trying to keep warm.” 

Nick Cave had already mostly written this song and his 15 year old son died by falling after experimenting with LSD. He changed some word before recording. He has written a lot about loss and love over the years.

"Girl in Amber" - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYZIdtmdNm4 

The Pusher - Steppenwolf

This song is about a drug dealer. It is one of the first songs to deal with harsh realities of drug use, and condemns "the pusher" as a heartless criminal who is only after your money.
Hoyt Axton wrote this song after one of his friends died of a drug overdose. Axton struggled with addiction for much of his life and was keen on exposing the dangers, which he did on "The Pusher" and on another song recorded by Steppenwolf, "Snowblind Friend."

Piano Man - Billy Joel

Based on his experiences while playing at a piano bar in Los Angeles.

A Christmas classic with a surprising story.

"Do You Hear What I Hear?" - written by Noel Regney and Gloria Shayne

    Performed and recorded by many genres and people since 1962. 

In 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis and Cold War, they were in a recording studio listening to the radio. They were afraid they would be obliterated by nuclear missiles. So they wrote the song about the nativity scene as a cry for peace.

Dancing in the moonlight, King Harvest

Sherman Kelly wrote the song after getting

 attacked by a gang in St. Croix. He was left

for dead with various injuries and while

recovering he wrote this song about an

alternate reality of a peaceful and joyful

celebration of life. He first sang it with his 

own band before his brother introduced it 

to King Harvest, who he was the drummer

for. The rest is history 🎼💜

This title was just begging to be researched:

Our Lawyer Made Us Change the Name of This Song So We Wouldn't Get Sued - Fall Out Boy

After the meteoric rise of their fortunes with their first album the song is a warning about the trappings of fame, originally called “My Name Is David Ruffin And These Are The Temptations,” a reference to how Ruffin tried, but failed to change the Temptations' name to “David Ruffin and The Temptations,” which Motown had done with “Diana Ross and The Supremes.” Ruffin died of a drug overdose in 1991.
Fall Out Boy’s lawyers intervened and made them change the title to avoid the risk of a lawsuit from Ruffin’s estate.

Early Days-Basically a story of John and Paul in the early Liverpool days. Paul questioning what people write about their early days. 

Mothers Of The Disappeared

 Bullet The Blue Sky     

by U2

Both songs were inspired by a trip that Bono made to El Salvador, mid-80’s, during the civil war. MOTD: He met with a group of women whose children were stolen and they didn’t know if they were dead or alive. 
BTBS: He camped out in the hills with guerrilla fighters where he heard the bombs coming from American supplied fighter jets, and knew that a lot of innocent people in villages were being killed in the process.It was a protest song against American involvement.