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

[Vexed]

Many songwriters are inspired to write from events that happened to them or their band members. What are some that you know?

"Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple -- written about the fire at the Montreux Switzerland, Frank Zappa concert, that Deep Purple's members were in the audience and they got safely out to a nearby restaurant and watched the smoke gather across Lake Geneva.

[MaVolta]

Amy Lee has fantastic vocals, and I enjoy her music with Evanescence. It’s a beautiful duet, but I have to agree with the comments on YT that his solo version is the better one, and brings out the brokenness in the lyrics.

[Vexed]

I agree @MaVolta . That is the way he wrote it and felt it. The other is beautiful, but it feels more "commercial" if that makes sense.

[Vexed]

"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 

[Vexed]

"Gimme Three Steps" - Lynyrd Skynyrd

Ronnie Van Zant, when he was 18 with a fake id went to a bar and Rossington and Allen Collins waited for him in a truck, they were younger. Van Zant danced with a girl named Linda, who had a boyfriend that apparently disapproved. He came up to Ronnie and started reaching for something in his boot. Thinking it was a gun Ronnie said: "If you're going to shoot me it's going to be in the **bleep** or the elbows... just gimme a few steps and I'll be gone." He ran to the truck, and he, Rossington, and Collins wrote this song that night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM3jgkChV6M 

[LeeS4949]

I love how inspiration for a song can come from absolutely anywhere..😎

[EricC28201]

Don't Stop Believin - Journey

This Hit for Journey was inspired by a conversation their keyboardist, Jonathan Cain, had with his father shortly after he moved to LA in hopes of landing a big break. "I said, 'Dad, should I just give up on this thing and come home? It seems like I might be pushing it back to Chicago.' 'No, no, don't come home. Stick to your guns. Don't stop believin'. I went, 'OK.'"

[Vexed]

"Bridge" - Queensryche

Written by Chris Degarmo (lead guitarist). His father walked out on the family when he was young. Then he called him out of the blue after decades. Had a hard time dealing with that and wrote the song. 

  "Trying to mend a bridge that's been blown apart,
But you know you never built it dad."

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

[Vexed]

"Badman's Song" - Tears for Fears with Oleta Adams --

Roland Orzabal wrote this when after a performance on tour the rest of the band and friends went to the rented party room in their hotel. Roland couldn't sleep cause the room was next to his. He didn't want to call that room to complain in case that really wasn't them. So, he listened with his ear to the wall. Many were all complaining about him (Roland). He wrote this song in response. It wasn't originally a duet, but Oleta Adams agreed to sing on the album, so it was reworked. She also plays piano on the track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9wK1LBxZZQ 

Part of the lyrics:

"Heard every word that was said that night
When the light of the world put the world to right
Well here's to the boys back in 628
Where an ear to the wall was a twist of fate
I will shine a blinding light
Through those hearts as black as night
Sticks and stones may break my bones
But as least the seeds of love will be sown"

[EricC28201]

The Prophet’s Song - Queen

Written by Guitarist Brian May about a dream he had about a Noah-esque flood.

[Vexed]

"Come Monday" - Jimmy Buffett ---- Written for/about Jane Slagsvol (was to be his wife) who he missed while touring. They were broke when they made this video. Monday's were when he usually could get home from the tours and most people were going to work.
This video has an intro of Buffet in his later years telling about the video.

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

[LeeS4949]

I never knew that story... so wonderful😊

[LeeS4949]

Dealin' with the Devil-Eddy Raven..

A well written and honest story of his own battle with inner demons and his victory over them with the help of his wonderful wife..

[Vexed]

"John Lennon's Guitar" - Barclay James Harvest

- Written by the band's guitarist/vocalist John Lees - When they were recording "Galadriel" in 1971, he got to play the Gibson Epiphone Casino that was played by Lennon that was used in the Beatles last performance in 1969. This is the story of that experience (written for an 1990 ablum) and in the song he says the Beatles broke up right after that performance. Great solo. (The band was founded in 1966).

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

@BeatleloverKT  --- You should enjoy the above. But I think you will get a kick out of this:

"Titles" -  Barclay James Harvest

- Written by the band's guitarist/vocalist John Lees - The song is made up entirely of Beatles song titles.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRS10BeQOz0 

[BeatleloverKT]

Both videos were great. What a

wonderful and clever way to pay

tribute to the Beatles and to John.

Thanks for sharing! 🎼💜

[EricC28201]

I'm not in love - 10cc

Songwriter Eric Stewart says,
"I met this gorgeous girl called Gloria at Halifax town hall. I was 18. She was 16. Three years later, we got married. A few years after that, Gloria told me: 'You don't say 'I love you' much anymore.' I told her that, if I said it all the time, it would sound glib. But I started wondering how I could say it without using those actual words. So 'I'm not in love' became a rhetorical conversation with myself – and then a song."

[MaVolta]

Homeward Bound  -  S & G

Paul Simon wrote this when he lived in England. He was literally sitting at the train station waiting for the train back home to Brighton when he wrote it. But on a deeper level he was longing for home back in America.

[EricC28201]

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.

[Vexed]

"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. 😊

[MaVolta]

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!

[EricC28201]

Ballroom Blitz - Sweet

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

[Vexed]

"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.

[BeatleloverKT]

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

[Vexed]

"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.

[EricC28201]

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.

[Vexed]

"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.

[Vexed]

" 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.

[BeatleloverKT]

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

[MaVolta]

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.” 

[Vexed]

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 

[EricC28201]

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."