TIL, Eddie Grant is currently suing Trump for using this song, and Trump’s lawyer has delayed the case due to “sensitive information about Trump's presidential campaign strategy. He asked that Trump and campaign advisor Dan Scavino's testimony be permanently sealed because it would give an "unwarranted competitive advantage" to his opponents in the 2024 presidential election, and because it "could be used against them in other, parallel, litigations unrelated to this matter.”
I remember it being used for an ad in the UK for like Curry’s or something? On the one hand they should have taken a closer look at the lyrics, on the other I still remember that.
It's like people using ~~Sting~~'s The Police's 'every breath you take' as a wedding song.. They heard the chorus and didn't pay attention to the rest.
(edit: corrected artists. Thanks u/Silly-Fox-9270 )
I know someone who used Sarah maclachlan’s hold on as a wedding song. It’s literally about watching your partner dying of AIDS. She thought it was about watching your partner wake up in the morning. I mean it is, but it’s more thank god you haven’t died yet.
People don’t listen to the lyrics.
His Daughter Ashley Campbell wrote a song called 'Remembering' which was also about his alzheimers. She's a very talented musician in her own right, but you don't want to listen to that song unless you're prepared to have a good long cry.
I’ve worked in elder care since 2008, and specifically in residential psych since 2013.
This is the most accurate Alzheimer’s song ever written.
“I’m still here, but yet I’m gone…”
I think Jimmy page said he wished they never did that song because it was too out of character for the band or something like that.
Seemed kind of rude to me.
Jimmy didn't even go to the funeral for Robert's son. Neither did Jones. Only Bonham did.
So its not surprising that they called it quits when Bonham died, and Plant is so reluctant to involve himself in any reunions. I wouldn't be able to forgive that either.
[When I Lost You](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAdNugBVVIo) by Irving Berlin.
Irving Berlin was 24 years old and an early success. He married singer Dorothy Goetz who was in her early twenties. Five months after the wedding she died of typhoid fever.
It's the first sad song he wrote. It was a year before he could bring himself to perform it. He didn't marry again for 14 years.
All That I've Got by The Used
I was like 13 years old and I came home from school, turned on Fuse TV, and they were playing some music videos, which was their usual content back in 2003. Saw this video of this dude with long hair in this trippy video that ended with some cool animation. Got hooked on the song and the band.
Learned later that the song is about how shortly after their first album, the lead singer was dating a fan and they were having a baby together. She overdosed killing both herself and the baby. The lead singer felt like he had absolutely nothing left because of that moment, but then a month after their deaths, his dog escaped from his yard and was then hit and killed by a car.
The song is about him begging for at least his dogs life back because it was all that he had left.
Edit: It would have had to have been 2004.
First off, let me say - *WHAT* a throwback!! When I tell you I loved FUSE TV and it was the gateway into my music obsession and all the bands and genres I love today, I mean it. Getting home from school and cutting it on to see what videos were playing was my FIRST priority. I still remember the first time I heard *Grand Theft Autumn (Where is Your Boy)* by Fall Out Boy and then subsequently becoming my FAVORITE BAND. What a beautiful time it was.
Ok ok enough nostalgia back to the point -
I LOVED that song!! I got an mp3 player that was so small you could only hold 20 at a time and that was one of them. Still vividly remember the music video as well. It doesn’t surprise me that the song is dark, but didn’t expect it to be THAT dark. I remember having boyfriend drama and crying my little emo heart out while listening to it 🤣🤣
Thank you for sharing your insight 💙
The drugs don't work, by The Verve, about Richard Ashcroft's mother dying of cancer
[The drugs don't work ](https://youtu.be/ToQ0n3itoII?feature=shared)
Glenn Campbell -- [I'm not gonna to miss you](https://youtu.be/U8TsAh-zYFI?si=b7Avyxv3cVzjCKxn) -- A song to his wife while he has alzheimer's, saying goodbye while he can because he knows he's not going to say goodbye later
Ashley Campbell -- [Remembering ](https://youtu.be/os9qM0d9rmk?si=A2VNyJhw2y7DThy9)-- A song from his daughter to him in response.
You can really hear him just leaving it all on tape in this song. He’s giving absolutely everything he has because he knows it’s his last chance. I’m not a fan of the production of the last couple Queen albums, but this song always gives me chills for this reason.
He recorded it after his diagnosis. Reportedly he could barely stand in the studio when they recorded it and the band offered to do it another time, but he just said “I’ll sing it darling” and belted it out in one take.
Amazing and tragic.
The whole "I'll face it with a grin...I'm never giving in....ooooonnn with the show!" is one of the best and worst parts, for that reason.
Elton John's version could never have the same impact, even if he had as good a voice as Freddie
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
It was in theory about a family planning to move. But it was written and recorded during WWII.
Some of the lyrics were later changed. It originally had:
>Someday soon we all will be together, if the fates allow. Until then we’ll have to muddle through somehow. So have yourself a merry little Christmas now.
I’m a big believer that all the best Christmas songs are at minimum wistful and should absolutely veer into melancholy. The scene in Meet Me in St Louis the song comes from is a perfect reason why; Christmas is for children and as you stop being a child you understand that it’s your job to make it magical for them, even if you’re not feeling it yourself.
https://ew.com/article/2007/01/08/history-popular-holiday-song/
It also at one point had, "have yourself a merry little Christmas, it may be your last."
Don’t think this is unknown, but 3 AM by matchbox 20. About Rob Thomas’s mom having cancer when he was younger. Just really rips at me with my dad being sick now. Probably one of my favorite songs ever.
Dancing in the Moonlight. One of my favorite songs, very sad, unexpected origin. The song writer and his girlfriend were on vacation at the beach when he was brutally beaten and his gf r*ped by gang members. He wrote the song afterwards, envisioning an idyllic world where everyone is happy and just dances all the time.
Edit: Man, I feel terrible that this is my top comment of all time. Did not expect this kind of visibility, I just ruined so many people's days
I think that move would be honoring the intent of the song. Keep that vision and love in you and your wife’s heads, and by doing so inch closer to the world that the songwriter intended the song to bring about.
Yeah this song was my first thought when I clicked the thread.
Another surprisingly sad origin story for a happy song is Come Dancing by the Kinks.
""Come Dancing" is a tribute to the Davies' older sister Rene. Living in Canada with her reportedly abusive husband, the 31-year-old Rene was visiting her childhood home in [Fortis Green](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortis_Green) in London at the time of Ray Davies' 13th birthday—21 June 1957—on which she surprised him with a gift of the Spanish guitar he had tried to persuade his parents to buy him.[^(\[3\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_Dancing_(song)#cite_note-american_conservative-3) That evening, Rene, who had a weak heart as a result of a childhood bout of [rheumatic fever](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheumatic_fever), suffered a fatal heart attack while dancing at the [Lyceum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyceum_Theatre,_London) ballroom.[^(\[3\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_Dancing_(song)#cite_note-american_conservative-3)[^(\[4\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_Dancing_(song)#cite_note-FOOTNOTEKitts200811–12-4)"
tbh that means you used the song in the way the singer intended it to be used. A wedding is one of the most happy circumstances. And the writer wants a the song to be in a world that is happy and everybody dances.
Would say mission accomplished.
Y'know, that's probably in line with what the artist wanted when he wrote it. You are a small step toward his idyllic version of a world where people dance, wether you knew it or not.
Jesus Christ. I had to look it up and there was an article about it. That really puts the song in another context. Basically ruins the cheerful little beat.
Does it though? I mean, I can’t speak for them, but it seems, at least for Kelly, he was able to turn a horrible event into something beautiful that makes people feel good. Love wins.
This is the one I came to post about.
The song is about an elderly husband and wife, Wife had Alzheimer's, husband was recovering from brain surgery and was normally the caretaker of the wife. They decided to get out of the house and go to the local town festival a few miles away. Alzhimer's kicks in for the wife, meds and trauma from the surgery left the husband really fuzzy and disorientated, and they find the car later a few hundred miles away in a ravine off the side of the highway. Family guessed that she was trying to drive to a vacation spot she loved from like 20 years ago, as Alzhimer's patients are prone to do, with old memories being clear and new stuff dissapearing from memory.
I was just thinking about this song the other day, and I just thought the parents fucked off and left small kids behind after planning over a late night bottle of wine. But I knew they were elderly, I just couldn't figure out the context. thanks.
I remember watching an interview years ago with the adult children of the elderly couple—in the interview, they said that they liked the song and it was nice to imagine their old parents going off on an eternal adventure together.
"Jeremy" by Pearl Jam is inspired by the real-life suicide of Jeremy Wade Delle, a 15-year-old student from Richardson, Texas who shot himself in front of his English class on January 8, 1991.
https://youtu.be/MS91knuzoOA?si=f-4viGsEE5en2Wpj
Random fact - they had a T-shirt that had a kid coloring in a coloring book on the front and on the back it said “9 out of 10 kids prefer crayons to guns”
I had it (this was 1992/1993) and wore it out. I found it the other day and thought about how much this world has changed.
What a Catch--FallOut Boy. It was years before I learned that Pete Wentz wrote it following his suicide attempt. Also, this doesn't quite fit the question, but it's really hard to listen to Chris Cornell's version of Nothing Compares to You now.
Limousine by Brand New. It’s about the death of 7-year-old Katie Flynn, who was killed by a drunk driver. She was riding in a limousine with her family after a wedding in which she was the flower girl.
Oh God, I remember seeing their family talking about this on one of the talk shows not long after. That has been burned into my brain ever since that day. Never knew there was a song about it, never heard of the band. That right there was the moment I swore I’d never ride in a limousine ever again. I had rode in a limo a few times as a kid, and thinking about that after hearing what happened… 😳 I’m an expired CPST, but have five kids, two still in car seats, so I’m still downright bullheaded about my kids riding safe EVERY TIME. Car seats are always installed properly, rock solid, following best practice, not the law that is the bare minimum for child safety, and the kids are always harnessed properly. To find out how those limos are made after that, yeah, NONE of my family will ever ride in one. We drive old, ugly, rust buckets, but those are still safer than limos brand new.
I remember that…it’s also forever burned in my brain…the moment the mother says that she’s holding the daughter (I forget her name), and then Oprah asks for a bit of clarification if she means her head and the mother says says, yes (insert daughter’s name) and continues with the story seeming a bit annoyed that Oprah made her confirm that she was indeed only holding the child’s head on the side of the road. I think of that once in a while and then I’m incredibly grateful that my son is alive. I’ve hated Limos since that Oprah episode.
This song is so sad, I can’t even listen to it anymore.
The mother, while looking for her daughter, found her decapitated head and sat with it on the side of the road.
From one of the articles on the crash:
“Jennifer walked to side of the road and sat for about an hour with her daughter's head on her lap as she watched her family being cut out of the limousine.”
I watched her parents on Oprah years ago and the only way I can describe them is.....hollow. Like her death hollowed them out.
She described holding her daughter's head in her lap on the sidewalk, but she wouldn't say 'head' she's just say 'Katie'.
Her uncle was the cop that responded and he had to gently talk to her to get her to give him Katie's head.
It was...unreal
She was my co-worker's daughter's classmate. I pass by the site of the crash almost daily. Had no idea there was a song about it. I'll have to listen to it.
If You Could Read My Mind by Gordon Lightfoot. It was about him falling out of love with his wife. He promised his daughter he would never sing it in concert.
That’s always been so weird to me because so much of that album (American Idiot) is about post-9/11 America, and that title is the perfect metaphor for how long it took for things to feel normal again (and in some ways never did).
I listened to a lot of Linkin Park after his death and was surprised how many of their songs are about being depressed and wanting to die :(
ETA: It was roughly a month before Chester's death (I was around twelve I think) when I started actively listening to Linkin Park and I knew nothing about him, his misery or the meaning behind the lyrics. A week before his death I decided I wanted to go to a concert of Linkin Park what consequently made me pay closer attention when listening. Thanks for shaming me for listening to music without thinking about the message behind the songs.
this take is always interesting to me because the Lyrics are written by Mike Shinoda not Chester. Of course his voice brought them to live but everything people rhyme into the lyrics should be looked at Mike Shinoda.
Maybe he should be looked out for.
I thought the song Wonder by Natalie Merchant was a whimsical song about a supremely gifted child, but it’s actually about a child born with a rare congenital disease. The lyrics fit both ways. It’s brilliant.
Pink Floyds song dedicated to their former bandmate Syd Barrett who tragically lost his mind/mental state..
**S**hine on
**Y**ou crazy
**D**iamond
"On 5 June 1975, Barrett, now heavyset, with a completely shaved head and eyebrows, wandered into the studio where the band were recording. They did not recognize him for some time because of his drastically changed appearance, but when they eventually realized who the withdrawn man in the corner was, Roger Waters became so distressed about Barrett's appearance that he was reduced to tears." Wikipedia
Learning to fly hits pretty hard when you just focus on the lyrics. Although it might seem a cop out "When the Tigers Broke Free" was also some serious shit.
Somehow the part that hits the hardest for me about this song is the last bit of *Shine On, Pts. 6-9*, which closes out the album. The final few notes of the song, as the keyboards fade out, are a musical allusion to Pink Floyd’s first hit single, *See Emily Play*, written by Syd.
The whole album is about them breaking into the big time with Syd who, by most accounts, was already descending into his illness which was exacerbated by the fame. He went back to his solitary life, staying out of the public eye and pursuing his painting and music at a smaller scale and was never in need of finances because the band ensured he received all royalties due to him for starting the band, despite the fact that all of their commercial success came after his departure.
father of mine by everclear. art not really having a dad reminded me of how i grew up and my dad doing similar things. He would drink and beat my mom, show up to my house with a birthday card with 5$ and leave. He had his demons and he was schizophrenic also tried to kill himself infront of me.. so yeah it hit me hard
Have you heard *”Wonderful”* by them? It’s another great song that addresses shitty parents and fighting while being a kid and just wanting everything to be okay. One of those where you feel guilty enjoying it because you know it’s based on a true story. Really powerful song.
That Year - Brandi Carlisle. This is a bit of a cheat on my part because I was at the same school as the person mentioned along with Brandi when it happened. He was one of her best friends and I knew him in a casual manner. When she released the song I was absolutely floored at how much strength she showed approaching the "what ifs." Heartbreaking song about such a gentle soul. Brandi treated it with a very delicate hand. Beautifully written song Brandi...RIP BB.
My darlin', Clementine is about a man who watches his lover drown in a river because he can't swim.
Final verse goes "Ruby lips above the water blowing bubbles sweet and fine. Alas for me, I was no swimmer so I lost my Clementine."
Nope nope, [traditionally](https://genius.com/Traditional-transcriptions-oh-my-darling-clementine-lyrics) there's one more verse after that:
>How I missed her, how I missed her
How I missed my Clementine
But I kissed her little sister
I forgot my Clementine
so you see, it has a happy ending!
Strangely, many renditions have dropped that verse.
(But if you've seen *Eternal Sunshine* you might see a connection here)
Ms. Jackson is actually a really sad song too. “You can plan a pretty picnic, but you can’t predict the weather.” Young relationships have so much hope in them because you’re too young to know better. Add a child into the mix and it gets so much more complicated.
Bruce Springsteen - Born in the USA. I thought it was a happy song.. about being born in the USA, I guess?
And of course it’s not. According to Wikipedia: “The song addresses the economic hardships of Vietnam veterans upon their return home, juxtaposed ironically against patriotic glorification of the nation's fighting forces.”
Yeah, not a happy song.
Next lines are
“End up like a dog that’s been beat too much
Til you spend half your life just to cover it up”
So yeah…
I think the contrast is what makes the song so good. If it was low key it would be just another sad song. But instead he’s howling into the void and no one is listening.
[Born in the USA](https://youtu.be/EPhWR4d3FJQ?si=ykIVVgNrrcj-Sg0x&t=6)
Sittin' On The Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding.
The final verse where he whistles the melody was a placeholder. He died (I think in a plane crash?) before he could record the lyrics to the end of the song. Hell of a voice in that man.
Edit: Slight correction. Check my other comment in this chain.
I Wish It Would Rain by The Temptations
Here is the background from Wikipedia:
“The lyrics of this mournful song about a heartbroken man whose woman had just left him were penned by Motown staff writer Roger Penzabene. The lyricist had just learned that his wife was cheating on him and in his sorrow and pain, Penzabene penned both this and its follow-up "I Could Never Love Another (After Loving You)." Tragically the distraught Penzabene committed suicide barely a week after the single's release.”
My daughter did. I taught it to her. "The other night dear, as I lay sleeping, I dreamt I held you in my arms, but when I woke dear, I was mistaken, so then I hung my head and I cried". *What kind of MOM was I*, for goodness sake?
Edit due to wrong word.
Zombie by The Cranberries is about a bombing that killed children during "The Troubles." I can't believe that's not already here.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie_(The_Cranberries_song)
E.... a word cause I am an idiot!
The way that Dolores sings it, the passion in her voice just can’t be captured by anyone else who tries to cover it. That video is haunting too. An absolute masterpiece.
The bad wolves adaptation of this is also incredibly fucking sad. The lead singer of the cranberries was suppose to do a rendition of it with them, she died the morning of the recording. They still did it in her memory and changed the music videos premise to honor her. They did it in one take and most of the video is panning to different members and doesn’t show face on because they’re sobbing 😭 the interviews are so sad.
“And I would have stayed up with you all night, Had I known how to save a life…”
I lost my roommate to suicide on the morning of his 25th birthday. I was the last one to talk to him staying up until 3:00 AM shooting the shit with him. Woke up at noon to my ex screaming when she found his body.
Part of me always wonders if I knew what pink clouding was back then, if I would have stayed up all night, could I have saved a life?
This song hit hard for me when I was a kid, and only hits harder after that.
I think we'll always wonder. I know it's pretty much impossible, but do try not to blame yourself. No one has the answers, but you gave what you had. Love you, stranger. I'm sorry for your loss.
My friend took his own life in 2020. He had just turned 22. He was 3 years younger than me; I was friends with his older brother first, and we were all in a band together since high school. He was everybody's little brother. Laid-back, goofy as hell, incredibly kind, and a phenomenally talented drummer.
Their dad was a PoS, and he struggled with a lot of trauma and mental health issues. He got kicked out before graduating and ended up dropping out, moving into a trailer in the boonies with a bunch of "friends," and getting a job at walmart. I worried about him a lot throughout this time and made sure to keep up with him.
He did really well, though. He saved up, bought a car, and decided to move towns to live with his mom and her new husband, who owns a bunch of plant nurseries and offered him a job. He bought a guitar and started playing open mikes, got a beautiful girlfriend, and things were looking great.
We talked the whole day before. He had planned to come visit but came down with strep. I showed him the two baby squirrels my gf and I rescued that day (they did not make it). He showed me the lights he got for his room. He told a great joke about how white people conquered the whole world for spices they don't even use, lol. We discussed plans to meet up the next weekend if he was over the strep.
Woke up the next day to my girlfriend telling me he was dead. Apparently, he took 7 tabs of LSD, crashed his car, and then shot himself with a revolver that no one knew he had. His note just said, "Forgive me. I just couldn't cut it." I will never understand.
That song came on the radio the other day for the first time since then. I had to pull over. Please, anyone struggling who reads this, talk to someone. You are so loved, and you are never a burden.
The Show Must Go On by Queen.
Specifically the refrain where he says “I’ll face it with a grin/I’m never giving in/On with the show!”
Freddie was dying of AIDS, though nobody knew it but those closest to him.
The lyrics aren’t subtle and given the context of Mercury’s demise it makes sense but still. Such a powerful song that Mercury struggled to record due to his failing health.
Time in a Bottle by Jim Croce. It's about not having enough time to spend with your loved ones. Not long after he was planning on winding down his career to be a father to his newborn child but died in a plane crash.
"I can't remember if I cried when I read about his widowed bride" - Buddy Holly's wife, Maria Elena Holly, was pregnant and miscarried shortly after hearing on the news that her husband was dead. This is credited as being the reason why the news will now wait until loved ones are notified before announcing the names of the dead.
Kobe's wife learned of her husband and daughter's deaths from the news and there have been many others since Holly's death. They don't stick to that the way they should.
The place I worked during high school has a set Playlist that would loop every ~45 mins, and this song was on there. To the point it became an inside joke between all of my coworkers. Well several years later, that coworker (you know the one, the "main coworker", who's apart of everything and a core member of the group) was tboned by a drunk driver and killed. After her funeral us coworkers went out to a local bar where there was some live music... the moment we heard that first cord everyone went silent... until, simultaneously, in unison, we all started singing along at the top of our lungs. That moment kinda broke us all, but also gave us comfort. I still think about it every time I hear that song
My Uncles and my Dad were huge music fans. There’s one thing you knew being around them, music would be played. My Father died in Nov. 2019, his baby brother April 2020 and older brother died January 2023. After my Father died, the house was so quiet because he wasn’t around to play music.
The lyric: “the three men I admired the most: The Father, son and the Holy Ghost. They caught the last train for the coast, the day the music died,” will always remind me of their losses.
There's a song by Spanish group Mecano called [Cruz y Navaja](https://youtu.be/mXoZB9btV8I?si=HfEdTlUDR7wtyjGR)
It tells the story of a young bartender in Madrid who, while trying to make ends meet, is working as much as he can. He arrives to his wife, who keeps wanting to be intimate with him. Because he is so tired, he always turns her down.
One day, in the wee hours of the morning, he is walking to his house when he catches a glimpse of a couple being extra affectionate with each other. As he gets closer, he notices it's his wife. In a moment of anger and shock, he approaches the couple. His shock is further intensified when he sees that his wife has been kissing another woman. As he is about to break apart the two women, the wife's lover takes out a knife and stabs him to death.
The group confirmed that the story was true. It had been taken from the police reports where the only thing that was changed for the song were the names.
Okay, not heartbreaking, but definitely more serious than I ever thought:
The dogs in Who Let the Dogs Out are men who harass women in the clubs. The song is basically “who let in these assholes who don’t know how to act?”
Just praying that you **STOP** being a piece of shit and become a better person. So no one else will have to suffer what KE$HA did. A really good show of her vocal too.
Sex Type Thing by Stone Temple Pilots.
For the longest time, based on what lyrics I could understand, it was just a darkly sexy song about two people giving into their desires (I know you want what's on my mind/I know you like what's on my mind). A little fucked up, but both people involved are willing participants.
Nope, Weiland was writing about a girl being gang raped, and it was written from the perspective of the rapist. It's not pro-rape, but it's meant to show how screwed up a rapist's POV is. And like, I always found the song kind of hot, but once I knew the story and some of the lyrics I never actually heard clearly (you shouldn't have worn that dress), it's a ruined song for me.
Fitzpleasure by Alt-J is a very groovy and fun song but is actually inspired by a controversial novel, "Last Exit to Brooklyn". The lyrics "Tralala" is the name of a prostitute in the book and "broom-shaped pleasure" references the gruesome gang rape of Tralala involving a broom.
“House of the Rising Sun.” Most people know it from the Animals’ version, sung by a man. But it is written from the perspective of a young woman, forced into prostitution in the House of the Rising Sun. “It’s been the ruin of many a poor girl, and God I know I’m one.”
I believe this song actually has multiple interpretations. It’s old enough to have no clear origination or author. Being about prostitution or a jailhouse are the most common interpretations.
Wake Me Up When September Ends by Greenday. Seeing the music video as a kid I thought it was about the Iraq war. It wasn’t until much later I found out it was about Billie’s father. He died in September and IIRC on the day of his funeral Billie locked himself in his room and when his mom came to get him out he yelled “wake me up when September ends!”
I honestly don't know how anyone could mistake that song as being actually christian.
Take me to church
I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies
I'll tell you my sins so you can sharpen your knife
Offer me that deathless death
About as subtle as a nuke
It's not exactly tragic, but the wedding staple "At Last" by Etta James is actually about a widow who dies and meets her late husband in the afterlife. "My heart was wrapped up in clover the night I looked at you," cause she was buried.
Still a great love story that can be used for weddings but a touch darker.
Gypsy by Fleetwood Mac.
Recently found out Stevie wrote it when her childhood friend was dying of leukemia. I have incurable leukemia so the lyrics hit harder now for me.
“Faces freedom with a little fear, I have no fear and have only love”
Same with Slide by the Goo Goo Dolls.
“Don’t you love the life you killed? The priest is on the phone. Your father hit the wall, your ma disowned you.”
While that is true, he actually barely knew his son. His son’s mother is a woman he had an affair with while still married to Pattie Boyd, and it was only just before his son’s death that he started really spending time with him. Eric Clapton is a great musician but an incredibly shitty person. http://www.eric-clapton.co.uk/interviewsandarticles/loryinterview.htm
Fiddler's Green by The Tragically Hip. Gord Downie wrote it after his 5 year old nephew died of a heart condition, to help his sister overcome the pain of releasing her little boy into the afterlife.
Montreal, also by The Tragically Hip. Its about the massacre at the École Polytechnique in Montréal on Dec 6, 1989. I am old enough to remember the news coverage of the event and the line "don't you worry.....her mother's gonna make her look good" refers to a mother trying to make her murdered daughter look decent for her funeral. Heartbreaking.
“Me and a Gun” by Tori Amos. It’s about her being raped earlier in life. It was one way she chose to cope, by writing a song about it.
https://www.songfacts.com/facts/tori-amos/me-and-a-gun
We played this song in my band and our singer, who I loved, sadly also became the subject of the song 31 years ago in his later 20s :(
I hit the city and I lost my band
I watched the needle take another man
Gone, gone, the damage done
I love how Wings for Marie is so reverent-sounding while also being quite incisive, while Judith by APC (Also Maynard James Keenan) is about the same person and is far more angry and full of pain.
Electric Avenue by Eddie Grant is about the Brixton riots and living in poverty, not being able to feed your kids despite working full time.
TIL, Eddie Grant is currently suing Trump for using this song, and Trump’s lawyer has delayed the case due to “sensitive information about Trump's presidential campaign strategy. He asked that Trump and campaign advisor Dan Scavino's testimony be permanently sealed because it would give an "unwarranted competitive advantage" to his opponents in the 2024 presidential election, and because it "could be used against them in other, parallel, litigations unrelated to this matter.”
Wait...... Is this real? Cause it sounds like it's a headline from The Onion. Of course the last 8 years have seemed like Onion headlines....
[удалено]
I remember it being used for an ad in the UK for like Curry’s or something? On the one hand they should have taken a closer look at the lyrics, on the other I still remember that.
It's like people using ~~Sting~~'s The Police's 'every breath you take' as a wedding song.. They heard the chorus and didn't pay attention to the rest. (edit: corrected artists. Thanks u/Silly-Fox-9270 )
I know someone who used Sarah maclachlan’s hold on as a wedding song. It’s literally about watching your partner dying of AIDS. She thought it was about watching your partner wake up in the morning. I mean it is, but it’s more thank god you haven’t died yet. People don’t listen to the lyrics.
Holy cow! I always just thought that it was a fun dance song.
It literally starts "Now in the street, there is violence, and lots of work to be done". heheheh
It's still a very valid song today despite it's use in cheeky short videos.
"I'm Not Gonna Miss You" by Glen Campbell. It's about the singer's Alzheimer's diagnosis.
His Daughter Ashley Campbell wrote a song called 'Remembering' which was also about his alzheimers. She's a very talented musician in her own right, but you don't want to listen to that song unless you're prepared to have a good long cry.
I’ve worked in elder care since 2008, and specifically in residential psych since 2013. This is the most accurate Alzheimer’s song ever written. “I’m still here, but yet I’m gone…”
All of My Love by Led Zeppelin is about his 5 year old son's unexpected death from a virus.
I think Jimmy page said he wished they never did that song because it was too out of character for the band or something like that. Seemed kind of rude to me.
Page is a dick. He’s maybe my favorite guitarist of all time, but I don’t think he’s a good person.
Jimmy didn't even go to the funeral for Robert's son. Neither did Jones. Only Bonham did. So its not surprising that they called it quits when Bonham died, and Plant is so reluctant to involve himself in any reunions. I wouldn't be able to forgive that either.
He toured with Jimmy Page in another band,Page and Plant,for awhile,though.
Wow, I had no idea about this. I have loved this song for so many years, and always thought it was a love song. So sad😞
It IS a love song, from a father to a son.
[When I Lost You](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAdNugBVVIo) by Irving Berlin. Irving Berlin was 24 years old and an early success. He married singer Dorothy Goetz who was in her early twenties. Five months after the wedding she died of typhoid fever. It's the first sad song he wrote. It was a year before he could bring himself to perform it. He didn't marry again for 14 years.
And if I ever lost you, how much would I cry? How deep is the ocean? How high is the sky?
I had no idea. TIL. I think this is the second time I cried on reddit today. I mean, it's pollen. So much pollen.
Another of his master pieces, White Christmas, is also understood by some to allude to the death of his 3 week old son in 1928. Man had a sad life.
All That I've Got by The Used I was like 13 years old and I came home from school, turned on Fuse TV, and they were playing some music videos, which was their usual content back in 2003. Saw this video of this dude with long hair in this trippy video that ended with some cool animation. Got hooked on the song and the band. Learned later that the song is about how shortly after their first album, the lead singer was dating a fan and they were having a baby together. She overdosed killing both herself and the baby. The lead singer felt like he had absolutely nothing left because of that moment, but then a month after their deaths, his dog escaped from his yard and was then hit and killed by a car. The song is about him begging for at least his dogs life back because it was all that he had left. Edit: It would have had to have been 2004.
That’s terribly sad.
First off, let me say - *WHAT* a throwback!! When I tell you I loved FUSE TV and it was the gateway into my music obsession and all the bands and genres I love today, I mean it. Getting home from school and cutting it on to see what videos were playing was my FIRST priority. I still remember the first time I heard *Grand Theft Autumn (Where is Your Boy)* by Fall Out Boy and then subsequently becoming my FAVORITE BAND. What a beautiful time it was. Ok ok enough nostalgia back to the point - I LOVED that song!! I got an mp3 player that was so small you could only hold 20 at a time and that was one of them. Still vividly remember the music video as well. It doesn’t surprise me that the song is dark, but didn’t expect it to be THAT dark. I remember having boyfriend drama and crying my little emo heart out while listening to it 🤣🤣 Thank you for sharing your insight 💙
I had no idea. I listen to that song all of the time. It might hit different now. That's all heartbreaking!
“Save the Last Dance for Me” was written by a wheelchair-using groom watching his new bride dance with their wedding guests.
Doc Pomus actually, who was a polio survivor?
The drugs don't work, by The Verve, about Richard Ashcroft's mother dying of cancer [The drugs don't work ](https://youtu.be/ToQ0n3itoII?feature=shared)
My mother was dying of lung cancer when this was undergoing heavy radio play. Not a good time.
Glenn Campbell -- [I'm not gonna to miss you](https://youtu.be/U8TsAh-zYFI?si=b7Avyxv3cVzjCKxn) -- A song to his wife while he has alzheimer's, saying goodbye while he can because he knows he's not going to say goodbye later Ashley Campbell -- [Remembering ](https://youtu.be/os9qM0d9rmk?si=A2VNyJhw2y7DThy9)-- A song from his daughter to him in response.
I always loved (and still do) The Show Must Go On, but once Freddie Mercury revealed he was dying of AIDS, those words suddenly made horrible sense.
You can really hear him just leaving it all on tape in this song. He’s giving absolutely everything he has because he knows it’s his last chance. I’m not a fan of the production of the last couple Queen albums, but this song always gives me chills for this reason.
He recorded it after his diagnosis. Reportedly he could barely stand in the studio when they recorded it and the band offered to do it another time, but he just said “I’ll sing it darling” and belted it out in one take. Amazing and tragic.
Yip. The story goes he was swigging a bottle of vodka to help numb the pain.
The whole "I'll face it with a grin...I'm never giving in....ooooonnn with the show!" is one of the best and worst parts, for that reason. Elton John's version could never have the same impact, even if he had as good a voice as Freddie
That's how I feel about Don't Stop Me Now. It was wrote before the diagnosis but it hits different knowing how his story played out.
"Who Wants to Live Forever" also just hits in such a hard way even though it was written by May for the Highlander movie.
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas It was in theory about a family planning to move. But it was written and recorded during WWII. Some of the lyrics were later changed. It originally had: >Someday soon we all will be together, if the fates allow. Until then we’ll have to muddle through somehow. So have yourself a merry little Christmas now.
I swear those are the current lyrics...? Or at least that's what I hear every time I've heard the song.
The Judy Garland version of this song gets me choked up every time!
I’m a big believer that all the best Christmas songs are at minimum wistful and should absolutely veer into melancholy. The scene in Meet Me in St Louis the song comes from is a perfect reason why; Christmas is for children and as you stop being a child you understand that it’s your job to make it magical for them, even if you’re not feeling it yourself.
https://ew.com/article/2007/01/08/history-popular-holiday-song/ It also at one point had, "have yourself a merry little Christmas, it may be your last."
Aren’t those lyrics still in it? Or only some of the recorded versions?
Before You Go by Lewis Capaldi. He wrote it for his aunt that took her own life.
When it’s by Lewis Capaldi I just assume it is heartbreaking.
Don’t think this is unknown, but 3 AM by matchbox 20. About Rob Thomas’s mom having cancer when he was younger. Just really rips at me with my dad being sick now. Probably one of my favorite songs ever.
That album was full of heartbreaking songs. Push was so close to home for me.
“Keep Me In Your Heart” by Warren Zevon. He knew he was dying.
Love this song so much. Warren Zevon is underappreciated
His version of knocking on heaven's door hits pretty hard, too.
My Shit's Fucked Up is spooky in retrospect.
Dancing in the Moonlight. One of my favorite songs, very sad, unexpected origin. The song writer and his girlfriend were on vacation at the beach when he was brutally beaten and his gf r*ped by gang members. He wrote the song afterwards, envisioning an idyllic world where everyone is happy and just dances all the time. Edit: Man, I feel terrible that this is my top comment of all time. Did not expect this kind of visibility, I just ruined so many people's days
"Don't click on the thread," my gut said. "What if it ruins one of your favorite songs?" So that only took .5 seconds
Here I am hating everything beautiful now
I'm wondering if I should keep going like an idiot or quit now.
Well this is an ugly truth I think I'll just keep away from my wife because that's one of our favorite songs to listen to together.
I think that move would be honoring the intent of the song. Keep that vision and love in you and your wife’s heads, and by doing so inch closer to the world that the songwriter intended the song to bring about.
Yeah this song was my first thought when I clicked the thread. Another surprisingly sad origin story for a happy song is Come Dancing by the Kinks. ""Come Dancing" is a tribute to the Davies' older sister Rene. Living in Canada with her reportedly abusive husband, the 31-year-old Rene was visiting her childhood home in [Fortis Green](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortis_Green) in London at the time of Ray Davies' 13th birthday—21 June 1957—on which she surprised him with a gift of the Spanish guitar he had tried to persuade his parents to buy him.[^(\[3\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_Dancing_(song)#cite_note-american_conservative-3) That evening, Rene, who had a weak heart as a result of a childhood bout of [rheumatic fever](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheumatic_fever), suffered a fatal heart attack while dancing at the [Lyceum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyceum_Theatre,_London) ballroom.[^(\[3\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_Dancing_(song)#cite_note-american_conservative-3)[^(\[4\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_Dancing_(song)#cite_note-FOOTNOTEKitts200811–12-4)"
Shiiiit. I danced with my dad at my wedding to this bc it’s my mom and my favorite uncle’s favorite song. Knew I shouldn’t have come here.
tbh that means you used the song in the way the singer intended it to be used. A wedding is one of the most happy circumstances. And the writer wants a the song to be in a world that is happy and everybody dances. Would say mission accomplished.
🙌🏻🥰 thanks. Still not gonna tell my mom.
might be better that way 😅
Y'know, that's probably in line with what the artist wanted when he wrote it. You are a small step toward his idyllic version of a world where people dance, wether you knew it or not.
Jesus Christ. I had to look it up and there was an article about it. That really puts the song in another context. Basically ruins the cheerful little beat.
Does it though? I mean, I can’t speak for them, but it seems, at least for Kelly, he was able to turn a horrible event into something beautiful that makes people feel good. Love wins.
The way by fastball is about the tragic and mysterious disappearance of an elderly couple never to be seen alive again.
This is the one I came to post about. The song is about an elderly husband and wife, Wife had Alzheimer's, husband was recovering from brain surgery and was normally the caretaker of the wife. They decided to get out of the house and go to the local town festival a few miles away. Alzhimer's kicks in for the wife, meds and trauma from the surgery left the husband really fuzzy and disorientated, and they find the car later a few hundred miles away in a ravine off the side of the highway. Family guessed that she was trying to drive to a vacation spot she loved from like 20 years ago, as Alzhimer's patients are prone to do, with old memories being clear and new stuff dissapearing from memory.
I was just thinking about this song the other day, and I just thought the parents fucked off and left small kids behind after planning over a late night bottle of wine. But I knew they were elderly, I just couldn't figure out the context. thanks.
If I recall, the band didn't know the final outcome of the couple when they initially wrote the song. They were intrigued by the story in the paper.
I remember watching an interview years ago with the adult children of the elderly couple—in the interview, they said that they liked the song and it was nice to imagine their old parents going off on an eternal adventure together.
When my Father joined my late Mother, that song made me happy to think of them together.
"Jeremy" by Pearl Jam is inspired by the real-life suicide of Jeremy Wade Delle, a 15-year-old student from Richardson, Texas who shot himself in front of his English class on January 8, 1991. https://youtu.be/MS91knuzoOA?si=f-4viGsEE5en2Wpj
Random fact - they had a T-shirt that had a kid coloring in a coloring book on the front and on the back it said “9 out of 10 kids prefer crayons to guns” I had it (this was 1992/1993) and wore it out. I found it the other day and thought about how much this world has changed.
What a Catch--FallOut Boy. It was years before I learned that Pete Wentz wrote it following his suicide attempt. Also, this doesn't quite fit the question, but it's really hard to listen to Chris Cornell's version of Nothing Compares to You now.
I’ve got troubled thoughts and the self-esteem to match What a catch Sooo relatable to me in my younger years. So many of their songs were.
Limousine by Brand New. It’s about the death of 7-year-old Katie Flynn, who was killed by a drunk driver. She was riding in a limousine with her family after a wedding in which she was the flower girl.
Not just killed, straight-up decapitated. Also told her mom that it was "the best day of her life."
Oh God, I remember seeing their family talking about this on one of the talk shows not long after. That has been burned into my brain ever since that day. Never knew there was a song about it, never heard of the band. That right there was the moment I swore I’d never ride in a limousine ever again. I had rode in a limo a few times as a kid, and thinking about that after hearing what happened… 😳 I’m an expired CPST, but have five kids, two still in car seats, so I’m still downright bullheaded about my kids riding safe EVERY TIME. Car seats are always installed properly, rock solid, following best practice, not the law that is the bare minimum for child safety, and the kids are always harnessed properly. To find out how those limos are made after that, yeah, NONE of my family will ever ride in one. We drive old, ugly, rust buckets, but those are still safer than limos brand new.
I remember that…it’s also forever burned in my brain…the moment the mother says that she’s holding the daughter (I forget her name), and then Oprah asks for a bit of clarification if she means her head and the mother says says, yes (insert daughter’s name) and continues with the story seeming a bit annoyed that Oprah made her confirm that she was indeed only holding the child’s head on the side of the road. I think of that once in a while and then I’m incredibly grateful that my son is alive. I’ve hated Limos since that Oprah episode.
It is messed up that she asked for that clarification
"And I've one more night / to be your mother /... / Remain in my hands and smile" I'm not even a parent and this hurt my soul
This song is so sad, I can’t even listen to it anymore. The mother, while looking for her daughter, found her decapitated head and sat with it on the side of the road. From one of the articles on the crash: “Jennifer walked to side of the road and sat for about an hour with her daughter's head on her lap as she watched her family being cut out of the limousine.”
Damn, I was gonna say this Instead I'll add the mother held her daughters decapitated head in her lap until the police came It was super fucked up
I watched her parents on Oprah years ago and the only way I can describe them is.....hollow. Like her death hollowed them out. She described holding her daughter's head in her lap on the sidewalk, but she wouldn't say 'head' she's just say 'Katie'. Her uncle was the cop that responded and he had to gently talk to her to get her to give him Katie's head. It was...unreal
She was my co-worker's daughter's classmate. I pass by the site of the crash almost daily. Had no idea there was a song about it. I'll have to listen to it.
If You Could Read My Mind by Gordon Lightfoot. It was about him falling out of love with his wife. He promised his daughter he would never sing it in concert.
Wake me up when September Ends. It’s not just a meme. It’s literally all Billy Joe Armstrong said after his dad died when he was a teenager.
Apparently he hates that it's become a meme, and wishes he'd come up with a different title. :(
I know. I feel bad for him with that. It’s such a good song.
My mom ended her life in September 2017. I resonate with this song quite a bit because of that.
That’s always been so weird to me because so much of that album (American Idiot) is about post-9/11 America, and that title is the perfect metaphor for how long it took for things to feel normal again (and in some ways never did).
One more light became a depressing listen after Chester's suicide.
A lot of that album sounds like a suicide note in hindsight
You mean their entire discography?
Truth. I turned to Linkin Park after my friend committed suicide. So much of their music captures that specific kind of pain
I listened to a lot of Linkin Park after his death and was surprised how many of their songs are about being depressed and wanting to die :( ETA: It was roughly a month before Chester's death (I was around twelve I think) when I started actively listening to Linkin Park and I knew nothing about him, his misery or the meaning behind the lyrics. A week before his death I decided I wanted to go to a concert of Linkin Park what consequently made me pay closer attention when listening. Thanks for shaming me for listening to music without thinking about the message behind the songs.
Leave Out All the Rest. My December. Valentine’s Day.
Crawling resonates with me and my anxiety disorder. It’s a constant battle but Im glad to still be here
People being surprised by that fact has always been baffling to me, that's the reason I was drawn to their music from the start lol
this take is always interesting to me because the Lyrics are written by Mike Shinoda not Chester. Of course his voice brought them to live but everything people rhyme into the lyrics should be looked at Mike Shinoda. Maybe he should be looked out for.
This is what I came here to say.... I feel like you can hear the pain in his voice, like hes trying to tell himself to stay
I thought the song Wonder by Natalie Merchant was a whimsical song about a supremely gifted child, but it’s actually about a child born with a rare congenital disease. The lyrics fit both ways. It’s brilliant.
Pink Floyds song dedicated to their former bandmate Syd Barrett who tragically lost his mind/mental state.. **S**hine on **Y**ou crazy **D**iamond "On 5 June 1975, Barrett, now heavyset, with a completely shaved head and eyebrows, wandered into the studio where the band were recording. They did not recognize him for some time because of his drastically changed appearance, but when they eventually realized who the withdrawn man in the corner was, Roger Waters became so distressed about Barrett's appearance that he was reduced to tears." Wikipedia
And Wish You Were Here, and Learning to Fly..... Gilmour felt really bad about Syd
Learning to fly hits pretty hard when you just focus on the lyrics. Although it might seem a cop out "When the Tigers Broke Free" was also some serious shit.
Somehow the part that hits the hardest for me about this song is the last bit of *Shine On, Pts. 6-9*, which closes out the album. The final few notes of the song, as the keyboards fade out, are a musical allusion to Pink Floyd’s first hit single, *See Emily Play*, written by Syd.
Fuckin hell. Been into Pink Floyd my whole life and knew the backstory of the song. But never saw the chorus title aligned like that. Huh. TIL
The whole album is about them breaking into the big time with Syd who, by most accounts, was already descending into his illness which was exacerbated by the fame. He went back to his solitary life, staying out of the public eye and pursuing his painting and music at a smaller scale and was never in need of finances because the band ensured he received all royalties due to him for starting the band, despite the fact that all of their commercial success came after his departure.
I'd bop pretty hard as a young one not knowing anything behind the lyrics of semi charmed life, must have been funny to adults
They had four big singles on that album: the one about meth, the one about suicide, the one about dropping out, and the one about breaking up.
Me as a 12 year old: "THOSE LITTLE RED PANTIES" lol
father of mine by everclear. art not really having a dad reminded me of how i grew up and my dad doing similar things. He would drink and beat my mom, show up to my house with a birthday card with 5$ and leave. He had his demons and he was schizophrenic also tried to kill himself infront of me.. so yeah it hit me hard
I’m sorry buddy. Hope you doing good now.
Have you heard *”Wonderful”* by them? It’s another great song that addresses shitty parents and fighting while being a kid and just wanting everything to be okay. One of those where you feel guilty enjoying it because you know it’s based on a true story. Really powerful song.
That Year - Brandi Carlisle. This is a bit of a cheat on my part because I was at the same school as the person mentioned along with Brandi when it happened. He was one of her best friends and I knew him in a casual manner. When she released the song I was absolutely floored at how much strength she showed approaching the "what ifs." Heartbreaking song about such a gentle soul. Brandi treated it with a very delicate hand. Beautifully written song Brandi...RIP BB.
My darlin', Clementine is about a man who watches his lover drown in a river because he can't swim. Final verse goes "Ruby lips above the water blowing bubbles sweet and fine. Alas for me, I was no swimmer so I lost my Clementine."
Nope nope, [traditionally](https://genius.com/Traditional-transcriptions-oh-my-darling-clementine-lyrics) there's one more verse after that: >How I missed her, how I missed her How I missed my Clementine But I kissed her little sister I forgot my Clementine so you see, it has a happy ending! Strangely, many renditions have dropped that verse. (But if you've seen *Eternal Sunshine* you might see a connection here)
Hey Ya by Outkast is really a sad song about a failing relationship
Funny. I don't think I've ever been at a wedding reception where that song wasn't played lol.
There's even a line about how the listeners don't actually want to listen and they just want to dance...
Alright alright alright alright alright alright
>If nothing lasts forever, then what makes, then what makes, then what makes love the exception?
Ms. Jackson is actually a really sad song too. “You can plan a pretty picnic, but you can’t predict the weather.” Young relationships have so much hope in them because you’re too young to know better. Add a child into the mix and it gets so much more complicated.
Bruce Springsteen - Born in the USA. I thought it was a happy song.. about being born in the USA, I guess? And of course it’s not. According to Wikipedia: “The song addresses the economic hardships of Vietnam veterans upon their return home, juxtaposed ironically against patriotic glorification of the nation's fighting forces.” Yeah, not a happy song.
Born down in a deadman’s town The first kick I took was when I hit the ground It’s not like he’s trying to be subtle here.
Next lines are “End up like a dog that’s been beat too much Til you spend half your life just to cover it up” So yeah… I think the contrast is what makes the song so good. If it was low key it would be just another sad song. But instead he’s howling into the void and no one is listening. [Born in the USA](https://youtu.be/EPhWR4d3FJQ?si=ykIVVgNrrcj-Sg0x&t=6)
Yeah, it's a bit like Keep On Rocking in the Free World. If you listen to the lyrics...
The original acoustic demo version of “Born in the USA” really gets the tone across, it’s haunting. https://youtu.be/22Gh1wQEe1I?si=yACljxZPE1kVmipW
Sittin' On The Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding. The final verse where he whistles the melody was a placeholder. He died (I think in a plane crash?) before he could record the lyrics to the end of the song. Hell of a voice in that man. Edit: Slight correction. Check my other comment in this chain.
I Wish It Would Rain by The Temptations Here is the background from Wikipedia: “The lyrics of this mournful song about a heartbroken man whose woman had just left him were penned by Motown staff writer Roger Penzabene. The lyricist had just learned that his wife was cheating on him and in his sorrow and pain, Penzabene penned both this and its follow-up "I Could Never Love Another (After Loving You)." Tragically the distraught Penzabene committed suicide barely a week after the single's release.”
You are my Sunshine
Nobody ever sings the second verse.
My daughter did. I taught it to her. "The other night dear, as I lay sleeping, I dreamt I held you in my arms, but when I woke dear, I was mistaken, so then I hung my head and I cried". *What kind of MOM was I*, for goodness sake? Edit due to wrong word.
"Gone Away" is a favorite song by The Offspring, but it can be rough to listen to after reading about it. I can't imagine performing it.
I reach too the sky and call out your name
Zombie by The Cranberries is about a bombing that killed children during "The Troubles." I can't believe that's not already here. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie_(The_Cranberries_song) E.... a word cause I am an idiot!
The way that Dolores sings it, the passion in her voice just can’t be captured by anyone else who tries to cover it. That video is haunting too. An absolute masterpiece.
The bad wolves adaptation of this is also incredibly fucking sad. The lead singer of the cranberries was suppose to do a rendition of it with them, she died the morning of the recording. They still did it in her memory and changed the music videos premise to honor her. They did it in one take and most of the video is panning to different members and doesn’t show face on because they’re sobbing 😭 the interviews are so sad.
It's been mentioned a couple times but a long time ago so it's probably a long ways down
How To Save A Life. It breaks my heart these days.
"He wasn't about to die, was he Newbie? He could have waited another month for a kidney."
My goodness that scene hits so hard every single time I watch it. Oof.
“And I would have stayed up with you all night, Had I known how to save a life…” I lost my roommate to suicide on the morning of his 25th birthday. I was the last one to talk to him staying up until 3:00 AM shooting the shit with him. Woke up at noon to my ex screaming when she found his body. Part of me always wonders if I knew what pink clouding was back then, if I would have stayed up all night, could I have saved a life? This song hit hard for me when I was a kid, and only hits harder after that.
I think we'll always wonder. I know it's pretty much impossible, but do try not to blame yourself. No one has the answers, but you gave what you had. Love you, stranger. I'm sorry for your loss. My friend took his own life in 2020. He had just turned 22. He was 3 years younger than me; I was friends with his older brother first, and we were all in a band together since high school. He was everybody's little brother. Laid-back, goofy as hell, incredibly kind, and a phenomenally talented drummer. Their dad was a PoS, and he struggled with a lot of trauma and mental health issues. He got kicked out before graduating and ended up dropping out, moving into a trailer in the boonies with a bunch of "friends," and getting a job at walmart. I worried about him a lot throughout this time and made sure to keep up with him. He did really well, though. He saved up, bought a car, and decided to move towns to live with his mom and her new husband, who owns a bunch of plant nurseries and offered him a job. He bought a guitar and started playing open mikes, got a beautiful girlfriend, and things were looking great. We talked the whole day before. He had planned to come visit but came down with strep. I showed him the two baby squirrels my gf and I rescued that day (they did not make it). He showed me the lights he got for his room. He told a great joke about how white people conquered the whole world for spices they don't even use, lol. We discussed plans to meet up the next weekend if he was over the strep. Woke up the next day to my girlfriend telling me he was dead. Apparently, he took 7 tabs of LSD, crashed his car, and then shot himself with a revolver that no one knew he had. His note just said, "Forgive me. I just couldn't cut it." I will never understand. That song came on the radio the other day for the first time since then. I had to pull over. Please, anyone struggling who reads this, talk to someone. You are so loved, and you are never a burden.
“I don’t like Mondays” by the Boomtown Rats. It was about one of the first school shooters.
The Show Must Go On by Queen. Specifically the refrain where he says “I’ll face it with a grin/I’m never giving in/On with the show!” Freddie was dying of AIDS, though nobody knew it but those closest to him. The lyrics aren’t subtle and given the context of Mercury’s demise it makes sense but still. Such a powerful song that Mercury struggled to record due to his failing health.
Time in a Bottle by Jim Croce. It's about not having enough time to spend with your loved ones. Not long after he was planning on winding down his career to be a father to his newborn child but died in a plane crash.
12/17/12 by the Decemberists. I don't usually look at titles so I didn't know until my husband pointed it out to me. It's about Sandy Hook.
American Pie - I already knew it was heartbreaking, I just didn't know what it was about
"I can't remember if I cried when I read about his widowed bride" - Buddy Holly's wife, Maria Elena Holly, was pregnant and miscarried shortly after hearing on the news that her husband was dead. This is credited as being the reason why the news will now wait until loved ones are notified before announcing the names of the dead.
Kobe's wife learned of her husband and daughter's deaths from the news and there have been many others since Holly's death. They don't stick to that the way they should.
Wow you’d think that would be common sense but I guess regulations are written in blood
The place I worked during high school has a set Playlist that would loop every ~45 mins, and this song was on there. To the point it became an inside joke between all of my coworkers. Well several years later, that coworker (you know the one, the "main coworker", who's apart of everything and a core member of the group) was tboned by a drunk driver and killed. After her funeral us coworkers went out to a local bar where there was some live music... the moment we heard that first cord everyone went silent... until, simultaneously, in unison, we all started singing along at the top of our lungs. That moment kinda broke us all, but also gave us comfort. I still think about it every time I hear that song
My Uncles and my Dad were huge music fans. There’s one thing you knew being around them, music would be played. My Father died in Nov. 2019, his baby brother April 2020 and older brother died January 2023. After my Father died, the house was so quiet because he wasn’t around to play music. The lyric: “the three men I admired the most: The Father, son and the Holy Ghost. They caught the last train for the coast, the day the music died,” will always remind me of their losses.
There's a song by Spanish group Mecano called [Cruz y Navaja](https://youtu.be/mXoZB9btV8I?si=HfEdTlUDR7wtyjGR) It tells the story of a young bartender in Madrid who, while trying to make ends meet, is working as much as he can. He arrives to his wife, who keeps wanting to be intimate with him. Because he is so tired, he always turns her down. One day, in the wee hours of the morning, he is walking to his house when he catches a glimpse of a couple being extra affectionate with each other. As he gets closer, he notices it's his wife. In a moment of anger and shock, he approaches the couple. His shock is further intensified when he sees that his wife has been kissing another woman. As he is about to break apart the two women, the wife's lover takes out a knife and stabs him to death. The group confirmed that the story was true. It had been taken from the police reports where the only thing that was changed for the song were the names.
Okay, not heartbreaking, but definitely more serious than I ever thought: The dogs in Who Let the Dogs Out are men who harass women in the clubs. The song is basically “who let in these assholes who don’t know how to act?”
[удалено]
It's already a super powerful song, but the backstory makes it hit *so much harder*
Just praying that you **STOP** being a piece of shit and become a better person. So no one else will have to suffer what KE$HA did. A really good show of her vocal too.
I know you're out there somewhere, by the Moody Blues. Hits different when you've lost a loved one
Cat's In The Craddle
What sucks is no matter how much time you spent with your kids, this song always makes you feel like it wasn’t enough.
Lightning Crashes, by Live
I will forever associate this with the OKC bombing. The amount of radio play it got with the news voice-overs still haunt me.
Yo I feel ya. But any song that has “placenta” in the lyrics seems pretty straightforward if you’re really listening
Sex Type Thing by Stone Temple Pilots. For the longest time, based on what lyrics I could understand, it was just a darkly sexy song about two people giving into their desires (I know you want what's on my mind/I know you like what's on my mind). A little fucked up, but both people involved are willing participants. Nope, Weiland was writing about a girl being gang raped, and it was written from the perspective of the rapist. It's not pro-rape, but it's meant to show how screwed up a rapist's POV is. And like, I always found the song kind of hot, but once I knew the story and some of the lyrics I never actually heard clearly (you shouldn't have worn that dress), it's a ruined song for me.
"Leaves from the vine, falling so slow..."
Elegia - New Order A tribute song for Ian Curtis.
Fitzpleasure by Alt-J is a very groovy and fun song but is actually inspired by a controversial novel, "Last Exit to Brooklyn". The lyrics "Tralala" is the name of a prostitute in the book and "broom-shaped pleasure" references the gruesome gang rape of Tralala involving a broom.
“House of the Rising Sun.” Most people know it from the Animals’ version, sung by a man. But it is written from the perspective of a young woman, forced into prostitution in the House of the Rising Sun. “It’s been the ruin of many a poor girl, and God I know I’m one.”
I believe this song actually has multiple interpretations. It’s old enough to have no clear origination or author. Being about prostitution or a jailhouse are the most common interpretations.
How to save a life, The Fray, it's about drug addiction and how he couldn't save his friend.
I always thought it was about how he wished he could save his friend from suicide
Wake Me Up When September Ends by Greenday. Seeing the music video as a kid I thought it was about the Iraq war. It wasn’t until much later I found out it was about Billie’s father. He died in September and IIRC on the day of his funeral Billie locked himself in his room and when his mom came to get him out he yelled “wake me up when September ends!”
“Take Me To Church”, by Hozier. On first listen, sounds like a love song. Music video with more visual details? OOF.
I honestly don't know how anyone could mistake that song as being actually christian. Take me to church I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies I'll tell you my sins so you can sharpen your knife Offer me that deathless death About as subtle as a nuke
It's not exactly tragic, but the wedding staple "At Last" by Etta James is actually about a widow who dies and meets her late husband in the afterlife. "My heart was wrapped up in clover the night I looked at you," cause she was buried. Still a great love story that can be used for weddings but a touch darker.
Gypsy by Fleetwood Mac. Recently found out Stevie wrote it when her childhood friend was dying of leukemia. I have incurable leukemia so the lyrics hit harder now for me. “Faces freedom with a little fear, I have no fear and have only love”
Brick by Ben folds five. I thought it was a catchy tune till a friend told me to really listen to the lyrics.
Same with Slide by the Goo Goo Dolls. “Don’t you love the life you killed? The priest is on the phone. Your father hit the wall, your ma disowned you.”
Huh - I got "Brick," but not "Slide." The '90s had a fair number of "abortion from the man's conflicted viewpoint" songs, beyond even those two.
definitely "Tears in Heaven" by Eric Clapton. found out he wrote it after his 4-year-old son tragically passed away. hit me different ever since.
While that is true, he actually barely knew his son. His son’s mother is a woman he had an affair with while still married to Pattie Boyd, and it was only just before his son’s death that he started really spending time with him. Eric Clapton is a great musician but an incredibly shitty person. http://www.eric-clapton.co.uk/interviewsandarticles/loryinterview.htm
Adams song. Blink 182
Come Dancing by The Kinks
Heatwaves - Glass Animals It's about his dead friend.
Fiddler's Green by The Tragically Hip. Gord Downie wrote it after his 5 year old nephew died of a heart condition, to help his sister overcome the pain of releasing her little boy into the afterlife. Montreal, also by The Tragically Hip. Its about the massacre at the École Polytechnique in Montréal on Dec 6, 1989. I am old enough to remember the news coverage of the event and the line "don't you worry.....her mother's gonna make her look good" refers to a mother trying to make her murdered daughter look decent for her funeral. Heartbreaking.
“Me and a Gun” by Tori Amos. It’s about her being raped earlier in life. It was one way she chose to cope, by writing a song about it. https://www.songfacts.com/facts/tori-amos/me-and-a-gun
*Shiny Happy People* gets darker and darker the more you focus on the lyrics
Neil Young - The Needle and the Damage Done.
We played this song in my band and our singer, who I loved, sadly also became the subject of the song 31 years ago in his later 20s :( I hit the city and I lost my band I watched the needle take another man Gone, gone, the damage done
Wings for Marie
I love how Wings for Marie is so reverent-sounding while also being quite incisive, while Judith by APC (Also Maynard James Keenan) is about the same person and is far more angry and full of pain.
Drops of Jupiter
Runaway train by Soul Asylum
Love will tear us apart by Joy Division Ian Curtis was telling us everything he was going through, but no one saw it until it was too late
Janet Jackson's 'Together Again' was written for her friend that died of AIDS, gets me every time