Songs about the dead...

[BVS]

I'm listening to REM's 'Let Me In' and wanted to know what other songs are written for those famous ones that have passed away. And it has to be written after they passed away.

Title of the song - who it was about - and you're favorite line.




Let Me In - Kurt Cobain - "He gathered up his loved ones and he brought them all around To say goodbye, nice try"

 

[indra]

"This Is It" by The Church was supposedly written in response to Michael Hutchence's death (I say supposedly because Steve Kilbey, the lyricist of The Church, doesn't generally like to say exactly what his songs are about or mean, preferring to leave interpretation to the listener).

My favorite section of the song is:

I knew a wise man who didn't own a thing
I knew a happy man who made me feel sad
You never know what the other guy is thinking
Too bad

 

[IWasBored]

stiff little fingers - strummerville

about joe strummer, obviously.

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

"Candle In The Wind"-Elton John. Originally about Marilyn Monroe, and then about Princess Diana later.

The line that always gets to me from that song: "Your candle burned out long before your legend ever did."

Angela

 

[myusernamehere]

"People who Died" Jim Carroll

 

[Acrobat_Al]

Requiem - Mozart - About his posible death!! The first minute of the song is the greatest thing ever written by anyone.... Scary stuff...

 

[pax]

"Late" Ben Folds (about Elliot Smith)
"Jackie's Strength" Tori Amos (alludes to Jackie Kennedy)
"King of May" Natalie Merchant (about Allen Ginsberg)
"River" Natalie Merchant (about River Phoenix)
"Vincent" Don McLean (about Vincent Van Gogh)

 

[UnforgettableLemon]

Though much reviled, there is "Stuck in a Moment" which is also about Hutchence.

Umm.... let me think for a minute.

"Too Cool Queenie" by Stone Temple Pilots is very much about Courtney Love and the suicide of Kurt Cobain.

"Edge of Seventeen" by Stevie Nicks was about John Lennon and her uncle passing, so that counts, I think.

 

[thesuburbskill]

"live forever" oasis ... about various famous dead peeps

 

[Acrobat_Al]

"live forever" oasis ... about various famous dead peeps

That's not true...

 

[oneflick]

February Stars (Foos) - Kurt Cobain - cant remember fave line.... sorry

 

[Bonochick]

Ryan Adams - "City Rain (City Streets)" - about Carrie Hamilton

Taking bullets for a team of bad poets, how is it up there?

 

[jkid]

Foo Fighters - "My Hero" (about Kurt Cobain)

U2 - "Stuck In A Moment" (about Michael Hutchence)

Neil Young - "The Needle And The Damage Done " (about Danny Whitten of Crazy Horse)

U2 - "One Tree Hill" (about Greg Carroll, who was a close friend of Bono)

U2 - "I Will Follow" (about Iris Hewson, Bono's mom)

Pearl Jam - "Immortality" (about Kurt Cobain)

Pearl Jam - "4/20/01" (about Layne Staley)

Bob Dylan - "Song To Woody" (about Woody Guthrie)

Bruce Springsteen - "American Skin (41 Shots)" (about Amadou Diallo, who was killed by N.Y.P.D.)

The Beatles - "A Day In The Life " (about Guinness heir Tara Browne)

That's it for now but, there are a lot more.

 

[bollox]

"memphis", a b-side by pj harvey is about jeff buckley

 

[BVS]

Foo Fighters - "My Hero" (about Kurt Cobain)

Has Dave ever said this? I saw an interview where he said this song is about everyday people like cops and fireman because they were his hero?

Pearl Jam - "Immortality" (about Kurt Cobain)

Never heard this. Are you sure?

And didn't Neil Young do a song about Kurt? For some reason I remember him saying this.

 

[BVS]

"memphis", a b-side by pj harvey is about jeff buckley

With my old band I wrote a song called 'Memphis Sky' that was about Jeff. I haven't heard hers, I'll have to look it up.

 

[Eliv8]

The Day The Music Died

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_The_Music_Died

 

[BonosSaint]

Has Dave ever said this? I saw an interview where he said this song is about everyday people like cops and fireman because they were his hero?




Never heard this. Are you sure?

And didn't Neil Young do a song about Kurt? For some reason I remember him saying this.

Neil Young did "Sleeps With Angels" about Kurt Cobain (album of same name.)

 

[bollox]

With my old band I wrote a song called 'Memphis Sky' that was about Jeff. I haven't heard hers, I'll have to look it up.

in case you couldn't find it (and for all the other pj harvey fans here)

http://s40.ysi.com/d.aspx?id=2TTI8ANMMNEFZ0ECTEPP5GVHU

it's a really beautiful song. enjoy!

 

[learn2kneel]

The Beatles - "A Day In The Life " (about Guinness heir Tara Browne)

I thought this was about Paul McCartney's death. Play it backwards. Don't you see the signs!

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

duran duran: michael you've got a lot to answer for

about, yeah, michael hutchence...although theirs was written, recorded, and released before michael's death, which i think makes it all that much sadder.

 

[alia612]

"Cut Here" by the Cure about Billy MacKenzie...

 

[hippy]

Mothers of the Disappeared

I love the pulsing rhythm underneath the very lyrical and sweet melody

Favorites lines:

Night hangs like a prisoner
Stretched over black and blue
Hear their heartbeat
We hear their heartbeat


And the "ooo"ing gives me chills... especially in live performance

 

[jkid]

Come on BonVox, has Bono ever directly said that "Stuck In A Moment" is about Hutchence. Not to my knowledge. That's the great thing about bands like U2, Foo Fighters, and Pearl Jam. They leave most of the song's meanings up to the listener. But, in the case of "My Hero" and "Immortality", there are many allusions to Cobain. But, the meanig is up to you, so you can agree or disagree. Sometimes you have to look behind the lines to find the answer and everybody's answer could be different. So, I hoped you appreciated my theory.

 

[BVS]

Come on BonVox, has Bono ever directly said that "Stuck In A Moment" is about Hutchence. Not to my knowledge. That's the great thing about bands like U2, Foo Fighters, and Pearl Jam. They leave most of the song's meanings up to the listener. But, in the case of "My Hero" and "Immortality", there are many allusions to Cobain. But, the meanig is up to you, so you can agree or disagree. Sometimes you have to look behind the lines to find the answer and everybody's answer could be different. So, I hoped you appreciated my theory.

Yes after Paula Yates death he admitted the song was about Hutchence and that he kept quiet due to respect of Paula.

I agree with you in theory, but when one comes out and specifically says this song is not about _____ I usually respect that. Grohl was specifically distancing himself from rumors that the song was about Cobain, that's all I was trying to say.

 

[joyfulgirl]

New U2 single inspired by death of Michael Hutchence

(NME.com) -- BONO has said U2's recent single 'STUCK IN A MOMENT (YOU CAN'T GET OUT OF)' was inspired by the mysterious death of INXS singer MICHAEL HUTCHENCE, and that the pair discussed suicide prior to his death and decided it was "pathetic".

Bono is convinced that Hutchence's death was suicide, a ruling always contested by his late girlfriend, Paula Yates, who maintained he died as a result of a bizarre sex act going wrong.

Bono continued: "I'd love to believe that he went out on some spectacular sexual manoeuvre, but knowing the state of him at the time, I don't think so. But I'm sure of this, if he had lasted half an hour longer, he would be alive now. He couldn't see out of that half an hour... and a friend of his told me that he'd brought up our conversation a few days before that."

Bono also revealed that 'Stuck In A Moment...' was inspired by these events. He said: "That song is an argument. It's a row between mates. You're kinda trying to wake them up out of an idea. In my case it's a row I didn't have while he was alive.

"I feel the biggest respect I could pay to him was not to write some stupid soppy fucking song, so I wrote a really tough, nasty little number...slapping him around the head. And I'm sorry, but that's how it came out of me."

Since Hutchence's death, INXS have continued as a band, playing their most recent show on New Year's Eve in

Adelaide with new singer Jon Stevens.

 

[Earnie Shavers]

It wasn't really a secret either. At the time of his death, Bono used the "I think he was just stuck in a moment he couldn't get out of" line in virtually every interview on the subject (as Bono does all the time with a pet phrase).

 

[IWasBored]

I thought this was about Paul McCartney's death. Play it backwards. Don't you see the signs!

i am the walrus?

 

[deep]

Lou Reed's

"Magic and Loss" lp deals with death

it is brilliant



Lucinda William's

"Sweet Old World"

is about her brother's suicide

 

[u2popmofo]

U2 - 'A Day Without Me' (Ian Curtis, Joy Division)