what inspired famous songs to be written.

donegal__road · 30-04-2014 10:11AM #1

I was reading yesterday how singer songwriters came up with some of the more famous songs over the years.. for example the root chords of Smells like Teen Spirit are a variation of the chords from Boston's More than a Feeling. Kurt did this intentionally and would sometimes lead into Smells Like Teen Spirit with the chorus of More Than a Feeling while playing live.

Sweet Child O' Mine's opening riff was a guitar exercise Slash practiced to skip strings. Axil heard it and declared it a riff. Also the "Where do we go now?" part of the song came about literally because they had no idea where to go with the song next.

The Rolling Stones I Can't Get No Satisfaction, is written to simulate sex without climax. It builds up to nothing...suspense without release.

and here is Mike Oldfield explaining how he came up with the famous Tubular Bells riff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp069jEQag8

dodderangler · 30-04-2014 10:13AM

Father ted- my lovely horse
Wrote about a lovely horse

Wibbs · 30-04-2014 10:37AM

IIRC the opening riff to U2's Pride in the name of love came about when the Edge was tuning his guitar. The Beatles Yesterday came to McCartney in a dream pretty much fully formed and he was convinced it was something he'd hear on the radio. He played to mates and family to make sure it wasn't.

whiskeyman · 30-04-2014 10:40AM

Drugs.

Lots and lots of drugs.

anncoates · 30-04-2014 10:43AM

I think the entire canon of Led Zeppelin was once summed up as being about "Elves or Shagging".

The Master · 30-04-2014 10:57AM

anncoates wrote: »

I think the entire canon of Led Zeppelin was once summed as being about "Elves or Shagging".

And with the music stolen from several other artists :P

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiiY4ciKFQA

D-FENS · 30-04-2014 11:08AM

Walk this way by Aerosmith was a song with no lyrics until they watched the movie Young Frankenstein during a break from recording.

Collie D · 30-04-2014 11:15AM

The same woman (Patty Boyd) inspiring two men to write two excellent songs - The Beatles' "Something" and Clapton's "Layla" - a song which you could probably call the acoustic version a completely different number

Sir Arthur Daley · 30-04-2014 11:17AM

How does a song writer know at the time of composition that the song that they writing is famous or not? Is it not afterwards when being played that it becomes famous or not?

Davarus Walrus · 30-04-2014 11:23AM

David Bowie wrote Space Oddity after he returned from a dangerous mission in space as part of a covert NASA space program.

Shiraz 4.99 · 30-04-2014 11:33AM

One - U2

Discarded Middle 8 from Mysterious Ways

17:35 here http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xly4us_u2-from-the-sky-down-part2_music

Duggy747 · 30-04-2014 11:35AM

Hammer Smashed Face by Cannibal Corpse is based on the delightful tales of Tintin.

donegal__road · 30-04-2014 11:37AM

Collie D wrote: »

The same woman (Patty Boyd) inspiring two men to write two excellent songs - The Beatles' "Something" and Clapton's "Layla" - a song which you could probably call the acoustic version a completely different number

Clapton also wrote 'Wonderful Tonight' about Boyd.

Ray Palmer · 30-04-2014 11:45AM

Chelsea Hotel #2 by Leonard Cohen was written about Janis Joplin

They met in the hotel lift when Janis ran to get it thinking she had just seen Kris Kristofferson get in. She said it to Cohen and he replied " Hello little lady" in an impersonation of Kris.

The same hotel that Sid Vicious allegedly killed Nancy and the Joni Mitchel also wrote "Chelsea Morning" about the hotel which is the song Bill and Hillary Clinton named their child Chelsea after.

"Smoke on the Water" was written about fire in the castle they were recording in. The were with the Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention who are mention in the song.

The Master · 30-04-2014 11:46AM

Ray Palmer wrote: »

"Smoke on the Water" was written about fire in the castle they were recording in. The were with the Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention who are mention in the song.

The fire was in a nearby hotel Zappa was playing a gig in and someone shot a flare at the ceiling setting it on fire

anncoates · 30-04-2014 11:50AM

George Michael wrote Last Christmas (and a hugely expensive video of him mooning after some mot under a Christmas tree) to desperately obfuscate the fact that it was really Andrew Ridgeley he had the hots for.

donegal__road · 30-04-2014 11:59AM

anncoates wrote: »

George Michael wrote Last Christmas (and a hugely expensive video of him mooning after some mot under a Christmas tree) to desperately obfuscate the fact that it was really Andrew Ridgeley he had the hots for.

on the subject of George Michael, he wrote Careless Whisper while he was working as an usher in a cinema in Watford. He wrote the song in his head one day at work... and he came up with the famous sax intro as he was taking the bus home that evening, he was 17 at the time.

Ray Palmer · 30-04-2014 12:26PM

On "Smells Like Teen Spirit" the tile comes form a deodorant. As a joke a friend put graffiti out side the recording studio saying "Kurt smells like Teen Spirit". This was to say he wore the crappy product aimed at tweens

stefan idiot jones · 30-04-2014 12:36PM

Rod Stewart wrote Maggie May about losing his virginity.

razorblunt · 30-04-2014 12:40PM

Don't Stand So Close To Me was written about THAT guy in Sting's office who didn't "do" personal space too well.

donegal__road · 30-04-2014 02:05PM

razorblunt wrote: »

Don't Stand So Close To Me was written about THAT guy in Sting's office who didn't "do" personal space too well.

Every breath you take is about a jealous ex lover who is stalking their former partner.. thats why Sting said he found it funny when people request it as their wedding song, they dont realise the sentiment of the song, and that its actually a sad and angry song.

Wibbs · 30-04-2014 03:14PM

The Beatles Norwegian wood was about Lennons affair with a UK journalist, who it seems had funky wooden wall coverings. As you do. Hey Jude was a song McCartney came up with when he took Lennon's young son on a day trip. He always felt sorry for the kid because Lennon was a distant father(as an only child he had near zero experience of kids was his later explanation. Heroin probably didn't help). He was singing "Hey Jules, take a sad song and make it better" in the car. Lennon being an egotist originally thought the song was for him cos he was going through a divorce. Creams song "Badge" was written by Clapton and Harrison. Harrison was writing down the basic structure of the song and he had written "Bridge" for the... well bridge of the song, but his handwriting was so bad Clapton misread it as "Badge".

Irish Guitarist · 30-04-2014 04:01PM

In Live And Let Live by Love the lines "oh the snot has caked against my pants, it has turned into crystal. There's a bluebird sitting on a branch, I guess I'll take my pistol" were written after Arthur Lee passed out in a drug induced state and woke up with crystallised snot on his trousers.

uch · 30-04-2014 04:13PM

Bohemian Rhapsody was inspired by Freddie's visit to a Sausage factory in Termonfeckin

ShagNastii · 30-04-2014 04:38PM

anncoates wrote: »

George Michael wrote Last Christmas (and a hugely expensive video of him mooning after some mot under a Christmas tree) to desperately obfuscate the fact that it was really Andrew Ridgeley he had the hots for.

I once heard Last Christmas was originally written as Last Summer but some utter genius got GM to change it. Surely made the song a bit more lucrative.

Capt'n Midnight · 30-04-2014 08:44PM

Don McLean was asked what American Pie meant. He said "It means I never have to work again.

mickrock · 30-04-2014 10:18PM

In his 2003 interview with Performing Songwriter magazine, Bowie explains that the song "Inchworm," which was sung by Danny Kaye in the 1952 movie Hans Christian Andersen, was a big influence on "Ashes To Ashes." Said Bowie: "I loved it as a kid and it's stayed with me forever. I keep going back to it. You wouldn't believe the amount of my songs that have sort of spun off that one song. Not that you'd really recognize it. Something like 'Ashes to Ashes' wouldn't have happened if it hadn't have been for 'Inchworm.' There's a child's nursery rhyme element in it, and there's something so sad and mournful and poignant about it. It kept bringing me back to the feelings of those pure thoughts of sadness that you have as a child, and how they're so identifiable even when you're an adult. There's a connection that can be made between being a somewhat lost five-year old and feeling a little abandoned and having the same feeling when you're in your twenties. And it was that song that did that for me."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RetI3Lr60eY

Say Your Number · 30-04-2014 10:19PM

The lyrics for the Megadeth song 'Holy Wars...The Punishment Due' were written after frontman Dave Mustaine caused a riot in Belfast in 1989 after saying 'This is for the cause...give Ireland back to the Irish' before they were about to do a cover of Anarchy In The UK, afterwards he claimed he didn't know what 'the cause' was, and that he saw it on someone's T-shirt, they had to complete their tour on a bulletproof bus.

donegal__road · 30-04-2014 11:22PM

the intro to the Metalica song Nothing Else Matters can be played with one hand on an open string guitar because Hetfield was on the phone to his girlfriend while messing on the guitar.

Elvis Costello wrote Oliver's Army after he visited Belfast in 1978 and saw very young British soldiers on foot patrol, so its an anti occupation song.

According to John Lennon, a 'ticket to ride' was a card indicating a clean bill of health carried by Hamburg prostitutes in the 1960's.

DazMarz · 30-04-2014 11:51PM

Alannah Myles' song Black Velvet is a commemorative song about the life and death of Elvis Presley.

Megadeth's In My Darkest Hour was written by frontman Dave Mustaine in tribute to Metallica's bassist Cliff Burton who died in a bus accident in Norway.

Richard Marx's Through My Veins was written in tribute to his father who had recently passed away.

Scorpions' He's A Woman, She's A Man was allegedly written about a real-life experience that then-drummer Herman "The German" Rarebell had with a groupie who was slightly less female than he imagined...

Motley Crue's Kickstart My Heart was about bassist Nikki Sixx's drug overdose and how his heart was "kickstarted" by an adrenaline shot.

castletownman · 01-05-2014 12:04AM

Tom Jones' Sex Bomb is apparently inspired by legendary lothario Marty Morrissey and his infamous killer moves.

what inspired famous songs to be written.

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