21 Unlikely Songs With Devastating Backstories

Janet Jackson’s ‘Together Again’ is about a friend she lost to AIDS
21 Unlikely Songs With Devastating Backstories

Everyone remembers where they were when they realized “Semi-Charmed Life” is about methamphetamine addiction. Pop music is full of such songs that sound happy but are obviously depressing if you pay attention to what you’re singing: “Pumped Up Kicks,” “Red, Red Wine,” Third-Eye Blind’s aforementioned paean to uppers, the list goes on and on.

There are some songs, however, that sound perfectly unaffecting even if you listen to the words, but once the artist explains what the song is about, will have you crying like a baby. Like, did you know “Drops of Jupiter” is about the death of Mr. Train’s mom? Yeah, the “checks out Mozart while she does tae-bo” song. He had a dream about her soaring through the solar system. It’s honestly rude to make us so emotional about a song that stupid.

It was these songs one Reddit user was interested in when they asked r/AskReddit, “What song became heartbreaking once you learned the context behind its origin?”

umokaygotit 6mo ago Before You Go by Lewis Capaldi. Не wrote it for his aunt that took her own life.
Ikeepitinmesock 6mo ago The drugs don't work, by The Verve, about Richard Ashcroft's mother dying of cancer
ihopeitsnice 6mo ago Edited 6mo ago Save the Last Dance for Me was written by a wheelchair-using groom watching his new bride dance with their wedding guests.
KaijuAlert 6mo ago Did you ever sing Ring Around a Rosie as a kid? It's about the bubonic plague and everyone dies at the end of the song.
iamofnohelp 6mo ago Hey Ya by Outkast is really a sad song about a failing relationship
 6mo ago Heatwaves - Glass Animals It's about his dead friend.
Electrical-Ad-9100 6mo ago 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.
AniaAwe 6mo ago 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.
jayone 6mo ago Possession by Sarah McLachlan, based partly on disturbing lyrics that a stalker sent her, who eventually killed himself
ballchamois 6mo ago 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.
fabulousmakeupcase 6mo ago I Don't Like Mondays by the Boomtown Rats. I heard the song just a few years ago and recently learned the backstory. It's about the Cleveland school shooting from 1979. When the shooter was asked why she did it, she said it was simply that she didn't like Mondays.
wow Dancing_RN 6mo ago 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.
chinabell104 6mo ago Janet Jackson's 'Together Again' was written for her friend that died of AIDS, gets me every time
hai_lei 6mo ago 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
Clear_Pressure_2878 6mo ago Edited 6mo ago 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. Не wrote the song afterwards, envisioning an idyllic world where everyone is happy and just dances all the time.
ByrnStuff 6mo ago Fastball The Way was on every top 40 and alt rock station when I was a kid Fastball frontman Tony Scalzo came up with the idea for the song after reading articles that described the June 1997 disappearance of an elderly married couple, Lela and Raymond Howard from Salado, Texas,  who left home to attend the Pioneer Day festival at nearby Temple, Texas, despite Lela's Alzheimer's and Raymond recently recovering from brain surgery. They were discovered two weeks later, dead, at the bottom of a ravine near Hot Springs, Arkansas, hundreds of miles off their intended
TitularFoil 6mo ago Edited 6mo ago 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
GTOdriver04 6mo ago The Show Must Go On by Queen. Specifically the refrain where he says I'll face it with a grin/l'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.
supergeek921 6mo ago 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.
boomerxl 6mo ago 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.
AmandaBRecondwith 6mo ago Age ain't nothing but a number -Aaliyah

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