The Cure - “A Letter to Elise”

 

Robert Smith of The Cure was going through a period of depression when writing the songs on Wish, and he said that "A Letter to Elise" is about "resignation." He was inspired by the Jean Cocteau novel The Holy Terrors and by the David Bowie song "A Letter to Hermione." Smith says the song is a "'stream of consciousness' piece," with many personal references, and adds that "the mood is generally resignation in the face of inevitable change."

 

Iggy Pop - “Gardenia” (2016)

 

Mr. Pop says this about the lyrics:

 

“I was in San Francisco, with Allen Ginsberg, and there was this black stripper, Gardenia. She was beautiful, a lot of body. We were both going after her but I ended up hooking up with her. But she just wanted drugs at the end of the day. She was amazing…' And that's the lyrics."

 

The Rolling Stones "Angie" (1973)

 

The big rumor about this song is that it was written about David Bowie's wife, Angela, who wrote in her autobiography that she once walked in on Bowie and Mick Jagger in bed together - a story Jagger denies.

 

According to the rumor, Jagger wrote this song to appease her, but it was Jagger's bandmate Keith Richards who wrote most of the song.

 

Jagger had this to say about it: "People began to say that song was written about David Bowie's wife but the truth is that Keith wrote the title. He said, 'Angie,' and I think it was to do with his daughter. She's called Angela. And then I just wrote the rest of it."

 

There was also speculation that Richards' girlfriend Anita Pallenberg inspired this song, but Keith cleared it up in his 2010 autobiography Life, where he wrote:

 

"While I was in the Vevey drug clinic in March-April 1972, Anita was down the road having our daughter, Angela.

 

Once I came out of the usual trauma, I had a guitar with me and I wrote 'Angie' in an afternoon, sitting in bed, because I could finally move my fingers and put them in the right place again, and I didn't feel like I had to mess the bed or climb the walls or feel manic anymore.

 

I just went, 'Angie, Angie.' It was not about any particular person; it was a name, like ohhh, Diana. I didn't know Angela was going to be called Angela when I wrote 'Angie.' In those days you didn't know what sex the thing was going to be until it popped out."

 

Take notice how the intro sounds very close to the intro to "Hotel California" by the Eagles that was released 3 years later.

 

[video=youtube;RcZn2-bGXqQ]

John Denver - "Annie's Song" (1974)

 

Denver wrote this for his then-wife Ann Martell after their first separation and near break up of their marriage in 1974.

 

He said that it was one of the fastest songs he ever wrote, composing it in about 10 minutes while he was riding on a ski lift in Aspen, Colorado. Denver was reflecting on all the joy he found in his marriage and his relief that they were back together.

 

Wrote Denver: "Suddenly, I'm hypersensitive to how beautiful everything is. All of these things filled up my senses, and when I said this to myself unbidden images came one after the other. All of the pictures merged and I was left with Annie. That song was the embodiment of the love I felt at that time."

 

Annie's Song

 

You fill up my senses like a night in the forest,


like the mountains in springtime,

like a walk in the rain,


like a storm in the desert,

like a sleepy blue ocean.


You fill up my senses, come fill me again.

 



Come let me love you, let me give my life to you,


let me drown in your laughter, let me die in your arms,


let me lay down beside you, let me always be with you.


Come let me love you, come love me again.

 

Let me give my life to you.

Come let me love you, come love me again.





You fill up my senses like a night in the forest,


like the mountains in springtime,

like a walk in the rain,


like a storm in the desert,

like a sleepy blue ocean.


You fill up my senses, come fill me again.

 

[video=youtube;RNOTF-znQyw]

Rod Stewart - "Maggie May" (1971)

 

This song is about the woman who deflowered Stewart when he was 16. Stewart said: "Maggie May was more or less a true story, about the first woman I had sex with, at the Beaulieu Jazz Festival.

 

It nearly got left off because the label said it didn't have a melody. I said, 'Well, we've run out of time now, these are all the tracks we've recorded. They said, Alright, then, bring it on."

 

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KISS - "Beth" (1976)

 

This song dates back to a band called Chelsea, which future Kiss drummer Peter Criss was in with the guitarist Stan Penridge from 1970-1972.

 

Criss and Penridge came up with a song called "Beck," which was about the wife of their guitarist Mike Brand, whose name was Becky.

 

She was constantly interrupting their band practices asking when Mike was coming home, and the song was a joke directed at him.

 

Penridge and Criss recorded a demo of "Beck" but never released the song.

 

In 1976, after Criss joined Kiss, he and Penridge revived the song and with the help of producer Bob Ezrin, they changed the title to "Beth" and made it more sentimental, changing the end of the first verse from:

 

"I know you love complaining, but Beck what can I do?"

to

"I think I hear them callin', Oh, Beth what can I do?"

 

Michael Jackson - "Billie Jean" (1982)

 

This song is about a girl who claimed that Jackson was the father of her child.

 

Jackson based it on a woman who used to stalk him, writing him letters about a son she thought was his.

 

Jackson rarely spoke about this woman, but he had a very hard time dealing with this unwanted attention, and he became more reclusive as a result.

 

The song was his way of expressing his feelings without addressing her directly.

 

While Jackson didn't give many details about the real Billie Jean, his producer Quincy Jones said that Jackson found the woman one day lounging by his pool with a bathing suit and sunglasses on.

 

According to Jones, she accused Jackson of being the father of one of her twins, which Jones thought was pretty funny.

 

The Cure - "Charlotte Sometimes" (1981)

 

This song is based on one of Robert Smith's favorite books: a 1969 novel called Charlotte Sometimes by the British author Penelope Farmer.

 

In the book, the title character finds herself transported 40 years back in time. Smith wrote this song using the same themes of time shifting and displacement.

 

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

The Beatles - "Dear Prudence" (1968)

 

While Mia Farrow inspired such men as Andre Previn, Frank Sinatra and Woody Allen, her sister Prudence left her mark on John Lennon.

 

Prudence met The Beatles on a spiritual retreat with their guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, in India, which she attended with Mia.

 

When Prudence, suffering depression, confined herself to her room, Lennon wrote this hoping to cheer her up. It did.

 

Queensryche "Della Brown" (1990)

 

Geoff Tate had this to say about the song:

 

"It's "one of the more interesting tracks on the record, and one I enjoyed singing. It's a look into the life of a woman who had it all - beauty, brains and success. But things didn't work out for her, and it all slipped away. She ended up homeless - living on the street. It's a very moody song that gets into a groove and stays there all the way through.

 

That song also means a lot to Chris and me because we see the homeless people all the time in Seattle. Most of the time you just fly by them in your car, but I remember once when we were caught in traffic and just watched them. How sad it was. They were just living in doorways with cardboard boxes for covering. It really moved us."

 

Lenny Kravitz - "Flowers for Zoe"

 

Originally titled "Zoe's Lullaby," Lenny Kravitz wrote this in 1988 as a lullaby for his daughter, Zoe. The song tells a story of a little girl's home of paradise, filled with flowers, angels, rainbows, gardens, oceans, jungle gym playgrounds and other treasures that little children love to have.

 

[video=youtube;7fu0971-mVM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fu0971-mVM

Simon & Garfunkel - "For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her" (1966)

 

This short song is one of the duo's most romantic ballads. A man looks for the love of his life, wondering what it will be like when they meet again. It's very simple and brief, but very heartfelt.

 

At the Simon & Garfunkel Live At Granada special, Garfunkel introduced this song by saying: "This is a song about a girl who is fictitious. Her name is Emily. Neither of us know her but the song is written about her. I'm sure she will appear someday."

 

Simon said in a 1990 interview with SongTalk magazine: "Artie likes that song an awful lot. He liked to sing it. Well, it was a very romantic song but I don't like it."

 

IMO Simon is a smug idiot. I wonder if he'll ever admit that if not for Art Garfunkel and his lovely voice, he may have never come close to being the success that he was, but Garfunkel could have paired with any number of other vocalists, or even simply alone, and the results would still have been just as stunning.

 

Of course it's hard to say now as Simon has had a successful solo career (not because of me), yet I'm not so sure that he would have if he hadn't started out first with Art to establish a name for himself.

 

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Bon Iver - "For Emma" (2008)

 

Songwriter Justin Vernon said this about the lyrics:

 

"Emma doesn't really exist. Well, she does, Emma is her middle name but we had split up long before I moved. I called her anyway and she's pretty freaked out. But as I explained to her, it was never about her. The record was me finally stopping a terrible, slow spin that had been building for years. Me alleviating memories, confronting a lot of lost love, longing and mediocrity."

 

Bowerbirds - "Hooves" (2007)

 

Phil Moore, vocalist for the North Carolina folk group Bowerbirds wrote this lovely song about his mother, and it was the lead off track on their brilliant 2007 debut "Hymns for a Dark Horse".

 

"Hooves"

 

Back to when I was born on a full moon,

I nearly split my mama in two,

While she held me proud I had the thought:

Well, there's no one more beautiful than you.

Ahhhhh ahhhhhhh

 

And you’re the kindlin’ still that burns below my heart,

And you’re the hooves that lead me through the forest.

Ahhhhh ahhhhhhh

 

And you’re the kindlin’ still that burns below my heart,

You’re the memory now that lives across the world,

While the wind howls low and tries to steal my hours,

You’re the hooves that lead me through the forest.

 

Crosby, Stills, & Nash - "Guinnevere" (1969)

 

David Crosby, who wrote this track, told Rolling Stone magazine about it: "That is a very unusual song, it's in a very strange tuning with strange time signatures.

 

It's about three women that I loved. One of whom was Christine Hinton, the girl who got killed who was my girlfriend, and one of whom was Joni Mitchell and the other one is somebody that I can't tell. It might be my best song."