28 Songs Written About Bandmates

Folks write songs about individuals. And that naturally contains one’s personal bandmates.

In some instances, the aim of writing a track a couple of bandmate is to clarify emotions of animosity, whether or not they’re justified or not. In spite of everything, what higher option to get a degree throughout than by way of the very medium that you just as soon as discovered widespread floor in. That is extra doubtless as soon as a musician has left a band (ex: George Harrison’s “Sue Me, Sue You Blues”), however typically happens whereas the group remains to be very a lot collectively (Fleetwood Mac’s “Go Your Personal Means,” for instance.)

Which isn’t to say the intent is all the time spiteful. In some conditions, the gesture is really meant with kindness — Pink Floyd penned a number of songs that paid tribute to former member Syd Barrett, a key determine of their improvement even after his departure.

Under we’re looking at 28 Songs Written About Bandmates, ex or in any other case.

1. The Beatles, “Not Responsible”
From: Anthology 3 (1996)

Early on within the Beatles’ profession, George Harrison earned himself the nickname of Quiet One, however that merely wasn’t as correct as many followers have been led to imagine. Harrison truly had no downside expressing his opinion, particularly towards the tip of the Fab 4’s time collectively. In 1968, he wrote a track known as “Not Responsible” that was impressed by the band’s public (and positively embarrassing) falling out with the Maharishi, plus the launch of Apple Corps. “I will not upset the apple cart,” Harrison sings. However the track went unreleased till Harrison lastly included it on his 1979 self-titled solo LP, and it appeared once more on 1996’s Anthology 3.

2. Brian Eno, “Lifeless Finks Do not Discuss”
From: Right here Come the Heat Jets (1973)

One of many peculiar issues about songwriting is that typically you are not absolutely conscious of who or what you are writing about till a lot afterward. Such was the case with Brian Eno’s “Lifeless Finks Do not Discuss,” a track from his debut solo album. It wasn’t till after the observe was recorded that his engineer, Chris Thomas, famous that it was very clearly about Eno’s former Roxy Music bandmate Bryan Ferry. This was not his intent, and but it made sense. “So I listened again to it and it clearly was,” Eno recalled in 1975. “It was definitely one thing I hadn’t realized. Basically all these songs don’t have any that means that I invested in them. Meanings may be generated inside their very own framework.”

3. Buffalo Springfield, “A Kid’s Declare to Fame”
From: Buffalo Springfield Once more (1967)

It took almost 50 years for Neil Younger to determine that Buffalo Springfield’s “A Kid’s Declare to Fame,” penned by Richie Furay, was about him. “We did ‘Little one’s Declare to Fame’ on the reunion tour in 2011,” Furay as soon as informed Uncut. “We have been taking part in Santa Barbara, there’s 5,000 individuals on the market, and Neil stops. ‘Maintain up, maintain up!’ he says. ‘Richie, did you write this track about me?’ That is Neil for you. Yeah, after I wrote it, I used to be pissed off with the man, however that is how we communicated with each other.”

4. David Crosby, “Cowboy Film”
From: If I Might Solely Keep in mind My Identify (1971)

Generally, the city simply wasn’t large enough for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Younger. In his 1971 solo track, “Cowboy Film,” Crosby portrays his bandmates as Western outlaws, battling for the love of a Native American lady who was primarily based on Rita Coolidge. Each Graham Nash and Stephen Stills fell for Coolidge, resulting in an uncomfortable love triangle that wound up with Coolidge leaving Stills for Nash.

5. David Lee Roth, “Someplace Over the Rainbow Bar and Grill”
From: Someplace Over the Rainbow Bar and Grill (2020)

Sure, David Lee Roth famous upon its 2020 launch that “Someplace Over the Rainbow Bar and Grill” was a tribute to the late Eddie Van Halen, however in a broader sense, the track recounts Van Halen’s early days and the way significant these recollections along with his former bandmates are to Roth. “I by no means knew me a greater time,” he sings, “and I suppose I by no means will.” (Many years earlier in 1988, Roth additionally wrote about fond occasions in “Rattling Good.”)

6. Deep Purple, “Clean Dancer”
From: Who Do We Assume We Are (1973)

A few years after the very fact, Deep Purple guitarist Jerry Bloom wound up revealing in one among his books that Ian Gillan was writing about his typically tense relationship with Ritchie Blackmore in “Clean Dancer.” “You’d higher hold on tightly,” he sings about somebody who clothes in black suede. “You wish to rule the world.”

7. Elvis Costello, “How you can Be Dumb”
From: Mighty Like a Rose (1991)

In 1990, bassist Bruce Thomas launched his first e book, The Massive Wheel, a memoir that didn’t precisely paint his former boss Elvis Costello in probably the most flattering mild. Many assumed that Costello’s scathing 1991 track “How you can Be Dumb” was a response to the e book, which Costello did not actually deny. “It is typically good to let your frustration out after which flip it into one thing else,” he informed The Wire in 1991. “To be trustworthy, if there are references to Bruce’s e book on this track then I want Bruce might have turned his frustration into one thing a bit extra inventive than The Massive Wheel, which is a whingeing memoir masquerading very badly as a novel.”

8. Fleetwood Mac, “Go Your Personal Means”
From: Rumours (1977)

If there was an award for rock album with probably the most songs written concerning the band’s personal interpersonal issues, it might doubtless be given to Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. There’s a variety of songs penned about Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks’ breakup, “Second Hand Information,” “Go Your Personal Means” and “Desires,” every with their very own contact of bitterness combined with longing.

9. George Harrison, “Sue Me, Sue You Blues”
From: Dwelling within the Materials World (1973)

Like Fleetwood Mac above, George Harrison didn’t cease at one track about his bandmates. Maybe probably the most pointed one arrived in 1973, “Sue Me, Sue You Blues,” which was impressed by the continued authorized points plaguing the previous Beatles on the time — together with Paul McCartney’s lawsuit towards Apple Corps — a actuality Harrison was clearly bored with being concerned in. Years later in 1988, Harrison took one other retrospective take a look at issues with “When We Was Fab.”

10. Graham Nash, “Wind on the Water”
From: Graham Nash David Crosby (1975)

Technically, Graham Nash David Crosby is a collaborative album, however “Frozen Smiles” was penned by Nash, and curiously sufficient, it wasn’t about Crosby, however their different bandmate Stephen Stills. “We have been laughing plenty of the time,” Nash defined to UCR in 2022, “however there was one thing about Stephen’s smile that wasn’t fairly proper, and he’d been taking an unlimited quantity of medicine. And I wrote this track ‘Frozen Smiles’ to my good friend Stephen.”

11. Jethro Tull, “A Tune for Jeffrey”
From: This Was (1968)

It type of does not get extra direct than Jethro Tull’s “A Tune for Jeffrey,” written for Ian Anderson’s good friend and future Jethro Tull bassist Jeffrey Hammond. A 12 months later, Anderson penned one other track specializing in Hammond, who would not find yourself becoming a member of the band till 1971, “Jeffrey Goes to Leicester Sq..”

12. John Lennon, “How Do You Sleep?”
From: Think about (1971)

George Harrison was hardly the one ex-Beatle inspecting his previous within the early ’70s. John Lennon left little to the creativeness with “How Do You Sleep?” a track that took direct goal at McCartney — “You reside with straights who inform you, you was king.” Their relationship wouldn’t start to heal till round 1974.

13. Keith Richards, “You Do not Transfer Me”
From: Discuss Is Low cost (1988)

Sure, the Rolling Stones are nonetheless collectively after over 60 years of being a rock band, however that undoubtedly does not imply that’ve seen eye to eye your complete time. There was a tense interval within the ’80s when Keith Richards and Mick Jagger didn’t get alongside, to place it mildly, and it got here throughout in Richards’ 1988 solo track “You Do not Transfer Me” — “Why do you assume you bought no pals / You drove them across the bend.” Richards informed The New York Occasions that 12 months that the track was “not nearly him,” however definitely did not deny it making use of to Jagger, and in reality defined that drummer Steve Jordan had informed him “When unsure, write about Mick.” (It has by no means been confirmed, however subsequent solo songs from Jagger like “Kow Tow” and “Shoot Your Mouth Off” have been purported to be a response to Richards.)

14. The Kinks, “Two Sisters”
From: One thing Else by the Kinks (1967)

If there’s one factor the Kinks have been expert at, it was creating characters of their songs that appeared to leap to life. In “Two Sisters” although, Ray Davies merely reversed he and his brother Dave’s genders and got here up with a track about themselves. “Dave made up for each of us, he was the youthful, fun-loving one,” Ray would later clarify. “‘Two Sisters’ is sort of correct, within the sense that one had all of the freedoms — one brother stays in, and the opposite goes out and has enjoyable. And one resents the opposite for the power to do it. However in the long run, look what I’ve acquired…”

15. Led Zeppelin, “Royal Orleans”
From: Presence (1976)

What occurs in New Orleans stays in New Orleans. Except you are Led Zeppelin and Robert Plant decides to jot down some lyrics about your escapades there, which is what occurred with “Royal Orleans,” a track that he wrote after his bandmate John Paul Jones fell asleep with a drag queen often called Whiskers. “He was a bit homophobic in these days,” Jones later stated in 2001. “I believe it is simply ‘trigger [Plant and John Bonham] had a sheltered upbringing as lads.”

16. Lindsey Buckingham, “Mistaken”
From: Out of the Cradle (1992)

Clearly, Lindsey Buckingham felt it essential to get straight to the purpose with a title like “Mistaken.” The topic in query was Mick Fleetwood’s first memoir My Life and Adventures in Fleetwood Mac, launched in 1990, which Buckingham evidently felt was attribute of the drummer’s self-promotional fashion. “I did not have plenty of respect,” Buckingham informed Stereogum in 2018. “I imply, I understood that it was out of a sure neediness, however concurrently a lot as I liked Mick…I could not love that a part of him.”

17. Lynyrd Skynyrd, “That Scent”
From: Avenue Survivors (1977)

Everybody is aware of that the rockstar life-style may be one among extra, however typically even your personal bandmates really feel the necessity to warn you (and themselves, too) that it isn’t all enjoyable and video games. Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “That Scent” was basically a cautionary track written about the harmful affect of medicine and alcohol on the band — there’s even a line concerning the oak tree that Gary Rossington smashed his automobile into one night time in Florida.

18. The Mamas and the Papas, “Look By My Window”
From: The Mamas and the Papas Ship (1967)

John and Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas have been married in 1962, however two years later went by way of a interval of separation. At the moment, John believed Michelle to be residing in California, however because it turned out, she was truly residing only a few blocks away from him in New York Metropolis. (The couple divorced in 1969.)

19. Paul and Linda McCartney, “Too Many Folks”
From: Ram (1971)

“Too Many Folks” was reportedly the track that impressed Lennon’s “How Do You Sleep?” and it isn’t tough to see why with traces like “too many individuals preaching practices.” “I felt John and Yoko [Ono] have been telling everybody what to do,” McCartney defined to Mojo in 2001. “And I felt we did not have to be informed what to do. The entire tenor of the Beatles factor had been, like, to every his personal. Freedom. Instantly it was ‘It is best to do that.’ It was only a bit the wagging finger, and I used to be pissed off with it. In order that one acquired to be a factor about them.”

20. Pearl Jam, “Glorified G”
From: Vs. (1993)

To be clear, Pearl Jam’s “Glorified G” is much less a couple of particular bandmate as it’s concerning the dialog that stated bandmate occurred to encourage. At some point, whereas at work on their 1993 album Vs., drummer Dave Abbruzzese talked about that he’d lately purchased two weapons, which prompted a dialog that Eddie Vedder managed to show into a whole track. “I by no means felt offended or took any offense to the phrases as a result of I assumed it was cool that Eddie was in a position to take that dialog, and I admired the truth that it was an actual inventive option to pen a lyric, to take notes of a dialog we have been all having about one thing,” Abbruzzese informed Songfacts in 2023. “After which he turned it into an anthem to the anti-gun, in a bizarre approach. It was tongue-in-cheek, sort of making enjoyable of gun possession.”

21. Pink Floyd, “Shine On You Loopy Diamond”
From: Want You Had been Right here (1975)

Syd Barrett was solely a member of Pink Floyd for 3 years, however his presence and imaginative and prescient whereas within the band arguably affected them for the remainder of their existence. After Barrett’s departure in 1968, Pink Floyd penned the epic, nine-part composition “Shine On You Loopy Diamond” for Barrett — “You reached for the key too quickly, you cried for the moon.” (The album’s title observe has additionally been interpreted as a tribute to Barrett.)

22. R.E.M., “Get Up”
From: Inexperienced (1988)

There’s all the time that one member of a band who couldn’t be on time to avoid wasting their life. In R.E.M., that was apparently Mike Mills. Mills would usually sleep late throughout periods for 1988’s Inexperienced, so Michael Stipe did what any bandmate would do and wrote a track about it.

23. Ringo Starr, “Early 1970”
From: 1971 Single

If you happen to thought we forgot concerning the fourth Beatle on this checklist, assume once more. Ringo Starr additionally wrote about his former bandmates in “Early 1970,” describing McCartney’s idyllic farm life, Lennon’s “laying in mattress” and Harrison as a “long-haired, cross-legged guitar picker.” “I hold trying round and pondering the place are they? What are they doing? When will they arrive again and speak to me?” Starr defined to Look journal in 1970.

24. The Rolling Stones, “Shine a Gentle”
From: Exile on Foremost St. (1972)

The unhappy factor concerning the Rolling Stones’ “Shine a Gentle” was that its topic, Brian Jones, was very a lot nonetheless alive when it was written, however useless by the point it was launched in 1972. The earliest variations of the track have been written in 1968, earlier than Jones was let go from the band, and although the lyrics can be reworked after his dying, the identical theme remained. It is arduous to observe a good friend slip by way of the cracks — “could not appear to get a line on you.”

25. Sammy Hagar, “Little White Lie”
From: Marching to Mars (1997)

It is comprehensible that within the 12 months following his departure (or potential firing, relying on whose facet of the story you are listening to), from Van Halen, Sammy Hagar would nonetheless be wrestling with the way it all went down. He wrote so much about these emotions on 1997’s Marching to Mars in songs like “Little White Lie,” which Hagar penned after he was made conscious that Alex and Eddie Van Halen have been “speaking trash” about him on MTV.

26. Simon and Garfunkel, “The Solely Dwelling Boy in New York”
From: Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970)

If you do not know your Simon & Garfunkel historical past, it’s possible you’ll miss the references Paul Simon makes in “The Solely Dwelling Boy in New York,” which begins with a line a couple of man named Tom getting on a flight to Mexico. This can be a reference to when the duo glided by Tom and Jerry (Tom being Artwork Garfunkel) and to Garfunkel’s journey south of the border to behave within the 1970 movie Catch-22. Simon drew extra inspiration from his collaborator on “So Lengthy, Frank Lloyd Wright,” which was initially supposed to be written concerning the well-known architect, however wound up extra of a veiled track about Garfunkel, who had as soon as studied structure.

27. Supertramp, “Informal Conversations”
From: Breakfast in America (1979)

As they labored on what would change into their biggest-selling album, the members of Supertramp have been typically struggling to get alongside. Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies’ strained relationship was maybe no higher illustrated than in “Informal Conversations,” which talks about one particular person making the opposite really feel so small “till there’s nothing left in any respect.” “That track, for me, is deeply private,” Davies informed Melody Maker in 1979. “It could possibly clearly relate to individuals, in addition to boy-girl. I suppose it is me and Roger to a level; me not with the ability to talk with him, eager to get out at occasions.”

28. Tears for Fears, “Fish Out of Water”
From: Elemental (1993)

Tears for Fears cut up up in 1991, however two years after that, Roland Orzabal would launch Elemental below the Tears for Fears title. A observe titled “Fish Out of Water” very clearly pointed to his frustration with Curt Smith: “You ain’t a clue who or what you’re.” “I assumed it was fairly amusing,” Smith later stated. “That was a track clearly written out of anger. I might left the band, he was pissed off, and honest sufficient.” (Smith himself would write a response along with his solo observe “Solar King” in 1997.)