28 Songs Written About Bandmates

People write songs about individuals. And that naturally consists of one’s personal bandmates.

In some circumstances, the aim of writing a track a few bandmate is to clarify emotions of animosity, whether or not they’re justified or not. After all, what higher strategy to get a degree throughout than by means of the very medium that you simply as soon as discovered widespread floor in. This is extra probably as soon as a musician has left a band (ex: George Harrison’s “Sue Me, Sue You Blues”), however generally happens whereas the group remains to be very a lot collectively (Fleetwood Mac’s “Go Your Own Way,” for instance.)

Which is to not 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.

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

1. The Beatles, “Not Guilty”
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 consider. Harrison truly had no drawback expressing his opinion, particularly towards the top of the Fab Four’s time collectively. In 1968, he wrote a track referred to as “Not Guilty” that was impressed by the band’s public (and definitely embarrassing) falling out with the Maharishi, plus the launch of Apple Corps. “I won’t upset the apple cart,” Harrison sings. But 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, “Dead Finks Don’t Talk”
From: Here Come the Warm Jets (1973)

One of the peculiar issues about songwriting is that generally you are not absolutely conscious of who or what you are writing about till a lot in a while. Such was the case with Brian Eno’s “Dead Finks Don’t Talk,” 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. (*28*) Eno recalled in 1975. “It was certainly something I hadn’t realized. Essentially all these songs have no meaning that I invested in them. Meanings can be generated within their own framework.”

3. Buffalo Springfield, “A Child’s Claim to Fame”
From: Buffalo Springfield Again (1967)

It took almost 50 years for Neil Young to determine that Buffalo Springfield’s “A Child’s Claim to Fame,” penned by Richie Furay, was about him. “We did ‘Child’s Claim to Fame’ on the reunion tour in 2011,” Furay as soon as informed Uncut. “We were playing Santa Barbara, there’s 5,000 people out there, and Neil stops. ‘Hold up, hold up!’ he says. ‘Richie, did you write this song about me?’ That’s Neil for you. Yeah, when I wrote it, I was frustrated with the guy, but that’s how we communicated with one another.”

4. David Crosby, “Cowboy Movie”
From: If I Could Only Remember My Name (1971)

Sometimes, the city simply wasn’t large enough for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. In his 1971 solo track, “Cowboy Movie,” Crosby portrays his bandmates as Western outlaws, battling for the love of a Native American girl who was primarily based on Rita Coolidge. Both 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, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow Bar and Grill”
From: Somewhere Over the Rainbow Bar and Grill (2020)

Yes, David Lee Roth famous upon its 2020 launch that “Somewhere 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 reminiscences along with his former bandmates are to Roth. “I never knew me a better time,” he sings, “and I guess I never will.” (Decades earlier in 1988, Roth additionally wrote about fond occasions in “Damn Good.”)

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

Many years after the actual fact, Deep Purple guitarist Jerry Bloom wound up revealing in certainly one of his books that Ian Gillan was writing about his generally tense relationship with Ritchie Blackmore in “Smooth Dancer.” “You’d better hang on tightly,” he sings about somebody who attire in black suede. “You want to rule the world.”

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

In 1990, bassist Bruce Thomas launched his first ebook, The Big Wheel, a memoir that didn’t precisely paint his former boss Elvis Costello in essentially the most flattering gentle. Many assumed that Costello’s scathing 1991 track “How to Be Dumb” was a response to the ebook, which Costello did not actually deny. “It’s sometimes good to let your frustration out and then turn it into something else,” he informed The Wire in 1991. “To be honest, if there are references to Bruce’s book in this song then I wish Bruce could have turned his frustration into something a bit more creative than The Big Wheel, which is a whingeing memoir masquerading very badly as a novel.”

8. Fleetwood Mac, “Go Your Own Way”
From: Rumours (1977)

If there was an award for rock album with essentially the most songs written in regards to the band’s personal interpersonal issues, it might probably be given to Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. There’s quite a lot of songs penned about Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks’ breakup, “Second Hand News,” “Go Your Own Way” and “Dreams,” every with their very own contact of bitterness combined with longing.

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

Like Fleetwood Mac above, George Harrison didn’t cease at one track about his bandmates. Perhaps essentially 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 have 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 were laughing a lot of the time,” Nash defined to UCR in 2022, “but there was something about Stephen’s smile that wasn’t quite right, and he’d been taking an enormous amount of drugs. And I wrote this song ‘Frozen Smiles’ to my friend Stephen.”

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

It form of does not get extra direct than Jethro Tull’s “A Song 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 Square.”

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

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

13. Keith Richards, “You Don’t Move Me”
From: Talk Is Cheap (1988)

Yes, 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 the whole 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 Don’t Move Me” — “Why do you think you got no friends / You drove them around the bend.” Richards informed The New York Times that 12 months that the track was “not just about him,” however definitely did not deny it making use of to Jagger, and in reality defined that drummer Steve Jordan had informed him “When in doubt, 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 alleged to be a response to Richards.)

14. The Kinks, “Two Sisters”
From: Something 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 both of us, he was the youthful, fun-loving one,” Ray would later clarify. “‘Two Sisters’ is quite accurate, in the sense that one had all the freedoms — one brother stays in, and the other goes out and has fun. And one resents the other for the ability to do it. But in the end, look what I’ve got…”

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

What occurs in New Orleans stays in New Orleans. Unless 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 referred to as Whiskers. “He was a bit homophobic in those days,” Jones later stated in 2001. “I think it’s just ’cause [Plant and John Bonham] had a sheltered upbringing as lads.”

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

Obviously, Lindsey Buckingham felt it necessary to get straight to the purpose with a title like “Wrong.” 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 type. “I didn’t have a lot of respect,” Buckingham informed Stereogum in 2018. “I mean, I understood that it was out of a certain neediness, but at the same time as much as I loved Mick…I couldn’t love that part of him.”

17. Lynyrd Skynyrd, “That Smell”
From: Street Survivors (1977)

Everyone is aware of that the rockstar way of life may be certainly one of extra, however generally even your individual bandmates really feel the necessity to warn you (and themselves, too) that it isn’t all enjoyable and video games. Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “That Smell” was basically a cautionary track written about the harmful affect of medicine and alcohol on the band — there’s even a line in regards to the oak tree that Gary Rossington smashed his automobile into one evening in Florida.

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

John and Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas have been married in 1962, however two years later went by means of a interval of separation. At that point, 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 City. (The couple divorced in 1969.)

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

“Too Many People” was reportedly the track that impressed Lennon’s “How Do You Sleep?” and it isn’t troublesome to see why with traces like “too many people preaching practices.” “I felt John and Yoko [Ono] were telling everyone what to do,” McCartney defined to Mojo in 2001. “And I felt we didn’t need to be told what to do. The whole tenor of the Beatles thing had been, like, to each his own. Freedom. Suddenly it was ‘You should do this.’ It was just a bit the wagging finger, and I was pissed off with it. So that one got to be a thing about them.”

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

To be clear, Pearl Jam’s “Glorified G” is much less a few particular bandmate as it’s in regards to the dialog that stated bandmate occurred to encourage. One day, whereas at work on their 1993 album Vs., drummer Dave Abbruzzese talked about that he’d just lately purchased two weapons, which prompted a dialog that Eddie Vedder managed to show into a whole track. “I never felt offended or took any offense to the words because I thought it was cool that Eddie was able to take that conversation, and I admired the fact that it was a real creative way to pen a lyric, to take notes of a conversation we were all having about something,” Abbruzzese informed Songfacts in 2023. “And then he turned it into an anthem to the anti-gun, in a weird way. It was tongue-in-cheek, kind of making fun of gun ownership.”

21. Pink Floyd, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”
From: Wish You Were 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 Crazy Diamond” for Barrett — “You reached for the secret too soon, 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: Green (1988)

There’s all the time that one member of a band who couldn’t be on time to save lots of their life. In R.E.M., that was apparently Mike Mills. Mills would recurrently sleep late throughout classes for 1988’s Green, 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 thought we forgot in regards to the fourth Beatle on this record, assume once more. Ringo Starr additionally wrote about his former bandmates in “Early 1970,” describing McCartney’s idyllic farm life, Lennon’s “laying in bed” and Harrison as a “long-haired, cross-legged guitar picker.” “I keep looking around and thinking where are they? What are they doing? When will they come back and talk to me?” Starr defined to Look journal in 1970.

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

The unhappy factor in regards to the Rolling Stones’ “Shine a Light” was that its topic, Brian Jones, was very a lot nonetheless alive when it was written, however lifeless 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 could be reworked after his dying, the identical theme remained. It’s laborious to look at a good friend slip by means of the cracks — “couldn’t seem to get a line on you.”

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

It’s comprehensible that within the 12 months following his departure (or attainable 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 rather a lot 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 “talking trash” about him on MTV.

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

If you do not know your Simon & Garfunkel historical past, you might miss the references Paul Simon makes in “The Only Living Boy in New York,” which begins with a line a few man named Tom getting on a flight to Mexico. This is a reference to when the duo glided by Tom and Jerry (Tom being Art 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 Long, Frank Lloyd Wright,” which was initially meant to be written in regards to the well-known architect, however wound up extra of a veiled track about Garfunkel, who had as soon as studied structure.

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

As they labored on what would turn into their biggest-selling album, the members of Supertramp have been generally struggling to get alongside. Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies’ strained relationship was maybe no higher illustrated than in “Casual Conversations,” which talks about one individual making the opposite really feel so small “until there’s nothing left at all.” “That song, for me, is deeply personal,” Davies informed Melody Maker in 1979. “It can obviously relate to people, as well as boy-girl. I suppose it’s me and Roger to a degree; me not being able to communicate with him, wanting to get out at times.”

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 beneath 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 are.” “I thought it was quite amusing,” Smith later stated. “That was a song obviously written out of anger. I’d left the band, he was pissed off, and fair enough.” (Smith himself would write a response along with his solo observe “Sun King” in 1997.)