Inspiring Stories Behind the Best Songs of Our Time
By: Maximilian Perkmann
Tags: Music, Art, Mental Health, History, Self Improvment

Bob Dylan’s Hurricane

“He ain’t no gentleman Jim”

Bob Dylan, Hurricane

That’s what Bob Dylan sings about the subject of his song, the boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter. “Gentleman Jim” is a reference to the gentleman Jim Corbett, a white boxer in the 1800s known for his manners.

“Hurricane” Carter for sure ain’t no gentleman. He spent 19 years in jail for murder. Nonetheless, Bob Dylan felt he did not commit the crime and tried to drive publicity to the case. Carter’s case was particularly complex and filled with legal missteps. The case reflects acts of racism and profiling against Carter, which Dylan describes as leading to a false trial and conviction.

“Pistol shots ring out in the bar-room night… ”

The opening line of Bob Dylan’s protest ballad

On June 17, 1966, three white people were gunned down at a bar in New Jersey Grill. Witnesses described two black men as the murderers. Police pulled over Carter and his friend John Artis, who were black, but apart from that didn’t fit the description. Even though they were released soon after, they have been charged with the crimes two months later.

The sentence was based on the testimony of two white men with criminal records, claiming they witnessed Carter and Artis shooting. Both were sentenced to life.

In prison, Carter tried to publish his story in an effort to earn his freedom. His effort included a book, which had been sent to Bob Dylan. The famous singer took up his cause, wrote a song about him, and raised money on his tour in 1975.

Soon after the release of Carter’s book and the medial attention, a back and forth in trial started. The witnesses changed their stories, as they apparently have been coerced into their testimony. Nonetheless, Carter and Artis have not been released until 1985. Carter died on April 20, 2014, at age 76.

Pink Floyd’s Brain Damage

The lunatic is in my head

You raise the blade, you make the change

You re-arrange me ’til I’m sane

You lock the door

And throw away the key

There’s someone in my head but it’s not me

And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear

You shout and no one seems to hear

And if the band you’re in starts playing different tunes

I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon

— Pink Floyd, Brain Damage

Published on the Dark Side Of The Moon, “Brain Damage” is one of Pink Floyd’s most timeless tunes.

With the theme of insanity, “Brain Damage” hit close to the band itself. The subject of this song is the ill-fated Syd Barrett. Syd Barret was the singer and guitarist of Pink Floyd from 1965–1968.

The Dark Side Of The Moon — Pink Floyd

Roger Waters has stated that the insanity-themed lyrics are based on Syd Barrett’s mental instabilities. With the line ‘I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon’ Waters indicates that he felt related to him in terms of mental idiosyncrasies.

Barrett’s “crazy” behavior is further referenced in the lyrics “And if the band you’re in starts playing different tunes”, which happened occasionally as he started to play different songs during concerts without even noticing.

The song has a rather famous opening line, “The lunatic is on the grass…”, whereby Waters is referring to areas of turf which display signs saying “Please keep off the grass” with the exaggerated implication that disobeying such signs might indicate insanity.

— Wikipedia

Elton John’s Rocket Man

“She packed my bags last night, pre-flight. Zero hour: 9 a.m. And I’m gonna be high as a kite by then.”

The song Rocket Man (I Think It’s Gonna Be A Long, Long Time) was released as a single on 3 March 1972. At a first glance, a lot of people thought that the line in the song that says “I’m gonna be high as a kite by then” was referring to drug addiction. But, coming only three years after man first walked on the moon in July 1969, the meaning of this song was more literal. This piece of art describes a Mars-bound astronaut’s mixed feelings at leaving his family in order to do his job.

Rocketman — Elton John, Source: ntv

Lyricist Bernie Taupin, who collaborated with Elton on all his major hits, explained in 2016:

“People identify it, unfortunately, with David Bowie’s Space Oddity. It actually wasn’t inspired by that at all; it was actually inspired by a story by Ray Bradbury, from his book of science fiction short stories called The Illustrated Man. “In that book, there was a story called The Rocket Man, which was about how astronauts in the future would become sort of an everyday job. So I kind of took that idea and ran with that.”

The Rolling Stones’ (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction

Tossing and turning on a bad, sleepless night, you just can’t get no satisfaction. At least, that’s what happened to Keith Richards. The №2 song on the Rolling Stone The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list has been written when Richards heard the beginning riff to (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction in a dream.

In an interview with the Rolling Stone, Richards had this to say about the song’s inception:

“I woke up in the middle of the night. There was a cassette recorder next to the bed and an acoustic guitar. The next morning when I woke up, the tape had gone all the way to the end. So I ran it back, and there’s like thirty seconds of this riff — ‘Da-da da-da-da, I can’t get no satisfaction’ — and the rest of the tape is me snoring!”

Billy Joel’s Vienna

“Why did I pick Vienna to use as a metaphor for the rest of your life? My father lives in Vienna now. I had to track him down. I didn’t see him from the time I was 8 ‘till I was about 23–24 years old. He lives in Vienna, Austria which I thought was rather bizarre because he left Germany in the first place because of this guy named Hitler and he ends up going to the same place that Hitler hung out all those years! Vienna, for a long time was the crossroads. […] So the metaphor of Vienna has the meaning of a crossroad. It’s a place of inter…course, of exchange — it’s the place where cultures co-mingle. You get great beer in Vienna but you also get brandy from Armenia. It was a place where cultures co-mingled.

So I go to visit my father in Vienna, I’m walking around this town and I see this old lady. She must have been about 90 years old and she is sweeping the street. I say to my father “What’s this nice old lady doing sweeping the street?” He says “She’s got a job, she feels useful, she’s happy, she’s making the street clean, she’s not put out to pasture”

— Billy Joel in an interview on Vienna

Billy essentially thought to himself “I don’t have to be worried about getting old, ‘Vienna waits for you’”. Vienna is being pictured as the promised land. A place where the old people are being respected and there are no cultural barriers. It’s a beautiful picture of a beautiful city which — fun fact — inspired me to move to Vienna in 2020.

Vienna — Maximilian Perkmann, 2020 (the author)

“The song describes that sometimes you have to take things more slowly in life, that you develop mindfulness, but also show gratitude for all the good things that happen. Vienna as a city has embodied all this for me”

— Billy Joel

Falco’s Out Of The Dark

Even though it is a german song, the Austrian artist Falco achieved a worldwide impact with “Out Of The Dark”. But above all, the song has caused a lot of controversies.

„Muss ich denn sterben, um zu leben? (Do I have to die to live?)

- Falco, Out Of The Dark

Falco died of severe injuries received on 6 February 1998, when his car collided with a bus in the Dominican Republic. As of his death, rumors stated that “Out Of The Dark” was his last call for help before he committed suicide.

Still today, the circumstances have not been fully clarified.

In an interview in 1997, about a year before Falco’s death, he stated that the theme of this song — as many times before — were drugs.

The song tells the story of a man divorcing his wife and falling into depression. His only way out: heroin.

That’s why the chorus of the song plays “Out Of The Dark (divorce) Into The Light (heron).

After this interview, the song was played on a radio station for the first time. A similar explanation was given by his manager at the time, Claudia Wohlfromm.

Falco in the music video to Out Of The Dark— TV90s

“Out of the Dark is autobiographical — and also not. It is about drugs. In particular: about cocaine. I wrote the text from the point of view of a desperate man who is possessed by the drug without being addicted myself”. - Falco in an interview with the magazine “Bunte” 27/98

Paul Simon’s Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes

Still, to date, the real meaning of Paul Simon’s masterpiece is not clear. There are more interpretations.

She’s a rich girl

She don’t try to hide it

Diamonds on the soles of her shoes He’s a poor boy

Empty as a pocket

Empty as a pocket with nothing to lose

— Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes, Paul Simon

Love

The more popular interpretation pictures Paul’s short relationship with a diamond mine owner’s daughter while recording in South Africa. She was very rich and privileged, yet she acted very down to earth, like a poor girl. The woman was that rich, that she didn’t even notice the diamonds on the soles of her shoes. Africa

Thinking on a deeper level, the lyrics could refer to “the rich girl” Africa herself. Africa has diamonds on the soles of her shoes, down underfoot in Southern Africa. The first Poor Boy in the song seems to be the native Africans. The Europeans think the Zulus have “nothing to lose.” One way to lose the walking blues is to dig up the diamonds. Paul Simon expresses his hope, that Africa’s nations will eject the colonialists and take care of themselves.

Simon mentions this song as one of his best musical achievements.