Top 10 Songs Inspired by True Events
Inspired by the Battle of Balaclava (1854), which took place during the Crimean War.
Lyrics tell a true story - in 1971 Deep Purple were in Montreux, Switzerland, to record an album in a studio located in Montreux Casino ("the gambling house" in the song lyric).
Yes, Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention were also there for a live show. During their concert the place suddenly caught fire when somebody in the audience fired a flare gun toward the rattan covered ceiling ("some stupid with a flare gun").
There were no major injuries but the fire destroyed the entire casino complex, along with all the Zappa equipment. Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover saw the smoke from the fire spreading over Lake Geneva and came up with this song title.
It's about the death of his 4-year-old son who fell from a window of a 53rd-floor New York apartment.
Inspired by the Fall of The Berlin Wall. This was a big historical event.
It was inspired by an incident in 1973 when the band was performing live and the band members were driven offstage by a barrage of bottles.
Is based upon the life and death of Marilyn Monroe.
Singer and lyricist saw 2 car accidents in one week - he saw how 2 kids were killed at the same intersection.
Is based upon the life and death of Princess Diana.
It's about the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
It's about the Troubles in Northern Ireland and the Bloody Sunday incident in Derry where British troops shot and killed unarmed civil rights protesters and bystanders.
This song is about the solar eclipse of 1999.
About the false imprisonment of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter.
Based on the suicide of Jeremy Wade Delle, who shot himself in front of his class mates.
While lyrically the song is only about cannibalism in general (told from the victim's perspective in a very sexualized and then kind of religious way) it was inspired by the Cannibal of Rotenburg.
Based around the R101 airship disaster of 1930. Like with a lot of Maiden songs Bruce Dickinson really has a way of telling a tale through song.
Vocalist Lou Gramm explained: "...A lot of people think it's about being intoxicated or being high. When we were recording that song before we had the title, the New York Rangers hockey team was playing the Philadelphia Flyers and one of the big Flyers guys bumped into the Rangers' all-star goalie [ John Davidson ] and knocked him down and they had to take him out of the game because he was experiencing double vision."
In this epic more than 20 minutes long rap epic Kay One's reflects on his entire career and on his feuds with other rappers.
Kay One has an infamous feud with Germany's most successful rapper Bushido who once was his friend, but then Kay One left the label, according to him due to his mafia ties and because he exploited him. When this song was released, there was a huge media coverage of the feud because Kay One also wanted to expose the mafia-like Abou Chaka clan and was under protection from police.
Written about the 9/11 attacks.
Written about the battle of Passchendaele (1917). The lyrics in this song makes for one of the greatest war poems of all time.
Ace Frehley suffered electric shock right before a live show.