Quick List: People Who Died

[Zip City]

Your favorite songs that are tributes to a songwriter's friends/family who have passed on

- The Living Bubba - DBT
- Dondante - MMJ
- Elizabeth - Isaac Russell
- Julia - The Beatles
- When the Tigers Broke Free - Pink Floyd

[Smitty]

Terry's Song - Bruce
Living Bubba/Little Bonnie/2 Daughters/Careless - DBT
Shine a Light - Rolling Stones
Over Yonder (Jonathans Song)/Fort Worth Blues - Steve Earle
Boulder to Birmingham - Emmylou Harris
LA Freeway - Guy Clark
Lucky Now/Jesus Don't Touch My Baby - Ryan Adams
We Can Get Together - The Hold Steady

[RevMatt]

Antony and the Johnsons -- "I Fell in Love With A Dead Boy"
DBT -- "The Living Bubba"
Led Zeppelin -- "All My Love"
The Jim Carroll Band -- "People Who Died"
Leonard Cohen -- "Chelsea Hotel"

[Penny Lane]

My Morning Jacket: Dondante
John Lennon: Mother (not so much a tribute?)

[Clams]

Some real good ones have already been mentioned. Here are some others...

DBT - Space City
GP - In My Hour of Darkness
Bruce - You're Missing (really, the whole Rising album)*
Skynyrd - Ballad of Curtis Lowe
Isbell - Dress Blues
Lucinda - Drunken Angel, Pineola
Neil - Tonight's the Night
REM - Man on the Moon*


*not sure if these fit the thread since I don't think they're about "friends/family"

[one belt loop]

Do It Yourself - DBT

Sweet Old World - Lucinda

For A Rocker - Jackson Browne
For A Dancer - Jackson Browne
Here Come Those Tears Again - Jackson Browne

My Ride's Here - Warren Zevon
Keep Me in Your Heart - Warren Zevon (does your own death count?)

Jools and Jim - Pete Townshend

[Swamp]

CDB/Reflections
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAIwZFGEOq4
38 Special/Take Me Back
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-3uUROnfhM
Rossington Collins/Tashauna
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnvJvnMyu-o
Lynyrd Skynyrd/The Mad Hatter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6q8_uQB ... r_embedded
Lynyrd Skynyrd/Gifted Hands
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmLVLJo5lzk

[scotto]

"Piney Brown Blues," by Big Joe Turner.
Big Joe got his start as a singing bartender in Kansas City during the heyday of the Pendergast years. Piney Brown was an underworld figure and saloon owner who was known to treat musicians well:

Yes I dreamed last night/I was standin' on 18th and vine
Yes I dreamed last night/I was standin' on 18th and vine
I shook hands with Piney Brown/And I could hardly keep from cryin'

[Penny Lane]

Elton John: Tiny Dancer

[Penny Lane]

Keep Me in Your Heart - Warren Zevon (does your own death count?)

Awe..Yes. Great selection.

[beantownbubba]

Song for Adam - Jackson Browne

Edited once for brain freeze

[Kudzu Guillotine]

CDB/Reflections
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAIwZFGEOq4
38 Special/Take Me Back
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-3uUROnfhM
Rossington Collins/Tashauna
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnvJvnMyu-o
Lynyrd Skynyrd/The Mad Hatter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6q8_uQB ... r_embedded
Lynyrd Skynyrd/Gifted Hands
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmLVLJo5lzk

A few more nice Skynyrd tributes:

[tinnitus photography]

Neil Young - Tonight's The Night
Peter Jefferies & Shayne Carter - Randolph's Going Home
The Chills - Pink Frost, I Love My Leather Jacket
The Cake Kitchen - Airships

[Kudzu Guillotine]

It's cool to know about some of these songs, what would be even cooler would be to know who they were written for. I ask because there's several of them that I'm absolutely clueless about.

This one was written in memory of John Lennon:



From what I've read this one is not only about Johnny Ace but is also about John Lennon and John F. Kennedy. The story behind this particular clip can be read here.



Another one about John Lennon:



Warren Haynes remembers Jerry Garcia:

[one belt loop]

Elton John: Tiny Dancer

That's not a death song. Bernie Taupin wrote the lyrics for his then-wife.

[Penny Lane]

Elton John: Tiny Dancer

That's not a death song. Bernie Taupin wrote the lyrics for his then-wife.

Yeah, but I picture her as dead.

[one belt loop]

Elton John: Tiny Dancer

That's not a death song. Bernie Taupin wrote the lyrics for his then-wife.

Yeah, but I picture her as dead.

Nah, just lame.

[sactochris]

In My Hour Of Darkness, by Gram Parsons, about, Brandon De WIlde & Clarence White, and a third person who I can't seem to recall at the moment
My Man , by The Eagles, about, Gram Parsons
Of Missing Persons, by Jackson Browne, about, Lowell George

[Penny Lane]

That's not a death song. Bernie Taupin wrote the lyrics for his then-wife.

Yeah, but I picture her as dead.

Nah, just lame.

I was not trying to be lame. I pictured (what I thought was) her dead because the song was heavily rumored to be about Genie the Tailor who died when Fairport Convention's bus came off the road after a gig in 1969. Even though it's specifically credits his (ex) wife, its' also about the Laurel Canyon scene, which she was a big part. I always picture the song about her because I've read in interviews it was really about her.

http://www.psycho-jello.com/monkees/parties.htm

[scotto]

"Nightshift," by the Lionel-less Commodores, about Jackie Robinson and Marvin Gaye, is a great tribute song.
And then there's Nick Lowe's song "Marie Prevost" about Marie Prevost (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Prevost).

[one belt loop]

Nah, just lame.

I was not trying to be lame. I pictured (what I thought was) her dead because the song was heavily rumored to be about Genie the Tailor who died when Fairport Convention's bus came off the road after a gig in 1969. Even though it's specifically credits his (ex) wife, its' also about the Laurel Canyon scene, which she was a big part. I always picture the song about her because I've read in interviews it was really about her.

http://www.psycho-jello.com/monkees/parties.htm

I was just making a word play on the dancer thing, not calling you names. I wouldn't do that. (Maybe "goofball.")

[dee dee]

Todd Snider - Play A Train Song (about one of Snider's local East Nashville buddies)
Todd Snider - Waco Moon (about Eddie Shaver, painful painful song to listen to for me)
DBT- The Living Bubba

[Slipkid42]

Song For Adam - Blink 182 (since bubba beat me to the JB one)
Afterimage - Rush
American Pie - Don McLean
Back On The Chain Gang - The Pretenders
Back In Black - AC/DC

[Kudzu Guillotine]

I've always heard this song is about Freddie Mercury though it could also be about someone close to the band that wasn't a public figure.



Jimmy Buffett wrote this one in memory of his father. Apparently their relationship was estranged but they mended their differences shortly before his death. I just so happened to see Todd Snider opening for John Prine around the time Buffett's Dad died. Snider had nothing but kind things to say.



According to the liner notes in his Havana Daydreamin' album, Buffett wrote this one in memory of his Grandfather who was a sailing ship captain. I've always related heavily to this song since my Dad pretty much raised all of my family on his love of the ocean, which is the main reason I had it played at his funeral. It always makes me think of him.

[Clams]

"Nightshift," by the Lionel-less Commodores, about Jackie Robinson and Marvin Gaye, is a great tribute song.

Never would've thought of that one. EXCELLENT!

[Swamp]

A few more nice Skynyrd tributes:

I had forgot about Grey Ghost. Saw Henry Paul open for Van Halen & the Stones around 81
I can't believe I forgot Brickyard Rd. We used to always take out-of-towners there. The sign
is on a concrete pole about 15' up.

[PeterJ]

Filter - Hey Man Nice Shot

written about the January 22, 1987, public suicide of Pennsylvania state treasurer R. Budd Dwyer

[Zip City]

Written about his mom, who died of breast cancer.

I think I have something in my eye


I held my sparkler as I walked
Death was inevitable so nobody talked

We just forget laws and strike a match
and the fuse was life and the light was death

And they gave you pills that made you swell (oh no)
lost the hair on your head, self-image, shot to hell

And we spent some time at the beach to my surprise
we would walk and watch the waves wipe synthetic hair from your eyes

Time didn't wear my feelings for you, my love
Made them hard to find
But yes I love you,
Elizabeth, you're mine.

Oh I try my best, dear my love but when I don't succeed
Please come visit me in hell 'cause that's where I'll be.
Will you have the time?
Oh no, there are a million other people that deserve you more than I

Now it's been two years since the day you've passed
Lord I'm starting to forget the time I kissed you last
and I feel scared
'cause I love you more
yes I love you more
(Oh no no no)

And yes I love you
Elizabeth, you're mine.

[tinnitus photography]

Filter - Hey Man Nice Shot

written about the January 22, 1987, public suicide of Pennsylvania state treasurer R. Budd Dwyer

also:

[Kudzu Guillotine]

A few more nice Skynyrd tributes:

I had forgot about Grey Ghost. Saw Henry Paul open for Van Halen & the Stones around 81
I can't believe I forgot Brickyard Rd. We used to always take out-of-towners there. The sign
is on a concrete pole about 15' up.

Back in the 80s, the Grey Ghost and Feel the Heat albums were in heavy rotation in my cassette player. Back in those days I had a hot date to see the Henry Paul Band, the Rossington-Collins Band and Blue Öyster Cult at Cumberland County Memorial Auditorium in Fayetteville (sort of our version of the Von Braun Center) but we didn't make it due to a snowstorm. Things ended up working out pretty good for us that night otherwise though