The Story Behind a Song

By: Carlos “Payta” Sánchez

Whenever someone listens to a song, they may or may not have an affinity with it, even if it is a success or one more song in the universe, letters, or words that remain suspended in time. But for whoever wrote it, it meant something, and it comes from the inspiration of the author who is looking for a “Hit”, some introspection, some madness, a hallucinogenic trip, or something relevant that happened in their lives or intimately moved them. Today I will focus on some well-known songs that have an interesting background, and you may not know why they were written.

Starting with Pearl Jam, one of Seattle Grunge’s biggest names, and it may come as no surprise that their hit song “Jeremy” from their debut album Ten was inspired by the true story of Jeremy Delle, a 15-year-old student who committed suicide in front of to his English class at Richardson High School in Richardson, Texas, on January 8, 1991. Although bassist Jeff Ament wrote it to singer Eddie Vedder, the story resonated with him from his own experience in his youth.

Back to Black is about Amy Winehouse’s breakup with her then-boyfriend Blake FielderCivil. They got back together and married in 2007. In that same year, in Rolling Stone magazine, Winehouse admitted that this song and the entire album (Back to Black, 2006) were about this difficult time in their relationship: “All the songs are about the state of my relationship at the time with Blake. I had never felt this way about anyone out of all the people that have gone through in my life. It was very cathartic because I felt terrible about the way we treated each other. That I even thought I would never see each other again.”

Paul McCartney wrote “Hey Jude” originally as “Hey Jules,” a song intended to comfort John Lennon’s five-yearold son Julian when his parents were divorcing. The change to “Jude” was inspired by the character “Jud” from the musical Oklahoma! In 1987, Julian Lennon ran into Paul in New York City when they were staying at the same hotel, and eventually heard Paul tell him the story of the song firsthand. He admitted to Paul that, growing up, he had always felt closer to him than he had to his own father.

Every Breath You Take is one of the most misinterpreted songs in history. It’s about an obsessive stalker, but we all interpret it as a love song. Some even used it as their wedding song. The Police frontman Sting wrote it after splitting from his first wife, Frances Tomelty. To New Musical Express, Sting explained: “I think it’s a nasty little song, really quite evil. It’s about jealousy and surveillance and property.” Regarding the common misinterpretation of the song, he added: “I think the ambiguity is intrinsic to the song no matter how you treat it because the words are so sadistic. Billie Jean is about a woman who claimed that Jackson was the father of her child. Jackson was based on a woman who used to harass him and write him letters about a child she believed she was his. Jackson rarely spoke of this woman, but he found it very difficult to deal with this unwanted attention, and he became more reclusive as a result. The song was his way of expressing her feelings without addressing her directly. Jackson never gave any details about the real Billie Jean. Producer Quincy Jones, who produced Thriller (1982), said Jackson found the woman lounging by her pool one day in a bathing suit and sunglasses. According to Jones, he accused Jackson of fathering one of his twins, which Jones found quite funny.

Games without Frontiers’ first Top 10 hit is Peter Gabriel’s US and was a critique of adults. This song is about childish pranks by adults. Gabriel wrote this before the US boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics, an event that reinforced the theme of adults acting like children to foolish games. The recurring lyric at the beginning and end is “jeux sans frontieres”, which is French for “Games without Frontiers” and is often misinterpreted as “she’s so popular”.

London Calling is an apocalyptic song that details the many ways the world could end, including the arrival of the ice age, famine, and war. It was the song that best defined The Clash, who were known for lashing out at injustice and rebelling against the establishment, which is what punk rock was all about. Joe Strummer explained in 1988 to Melody Maker: “I read about 10 news reports in one day calling a whole variety of plagues upon us”... Now that I write it, I wasn’t so far off Joe.

Mandinka is a West African tribe with rich musical traditions. In the song, Sinéad O’Connor feels an affinity with the tribe and sings “I do know Mandinka”. The song was inspired by the Roots miniseries, based on the book by Alex Haley. The series aired in 1977 and attracted a large audience, it follows an African named Kunta Kinte (also mentioned by Mecano in his song “El Blues del Esclavo”). “She was a child when I saw it, and she was so moved that I had such a visceral response,” O’Connor wrote in her memoir Rememberings of Her. “I came to emotionally identify with the civil rights movement and slavery, especially given the theocracy I lived in and the oppression in my own home.”

With this song I close this article, remembering the great artist Sinéad O’Connor who passed away on July 23 of this year. See you in the next magazine.