Люди, которым посвящают песни

Сумасброд британской сцены Скримин'Лорд Сатч - "Jack the Ripper" (песня вроде не его, но я знаю ее только в его исполнении).

Кошмар Лондона эпохи королевы Виктории - Джек Потрошитель (Jack the Ripper). Поскольку пойман так и не был, то с портретом напряги. Остались фото жертв (весьма мрачное зрелище, способное надолго отбить аппетит) и портреты полицейских чинов, в том числе инспектора Абберлайна, которого на экране играли и Майкл Кейн, и Джонни Депп. Так что в поп-культуре сей персонаж прописался основательно.

В лондонской полиции по сей день дорого бы дали знать, кто это был в реальности. Список подозреваемых с годами только вырос.



За неимением фото - письмо, отправленное Потрошителем в Центральное новостное агентство в конце сентября 1888 года.

---> Горыныч:

Инструментал с таким названием был ещё у Линка Рэя. А Визжащий Сатч вообще фигура занимательная. У него всё творчество - это замогильный рок-н-ролл. На том же альбоме, откуда происходит Jack The Ripper, существует ещё масса песен подобной тематики: Murder In The Graveyard хотя бы. И среди всего этого мракобесия там же есть ещё одно посвящение: Go Berry Go - понятно какому Берри посвящено :)

К слову, сам Сатч плохо кончил: был найден у себя дома лет так несколько тому назад то ли повесившимся, то ли задушенным. Печально это всё... А нечего шутить с такими вещами...

2cat man: Да, помнится я читал где-то, что смерть Сатча была достаточно неожиданной для всех - говорили, что ничего похожего на какое-либо депрессивное состояние у него в последние дни не наблюдалось. Типа, совсем неясно, зачем он в петлю полез.

2cat man:

>Инструментал с таким названием был ещё у Линка
>Рэя.

- у Сатча была именно песня. Что-то такое вв духе конца 50-х - начала 60-х годов.

Причем, мне упорно кажется, что когда-то я слышал другой ее вариант с длинным инструментальным вступлением.

Джон Бон Джови посвятил песню Lonely At The Top (1995) Курту Кобейну...

Пол Саймон - r&b певцу Джонни Эйсу (Маршаллу мл.)
The Late Great Johnny Ace

Weezer - "Buddy Holly"

Некий Дэнни Миррор написал на смерть Элвиса сингл: "I remember Elvis Presley"

Led Zeppelin - прижизненный трибьют Йену Стюарту
"Boogie with Stu"

The Rolling Stones dedicated their album Dirty Work to Stewart, thanking him for 25 years of boogie woogie. Real fans must have noticed that at the end of the Dirty Work album, there's a little piece of piano music... Thanks Stu !

Стиви Уандер написал тему "We all Remember Wes", посвящение Уэсу Монтгомери, которое можно найти на альбоме Дж. Бенсона "Weekend in L.A.".
А на знаменитом альбоме Бадди Гая "Damn Right I Got the Blues" 1991 года есть тема "Remembering Stevie", посвященная Стиви Рэй Воэну.

2 Old Bluesman
Об ентом (Бадди Гае) я уже постил.

У актерской группы "Монти Пайтон" была песня (автор - Эрик Айдл), посвященная госсекретарю США Генри Киссинджеру. Со словами: "...а ноги у тебя красивше, чем у Гитлера, а сиськи у тебя больше, чем у Шер". Типа фокстрот.

А вот прекрасная песня: Ну, что ж ты страшная такая! Это ведь явно о Новодворской!

Ну не она же одна... есть ещё Собчачка... и эта, не-родись-красивой... да и ваще Имя Им Легион, Бо Их Богато...

Ага, вот она - не-родись-красивой.

А слышали о Путине и остальной братии: Говорят, мы бяки-буки, как выносит нас земля?

Не родись Годзиллой...

Many romantic songs reveal writer's feelings about a specific person

Of all the love triangles of the stars, none has spawned as many great songs as the romantic tug of war which, from the 1960s through the 1980s, linked George Harrison, Eric Clapton and British model Pattie Boyd. Both "Something" by The Beatles and "Layla" by Clapton's Derek & the Dominos were written for Boyd and are among the most familiar love songs of the 20th century. But they hold another distinction: They were personal messages of love written to a specific person. They are representative of those times when songwriters transcend commerce to share their actual feelings with the world. On Valentine's Day, it's interesting to peek into the envelope at some of the private love letters that became popular songs. Harrison met 19-year-old Boyd on the set of "A Hard Days Night." She had a boyfriend of two years, photographer Eric Swayne, but eventually allowed the famous Mop-Top to take her out for dinner and a drive around London. They became inseparable and married in 1966. Boyd became the well-documented inspiration for several of Harrison's songs recorded by The Beatles, including "For You Blue," "I Need You," "So Sad" and "Something," a ballad that Frank Sinatra famously labeled "the greatest love song ever written." "Something" is the second most covered song by The Beatles and is certified the 17th most performed song of the 20th century, with more than 5 million performances.

But that wasn't the extent of Boyd's inspiration. Clapton, consumed with an unrequited love for his friend Harrison's wife, slipped into a spiral of heroin and alcohol abuse, which resulted in both a several-year hiatus from the music business and some of his best songs. The sole studio album by Derek & the Dominos was driven by his destructive desire for Boyd, and its fiery single "Layla" (the title comes from an Iranian tale of romantic obsession) was written by Clapton, with the trailing piano movement by the Dominos' Jim Gordon. Rolling Stone ranked the song No. 27 among its "500 Greatest Songs of All Time." "Pattie Boyd was the inspiration for a disproportionate amount of extremely well-known songs," says Howard Kramer, curatorial director of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. "Why do we care? One was a Beatle and the other is considered one of the greatest guitar players of all time. It's a script that, if Hollywood wrote it, would be considered the work of a hack."

The story doesn't end with two songs. Harrison and Boyd divorced in 1977, and she married Clapton two years later. She was the inspiration for his songs "Never Make You Cry," "Pretty Girl" and "Wonderful Tonight," co-written by Michael Kamen. Boyd and Clapton divorced in 1988.

While portions of Boyd's romantic life have been publicized through song, she's led an otherwise private life. A commercial photographer, Boyd lives near London with real-estate developer Rod Weston. She co-founded an addiction recovery charity with Ringo Starr's wife Barbara Bach, and on Valentine's Day, 2004, hosted a San Francisco exhibit of her celebrity photos. Late last year, she signed as a spokesmodel for Viyella, a British fashion designer.

Boyd is modest about inspiring some of the greatest love songs ever written.

"All I can say," she told CNN last year, "is I feel deeply flattered and honored. ... I don't know what else to say. I guess I'm really lucky."


Classical pining


Many popular songs commonly believed to have been inspired by real-life romances were not. And, while some of the most lasting classical compositions are rooted in actual love stories, many famous love themes may have been less personal than the legends surrounding them claim.

Recent evidence suggests that Ravel's "Bolero" was less inspired by the escalating passion of romantic sex than the onset of Alzheimer's in its author. Among the most famous classical love themes is Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14, popularly known as the "Moonlight Sonata." Beethoven wrote it in 1801 for his pupil, 17-year-old Countess Giulietta Guicciardi. Scholars have debated for centuries whether Beethoven harbored a forbidden love for the girl.

"I doubt that was the case," says composer David Stock of Duquesne University. "There's no evidence that their relationship was anything more than student and instructor, but the mythology surrounding that piece certainly has added to its mystique if not its popularity."

Stock agrees with most musicologists, however, that Beethoven's "immortal beloved," the woman referred to in letters found after his death as, "My angel, my all, my very self," was almost certainly Antoine Brentano, the Viennese wife of a German businessman. Among the most compelling evidence that Brentano was the great love of Beethoven's life is a handwritten manuscript of his song "An di Geliebte (To the Beloved)". In a corner, written in Brentano's hand, are the words, "Requested by me from the author on March 2, 1812."

Stock concedes that while a student at CMU, he wrote two musical-theater songs for the woman who is now his wife, Celia. Still, he says, it isn't particularly necessary for composers and songwriters to draw from singular personal experiences to create great works.

"People like to think that every love song tells a personal story," he says. "It makes it seem all the more romantic. But it's not necessarily the case."

"We imprint and project on songs what we want so that they become more important to us," Kramer adds. "We imprint intimacy in the songs, give them a narrative separate from and parallel to what the author's intent was. In that way, we make the songs symbolic of our own relationships."


Naming names


Sometimes, the source of a song is clear. Ritchie Valens wrote "Donna," which reached No. 2 on the pop charts, about his former high school girlfriend Donna Ludwig. Years after Valens died in a plane crash, she returned the favor by recording two songs, "Now That You're Gone" and "Lost Without You," for the boy who immortalized her name in song. Now married, Donna Fox lives in the Sacramento area.

Whitney Houston's smash hit "I Will Always Love You," from her film "The Bodyguard," stayed at the top of the pop charts for 14 weeks in 1993. But the song had a personal history long before Houston.

Country superstar Dolly Parton wrote it and rode it to the top of the country charts in 1974. She recorded it again in 1982 and scored another No. 1 hit. Curiously, the simple, straight-forward ballad of lasting love and devotion isn't about Carl Dean, her husband since 1966. It was inspired by her platonic love for her former music partner Porter Wagoner.

The Oak Ridge Boys' "Beautiful You," a No. 1 country song in the early 1980s, is about a true romance rooted in Southwestern Pennsylvania. It was written by Dave Hanner of Pittsburgh's Corbin-Hanner Band.

"All songwriters are liars," Hanner says. "You start with an element of truth and go from there. But 'Beautiful You' was different. My former wife and I were down in Florida on vacation. I remember sitting out by the pool with her, our son was only about 2 or 3 months old, and we were having a good time. I took a break and went into the hotel and that song just popped out. I still like the song, and I still like her, too."

Face it, not everyone has the Harrison or Clapton way with words. But there's a fast if somewhat cheesy way to personalize a song for someone with that special "something."

Several generic songs have been recorded at InstaSong.com and GiftSongs.com. Log in, choose "Valentine," and enter data specific to the Layla of your life: eye color, annoying habits, number of times you've had sex in the past year, etc. A computer plugs your details into the song, you preview and pay $4.95, and they e-mail a sound file to your Valentine. Even cheesier, the company offers a playa's special: five personalized love songs for $9.99, with no requirement that they're about the same person.




(John Hayes can be reached at jhayes@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1991.)