Famous Songs About Famous People

Going To California - Led Zepplin (1971): The lyric "...she plays guitar and cries and sings" is about Joni Mitchell.

Love Reign o'er Me - The Who (1973): Pete Townshend originally wrote this song about British singer Shirley Bassey, whom he had a crush on during his adolescence.

Killing Me Softly With His Song - Roberta Flack (1973): Supposedly inspired by a poem written by Lori Lieberman about singer Don McLean.


Shine On You Crazy Diamond - Pink Floyd (1975) This nine part song was inspired by former lead singer Syd Barrett, who ironically visited the studio while the group was recording. It took awhile to recognise him because no one had seen him for several years.

Hurricane - Bob Dylan (1975): A protest song about boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, who Dylan felt was wrongly sent to prison in the late 60's.

Wonderful Tonight - Eric Clapton (1978): From the album "Slowhand", this song was written for George Harrison's ex-wife Pattie Boyd.

Empty Garden - Elton John (1982) Written and recorded after the death of John Lennon. The two artists were close friends, with Elton being named Sean Lennon's godfather.

Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns N' Roses (1987): From their multi platinum selling album "Appetite For Destruction". Axl Rose co-wrote this song about his then girlfriend Erin Everly, daughter of Don Everly of the Everly Brothers.

Black Velvet - Alannah Myles (1989): This song is a tribute to Elvis Presley and hit number one on the U.S. Billboard charts.

Pink Floyd Quotes

Roger Waters: "I'm in competition with myself and I'm losing."

David Gilmour: (About Roger Waters) "I'm not very good at holding grudges for very long, but he's done some terrible things."

Syd Barrett: "When we parted I had written everything for the group. My leaving sort of evened things out within the group."


Roger Waters: "Either you write songs or you don't. And if you do write songs like I do, I think there's a natural desire to want to make records."

Richard Wright: "There was this big personality clash between me and Roger, and at the end of the day I realised that I couldn't work with this person anyway, so I left."

David Gilmour: "It's nice to be loved and for one's contribution to be recognized in some way. I suppose I agree that we have had an influence on modern popular music."

Roger Waters: "I have nothing against Dave Gilmour furthering his own goals. It's just the idea of Dave's solo career masquerading as Pink Floyd that offends me."

Richard Wright: "It's a mistake thinking that drugs supplied Pink Floyd with inspiration. The ones who took drugs were the ones who came to see the shows."

David Gilmour: "No one can replace Richard Wright. He was my musical partner and my friend."

Roger Waters: "I am one of the best five writers to come out of English music since the war."

Nick mason: "The recording of The Wall was very tense, mainly because Roger was starting to go a bit mad."

David Gilmour: "Roger doesn't have the right at present to tell me what to do with my life, although he believes that he does. And he'll not ruin my career, al
though lately he's been trying to."