Tag: Story Behind the Song

Back From That Soul Vacation: The Meaning Behind “Drops of Jupiter”

Pat Monahan wrote Train’s hit song “Drops of Jupiter” after an inspiration came to him in a dream following his mother’s death.

Drops of Jupiter Meaning Like most people, I loved Train’s song “Drops of Jupiter” when it came out in 2001. I ran out and bought the CD of the same name, playing the CD over and over again, but especially repeating the title track. And then, like most people, I got a little tired of hearing it played everywhere.

But recently, I heard an interview with Train’s Pat Monahan, explaining how he came to write the song. It may have been that I had missed his earlier interviews about the meaning of the song. Or maybe I had heard the explanation but had not connected with the explanation as I did now around a time when I had lost two people very close to me. But hearing his explanation made the song make a lot of sense to me.

Now that she’s back in the atmosphere,
With drops of Jupiter in her hair, hey, hey, hey.

Monahan wrote “Drops of Jupiter” soon after his mom had passed away following a battle with cancer. In the song, he imagines that after dying his mom’s spirit could go anywhere, and so a person would be likely to go explore the universe.

As Monahan explained in a Buzzfeed News interview, “It’s a story about my mother coming back after like swimming through the planets and finding her way through the universe, and coming back to tell me that heaven was overrated and [to] love this life, you know?”

She acts like summer and walks like rain
Reminds me that there’s a time to change, hey, hey, hey

Thus, his mother returned to visit him with “drops of Jupiter” in her hair. Pretty cool.

Monahan wrote the song in less than an hour. The song came to him in a dream, and after he woke up, the song was in his head. When he woke up, he took about thirty minutes to write it down and sing the words into a Dictaphone. The next night before bed he finished it up, and the song that was a conversation with his late mom was complete.

And tell me, did Venus blow your mind?
Was it everything you wanted to find?
And did you miss me
While you were looking for yourself out there?

After the song was recorded, it propelled the band’s popularity into the universe. “Drops of Jupiter” went on to win the Grammy for Best Rock Song. Monahan thanked his mom when he accepted the award.

Of course, the great thing about songs is that you can always interpret them in your own way to find something for your own life. So if you hear something else or another thing in the song, that is cool too. But it is also great to know the story behind the song. (For a short video about the story, check out this video on YouTube.)

Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    How a Don McLean Song (Maybe) Inspired “Killing Me Softly with His Song”

    Roberta Flack Killing Me Softly

    Roberta Flack had a number one song with “Killing Me Softly with His Song” in 1973. Two decades later, The Fugees brought the song to a new generation when they covered it on the album The Score (1996) with lead vocals by Lauryn Hill. A song being recorded two decades apart is not that unusual, but there are some other interesting aspects about the origins of “Killing Me Softly with His Song.”

    One relatively unique feature of “Killing Me Softly with His Song” is that it is a song about a song.  But that underlying song is unnamed as the singer recounts hearing another singer that deeply affects her.

    Another unique aspect of “Killing Me Softly with His Song” is that the story is somewhat true. It reportedly was inspired by another song by singer-songwriter Don McLean. But before we get to McLean’s song, below is Roberta Flack’s hit version of “Killing Me Softly with His Song.”

    Songwriter Lori Lieberman

    Although there is some debate about the origins of “Killing Me Softly with His Song,” the song was written by Charles Fox with lyrics by Norman Gimbel. Most agree, though, that Gimbel collaborated in some way with Lori Lieberman in writing the lyrics.

    Lieberman maintains that many of the lyrics were inspired by her reaction to hearing Don McLean perform one of his songs. In “Killing Me Softly,” the singer recounts an unnamed man singing a revealing song: “I felt all flushed with fever / Embarrassed by the crowd / I felt he had found my letters / And read each one out loud.”

    Strumming my pain with his fingers,
    Singing my life with his words,
    Killing me softly with his song,
    Killing me softly with his song,
    Telling my whole life with his words,
    Killing me softly with his song    .

    Lori Lieberman recorded “Killing Me Softly with His Song” in 1971. Subsequently, Roberta Flack heard Lieberman’s recording while flying between New York and Los Angeles. When Flack heard the song, she was so moved that she immediately wanted to record it herself.

    Below, Lieberman performs “Killing Me Softly” on The Mike Douglas Show in 1973.

    Don McLean’s “Empty Chairs”

    What was the song that a singer sang as if knew the listener “in all my dark despair”? As Lieberman explains in the above video starting at around the 3:30 mark while actor Tony Curtis holds her guitar, “Killing Me Softly with His Song” was inspired by her reaction to hearing Don McLean’s song, “Empty Chairs.”

    Lieberman first heard McLean singing “Empty Chairs” at the Troubadour in Los Angeles, and it affected her deeply. McClean’s song is about a person remembering a lover who left the singer alone.

    And I wonder if you know,
    That I never understood
    That although you said you’d go,
    Until you did, I never thought you would

    Here is Don McLean performing “Empty Chairs.”

    Lieberman states that after attending a Don McLean concert, she discussed her feelings in response to the singer’s performance of “Empty Chairs.”  She explained, ” I felt exposed – as though he were singing about me and my life.”

    According to Lieberman, she then wrote a poem about her feelings and shared it with songwriter Norman Gimbel, who worked it into a song by making a variation on a title he already had, “Killing Me Softly with the Blues.” Gimbel and Lieberman discussed more about Lieberman’s experience and the lyrics.  Then, Gimbel went to the home of Charles Fox, who worked on the music for the song.

    On Don McLean’s website, the man most famous for songs like “American Pie” and “Vincent” features a 1973 Daily News article about his connection to “Killing Me Softly with His Song.” McLean is quoted about being “amazed” and “humbled” when he learned that he had inspired “Killing Me Softly with his Song.”

    Other Variations On the Story

    One of the writers of “Killing Me Softly with His Song,” however, recalls the story behind the song a little differently.  Charles Fox, who also wrote a large number of popular TV theme songs with Norman Gimbel, explains that he and Norman Gimbel wrote “Killing Me Softly with His Song” for Lori Lieberman.

    Gimbel had a book of possible song titles, and one was “Killing Me Softly with the Blues.”  Gimbel reportedly had seen the phrase in Julio Cortázar’s novel Hopscotch.

    Fox liked the first part of the suggested title, but then they came up with “Killing Me Softly with His Song” as a better title.  From there, Norman came up with the rest of the lyrics and Fox provided the music.

    When Fox and Gimbel played the song for Lieberman, according to Fox, Lieberman responded that the words reminded her of a Don McLean concert.  Thus, according to Fox, the Don McLean connection came after the song was written.

    Gimbel’s version of the creation of the song seems somewhere in the middle between Fox and Lieberman.  While like Fox he has downplayed Lieberman’s role, in an April 5, 1973 Daily News story, Gimbel recalled that Lieberman told him about the experience she had at a Don McLean concert.  He explained, “I had a notion this might make a good song so the three of us discussed it. We talked it over several times, just as we did with the rest of the numbers we wrote for the album and we all felt it had possibilities.”

    The Impact of “Killing Me Softly with His Song”

    No matter how “Killing Me Softly with His Song” was created, that song touched many listeners.  While McLean’s song “Empty Chairs” deeply affected Lieberman, it was the later song “Killing Me Softly with His Song” that resonated with a larger audience.

    Lieberman, who apparently was feeling heartbreak when she first heard McLean’s song, helped create a mysterious song indirectly about heartbreak that focused instead on her reaction to the power of music. And that mystery behind her song resonates with listeners today as it did in the 1970s and 1990s.

    In 1973, “Killing Me Softly with His Song” won Record of the Year and Song of the Year at the Grammy Awards, where Roberta Flack also won Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Female. And Rolling Stone now lists Roberta Flack’s version as one of the top 500 songs of all time at #369. Lauryn Hill’s version is pretty cool too.

    And that is the story behind the song.

    Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    How Smokey Robinson Inspired a Who Song

    Tracks of My Tears In Who Are You: The Life of Pete Townshend, author Mark Wilkerson recounts how Pete Townshend came to write “Substitute” for The Who. Musically, Townshend was inspired to write the song after hearing a rough mix of “19th Nervous Breakdown” by The Rolling Stones. But lyrically, he came up with the title word because of the way Smokey Robinson sang the word in “The Tracks of My Tears.”

    The Miracles released “The Tracks of My Tears” as a single in 1965. In one of the verses of the song — which was written by group members Smokey Robinson, Pete Moore, and Marv Tarpli — Smokey Robinson sings:

    “Since you left me if you see me with another girl,
    Looking like I’m having fun;
    Although she may be cute, she’s just a substitute,
    ‘Cause you’re the permanent one.”

    The song made a big impression on Townshend. In a 1987 interview, Townshend explained that “The Tracks of My Tears” was his favorite song of all time.

    Bur more than that, when Townshend heard the song back in 1965, he could not help focusing on the way that Robinson sang one word. “Smokey Robinson sang the word “Substitute” so perfectly,” he later explained, “that I decided to celebrate the word with a song all its own.” So, he sat down and wrote “Substitute” for The Who “very quickly.”

    Townshend also explained that when he wrote “Substitute,” he merely wrote it as a play on words. But the song and lyrics went on to have a life of their own, becoming one of the Who’s most quoted lyrics as listeners found a deeper meaning in the song. Without revealing much, Townshend also explained that the song came to have a deeper meaning for him over the years too.

    “The Tracks of My Tears” is not the only song that influenced “Substitute.” Townshend also noted that he took the riff from a song called “Where Is My Girl?” by Robb Storme & the Whispers. Townshend said that although “Where Is My Girl?” was not a hit, it had an “electrifying riff” and he “pinched it.” You may hear “Where Is My Girl?” below, and you may be tempted to sing “Substitute” over it.

    One year after The Miracles released “The Tracks of My Tears,” The Who released “Substitute” as a single in 1966, and it would later appear on the compilation album Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy (1971).

    Although “Substitute” only made it to number five on the UK charts, it continues to be a fan favorite through the years. Like “The Tracks of My Tears,” The Who’s song often appears on lists of greatest songs of the era.

    And that is the story behind the song.

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    What Song Did Jennifer Jason Leigh Sing in “The Hateful Eight”?

    Jennifer Jason Leigh Jim Jones Song In one of the rare touching moments in Quentin Tarantino’s film The Hateful Eight (2015), the captured fugitive Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) picks up a guitar and sings a song about a prisoner on a ship. Although Domergue eventually adds a few lines of her own about getting revenge upon her captor John “The Hangman” Ruth (Kurt Russell) and escaping to Mexico, the song itself is a traditional Australian folk song called “Jim Jones at Botany Bay,” or sometimes simply “Jim Jones.”

    “Jim Jones at Botany Bay”

    The song refers to the first Australian penal colony, Botany Bay, where England sent convicts beginning in 1788. Star Trek fans may recognize the name because the ship that carried Khan Noonien Singh and his comrades was named the S.S. Botany Bay after the penal colony.

    In “Jim Jones at Botany Bay,” the singer Jim Jones is an English convict who has been sentenced to ride the ship to the penal colony, although the judge first threatened to hang him. On the trip, the men on the ship repel a group of pirates, but Jones thinks, “I’d rather joined that pirate ship than come to New South Wales.”

    Jones dreams of escaping and joining “the bold bushrangers there Jack Donahue and Company.”

    And some dark night when everything is silent in this town,
    I’ll kill the tyrants one by one and shoot the floggers down;
    I’ll give the law a little shock, remember what I say;
    They’ll yet regret they sent Jim Jones in chains to Botany Bay.

    The song was first published in 1907, although The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature notes that scholars speculate that the song was written around 1830 because of the reference to the bushranger Jack Donahue (sometimes spelled “John Donohoe”). Donahue was an Irishman sentenced to Australia in 1825. But he later escaped, forming gangs that stole from wealthy land owners. He eventually was killed in a shootout in New South Wales.

    So, the song would have been around during the years after the Civil War, which is the setting for The Hateful Eight. And it might not be unusual for someone like Daisy Domergue to be fond of a ballad about another outlaw.

    Versions of the Song

    “Jim Jones at Botany Bay” has been performed and recorded by a number of singers. Bob Dylan recorded “Jim Jones” for his Good As I Been To You (1992) album. You may hear a clip of Bob Dylan’s version on his website.

    The video below features Old Crow Medicine Show performing the song at Byron Bay Bluesfest in 2010. Check it out.

    For a complete recording of “Jim Jones at Botany Bay,” below is a version by Australian singer-songwriter Gary Shearston.

    In modern decades, the song has been used as a song of defiance as it was in The Hateful Eight. For example, English folksinger A.L. “Bert” Lloyd sang ““Jim Jones at Botany Bay”” at London’s Westminster Hall during a rally in support of releasing political activist Angela Davis in the 1970s. So, whenever you are feeling a bit rebellious, crank up “Jim Jones at Botany Bay.”

    And that is the Story Behind the Song.

    Photo via YouTube. Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Know the Song But Not the Writer: Peaceful Easy Feeling Edition

    Around the early 1970s, Jack Tempchin was playing guitar and singing in coffee houses in San Diego when he got a gig in El Centro, California. It was his first time in the desert, and the sky inspired him to come up with the line “Peaceful Easy Feeling” for a song. He continued working on the song back in San Diego.

    While attending a street fair, Tempchin saw a beautiful woman with tan skin and turquoise earrings. While he did not speak to her, he put her in the opening stanza of the song he was writing on his $13 Stella guitar: eagles

    I like the way your sparkling earrings lay,
    Against your skin, it’s so brown.
    And I wanna sleep with you in the desert tonight
    With a billion stars all around.

    The Eagles

    After finishing the last verse at a Der Weinerschnitzel fast food restaurant in San Diego, Tempchin was hanging around with a number of up-and-coming singer-songwriters. He was staying with Jackson Browne when Glenn Frey overheard Tempchin playing the song.

    Frey liked the tune and told Tempchin that he had a band called “the Eagles” that had only been together eight days. Tempchin gave Frey permission for his band to work up the song and the rest is history.

    A few months later, Frey played for Tempchin the band’s version of the song with Frey singing lead vocal.  Tempchin loved it.

    The tune ended up on the Eagles’ first album, Eagles (1972), and it was released as a single in December 1972.  It went to #22 on the charts. Tempchin heard his song on the radio for the first time as it played on a small transistor radio on top of a refrigerator in the house of someone he met while taking a road trip.

    Anyone who was around in the 1970s can probably sing along to the song, which was everywhere on the radio. The film The Big Lebowski (1998) even played off the song’s ubiquitousness when the Dude heard the song playing in a cab and complained about the Eagles. The cab driver then threw him out of the cab.

    Tempchin After “Peaceful Easy Feeling”

    As for Tempchin, he continues to write and perform. He co-wrote other songs for the Eagles, including “Already Gone.” And his songs have been covered by others, including “Slow Dancin’ (Swayin’ to the Music),” a 1979 hit for Johnny Rivers.

    Tempchin tells more of the interesting story behind “Peaceful Easy Feeling” in a post on No Depression and on his website.  The site also features stories from fans about what the song means to them.

    You have heard the original version by the Eagles, so now give a listen to the songwriter singing his song. You may hear Tempchin sing “Peaceful Easy Feeling” from his recent CD Live At Tales from the Tavern (2012) above or watch him sing the song in the video below.

    Inspirations for the Song

    It is interesting to think of the woman who inspired the opening of the song, never knowing it. Like everyone else, she must have heard the song many times, never knowing that it is her in those lines.

    Tempchin has explained, “I guess I was trying to distill the beauty of every girl I saw into words on paper and then into a song.” So, maybe it is appropriate that there is no one person out there claiming the song.

    Real people and relationships are messy, so it is only an idealized lover that eternally can inspire lines like: “‘Cause I get a peaceful easy feeling/ And I know you won’t let me down.”

    And that is the story behind the song.

    What is your favorite memory of hearing “Peaceful Easy Feeling”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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