10 80s Songs With Tragic Backstories

WatchMojo

Behind the catchy melodies and upbeat rhythms of the 1980s lie some truly dark and tragic stories. From misinterpreted love songs to war protests, and personal struggles to historical events, these classic hits carry deeper meanings than most realize. Join us as we explore the haunting tales behind some of the decade's most memorable tracks.

Transcript

00:00You cry out in your sleep, and all my failings I suppose.

00:06Welcome to WatchMojo.

00:09And today, we're looking at 1980 songs with dark backstories or themes.

00:15Hit and push for Capica.

00:19Patience, Guns N' Roses.

00:22Axl Rose was in a relationship with Aaron Everly from 1986 to 1991.

00:27They were married in 1990, divorced in 1991.

00:39Included on Guns N' Roses' album Lies, the ballad-style acoustic song Patience

00:44takes a break from shredding and screaming to ponder the realities of life.

00:49Set your gun, make it slow, and we'll come together fine.

00:56Everly began as the inspiration for Sweet Child O' Mine, but things didn't go as planned

01:01in Axl Rose's personal life, and thus, Patience was born.

01:05Though exact details are scarce, Axl Rose has admitted that the relationship was unstable,

01:12claiming they treated each other like crap.

01:14In 1994, Aaron Everly sued Rose for emotional and physical abuse, but the case was ultimately

01:28dismissed.

01:29Practicing patience isn't always the key, unfortunately.

01:33Though, it doesn't hurt to try.

01:36Cause I can't take it.

01:38Every Breath You Take

01:41The Police

01:42First released on The Police's album Synchronicity, Every Breath You Take has become a well-known

01:48staple in music.

01:50Every breath you take

01:52And every move you make

01:56The thing is, it's been misinterpreted.

02:01The tune is not a love song, and Sting himself has said so.

02:04When he composed it, he was thinking of themes of Control and Orwell's Big Brother.

02:09Essentially, the song is about stalking.

02:12Oh, can't you see

02:15You belong to me

02:19The line, can't you see

02:22You belong to me

02:23Is a clue

02:24As well as saying that everything she does, you'll be watching.

02:28Have a cool heart aches

02:31Every step you take

02:35Oddly enough, it's not the only police song about creepy, wounded lovers.

02:41Can't Stand Losing You is about an obsessive man trying to desperately get his girl back,

02:46but is blocked at every turn.

02:48She doesn't want you, Sting.

02:50Stop being a creep

02:51I guess this is our last goodbye

02:55And you don't care, so I won't cry

02:58Hallelujah, Leonard Cohen

03:01Sometimes the tragedy lies not within the song, but with its process.

03:07Now I've heard there was a secret chord

03:10The writing of Hallelujah was an arduous journey for Leonard Cohen. It took him five years and around 150 drafts.

03:19It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth.

03:23Cohen claims to have, at one particularly desperate point, found himself on the floor, wearing only his briefs, scribbling in notebooks, and repeatedly introducing his head to the floor.

03:36But it's not a cry that you hear tonight. It's not some pilgrim who claims to have seen the light. No, it's a cold and it's a very broken Hallelujah.

03:50He himself couldn't explain the final product. He initially claimed it to be a reaffirmation of his faith, only later to call a hallelujah a moment of embracing the mess that is life.

04:03It's widely considered his magnum opus, yet perhaps, also, his greatest struggle as a poet and artist. Either way, it's equal parts melancholy and beautiful.

04:15Hallelujah, Hallelujah

04:23The Living Years

04:25Mike and the Mechanics

04:27This song came about after members of Mike and the Mechanics were discussing their fathers and discovered that at least three of them had passed on.

04:35Every generation

04:39Blames the one before

04:43The Living Years is told from the point of view of a son having lost his father and lamenting the conversations they could have had when he was alive.

04:52You say you just don't see it, he says it's perfect sense

04:57The song's anthemic chorus might sound positive, but the words speak differently.

05:02It's too late when we die to admit we don't see eye to eye.

05:06Say it, say it loud, say it loud

05:13It's also an interesting take on how much is often left unresolved when someone passes away.

05:20It acts as kind of a call to action to make the most of connecting with loved ones while they're still around.

05:26I didn't get to tell him all the things I had to say

05:34Suffer Little Children

05:36The Smiths

05:37The Smiths had a wide library of sad songs, and Suffer Little Children borrows from true crime tragedy.

05:45Over the moor, take me to the moor

05:50In the early 1960s, five children's lives were taken in the Saddleworth Moores near Manchester, England.

05:57Leslie Ann and your pretty white trees

06:02The perpetrators Myra Hindley and Ian Brady were found guilty of three of the five at the time Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr wrote the song.

06:11They were later convicted of the other two.

06:14The children's remains were found buried in the moors, a solemn stretch of land filled with unstable soils and grasses.

06:22You might sleep but you will never dream

06:27A haunting but respectful song about unconscionable acts, Suffer Little Children showed the Smiths were both immensely talented musicians and courageous in their willingness to address difficult subject matter.

06:40Oh Manchester, so much to answer for

06:46Jump, Van Halen

06:48Ah, the stadium-filling, anthemic tunes of Van Halen.

06:53The song Jump is ultimately a positive tune.

06:56David Lee Roth penned a song encouraging listeners to persevere, to roll with the punches.

07:09The thing is, the chorus was inspired by something not so uplifting.

07:14Can't you see me standing here?

07:16I got my back against the wrecking machine

07:21Roth said that he saw a news report on a jumper, an individual taking their own life by leaping from a height.

07:28He imagined that someone in the crowd below must have been shouting,

07:32Go ahead and jump!

07:33Can't you see what I mean?

07:38The context was changed to an optimistic call to action, at the suggestion of one of Van Halen's roadies.

07:45A positive tune, with grim origins.

07:56Love will tear us apart, Joy Division.

07:59Joy Division singer-songwriter Ian Curtis was a troubled man.

08:03When rooted by its heart, and ambitions are low

08:10At the time of writing Love Will Tear Us Apart, he had been recently diagnosed with epilepsy,

08:15had marital issues with his wife Deborah Woodruff, and was struggling with the mounting stresses of his career.

08:22Why is the bedroom so low, turned away on your side?

08:29The song's title has been interpreted as a response to Captain and Tennille's Love Will Keep Us Together,

08:35a melancholic response to a more positive perspective of love.

08:40You cry out in your sleep, all my failings I suppose

08:46Curtis's words are even more haunting when you consider he took his own life only one month before the single's release.

08:54It's an intimate and unsettling view into Curtis's mind at a particularly dark time.

09:07Born in the USA, Bruce Springsteen.

09:10There are a number of songs considered patriotic which are actually the complete opposite.

09:16Born in the USA was originally titled Vietnam, which should be a good indication that it's not a patriotic exclamation,

09:32but rather a lamentation of war.

09:34Born down in a dead man's town

09:38The first kick it took us when it hit the ground

09:42The chorus is supposed to be interpreted as a frustration, not a rally cry.

09:47Springsteen was inspired by the novel Born on the Fourth of July, which led him to meet with multiple veterans.

09:53He wrote numerous songs about the Vietnam War, but Born in the USA is by far his most well-known, as well as the most misinterpreted.

10:11Born in the USA, I'm a true rockin' daddy, I'm a USA

10:18Sunday Bloody Sunday, You Too

10:21Ireland has a history of violence brought upon by civil unrest.

10:26I can't believe the news today

10:30In 1972, a protest against the practice of internment without trial in Northern Ireland took place in Derry, boasting around 15,000 participants.

10:42How long? How must we sing this song? How long?

10:49The march had been banned by authorities, who sent in the British Army to suppress it.

10:53Things soon escalated, and the soldiers opened fire on the crowd, ultimately taking 14 lives.

11:00Broken bottles of the children's fields

11:05The day has been known as Bloody Sunday, which served as the inspiration for the U2 song.

11:11Evocative and devastating, both the visceral imagery and Bono's anguished and furious vocals paint a vibrant picture of a tragedy.

11:21Sunday Bloody Sunday

11:25Sunday Bloody Sunday

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11:4499 Luftballons

11:47Nina

11:48Hast du etwas Zeit für mich?

11:52Singe ich ein Lied für dich von

11:55Things sometimes get lost in translation, which was the case with Nina's 99 Luftballons.

12:02The band itself wasn't quite on board with the English version, so let's stick to the original German one.

12:0999 Luftballons

12:14The song was inspired by two things.

12:17Guitarist Carlo Cargis spotting red balloons during a performance in West Berlin, wondering what would happen if they drifted into East Berlin.

12:26And a news story about American students playing a prank to simulate a UFO with 99 balloons.

12:32The lyrics tell of the military being deployed to investigate possible UFOs, finding nothing, but proceeding to use the opportunity to display their force to bordering nations.

12:49Though undeniably catchy and well crafted, knowing this Cold War-era context lends 99 Luftballons much further depth.

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