Best song about a famous person?

How about "Jumping Jack Flash"? That's Jagger singing about Jagger. He was born in 1944 during an air raid ("a cross-fire hurricane"); as a kid he managed to get a nail stuck in his head ("I was crowned with a spike right thru my head"); and apparently he had an ugly nanny ("I was raise by a toothless, bearded hag").

jokerman by dylan,considered by some, to be about dylan

So when Dylan added a "g" to the end of "Hardin," he didn't have Hardin in mind? You think Dylan wasn't thinking of Hardin at all when he wrote these lines?

He trav'led with a gun in ev'ry hand.

All along this countryside....

Living in the Past wrote:

So when Dylan added a "g" to the end of "Hardin," he didn't have Hardin in mind? You think Dylan wasn't thinking of Hardin at all when he wrote these lines?

He trav'led with a gun in ev'ry hand.

All along this countryside....

no. the song is a generic gunslinger paean. he chose the title because he liked how it sounds. the people and places in the song are not even real. are you certain, like many dylan afficionados, you're not ascribing more meaning to the lyrics than are due?

Jagger was born in 1943, you idiot. Not 1944.

easily "The Right Profile" by The Clash, about Montgomery Clift.

---

Say, where did I see this guy?

In "Red River"?

Or "A Place In The Sun"?

Maybe "The Misfits"?

Or "From Here To Eternity?

Everybody say, is he all right?

And everybody say, whats he like?

Everybody say, he sure look funny.

Thats...Montgomery Clift, honey!

New york, new york, new york, 42nd street

Hustlers rustle and pimps pimp the beat

Monty Clift is recognized at dawn

He aint got no shoes and his clothes are torn

I see a car smashed at night

Cut the applause and dim the light

Montys face is broken on a wheel

Is he alive? can he still feel?

Nembutol numbs it all

But I prefer alcohol

He said go out and get me my old movie stills

Go out and get me another roll of pills

There I go again shaking, but I aint got the chills

Arrrghhhgorra buh bhuh do arrrrgggghhhhnnnn!!!!

---

"Monty Got A Raw Deal" by REM is the second best song about Monty Clift.

Fernando by Abba. Its about Fernando Cadabba

"the queen is dead"-- the smiths

Dexys Midnight Runners (and Van Morrison) sang about the popular scottish darts player John 'Jocky' Wilson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eCOll4T-zo

(at 13 seconds)

""Pretty Boy Floyd" by Woody Guthrie, covered by The Byrds and a lot of others is a good one...it also became the basis for the great "Avenging Annie" by Andy Pratt"

Didn't know that about Avenging Annie- cool song though!

"Sigourney Weaver" by Mike Garrigan

"Courtney Love" by the Nerf Herders

The song Never Give Up On A Dream was written about Terry Fox's Marathon of Hope and recorded by Rod Stewart.

NEVER GIVE UP ON A DREAM

(Rod Stewart, Bernie Taupin / Jim Cregan)

If there's doubt and you're cold,

don't you worry what the future holds.

We've gotta have heroes to teach us all

to never give up on a dream.

Claim the road, touch the sun,

no force on earth could stop you run.

When your heart bursts like the sun

never never give up on a dream.

Shadows fall, daylight dies,

freedom never got a place to hide.

Search forever photo finish line

but never give up on your dream.

Crazy notions fill your head,

you gotta break all the records set.

Push yourself until the end

but don't you ever give up on your dream.

Now listen to me

you don't need no restrictions yeah

Oh, sing it again

you can't live on sympathy.

You just need to go the distance,

oh the distance

that's all you need to be free, to be free,

to be free, to be free.

Sing a song for me children

you don't need no restrictions yeah

you can't live on sympathy.

You just need to go the distance,

that's all you need to be free,

Now listen to me!

Inspiring all to never lose,

it'll take a long long time before they fill your shoes

it'll take somebody, somebody, who's lot like you

who never gave up on a dream.

No, you never gave up on a dream

no, you never gave up on a dream.

You never, never, never, never

gave up on a dream.

Keith Stone wrote:

Neil Young - Let's Impeach the President

That's it.

Bob Dylan, Hurricane

Great movie too.

mommy mommy wrote:

Edmund Fitzgerald

* wrote:

The Edmund Fitzgerald was a boat.

Paul Puma wrote:

Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald?....That's not about a famous person but a boat that sank....

For future reference you guys might want to bookmark this site

teepee wrote:

bob dylan - hurricane

"Joey" is a more awkward, lumbering, and ultimately more moving song---on the same album. It is also pretty much the literal truth of Joey Gallo's life. And, unlike "Hurricane," which claims Carter was innocent, "Joey" identifies with a certifiable bad-ass mutha:

Born in Red Hook, Brooklyn, in the year of who knows when

Opened up his eyes to the tune of an accordion

Always on the outside of whatever side there was

When they asked him why it had to be that way, "Well," he answered, "just because."

Larry was the oldest, Joey was next to last.

They called Joe "Crazy," the baby they called "Kid Blast."

Some say they lived off gambling and runnin' numbers too.

It always seemed they got caught between the mob and the men in blue.

Joey, Joey,

King of the streets, child of clay.

Joey, Joey,

What made them want to come and blow you away?

There was talk they killed their rivals, but the truth was far from that

No one ever knew for sure where they were really at.

When they tried to strangle Larry, Joey almost hit the roof.

He went out that night to seek revenge, thinkin' he was bulletproof.

The war broke out at the break of dawn, it emptied out the streets

Joey and his brothers suffered terrible defeats

Till they ventured out behind the lines and took five prisoners.

They stashed them away in a basement, called them amateurs.

The hostages were tremblin' when they heard a man exclaim,

"Let's blow this place to kingdom come, let Con Edison take the blame."

But Joey stepped up, he raised his hand, said, "We're not those kind of men.

It's peace and quiet that we need to go back to work again."

Joey, Joey,

King of the streets, child of clay.

Joey, Joey,

What made them want to come and blow you away?

The police department hounded him, they called him Mr. Smith

They got him on conspiracy, they were never sure who with.

"What time is it?" said the judge to Joey when they met

"Five to ten," said Joey. The judge says, "That's exactly what you get."

He did ten years in Attica, reading Nietzsche and Wilhelm Reich

They threw him in the hole one time for tryin' to stop a strike.

His closest friends were black men 'cause they seemed to understand

What it's like to be in society with a shackle on your hand.

When they let him out in '71 he'd lost a little weight

But he dressed like Jimmy Cagney and I swear he did look great.

He tried to find the way back into the life he left behind

To the boss he said, "I have returned and now I want what's mine."

Joey, Joey,

King of the streets, child of clay.

Joey, Joey,

Why did they have to come and blow you away?

It was true that in his later years he would not carry a gun

"I'm around too many children," he'd say, "they should never know of one."

Yet he walked right into the clubhouse of his lifelong deadly foe,

Emptied out the register, said, "Tell 'em it was Crazy Joe."

One day they blew him down in a clam bar in New York

He could see it comin' through the door as he lifted up his fork.

He pushed the table over to protect his family

Then he staggered out into the streets of Little Italy.

Joey, Joey,

King of the streets, child of clay.

Joey, Joey,

What made them want to come and blow you away?

Sister Jacqueline and Carmela and mother Mary all did weep.

I heard his best friend Frankie say, "He ain't dead, he's just asleep."

Then I saw the old man's limousine head back towards the grave

I guess he had to say one last goodbye to the son that he could not save.

The sun turned cold over President Street and the town of Brooklyn mourned

They said a mass in the old church near the house where he was born.

And someday if God's in heaven overlookin' His preserve

I know the men that shot him down will get what they deserve.

Joey, Joey,

King of the streets, child of clay.

Joey, Joey,

What made them want to come and blow you away?

David Duchovny by Bree Sharp. Haha!

HEY THERE DELILAH