00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most heartbreaking songs
00:12by rockers that are even more devastating when you know the true stories behind them.
00:30When the band's lead vocalist Rob Thomas was on the brink of entering his teenage years,
00:36his mother was diagnosed with cancer.
00:37He spent those young years caring for her, oscillating between devotion and resentment.
00:42That's where the song 3AM comes from.
00:50The lyrics tap into Thomas' own inner conflict,
00:53while also making space to address his mother's grief and how she processed her illness.
01:00He's given listeners the freedom to interpret and apply the song to their lives however they'd like,
01:10but Rob continues to look back on it to understand himself.
01:20Number 9. Elizabeth on the Bathroom Floor. Eels.
01:30Mark Oliver Everett faced tremendous loss in his life, much of which he alchemized into music.
01:38The Eels' album Electroshock Blues deals with his family's death and his will to live.
01:42The titular Elizabeth in the song Elizabeth on the Bathroom Floor is Everett's sister,
01:47who took her own life in 1996.
01:49She had reportedly been seeking help at a mental health facility
01:59and receiving electroconvulsive therapy before she passed away.
02:02The lyrics seem to borrow from a journal entry she wrote before her death,
02:06and the song is sung from her perspective too.
02:08I'm going to a place where I am always high.
02:13In the rest of the album, Eels sings about losing his father at an early age
02:19and his mother's cancer diagnosis,
02:21tugging at our heartstrings and making them come undone.
02:24My name's Elizabeth.
02:30Number 8. Skylines and Turnstiles. My Chemical Romance.
02:34Get out in this zone. Let me break this awkward silence.
02:40This is reportedly the first song MCR frontman Gerard Way ever wrote.
02:45In other words, Skylines and Turnstiles is essentially where My Chemical Romance began.
02:51As monumental as that is for music history,
02:53the track was a response to the catastrophic September 11th attacks.
03:02Way witnessed 9-11 and became determined to make music as a way to create a change in the world.
03:08Like the lyrics suggest, he wanted to break the awkward silence in the wake of the tragedy.
03:20So the tone of the song is both existential and hopeful.
03:24Moreover, it carried the DNA of what would become the band's signature sound,
03:28establishing MCR as an act to look out for.
03:31Me, we go farther.
03:38Number 7. Love Will Tear Us Apart. Joy Division.
03:50The title of this song is engraved on the band's late frontman Ian Curtis' memorial stone.
03:55Love Will Tear Us Apart was released shortly after his death
03:58and tackled the complexity of his relationship with his wife, Deborah Woodruff.
04:01The lyrics are said to revolve around the breakdown of their marriage
04:13owing to his feelings for another woman, Annick Honoré, with whom he allegedly had an affair.
04:19There are also perceived references to Ian's epilepsy
04:21as well as his deteriorating mental health in the lines.
04:24This is especially heartbreaking because the singer took his own life
04:34mere months after recording the track.
04:36Today, it is one of the greatest Joy Division songs of all time.
04:40Number 6. Gimme Shelter – The Rolling Stones
04:51Not only was this song inspired by a tragedy,
05:01but it is said to have potentially caused one too.
05:04Keith Richards, who wrote Gimme Shelter alongside Mick Jagger,
05:07initially took inspiration from the way a sudden London rainstorm
05:10had people frantically seeking cover.
05:19As the two worked on it, it evolved into a broader commentary on war,
05:23particularly the horrors of the Vietnam War.
05:26The song was a massive success,
05:28even more so because of Mary Clayton's powerful guest vocals.
05:31Oh, drink my hand
05:34However, Clayton, who was pregnant when she was invited to sing by the Rolling Stones,
05:42reportedly had a miscarriage after completing her recording.
05:46Some claimed that the songstress had pushed herself too hard,
05:49but regardless of why it happened, it was a deeply unfortunate loss.
05:53Drink my shelter, yeah
05:55Yeah
05:57Drink my shelter, yeah
06:00Number 5. Ohio
06:02Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
06:04When it comes to protest songs,
06:12few can rival the seething urgency and bold resistance of this one.
06:16Neil Young wrote Ohio as a response to the 1970 Kent State shootings.
06:20Down to it
06:22Soldiers are cutting us down
06:25Should have been done long ago
06:28In the massacre,
06:30four unarmed college students lost their lives at the hands of the Ohio National Guard
06:34while protesting against the Vietnam War.
06:36Young reportedly penned the lyrics soon after seeing the harrowing images from the tragedy.
06:40This summer I hear the drumming
06:43The song laments the loss of the student protesters while condemning the then-president Richard Nixon
06:54and holding him accountable.
06:55Ohio was immediately adopted as an anti-establishment anthem,
06:59but received restricted airplay.
07:01La la la la la la la la la la
07:04La la la la la la la la
07:06La la la la la la la la la
07:09Number 4. Polly, Nirvana
07:11Polly wants a cracker
07:13Think I should get off the first
07:18This track from the album Nevermind is widely considered one of the most disturbing rock songs of all time.
07:24Kurt Cobain reportedly wrote Polly after reading about the abduction and sexual assault of a young girl by Gerald Friend in Tacoma, Washington.
07:39Shockingly, he sings from the perspective of the perpetrator of the heinous crime,
07:43which is why it is so unsettling.
07:45However, many critics have praised the song as representative of Cobain's supposed feminist values.
07:50In contrast, Courtney Love admitted that a song like this would probably be met with major backlash in today's cultural climate.
08:05Number 3. Sunday, Bloody Sunday
08:07U2
08:08This song is not a rebel song.
08:11This song is Sunday, Bloody Sunday.
08:13This legendary rock anthem gets its name from the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre that happened in Derry during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
08:22The incident, where British soldiers caused the deaths of 14 unarmed civilians by opening fire during a protest,
08:28was the immediate political context that informed the lyrics.
08:31I can't believe the news today
08:34I can't close my eyes and make it go away
08:40However, the band has clarified that it is not a rebel song.
08:44Instead, it is an unflinching cry against war at large and a plea for peace.
08:56The verses paint a bleak image of the brutality of political violence,
09:00while the refrain calls for an end to the same.
09:03Decades have passed, and Sunday, Bloody Sunday remains one of the most potent anti-war songs of all time.
09:09At home, drawing pictures
09:21Of mountain tops
09:23With him on top
09:26The haunting lyrics of this song raise awareness about subjects like school violence and its devastating consequences.
09:33Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder was reportedly shaken by a newspaper article he read about the death of Jeremy Wade Dell,
09:38A high schooler who fatally shot himself in front of his classmates.
09:51The urge to call attention to this tragedy inspired him to write Jeremy.
09:55Vedder later revealed that he also based the song on an incident from his junior high school years,
09:59Where a boy he knew allegedly committed gun violence on campus.
10:02As for his message to those contemplating self-harm due to mistreatment from others,
10:15Vedder said quote,
10:16The best revenge is to live on and prove yourself.
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10:33Written for the soundtrack of the 1991 movie Rush, this song topped several charts around the world.
10:53The poignant lyrics, which Clapton wrote with Will Jennings, came from a place of grief.
10:57Months before recording the song, the rocker lost his four-year-old son Connor to a fatal fall from the 53rd floor of a building.
11:14He sought healing through music, but hesitated to put the song out into the world.
11:18It was only when Rush director Lily Finney Zanuck pointed out that it could soothe someone else's pain that Clapton decided to release it.
11:33Years later, he wrote the song Circus as a tribute to an evening he spent with Connor at the circus,
11:38which would go on to be their last night together.
11:40Has a song ever broken your heart? Share your stories in the comments below.
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