The songs about real people thread reminded me of something I’ve mulled over for a while: Who is rock and pop’s top love song inspiration? I’m discounting religious figures from this, and ideally the writers should have known the recipient personally (so no Candle In The Wind). I remember a review of one of The Cure’s albums which asked if there was anybody more celebrated in song than Mad Bob’s wife Mary, and of course Patti Boyd has had two world straddling standards written about her, by different songwriters. Any other contenders?
(As you can all play hear Something in it’s entirety in your head, here’s an ‘alternative’ version)
Popular muses
And for that matter: https://youtu.be/Nt9EF0iMeLI
I think a prolific songwriter like Mad Bob writes songs about general themes of love rather than always about his wife, doesn’t he?
John seemed to write a lot of songs specifically about Yoko. Maybe it’s Yoko?
Hip hoppers are forever namechecking A&R man Dante Ross in the sense that he’s on their backs to finish the album. Mind you, I’m not sure if that makes him a muse or simply a hard taskmaster.
Joan Baez may be in the running. Dylan’s Visions of Johanna was supposedly about her.
But were there any more?
Automatically discounted, because none of the writer had met her personally.
But Jackie Kennedy/Onassis gets name checked in a large number of songs.
http://ultimatejackie.blogspot.se/2009/07/list-of-songs-about-or-alluding-to.html
Actually Patti Boyd’s count is 3, not 2
Something
Layla
Wonderful Tonight
Mike Love? All you need is Love, Love is in the air, Can’t buy me Love and if you want to be slightly rude I’m not in Love.
You silly, twisted boy…