Bitch bitch bitch. When relationships start to go wrong, we often turn to music for solace, justification, escape or a nice maudlin place to wallow. The gift of music is also there as an outlet — a way to articulate our pain, anger, confusion or indifference.
I’ve had a handful of painful breakups in my life — including a few of the musical variety. Just slightly more often I was the breakee, rather than the breaker. I’ve written countless songs either directly about relationship issues, or born from the emotional state in which they put me. So I find it terribly interesting to explore these types of songs in my own record collection. Breakup songs, bitchfests, diss tracks and other angst-filled accounts of musical partnerships on the rocks or out to sea.
After a time, a shared circumstance might be the only thing two musical partners can find in common. They begin to reexamine each other. Reassess. “You’ve changed” or “You need to change” or “I need something more” and “I don’t like your friends” becomes an overarching issue which not only affects the musical partnership, but finds its way into the music and lyrics as well.
Seems like it might be fun to compile some examples from my record collection where one musical partner is taking aim at the other. One stipulation, though — these have to be band songs, not solo songs. Even better if the person being discussed is also on the track, so these songs are marked with an *.
Deep breath…
*All About You | The Rolling Stones (1979)
This album closer from 1980’s Emotional Rescue was written by Keith Richards about his newfound disdain for Mick Jagger, who he says routinely dismissed his ideas and was reluctant to share control of the band after Richards got out from under years of drug addiction.
“Well if you call this a life
Why must I spend it with you?
If the show must go on
Let it go on without you.”
*Not Guilty | The Beatles (1968)
This track is a George Harrison gem, crafted and even auditioned for The Beatles during the White Album sessions and eventually recorded by Harrison himself a decade later. Harrison’s creativity was fueled by spending time with The Band and Bob Dylan in Woodstock in late 1968. Like the track Run Of The Mill, which also dates from this period, Harrison wrote the song in response to criticism from Paul McCartney and John Lennon. While Run Of The Mill is specifically about McCartney’s increasingly controlling behaviour, Not Guilty is a response to Lennon and McCartney blaming him for the band’s (and Apple’s) association with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who turned out to be something of a fraud. Not Guilty and Run Of The Mill are among the many songs from this period that The Beatles rejected, including All Things Must Pass, Wah-Wah, Let It Down, Sour Milk Sea and Isn’t It A Pity.
“Not guilty
For looking like a freak
Making friends with every Sikh
Not guilty
For leading you astray
On the road to Mandalay
I won’t upset the apple cart
I only want what I can get
I’m really sorry that you’ve been misled
But like you heard me said:
Not guilty.”
*Had It With You | The Rolling Stones (1986)
Richards penned this mad-at-Mick track at Ron Wood’s house. It’s kind of a sequel to All About You in that it’s the second time he consciously set out to write about his soured relationship with Jagger. They eventually buried the hatchet in song with the single from 1989’s Steel Wheels, Mixed Emotions. But three years earlier, Keef was done. He kept at it, too. His debut solo album, 1988’s Talk Is Cheap, features You Don’t Move Me, which is also about Jagger. For his part, Jagger responded with Kow Tow and Shoot Your Mouth Off, which are both from 1987’s Primitive Cool.
“Always try to taunt me
Always seem to haunt me
Serving out injunctions
Shouting out instructions
And I had it, I had it, I had it, I had it with you.”
All Within My Hands | Metallica (2003)
Frontman James Hetfield wrote this after re-examining his behaviour that led to bassist Jason Newsted leaving the band two years earlier. Newsted wanted Metallica to take a short break so he could do some stuff with a side project, but Hetfield pushed for the rest of the band to reject this. Newsted decided to quit, and say he has no bad feelings. Clearly, Hetfield does.
“All within my hands
Let you run, then I pull your leash
All within my hands.”
Shine On You Crazy Diamond | Pink Floyd (1975)
Roger Waters penned the lyrics of this nine-part suite from Wish You Were Here in a warts-and-all tribute to the band’s former leader and co-founder, Syd Barrett. A bonafide acid casualty who struggled with undiagnosed mental illness, in 1968 Barrett was cut out of the band he named and put out two stark, strained but beautiful solo albums with the help of his former bandmates. While Pink Floyd were recording Wish You Were Here, Barrett paid an awkward and unexpected visit to Abbey Road studio, rattling his old friends due to his appearance — shaved head, no eyebrows and weight gain.
“Well, you wore out your welcome with random precision
Rode on the steel breeze
Come on, you raver, you seer of visions
Come on, you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine.”
Lost For Words | Pink Floyd (1994)
Ten years after Waters left the band, David Gilmour extended an invitation to his old bandmate to be part of the album which became The Division Bell. Waters declined, which spawned this reaction from Gilmour and his lyricist wife Polly Samson.
“So I open my door to my enemies
And I ask could we wipe the slate clean?
But they tell me to please go fuck myself
You know you just can’t win.”
Swinging The Chain | Black Sabbath (1978)
Bassist Geezer Butler wrote most of Black Sabbath’s lyrics. He penned this while the band were recording what would be their last album before Ozzy Osbourne was fired a year later at the insistence of guitarist Tony Iommi. But clearly, Butler was having problems with Ozzy as well. The lyrics of this were so harsh that Ozzy refused to sing it. Drummer Bill Ward handles the lead vocal on this, which serves as the closing track of Never Say Die.
“Compare ourselves with others
And cover them in sin
Oh, God what a terrible
A terrible state we’re in
There must be some way out of here
A compromise that’s right
If we cannot work it out
We’re gonna have to fight.”
Soldier On | Megadeth (2022)
Dave Mustaine takes aim at former pal and bandmate David Ellefson, whom he fired after sexual misconduct accusations surfaced concerning the bassist and an underage fan.
“Of all the battles won and lost
The lives and treasures that it cost
I know I’ve got to soldier on.”
*Go Your Own Way | Fleetwood Mac (1977)
To say Fleetwood Mac were in turmoil in 1977 is an understatement. Drummer Mick Fleetwood estimates that if you made a single line out of all the cocaine he snorted, it would stretch for 11 kms. By comparison, Mt. Everest is 8.8. km high. Fleetwood had just divorced Jenny Boyd and was on the verge of having a fling with Stevie Nicks. Nicks, another cocaine monster, had just broken up with bandmate Lindsey Buckingham. The Rumours track Dreams is about that. Christine McVie had broken up with bandmate John McVie and wrote You Make Loving Fun about a fling she was having with one of the band’s road crew. She also wrote Oh Daddy about Mick.
Buckingham managed to score a major hit with this, his account of the Nicks breakup.
“Tell me why
Everything turned around
Packing up
Shacking up’s all you wanna do.”
*I Won’t Share You | The Smiths (1987)
The final song and the final Smiths album, Strangeways Here We Come, is a shot by Morrissey at Johnny Marr, who claims to not be bothered by the lyrics. The pair had an epic and seemingly permanent falling out, caused by differing views on the direction of the band and Marr’s fondness for playing with other musicians.
“I won’t share you
With the drive and ambition
The zeal I feel, this is my time.”
*Freak Scene | Dinosaur Jr. (1988)
J. Mascis and Lou Barlow only got along when they were playing music. Their relationship got worse and worse, until Barlow quit after this album (Bug). The band dissolved entirely in 1997 but Mascis reunited with Barlow and drummer Murph in 2005. Freak Scene describes his complicated relationship with Barlow.
”Sometimes I don’t thrill you
Sometimes I think I’ll kill you
Just don’t let me fuck up will you
‘Cause when I need a friend it’s still you
What a mess.”
*Carouselambra | Led Zeppelin (1979)
Not that you can make out a word of what Robert Plant wrote or what he’s saying, but this epic from the band’s final studio album, In Through The Out Door, is all about how Plant and John Paul Jones were frustrated with the excessive lifestyles of Jimmy Page and John Bonham.
”And powerless the fabled sat, too smug to lift a hand
Toward the foe that threatened from the deep
Who cares to dry the cheeks of those who saddened stand
Adrift upon a sea of futile speech?”
*Broken Arrow | Buffalo Springfield (1967)
Neil Young kept quitting and rejoining Buffalo Springfield during their brief two-year, three album run. This track comes during the lead-up to the second album, Buffalo Springfield Again. Neil had quit and wrote Broken Arrow about his bandmates, and then rejoined so they could record it.
”The lights turned on and the curtain fell down
And when it was over it felt like a dream
They stood at the stage door and begged for a scream
The agents had paid for the black limousine
That waited outside in the rain
Did you see them?”
*Smooth Dancer | Deep Purple (1973)
Vocalist Ian Gillan managed to sneak two diss tracks past guitarist Ritchie Blackmore — this one from Who Do We Think We Are! and Bad Attitude from 1987’s House Of The Blue Light. While Bad Attitude has been played in concert many times, Smooth Dancer appears to be a definite rarity, suggesting Blackmore eventually figured out it was about him. Gillan quit the band after the 1973 tour commitments were done.
“You’re a smooth dancer
But it’s alright
‘Cause I’m a freelancer
And I can tell you’re faking though you try
To make me think you’re magical
Baby, you’re the one who can never see the sun.”
*Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man) | Styx (1977)
Guitarist Tommy Shaw wrote this about vocalist / keyboardist Dennis DeYoung, who seems to have been a miserable pain during tours. This comes from The Grand Illusion, meaning the pair would record three more albums together before DeYoung finally split.
“You see the world through your cynical eyes
You’re a troubled young man I can tell
You’ve got it all in the palm of your hand
But your hand’s wet with sweat and your head needs a rest
And you’re fooling yourself if you don’t believe it.”
*Look Through My Window | The Mamas & The Papas (1967)
John Phillips wrote this about his bandmate and then-wife Michelle Phillips while the pair were separated. He thought she was in California, but turned out to only be in N.Y.C. like him — not even that far away. The Phillipses’ relationship during this period, as they recorded the group’s self-titled second album, was fraught. Michelle had two widely publicized affairs, one with Gene Clark of The Byrds and the other with bandmate Denny Doherty.
“It’s not that lovers are unkind;
She always said there’d come a time
When one would leave and one stay behind
We both knew people sometimes change
And lovers sometimes rearrange;
And nothing’s quite as sure as change
And the rain beats on my roof.”
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Area Resident is an Ottawa-based journalist, recording artist, music collector and re-seller. Hear (and buy) his music on Bandcamp, email him HERE, follow him on Instagram and check him out on Discogs.
