Songs About Being in a Band

Ten songs by bands about the hardship of being in a band, recorded in studios paid for by being in a band.

Entries
10
Category
Music
Updated
  1. A paper napkin with a pen on a tour-bus table, a wedding ring resting on it, highway lights streaking past the window.

    10. Faithfully

    Journey · 1983

    Jonathan Cain started it on a napkin on the tour bus and finished it at a backstage piano in Saratoga Springs in about half an hour. A power ballad about staying married while the band is always leaving, which is the real job description. Six times platinum.

  2. A red sports car parked half inside a hotel lobby, a wallet with a driver's license sticking out lying on the dashboard.

    09. Life's Been Good

    Joe Walsh · 1978

    The Maserati that does 185, the hotel suites, the license he can't find. Walsh's biggest solo hit at No. 12, cut down from eight minutes. He wrote it while already an Eagle, and the Eagles play it live, which means the joke lands twice a night.

  3. A homemade recording studio in a cluttered suburban basement, reel-to-reel tape machines next to a washing machine and a guitar.

    08. Rock and Roll Band

    Boston · 1976

    A scrappy origin story about playing bars and getting discovered. None of it happened to Boston, which was mostly Tom Scholz making demos in his basement in Watertown. He borrowed the war stories from drummer Jim Masdea. A great band biography, of a different band.

  4. Road cases on wheels being pushed up a ramp into an empty semi trailer behind an arena at night, coils of cable on the pavement.

    07. The Load-Out

    Jackson Browne · 1977

    A thank-you note to the roadies, recorded live at Merriweather Post Pavilion for Running on Empty. It rolls straight into a cover of Stay, and radio played the two as one. The only song on this list that admits the band is not who carries the amps.

  5. An electric twelve-string guitar still in its shop window with a price tag, a trumpet and a stack of teen magazines beside it.

    06. So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star

    The Byrds · 1967

    McGuinn and Hillman's how-to guide for manufactured fame, written as the Monkees took over TV. Hugh Masekela plays trumpet, and the screams come from a real Byrds show in Bournemouth in 1965. It peaked at No. 29. The Monkees did better, which proved the point.

  6. A saxophone case on a truck-stop diner counter at 3 a.m., a cooling cup of coffee and rain on the window behind it.

    05. Turn the Page

    Bob Seger · 1973

    Written on tour after band members got hassled at a truck stop over their long hair. Alto Reed's sax sounds like 3 a.m. on an interstate. The 1976 Live Bullet version made it radio law, and Metallica's 1998 cover hit No. 1 on rock radio. Seger approved.

  7. A set of bagpipes and a guitar amp strapped to the back of a flatbed truck rolling down a wide city street.

    04. It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)

    AC/DC · 1975

    Bon Scott had been in a pipe band, as the drummer. He taught himself the bagpipes for this anyway, and the video puts AC/DC on a flatbed truck down Melbourne's Swanston Street with real pipers, shot for $380. Still rock's most honest career advice.

  8. A glittering platform boot and a lightning-bolt makeup palette on a dressing-room table, a red electric guitar leaning on the mirror.

    03. Ziggy Stardust

    David Bowie · 1972

    A full band biography in three minutes: Ziggy plays guitar, the Spiders back him, the ego wrecks the group. Bowie said he became the character, then retired him onstage in 1973. The studio version was never a single. It did not need to be.

  9. A translucent yellow vinyl record on a motel bedspread next to drumsticks, a room key and a highway map.

    02. We're an American Band

    Grand Funk Railroad · 1973

    Drummer Don Brewer wrote and sang it, stitching together real nights from the road, and Todd Rundgren produced it in Miami. The band's first No. 1. The album came on translucent yellow vinyl to look like a gold record. It went gold in about a month.

  10. A tiny pub stage with a banjo, a trombone and a drum kit under one bulb, rows of empty stools and a rain-wet window.

    01. Sultans of Swing

    Dire Straits · 1978

    Mark Knopfler watched a jazz band play a nearly empty pub in Deptford, then introduce themselves as the Sultans of Swing. The gap between the name and the room is the whole song. Top 5 in the US, and the solo has been sending people to guitar shops ever since.

Honorable mentions

  • A brass marching drum on an airplane tray table next to tiny salt and pepper shakers, clouds out the window.

    Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

    The Beatles · 1967

    A band pretending to be a different band. McCartney got the idea on a flight when roadie Mal Evans asked what the S and P on the meal tray stood for. Salt and pepper. Pop's most famous alter ego came off an airline tray.

Dishonorable mentions

  • A gold-plated toilet in a mansion bathroom with a guitar pick resting on the lid and a stretch limo visible through the window.

    Rockstar

    Nickelback · 2005

    Every rock-star cliché read off like a grocery list, with Billy Gibbons growling between verses. It went 12 times platinum in the US. The Guardian called it one of the most unintentionally hilarious songs in years. Both facts stand side by side, at peace.

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