3 Famous Tracks That Classic Rock Songwriters Wanted To Rewrite

Any songwriter out there knows the desire to rewrite songs all too well. Even if you’ve managed to put out a “perfect” song, the desire to tweak and change and improve never really goes away. That was the case for the following three songs that famous rock songwriters wished they could have rewritten after the fact. Let’s take a look! Some of these songs are pretty surprising.

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“We Didn’t Start The Fire” by Billy Joel (1989)

This is a pretty interesting song in classic rock history, in my opinion. “We Didn’t Start The Fire” was nominated for a Grammy Award and peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Clearly, people loved it. However, in retrospect, this pop-rock jam from Billy Joel gets dunked on a lot. And even Billy Joel doesn’t like it, despite recording and releasing it.

“The only thing I’ve heard about that song from people is, ‘I hate song!’” said Joel of “We Didn’t Start The Fire” on the podcast of the same name. “Some people hate that song. It’s one of the most hated things I ever wrote! And I don’t get the hate. I mean, I hate the music, because it’s not good. […] I wrote the words first, which is why the music is so horrible in that song.”

“When I’m Sixty Four” by The Beatles (1967)

This Paul McCartney-penned tune is on the surprisingly existential side, but it’s a lovely piece of work nonetheless, complete with a music hall and vaudeville vibe to it. And yet, McCartney apparently wanted to give the song a redo. That’s not super surprising, considering McCartney originally wrote the song when he was very young. In fact, some music historians believe that it was McCartney’s second ever composition.

“I probably should have called it ‘When I’m 65,’ which is the retirement age in England,” said McCartney in a Los Angeles Times interview. “And the rhyme would have been easy, ‘something, something alive when I’m 65.’ But it felt too predictable. It sounded better to say 64. […] If I were to write it now, I’d probably call it ‘When I’m 94.’”

“Have A Cigar” by Pink Floyd (1975)

During the period when Pink Floyd (namely Roger Waters and David Gilmour) was working on Wish You Were Here, the band was starting to fall apart. Both songwriters were struggling to agree on anything, and their beef with each other caused some music on that admittedly excellent album to somewhat suffer.

“Have A Cigar” is one such song. Neither Gilmour nor Waters could handle the vocal track, so they gave it to Roy Harper.

“Eventually, we said, ‘Go on then, Roy, have your bloody go,’” said Gilmour in a print interview with Mojo Magazine. “Most of us enjoyed his version, though I don’t think Roger ever liked it.”

Waters himself would say he wished the song he wrote was “more vulnerable and less cynical.”

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