3 Story Songs From the 1990s That Have Gut-Punching Lyrical Twists

Lyrical twists and turns can be found in quite a few well-written songs from the 1990s. The following three are just a few of note, but forewarning: Each of these songs is really devastating once you know the truth behind their words.

“Jeremy” by Pearl Jam

“Try to forget this… / Try to erase this… / From the blackboard / Jeremy spoke in class today.”

This song seems like your typical story found in alt-rock and grunge at the time about a troubled kid. But once the ending rolls around, the implications are shocking, especially if you know the real-life story that inspired this song.

Eddie Vedder penned “Jeremy” about the real-life suicide of a 15-year-old boy named Jeremy from Richardson, Texas. The troubled boy pulled out a gun in the middle of his English class and shot himself in front of students just a few months before Vedder wrote the song. Vedder said he wrote Jeremy to “give [the tragedy] more importance.”

“Tears In Heaven” by Eric Clapton

“Would you know my name / If I saw you in Heaven? / Would you be the same / If I saw you in Heaven?”

This heartwrenching soft rock song hits hard, especially for those who know the story behind it. In 1991, Eric Clapton’s four-year-old son, Conor, passed away after accidentally falling from a 53rd-floor window in a tragic accident that devastated Clapton and the boy’s mother, Lory Del Santo. After a period of self-isolation, Clapton worked through his grief by penning “Tears In Heaven” for the film Rush. With that context, the final verse is particularly devastating, as Clapton wonders if his young son would even remember him in the afterlife.

“Nothing Compares 2 U” by Sinéad O’Connor

“All the flowers that you planted, mama, in the backyard / All died when you went away.”

Sinéad O’Connor’s breakthrough hit from the 1990s doesn’t boast any outwardly obvious lyrical twists, but when you consider where she pulled inspiration from, “Nothing Compares 2 U” takes on a whole different context from the original song. This song was originally a Prince track about a rough breakup. O’Connor, on the other hand, sang her rendition while thinking about her late mother. With that context in mind, this song couldn’t sound more different from the original. Prince’s song was sung from the perspective of a forlorn lover, while O’Connor’s version is clearly about a daughter struggling to move on after the death of her beloved mother.

Photo by Steve Eichner/WireImage