3 Nearly Unbelievable Coincidences in Rock History

Life can produce some crazy coincidences. The music world has its fair share, including the three nearly unbelievable moments below. These coincidences remain among the most mind-boggling stories in rock history. Whether it’s fateful meetups between band members, songwriting mysteries, or album cover flukes, these coincidences are hard to wrap your head around.

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Syd Barrett’s Abbey Road Visit

Starting off kind of tame, but nonetheless odd, we have Syd Barrett’s unprompted trip to Abbey Road. Several years after Barrett left Pink Floyd, the band began working on a song to honor his time as their frontman. “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” is a nine-part homage to Barrett and his deteriorating mental health. Oddly enough, while the band was recording the song at Abbey Road, Barrett walked into the famed studio, unannounced.

Barrett was unrecognizable to his bandmates by the time he wandered into the studio. It took them a while to even grasp the coincidence that was happening around them. It was an uncanny turn of fate that brought Barrett into the studio at exactly the same time the band was writing their farewell to him.

Paul McCartney’s Subconscious Songwriting

Eleanor Rigby serves as the central character in one of The Beatles’ greatest songs. Like many of Paul McCartney’s songwriting efforts, he created different characters to help tell the story of loneliness and a missed connection—or so he thought.

McCartney consistently claimed he invented the name “Eleanor Rigby.” “It just came,” he once said. “When I started doing the melody, I developed the lyric. It all came from the first line.” However, long after the song was recorded, someone walking around Liverpool found a gravestone bearing the name Eleanor Rigby. Completely unknown to him, McCartney had saved the woman’s name in his mind, only for it to come out years later and transform rock music.

Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Fiery Album Cover

Perhaps the biggest coincidence in rock history is the fact that Lynyrd Skynyrd released an album cover with the band being engulfed in flames shortly before several members died in a plane crash.

Their album “Street Survivors” was released just days before a plane crash killed Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines, manager Dean Kilpatrick, and both pilots. Naturally, the album cover was replaced in light of the tragedy, but the uncanny fact remains that this album eerily mirrored life.

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