Are car accidents really something to sing about?

Music and car accidents; not two things that you'd really associate with each other. But when you take a closer look you'll find there are actually more songwriters than you think who have used road accidents as lyrical inspiration.

At first glance it might seem a bit sick to sing a song about what is obviously a sensitive subject, but maybe there's more to it than that. Have the songwriters put pen to paper in order to try and teach a lesson and warn others of the dangers of driving dangerously, are they pouring out there hearts about a lost love one, or maybe they just can't think of anything else to make a song about?

Let's have a look and find out.

Tell Laura I Love Her
The whole idea of writing about the link between car accidents and music came to me this morning as I was driving into work. Bored silly by the not-so-funny local radio breakfast show, I flicked over to some golden oldies station for a bit of a change.

I was greeted by Tell Laura I Love Her, that classic early 60s song telling the tragic story of two teenage sweethearts.

Tommy is madly in love with Laura but can't afford to buy an engagement ring and so decides to enter a stock car race in an attempt to win the $1000 prize. Not surprisingly, it all goes wrong, Tommy's car overturns in flames and the marshals rush over to drag him from the wreckage. But it's too late, they can't save him and instead have to listen as he utters the immortal words,

"Tell Laura I love her
Tell Laura I need her
Tell Laura not to cry
My love for her will never die"

What a cheerful song. But is it a true story; was it written about a real girl who lost her beloved in a tragic car accident and, even today, grey and in her mid 60s, still mourns the loss of that boy oh so long ago?

On this occasion it appears not. The song was initially a made-up tale about a besotted teenager who entered a rodeo competition instead of a stock car race and ended up being gored to death by an angry bull. The writer's publisher, however, suggested that listeners wouldn't be able to identify with it and so Tommy was plucked from the bull's horns and deposited into the burning wreckage of a car crash.

Last Kiss
Love seems to keep cropping up in songs about road accidents but sometimes, sadly, they are based on true life events.

In 1998 Pearl Jam covered Last Kiss, a hit made famous in 1964 by J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers. It was written by Wayne Cochran, a struggling R&B singer and composer who lived in a rundown shack close to a highway in Georgia, USA.

One winter night a few days before Christmas 1962, a sixteen-year-old girl named Jeanette Clark had been out on a date and was getting a lift home from another teenager when their '54 Chevrolet was involved in a collision with a truck. The two youngsters, along with another passenger, were killed instantly and the quiet local community of Barnesville was deeply affected by the incident.

Wayne Cochran was one of those saddened by the tragic road accident and decided to pay tribute to the victims by immortalising the crash in song. And so Last Kiss was born.

"Oh where, oh where can my baby be
The Lord took her away from me
She's gone to heaven so I've got to be good
So I can see my baby when I leave this world"

The song didn't make it big until J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers covered it a few years later and, somewhat ironically, Wilson himself suffered serious personal injuries and was nearly killed in a car accident several years later.

Through the Wire
Some artists have used their own car accident experiences as inspiration for their lyrics and none demonstrate this better than US rapper Kanye West.

The controversial star was injured in a car crash whilst driving home from a recording studio in the early hours of the morning in October 2002. In addition to cuts, bruises and a minor head injury, West fractured his jaw and had to have it wired shut in order to allow the bone to heal.

Doctors ordered the wires to stay in place for six weeks but the Georgia-born artist stunned fans by performing a song, just 14 days after the vehicle accident, which he had written whilst in hospital. The track was called Through the Wire and, discussing the night of the car crash, included the lines,

"Good dude, bad night, right place, wrong time
In the blink of an eye his whole life changed
If you could feel how my face felt you would know how Mase felt
Thank God I ain't to cool for the safe belt"

The song proved to be a massive hit and it became clear that Kanye West had used his recovery from the car accident, and the subsequent performance with his mouth wired shut, as a metaphor for overcoming struggles and catastrophes in life. This is demonstrated by the following lyrics,

"But I'm a champion, so I turned tragedy to triumph
Make music that's fire, spit my soul through the wire"

The last word
So, in conclusion, are songs a suitable place to be talking about road accidents? There's no doubt that car crashes can be life-changing events and often cause untold heartbreak and misery. But has heartbreak and misery ever been a reason not to write a song?

Over the years the charts have been packed with tracks focused on death and sadness and some of the greatest songs ever written have used it as a basis. American Pie, Candle in the Wind, Where Have All the Flowers Gone, I'll Be Missing You and a whole host more immediately spring to mind.

And yes they are sad songs, but yet they're beautiful too.

Some argue that there's no better way to remember the dead than to immortalise them in song, just as Wayne Cochran did for Jeanette Clark in Last Kiss and Elton John did for Marilyn Monroe in Candle in the Wind, and I guess there's a lot of truth in that.

If you can bring some good out of a tragic event such as a car accident, and make people smile again because of it, then surely that can only be a good thing.

Author: Simon Jacobs - www.car-accident-claim.com

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