Snatching Beauty from Tragedy

Cancer has taken many people from my life, and I’m sure cancer has taken its toll on those you love. It remains a leading cause of death, but advances in diagnosis and treatment — and reductions in smoking — have brought mortality rates way down over the past 20-30 years.

When songwriters experience cancer deaths, sometimes their expressions of grief resolve in classic songs.

Such is the case of Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day (father, lung cancer) and Pat Monahan of Train (mother, lung cancer). Both of today’s songs were written after the passing of the respective parent.

In Armstrong’s case, after his father died of cancer on September 1, 1982, a 10-year-old Billie cried, ran home, and locked himself in his room. When his mother knocked on the door to his room, Billie simply said, “Wake me up when September ends.”

Armstrong purposely refused to revisit the traumatic events until a couple of decades later:

I think really what I was doing was processing that loss that I had with this person that I never really knew. So I wrote that song for my father and about that loss and how 20 years had passed. I remember right after I wrote it, I felt this huge weight off my shoulders.

With a simple and recognizable guitar pattern behind it, the song — wonderfully sung and performed by the band — was certified platinum by the RIAA. It received the award for Favorite Song at the 2006 Kids’ Choice Awards. While initial reactions to the song were mixed, it is now considered one of Green Day’s greatest.

Monahan’s mother died in December 1998. In early 1999, working on Train’s new album, Monahan returned to her home and woke up one morning with the line “waking up in the atmosphere” in his head. He began writing a song based on the image of his mother traversing the solar system, her soul large as the universe, made him think she’d barely even notice drops of Jupiter in her hair.

Monahan reflected on the song later:

It was an obvious connection between me and my mother. “Drops of Jupiter” was as much about me being on a voyage and trying to find out who I am. The best thing we can do about loss of love is find ourselves through it.

Starting with piano chords over an organ holding a pedal tone and going from there, the song won Grammys for Best Rock Song and Best Instrumental Arrangement With Accompanying Vocalist. It has gone Platinum 8x.

Enjoy.