Name: 30 Disturbing Songs Because of What We Know Now
Uploaded: 2025-12-31T16:58:45.000Z
Duration: 35 min 5 s
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We're going to learn all sorts of important lessons.

Welcome to Watchmojo and today we're looking at 30 songs that have aged uncomfortably due to events and revelations that came after their release.

The sheer level of talent that was embedded in the Gibb family's genes was truly remarkable.

Though the Bee Gees were of course the most famous of the lots, their younger brother Andy also carved out quite a solid career for himself.

However, years of substance use eventually led to a decline in health.

Then in 1988, Gibb passed away at the age of 30, reportedly due to an inflammation of the heart muscle.

The most ironic thing was that the final song he recorded before his death was entitled Arrow through the Heart.

The song would be released years later on an anthology collection for the Gibb brothers.

I'm Too Young to Die I'm Too Young to Die Nutshell Alice in Chains.

Few songs in history have been as frank as Lane Staley was on.

The lead singer had been dealing with depression and substance use for a while before he wrote this song.

It was instantly recognized as an especially bleak number, even by his standards.

However, it truly took on a different level of meaning after Staley's untimely death in 2002.

The singer had shut himself off from Loved Ones for quite some time, and

when he finally passed, it was Nutshell that became one of the clearest insights into his mind.

To this day, it is frequently cited as one of the saddest songs ever recorded.

Thrash Metal Heroes Power Trip burst onto the scene with 2017's album Nightmare Logic, one of the best selling albums of the entire decade within the genre.

Unfortunately, their momentum came to a halt when their lead singer, Riley Gale, passed away in 2020.

He had struggled with his mental health and substance use for quite some.

The song Waiting Around To Die from the Nightmare Logic album had a lot more insight into his state of mind than many realized.

In other words, the song got a whole lot harder to listen to after the man who wrote it left us.

There might not have been a more fitting final single for an artist to release in music history then the Show Must Go on.

Although there was speculation about his deteriorating health, lead singer Freddie Mercury had kept his cards close to his chest when it came to the details.

However, the song stands on its own two feet as a portrait of a man who was determined to fight.

He was genuinely concerned about whether Freddie would be able to sing the difficult vocal line or not.

Thankfully, Mercury told him not to worry, took a gulp of vodka, and

He passed away just one month after its release.

Chester Bennington had millions of fans around the globe thanks to his work within Linkin Park.

Only he knew how much pain and turmoil he was going through when he wrote Numb.

That said, the song offers a pretty transparent insight into his mental state, painting a picture of emotional burnout.

It would go on to become one of the band's biggest hits, although for most fans it became much harder to listen to in the aftermath of Chester Bennington's death in 2017.

In the wake of that tragedy, the song now reads more like a cry for help than a raw declaration of his angst.

Lazarus David Bowie look up here, I'm in Heaven by the time his album Blackstar was set to drop, David Bowie knew his race was Ron a showman Right to the end, he poured every last ounce of creative energy into his final album.

A song like Lazarus begins with the lyric, look up here, I'm in heaven I've got scars that can't be seen.

We didn't know that the rock legend was facing cancer.

Behind the scenes, people pondered over the meaning of the album's lyrics.

When it came out just two days later, Bowie had died.

It was a very rare sight to see an artist muse on their own death so openly in music, and

it's impossible to listen to Lazarus without it being front and center in your mind.

Time in a Bottle Jim Croce if I could save time in a bottle, the first thing that I'd like to do there's something truly tragic about a songwriter writing about the passage of time, not knowing that he would die before the track ever reached its commercial peak.

For Jim Croce, that's exactly what happened with Time in a Bottle is to save every day till eternity passes away, just to spend them with you.

In the lyrics, Croce speaks about his desire to spend more time with his pregnant wife.

He would tragically die in a plane crash in 1973 at the age of 30.

The song would then be released as a single posthumously, a year and a half after its initial release, becoming a number one hit.

For Croce to say that the song took on a different meaning would be putting it lightly.

Looked around enough to know you're the one I want to go through time Leaving on a Jet Plane John Denver all my bags are packed I'm ready to go I'm standing here outside your door the beloved songwriter John Denver is responsible for some of the finest country hits of the 20th century.

His ability to muse on love and human nature with his unique charm and optimism captivated millions during his life.

The track Leaving on a Jet Plane is the quintessential example of Denver at his very best.

The sad part, though, is that the track served as an eerie foreshadowing of his death.

Police and federal investigators are still retrieving what's left of Denver's experimental plane, hoping to discover what caused it to plunge into the Pacific.

Denver would sadly lose his life in a single fatality plane crash in 1997.

It left us with a totally different view on the lyrics.

I'm leaving on a jet plane don't know when I'll be back again if I'm leaving on a jet plane don't know when I'll be back again Safe In New York City ACDC I feel safe in New York City I feel safe in New York City When ACDC put out the track Safe in New York City, they intended it as a jab at New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

In that sense, the track succeeded as a criticism of the mayor's claims that he had cleaned up Manhattan.

However, in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade center, it was impossible to hear the song the same way ever again.

Sure, it had nothing to do with the band's intentions, but

it was immediately removed from radio circulation for obvious reasons.

We've had lots of fun at Town Time today.

Tim we have learned about sharing, saying please, and oral hygiene.

We could have included any song by Lost Profits here and it would serve the same purpose.

That said, there is something especially revolting about A Town Called Hypocrisy in its video can you take this broken boy?

Lead singer Ian Watkins was eventually charged with a serious series of horrific crimes against children, so seeing him in the guise of a children's TV show host is sickening.

At the same time, the video probably seemed like nothing too out of the ordinary, maybe a little strange or cheeky.

Knowing what we know now, it's utterly disgusting and barely watchable.

A staple of the early 2000s nu metal scene, it can be argued that Linkin Park's success outside of that genre was due in large part to lead singer Chester Bennington's soul bearing, unflinching songwriting as well as his powerhouse vocals.

Bennington took his own life in July 2017, just two months after Soundgarden frontman and his close friend Chris Cornell had done the same.

Knowing that makes it difficult then to listen to Leave out all the rest from the band's 2007 album Minutes to Midnight Without a Teary Eye.

By the end, a stirring, heartfelt rock ballad, leave out all the Rest implores listeners, don't remember the good times.

For better or worse, Barry the Rowdy 50s rock and roll pioneer had hit a career slump by the 1970s, mining the nostalgia of his earlier records to diminishing returns.

His cover of this extremely silly novelty song represented a new career high for Berry, becoming his only song to top the Billboard Hot 100 Silver Bells hanging on a string she told me it was my ding a ling a ling oh.

This song took on an unfortunate new layer when berry faced a 1990 class action lawsuit owing to his ownership and management of the Southern Air restaurant in Missouri.

The lawsuit, filed by Berry's female employees, alleged that the singer had quietly placed the video camera in the women's restroom.

Berry settled out of court for $1.2 million.

Every time that bell would ring Catch me playing with my ding ling 19 so many tears Tupac.

Much like his contemporary arch rival Biggie Smalls, Tupac Shakur seemed to be preoccupied with death and dying.

This was most commonly in the context of the Los Angeles gang violence he so often lamented, but

So Many Tears stands out in the rapper's catalog in its crystallization of the themes the influential performer often covered.

Notably, the song features Pac bluntly addressing his personal desire to end his life.

As noted by Rolling Stone's Chi O H Coker, so Many Tears deals with the senseless violence that marked his childhood, but

with the internal demons that threaten to consume him, snapping at his conscience like hellhounds on a bluesman's trail.