‘All my love’, Led Zeppelin (1979)
One of the most delicate songs of this colossus of hard rock, in which Robert Plant does not sing about a romantic love but about his little son Karac, who had died at the age of five from an untimely stomach infection. A terrible blow for this powerful band that felt the highest and from there began its decline. The theme, included on their final album, ‘In through the out door’, offers allegorical verses related to loss. “Ours is the fire, all the warmth we can find / He is a feather in the wind & rdquor ;.
‘Tears in Heaven’, Eric Clapton (1992)
The most popular of paternofilial laments is expressed in this sweet ballad from the guitarist who, in the 60s, had inspired the graffiti of ‘Clapton is God’ (Clapton is God). A posthumous offering to his son Conor, who died at the age of four after falling out of an open window at a friend’s house, on the 53rd floor of a Manhattan skyscraper. Solidarity with the pain of his colleague, Phil Collins wrote another song, ‘Since I lost you’, which he recorded with Genesis.
‘Skylar’s Song’, Vince Neil (1995)
The daughter of the Mötley Crüe singer, Skylar, died at the age of four from neuroblastoma, a form of kidney cancer that especially affects children, and this ballad included on her solo album ‘Carved in stone’ is dedicated to her. She plays that she discovers her most tender background, with verses in which she transmits her “eternal love & rdquor; and “inexhaustible”.
‘Paradise’, Spinetta and The Desert Partners (1997)
Carlos ‘Machi’ Rufino, a renowned Argentine musician, lost his 19-year-old daughter to meningitis, and his good friend Luis Alberto Spinetta (1950-2012) dedicated an entire album to the girl, María Laura. This is one of the songs, where he alludes to “eternal love & rdquor; and she imagines her in a transcendent stage: “with your hands in paradise / playing as God intended & rdquor ;.
Comeback, Prince (1998)
A little-known episode from the author of ‘Purple rain’: the death of Amiir, his son with dancer Mayte García, when he was only a week old, a victim of the genetic disorder known as ‘Pfeiffer syndrome’. The song reflects the heartbreak and the transcendent look: “If you ever lose someone dear to you / Never say the words ‘he’s gone’ / He will come back, yes & rdquor ;.
‘Postage Stamps to Heaven’, Gloria Trevi (2004)
In 1999, the Mexican star gave birth to a daughter, Ana Dalai, who died at four weeks, officially due to reflux, although her body disappeared under circumstances that have never been clarified. Shady episode, aggravated even more by the subsequent imprisonment of Trevi in Brazil, accused together with her partner of corruption of her minors (she ended up being acquitted). Five years later, the singer uncovered her case and put music to this theme, which contrasts with the carefreeness of her pop repertoire: “little angel with a mouth of a heart / I don’t want to say goodbye & rdquor ;.
‘Beam me up’, Pink (2012)
The usually chatty singer from Pennsylvania got serious on this track inspired by the tragedy of friends losing their son shortly after she became a mother for the first time. A ballad with acoustic fibers, it has been assimilated by her followers as a comforting piece in tragic situations. “I will choose a star and I will see you shine / Just transport me & rdquor ;.
‘Cançó de bressol’, Eva Dénia (2013)
The work of the Valencian poet Vicent Andrés Estellés, known for his light and sensuality, enters a dark field in the book ‘La nit’ (1956), where the death of his daughter Isabel floats, at the age of four months. A poem that Eva Dénia, singer-songwriter from Gandia, recovers accompanied by the guitar, with her overwhelming stanzas in the first person in which she clings to the girl’s presence. “Jo tinc una Mort petita, / and she is, d’allò meu, el més meu / Molt més meua que la vida, / amb mi va i amb mi se’n ve & rdquor ;. Included in the collective album ‘Homenatge a Vicent Andrés Estellés’.
‘Ghosteen speaks’, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (2019)
“I’m by your side / look for me & rdquor ;, the song begins, and as the Australian singer explained, it is the spirit of love that speaks in his voice, conveying the idea that feeling is the ultimate expression of recognition. A song that Cave sings solemnly, on an organ mantle and between waves of gospel voices, and that is dedicated to Arthur, one of his twin sons, who died in 2015, at the age of fifteen, after falling from the top of a cliff near of Brighton having taken LSD. Last May, the musician lost another son, Jethro, 31 years old.
‘What never leaves never disappears’, José Mercé (2022)
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The cantaor from Jerez says that he had the thorn in his heart to sing a song in which he could express his feelings regarding the death of Curro, at the age of 14, in 1994, as a result of a congenital heart condition. Mercé carried that distant pain and the feeling that his son was still with him. All this was transmitted through Antonio Orozco, producer of the album ‘El oripandó and author of the lyrics.