10 Classic Rock Songs You Didn't Realize Were Incredibly Dark

Some of the best rock and roll songs ever made don’t normally have that much to say other than having a good time. From Johnny B Goode to My Generation, this was the kind of rebellious attitude that didn’t go anywhere outside of just having a good time on the weekend away from your parents. Rock and roll has evolved a lot since then though, and these songs have a lot more darkness in their souls than you probably remember.

Outside of the amazing hooks behind these songs, people tend to ignore the lyrics to these songs almost entirely, only to sidestep the fact that they’re singing along to something truly disturbed. From struggles with mental illness to organized crime to actual murders, these songs run the gamut of just how much you can get away with when you have a good enough melody.

While a lot of these songs might be in the realm of modern rock most of the time, not every one of the songs from rock and roll’s heyday were necessarily angels either, going from some of the most questionable lyrics ever written to downright shocking behavior that would make even Keith Richards wince a little bit. These songs were probably best left as album tracks, but you could only imagine the distant universe where these were the songs that actually got people sold on the band?

Once Green Day reached some of the biggest heights in punk history with Dookie, they came into the recording sessions for Insomniac with an axe to grind. After having one of the most successful albums of their career behind them, they had to face backlash from the legit punk crowd who thought that they were just using their roots as a stepping stone and didn't really care about real punk rock. All that frustration made for an album with a lot more teeth and songs that were a bit morbid in places.

Coming with a title like that, Geek Stink Breath isn't necessarily one of the most mature songs to be writing about, with most of the song sounding like a guy who has really bad breath. This is a lot more than just a song about needing to floss more though, as Billie Joe takes on the persona of a guy who is hooked on crystal meth, which is causing all of his teeth to fall out.

Even if the punk crowd had accused them of going a little bit soft this time around, having a line about finding treasure that sits on a thin white line isn't exactly subtle coming from the guys who literally named their band after weed. The music video didn't really hold back either, depicting one of the band's friends who had to get all of his teeth pulled out because of the problem that Billie talks about in the song. This might be one of the more celebrated cuts from this record, but reading the lyrics isn't really for the squeamish.