It’s strange. It’s strange how something so incredible like rock music can also include so much darkness. Take grunge for example. The genre has seen myriad heroes die and die young. Or think about the 27 Club, the members of which are all famed artists who died years before they could even turn 30. But that’s the history of classic rock music—glory and tragedy.

We wanted to take a look at three songs that exemplify that. Three songs by three famous rock artists. What do they all have in common? Well, they are all the final recordings that these giants in music made. Indeed, these are the last songs recorded by three of classic rock’s biggest icons.

“I’m Gonna Crawl” by Led Zeppelin from ‘In Through The Out Door’ (1979)

In the same way that The Beatles encapsulated the 1960s, Led Zeppelin encapsulated the 1970s. Sadly, the British-born band’s run ended too soon when their drummer John Bonham died in 1980 of a drug and alcohol overdose. The band’s song “I’m Gonna Crawl” was the final recording the group did for their final album as a four-piece. The five-minute, synth-driven blues rock tune was recorded on November 23, 1978. And once it was over, maybe the greatest classic rock band the planet has ever seen was no more as far as we all knew it.

“You Never Knew My Mind” by Chris Cornell from ‘Forever Words’ (2018)

A few months before he committed suicide, Chris Cornell took part in a recording project for the late Johnny Cash. For the effort, Cornell combined two of Cash’s poems together to form the song that would come to be known as “You Never Knew My Mind”. Cash, who had been an influence on Cornell, had recorded the Soundgarden song “Rusty Cage” in 1996. When Cornell was able to cover Cash’s work, he jumped at the chance. It also marked Cornell’s last recording, as he died on May 18, 2017, after sadly taking his own life.

“Louder Than Words” by Pink Floyd from ‘The Endless River’ (2014)

The recording for this song began in 1993 when the band was working on songs for the album, The Division Bell, but it was finished in 2014 and released on Pink Floyd’s 2014 LP, The Endless River. Taking tracks recorded in 1993 by Rick Wright, the group’s David Gilmour and Nick Mason were able to craft a new song that they finished in 2014. The ethereal, dreamy song marks the final song on the band’s final album. And though members of Pink Floyd are still alive today, there is little to no chance they will ever reunite.

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