songs about [best] friends drifting apart

in california - neko case

(this is potentially about lovers, but it actually reminds me of drifting away from a good mate who went away)

Paul Wall - Did I Change
Freddie Foxx - The One About Cut My Right Hand Off For Seven Long years

Anchorage - Michelle Shocked

The Jam - Thick as Thieves

This seems to describe more the situation afterward, but it still makes me feel nostalgic.

Bob Dylan's Dream, sort of

Unless it's too much of a radical rupture than a drifting apart, how about songs about stealing your friend's girlfriend or having your friend steal yours?

In that case: My Best Friend's Girl by The Cars and Old Friend, New Flame by Momus.

i would have thought that stealing your best friend's girl would cause a more immediate end to the friendship than a 'drifting apart'. unless it's behind his back?

i was gonna say another Red House Painter's song "Make Like Paper"

way back, back then
i considered you my best friend
but the last time i saw you
i knew i'd never see you again

Thompson Twins, "Nothing in Common"

Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock - "Joy and Pain"

in the category of looking back long after the drifing is over:

the kinks, "do you remember walter?"
billy joel, "james"

I took time out to write to my old friend
I walked across that burning bridge
Mailed my letter off to Dallas
But her reply came from Anchorage, Alaska

She said:
"Hey girl, it's about time you wrote
It's been over two years you know, my old friend
Take me back to the days of the foreign telegrams
And the all-night rock and rollin'... hey Shell
We was wild then

Hey Shell, you know it's kind of funny
Texas always seemed so big
But you know you're in the largest state in the union
When you're anchored down in Anchorage

Hey Girl, I think the last time I saw you
Was on me and Leroy's wedding day
What was the name of that love song they played?
I forgot how it goes
I don't recall how it goes

Anchorage
Anchored down in Anchorage

Leroy got a better job so we moved
Kevin lost a tooth now he's started school
I got a brand new eight month old baby girl
I sound like a housewife
Hey Shell, I think I'm a housewife

Hey Girl, what's it like to be in New York?
New York City - imagine that!
Tell me, what's it like to be a skateboard punk rocker?

Leroy says "Send a picture"
Leroy says "Hello"
Leroy says "Oh, keep on rocking, girl"
"yeah, keep on rocking"

Hey Shell, you know it's kind of funny
Texas always seemed so big
But you know you're in the largest state in the union
When you're anchored down in Anchorage
Oh, Anchorage
Anchored down in Anchorage
Oh, Anchorage

would i be a sissy if i said this song makes me cry?

nah. actually i just heard it on the radio on monday night and felt a bit wobbly.

Ghost World Rap - Thora Birch ft. Scarlett Johanssen

"Jolene" by Sloan

"Filler" and "Betray" by Minor Threat (kind of)

Ballad of the Band by Felt (sort of).

trina - u & me

[Chorus]
You and Me
We can make it last
You and me
We can make it last
You and me
We can make it last
You and me
We can make it last
You and me...

[Verse 1]
It was me and you Trina who shared the hard times
Still in love wit niggas who was serving some hard times
Or involved wit niggas who lost their lives
When Hollywood passed I nearly lost my mind
I then rolled wit the traffickers, worked in the Maximus
D.A in back of us, I'm stretched out nervous
Asking myself, "Bitch was this really worth it?"
What's my purpose, shit, I gotta keep searching
It was me and you Trina who asked the same questions
we decided when and which hoes we could fuck with
shop wit club wit get into some thug shit
turn 'em on to niggas who deep into that drug shit
get money fuck a little let a nigga touch a little
had to make moves our home was so fucking little
Feel that? I know you do, guess what I wrote it too
Please recognize this is a hip hop quoteable

[Chorus] + (over lapping the chorus)
(And even through the stormiest time
we survived through our loneliest nights
Just think about the struggling times
when we survived on a nickel and dime
And even if I had all the bread in the world
I'd give it all up for one shot at
You and Me, I'm that same bitch)

[Verse 2]
You and me were best friends but I'm the one you talk about?
I showed love to everybody before I walked up out
the parties the club the function
I leave you bring up discussions on who I'm fucking (please)
You and me were best friends we talked about abortions
As little girls hair braided on the same porches
We promised each other we would share the same losses
Ya baby daddy passed we share the same losses
It was you and me hoe getting c-notes
bell hoppers to the death while Irish chicks deep throat
Yeah it's beef in the air and why she know
If anybody do she know how we flow
Miami bitches you know how we roll
At any event you know how we go
Nice entourage lock mints wonder bras
As I sit in the club I miss how it was

[Chorus] + (over lapping the chorus)

[Verse 3]
You know it's really funny how the tables turn
I moved forward and thank God for the lessons learned
I used the strip clubs as a stepping stone
Hit the stage got paid it wasn't my second home
Ask somebody Trina been the shit on the streets
Wrote raps late nights I'm the shit on the beat
Brought blue baby jeans just to shit on the creep
Keep tall body guys just to sit underneath
Sit back pop bottle ya'll sit on ya'll feet
Screaming my name tryna get in V.I.P
I don't own the club boo
I'm just showing love true
But every time I see ya face I think of me and you
It's disappointing that you fell off well not fell off
I just can't accept you not being well off
It wouldn't be me if I didn't tell all
I even tried to call you but ya cell off

[Chorus] + (over lapping the chorus)

The Dubstar b-side "I Lost A Friend."

Not that it really matters, but biographically Annie's "My Best Friend" is about her friend (Erot) dying. Although I guess that does lead to them drifting apart.

The Wannadies – "Friends". In which protagonist is annoyed that his friend has been "absorbed" by a beautiful girl, and threatens to destroy friend's motorbike if friend doesn't soon realise how much protagonist means to friend.

Also, Everything but the Girl's "Missing."

Iconoclast - I Like You Less Than Apple Pie

"A Different Place" by Madeline Adams is very specifically on-topic. It's generally about girl-girl friendships growing apart with coming-of-age etc:

She's my best friend,
she's my very good friend,
I wish she'd come and play
Like we used to, love to do the hula hoop
we're both in a different place...

oh, and, maybe not 'best' friend, but there's always "What Happened To You?" by Offspring, "Emenius Sleepus" by Green Day, and of course, "Quiche Lorraine" by the B-52's.

Incidentally, I hope this whole exercise isn't research for the world's most dramatic mixtape gesture...

"Was a Friend" by Robert Wyatt -- especially interesting because the melody was written by Hugh Hopper, who broke Wyatt's heart by tossing him out of Soft Machine.

Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)!

Lucinda Williams: Out of Touch

Bruce Springsteen: Bobbie Jean

Tupac - Hit Em Up
"Biggie remember when I use to let you sleep on the couch/And beg the bitch to let you sleep in the house"

Bob Dylan - Positively 4th Street
The Jesus Lizard - Good Riddance

Edie Brickell + New Bohemians, "Circle"

Neil Diamond, "Shilo" (does it matter if the friend's imaginary?)

Donovan, "Epistle to Dippy"

Ween - "Falling Out"

I want to tell you a little story.
That makes me warm inside.
It's about some friends growing up
And all the things they tried.

I'm not talking about staple shit.
They went for something more.
I guess it was too much dreaming.
Too much to hope for.

One day something funny happened.
But it scred the shit out of me
Their heads went in different directions
And their friendship ceased to be.

I'm telling you I want it to work.
I don't like being hurt.
Something's not right inside.
And I can't always put it aside.
What can we do,
what can we do?
Try.

Mr. Present, go away.
Come and fuck with us some other day.
Mr.Feelings, run and hide.
You have no right to what you feel inside.
Motherfuckers, quick to kiss.
Talk your shit, but don't fuck with this.

All I want to know is.
Am I holding on?
Am I moving on?
What can we do,
what can we do?
Try.

Fuzzy, "Band of Gold." There's a little lesbian subtext, too.

Yeah, look at you, its so sad
Lost the best friend I had
Yeah, look at me you could see
Half of what I was then

Then just like that
There and gone for good
I'm the last one left standing
Yeah, you had to give it all
Just for a band of gold?

Oh is it true, didn't think
That a girl like you . . .
Oh weren't we two a team
Now I hardly know you

Then just like that
There and gone for good
I'm the last one left standing
Yeah, you had to give it all
Just for a band of gold?

All the same your story
Is never gonna fly
I'll forgive but not forget
You'll always be a lie
All the same all a fake

Yeah, look at you, its so sad
Lost my best friend
Yeah, and its true it happened to
a girl like you

Now it seems real
Its real to me
I can't look at you and
Now what do I see
I can't believe I can't believe

Then just like that
Here and gone for good
I'm the last one left standing
Yeah you have to give it all
You were here and now you're gone
Why'd you have to go and fall
Just for a band of gold?

"Timorous Me" by Ted Leo and the Pharmacists could work.

D12 - How Come

Also the Jam: Burning Sky
Because we've all grown up and we've got our lives,
and the values that we had once upon a time, seem stupid now ...

Strangelove: Runaway Brothers
Today - life's a different story today
sad but yet not sad in a way
people never do stay the same

Bruce Springsteen, "Bobby Jean"
Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott, "Best Friend"
Everything But The Girl, "Blue Moon Rose"

another sunny day 'what's happened to you, my dearest friend'

look back and laugh - minor threat

you am i - jaimme's got a girl

Adia- Sarah MacLachlan