History in Music

There's just insufficient action around here, so I'm compelled to start another thread along the lines of my last.
These are poular songs that reference historical events.

Don McLean's 'American Pie' is a given of course.

One of my favorites is 'Roads to Moscow' by Al Stewart from his 'Past, Present, and Future' album from '74. It is a story of a Russian soldier fighting the Germans during WWII from the opening of Barbarossa to the taking of Berlin. The KGB question him about his brief capture and he soon finds himself heading off to Siberia instead of home. The music perfectly evokes the landscape and the desolation of combat. In my head I have stored my own personal video to go with the song.
Stewart wrote a number of songs about history. WWII was an event that profundly affected his life as it did many Europeans. (Americans who did not actually go to war can't appreciate the dangers and privations faced by those in the midst of war.)

There is also a song called 'Zoot Suit Riot' (I forget by whom) that references the fight at Long Beach, CA between Navy yard workers (or was it actual sailors?)and Mexican kids who affected the zoot look of black Americans in '43 (I think.)

The Band's 'The Night They Drove Dixie Down' tells a personal story of the final days of the American Civil War. Written by a Canadian, oddly enough.
Closer to home they recorded 'Acadian Driftwood' about the French driven from Canada by the British way back when.

Randy Newman's 'Louisiana, 1927' tells the story of that flood. The song is covered well by Aaron Neville.

These are all songs from 30+ years ago, so they are themselves history. There are more. Are there also more current songs in this vein? Reassure me that the youth of today have a sense of history.

Zoot Suit Riot is by the Cherry Poppin' Daddies.

Without thinking about this too much, the only song that comes to mind is The Trooper by Iron Maiden which deals with the French/Russian war I believe.

That Billy Joel song - is it "Who Started the Fire?"

Otherwise, a number of reggae songs talk about Marcus Garvey and Ilie Sallasie (sp).

I can think of more songs that talk about current events during the time they came out (loads of punk rock songs - Ronald Reagan gave the early 1980s a lot of material), but this is a hard one - I'll have to give it some thought...

Just so I stirred things up...

I think it's WE Didn't Start the Fire. I prefer to avoid current events- that's too easy.

I think it's Haile Salassie.

French/Russian war as in Napoleonic wars?

I can answer the question about "The Trooper" - it's actually based on the charge of the Light Brigade. They have been known to introduce the song live by reciting some of Tennyson's poem.

Ha! That's cool! I've heard that they are better than that silly skeleton on their album covers suggests.

So, that was the English in the Crimea, I think.

Silly skeleton? You dare insult Eddie?!!!

And yeah, they are very good, most people won't admit that metal has any merit whatever and they are usually the ones who've never listened.

The song Zoot Suit riot doesn't really address anything about the zoot suit riots other than using the name. I remember when the song was popular, but when I learned what those were REALLY about, I guessed that the band didn't know the history and just liked the way it sounded.

Johnny Horton "The Battle of New Orleans". I could probably sing this song in my sleep. And no, I'm not proud of that fact.

What about Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water"? Maybe that should go under an as yet to be established "Rock and roll as in-the-field journalism" topic.

And speaking of Johnny Horton- Sink the Bismark!

Which puts me in mind of the The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot. It's not rock and roll, but it's history.

The church bell chimed
and it rang 29 times
for each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald

Why did it ring 29 times for each of them? That's alot of ringing!

I think that means once for each of twenty nine men. Adding the word "once" must have messed up the meter or as the kids say these days "flow."

I know. I was just being a jerk.

I thought you probably were, but I couldn't restrain myself. I guess that makes me a jerk too! I can't read those words without hearing the song and now its stuck in my head...thanks a lot.

Every man knew as the captian did, too
'twas the witch of November come early

Bob Dylan's With God on our Side is a neat summary of US foreign policy from the Spanish-American wars (whenever they were) to the Cold War.

Perhaps a little palate cleanser?:

I can see her lyin' back in her satin dress
In a room where ya do what ya dont confess
Sundown you better take care
If I find you been creepin' round my back stairs....

Cool song, but is it history?

Let's hope so.

"'twas the witch of November come early"

Sounds like something you'd hear over on the conservative thread.

Oh, that's good!

I forgot about that Dylan tune, though I know it better by the Neville Bros.

Or "Sympathy for the Devil" by the Stones, though i guess that ones a little more oblique...

Works for me.

Well, there is New Race's "November 22, 1963", Ron Ashton's sensitive song about the first Kennedy assassination.

New Race formed after the break up of Radio Birdman and was mostly Radio Birdman members, with Ron Ashton joining Deniz Tek on guitar and the MC5's Dennis Thompson on drums.

On the same subject (Kennedy assassination), and related subjects; Bullet - The Misfits.

On the murder of John Lennon; One Down Three To Go - The Meatmen.

And, further descending into what may be more like "news stories" than "HISTORY," on Charles Manson, the Family and the murder of Sharon Tate; DI-1-9026 - Foetus.

And even a notch lower, into the tabloids - The Angry Samoans': "They Saved Hitler's Cock" ("If Hitler's cock could choose a mate/it would ask for Sharon Tate").

It is actually Haile Selassie whose real name was Tafari Makonnen. The word Ras means Head, or King, so he was the first Ras Tafari, when the name Rastafarians.

Cold Missouri Waters, by James Keelaghan, mostly famously covered by Cry Cry Cry, about the Mann Gulch Fire, where 13 smoke jumper were killed when the fire crowned unexpectedly.

Nice job tying it all together, Mr. Waugh! I always thought the cock took an axe....TO SHARON TATE!

Anyhow, there's a pretty good Samoans You Tube out there:

http://knownunknowns.blogspot.com/2007/07/something-for-weekend-5-angry-samoans....

I'm thinking of the Steel Pulse song Handsworth Revolution, which is titled after the neighborhood in England where the band members grew up, but was a song about the racial tensions of the time, most notably the apartheid regime in South Africa.

Randy Newman's song Louisiana 1927 is about the great flood of the Mississippi in (duh) 1927. After Katrina, it gained renewed significance as a reference to that time, as well.

Do we count Katrina as history yet? If so, there's tons of music about it. Notable in my playlist are The Legendary K.O.'s George Bush Doesn't Care About Black People and Ozomatli's Magnolia Soul.

I had another historical song in mind as I was typing this, but it's slipped my mind. I'm sure I'll remember it three days from now when I'm tying my shoe or something...

edited to add Sublime's song April 29, 1992, which is about the Rodney King riots. Edited again because I totally overlooked that the OP mentions the Randy Newman song.

My god, you may be right. After 20 years, I'm going to have to pull it out and give a good listen (after the youngsters are in bed}. I saw them once - in 1984 or thereabouts. A very short and sloppy set. I believe The Dead Milkmen and Corrosion of Conformity opened.

does music history count? how about Phil Lynott's "Talk in 79'"? kind of a roll call of the (then) current punk/new wave scene...

The Drive-By Truckers (really great band, don't let the name scare you) have quite a lot of songs about southern cultural history. The first one that comes to mind is The Three Great Alabama Icons. Also, Carl Perkins' Cadillac, for something more along the lines of music history.

Corrosion of Conformity...oh how I love that band. You saw them during their thrash punk phase before the mighty influence of Pepper Keenan. Their style is pure metal now, with a dash of southern blues rock.

Animosity!

Yep, that's the stage I mean. VERY different from what they do now. I like now better, personally.

I love Animosity. One of my favorites and still in rotation (if not nearly as frequently) all these years later. I love the way that record sounds as much as the songs on it.

I had mentioned Steel Pulse's Handsworth Revolution as dealing with Apartheid by implication - their song State of Emergency deals with it explicitly.

Oh, you guys. I put on a hall show with Corrosion of Conformity back in 1984. We were only able to pay them $20 and they were happy. I'm glad someone beat me to the Angry Samoan's song as well as the Misfits and the Meatmen.

The Minutemen have a song on "Double Nickels..." - I never remember the titles of the songs even though it's one of my desert island discs, but there's the song that has the lyric:

"Today I got a number - my number's 50,000; that's 10% of 500,000...Here we are...in French Indochina..." and D. Boon goes on to talk about Vietnam. There are probably other historical references in that album.

Now, my memory is a little fuzzy but I'm thinking Public Enemy had some songs with black history elements - maybe from Fear of a Black Planet?

And, lastly, the Dead Kennedys "Holiday in Cambodia" with it's refrain "Pol Pot, Pol Pot..."

40
Ah, Public Enemy. I was never into rap or hip-hop, but I put Chuck D & Co. in a league with the Clash as far as social commentary and musical vision goes....

There's The Bells of Rhymney about a mining disaster (I've always assumed it was based on a real event, but now that I think of it, I'm not positive.) The song was written by Idris Davies (lyrics) and Pete Seeger (music). The Byrds did the most famous version.

Also, didn't the Bee Gees back in the very early days have a song called "1910 Mining Disaster," or something like that?

And do we give the Grateful Dead credit here for "Casey Jones"? Or does that go over in the Literature thread?

I'm late to this party but I'm glad I discovered this group, it fills a big hole in my LT needs! So I'll resurrect this thread. OK, first of all, everyone needs to listen to Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music for a good dose of history, if you haven't already. Definitely folk and not rock, but David Johansen's a fan so get over it. :-) I'm sure some of those songs are hundreds of years old and have been tweaked through the ages by every new performer. Plus, where else can you find not one but two songs about the assassination of President James A. Garfield? And there's another song whose vocals are a little fuzzy, but I think it's about a shoemaker who can't keep up with modern machinery and hangs up his peg and hammer after the Industrial Revolution.

And: In Chuck Berry's "Too Much Monkey Business," there's a line "Been to Yokohama, been fightin' in the war/Army clothes, army shoes, army job, army car!" (I'm ashamed to admit that I'm not sure if Yokohama implies WWII or Korea.)

And: the band Wool, a 90s project of at least one of the Stahl brothers of Scream fame, has a song about the King assassination.

And: as time marches on, I think practically the whole Clash catalog is a snapshot of 1970s-80s UK history. Though not being a Briton I could be way off.

Creedence Clearwater Revival recorded several songs about Vietnam War themes. A lot of the music from that time reflected similar angst. Even Chicago used to do rants during concerts ("It better end soon my friend").

Mark Knopfler's "Sailing to Philadelphia" describes the arrival of Jeremiah Dixon and Charlie Mason in this country.

Bruce Springsteen's "Youngstown" relates the rise and fall of the iron mill industry in Ohio.

#44: I think that every 1980s-era movie about the Vietnam War includes at least one CCR song on its soundtrack.

Hello everyone. Thanks to a friend who is an avid collector of rare vinyl I have recently been exposed to a brasilian psychedelic group from the 60's-70's called "Os Mutantes". My friend uploaded an entire album, transferred magically from vinyl, on a music site I recommend.

Go here to hear the album for free and check out imeem. Hope you dig it.

http://www.imeem.com/people/nLNTlah/playlist/ml_RoxmS/os_mutantes_music_playlist...

David - thanks! You can read more about them (if you haven't already) in Incredibly Strange Music. I have a pretty decent surf-psyche lp by a Brazilian band -whom I know nothing about - called Os Falcoes Reais (I may have left a consonant or two out - I'll have to pull the lp one of these days).

I used to have a copy of Incredibly Strange Music. It got lost at some point.

I have another Os Mutantes cd called "Millenium" with 20 great songs. Several cd rereleases of their albums are currently available. I'll ask my friend about Os Falcoes Reais.

There is a good compilation called "Obsession" that recently became available on CD. Originally released on vinyl in 77, by Mike Davis, owner of the Academy Annex music store in Brooklyn. It has rare psychedelic recordings from 63-73 from Turkey, Uruguay, Peru, Brazil, and Argentina, like Erkin Koray(Turkey), and La Barro De Chocolate(Argentina). Really great stuff.

November 22nd 1963 - Destroy All Monsters

Hinckley Had a Vision - Crucif*cks

I HAVE to hear that second one. (And who could have guessed that Ron Ashton was the lyricist behind the first ("Jackie! Jackie! Hold on to Jack's brains!")? I have never heard the DAM version (my neighbor, by the way, played drums in that band in the early 80s). I have the New Race lp which includes that track, Rob Younger on vocals.

Archaeologists recently investigated the site where "The House of the Rising Sun" once stood in New Orleans. Apparently it was technically a hotel where they found a large number of liquor and perfume bottles and other toiletry items.

There was some good stuff about the Asheton bros in Please Kill Me. I like the 1974-1976 chaotic art damaged rock of DAM better than the middling guitar rock on Bored. Asheton's influence was probably not good for that particular band. Wasn't there a Ben Waugh in the Detroit music scene, too?

Someone asked me the same thing years ago - since then I learned that, yes, there is/was a frontman for a band called The Sillies by that name. No idea what they sound like. Wonder if that's his real name?

Dion's Abraham, Martin and John.

Hinckley Had a Vision - Crucif*cks

And "John, John, Hinckley Junior, what has Jodie done to you" by ISM. Still makes me giggle 25 yrs later.

And while we're on the subject of celebrity assassination, "One Down, Three to Go" by the Meatmen, about John Lennon's murder.

Oh man, 80s hardcore is a smorgasbord of simplistic historical reference. (Well, at the time it was current events.)

This is a fascinating topic especially for someone whose reading leans to history. David Childers has a great song about George Wallace (of all people) on his Jailhouse Religon album. If we can stretch to "alternative history", there's "The Elephant Riders" by Clutch on the album of the same name. Take a look at the cover --Union soldiers on elephants.

I never thought of Elephant Riders being an alternative history, but now that you mention it...

That is a very under-appreciated album from a very under-appreciated band.

Chuck Berry's song "Promised Land" sums up the black diaspora out of the US South post WWII more succinctly than any dissertation. Berry was one of the most witty and acute lyricist ever, and then spoiled his rep. w/ one crap #1 song.

Promised Land

I left my home in Norfolk Virginia,
California on my mind.
Straddled that Greyhound, rode him past Raleigh,
On across Caroline.
......
Swing low sweet chariot, come down easy
Taxi to the terminal zone;
Cut your engines, cool your wings,
And let me make it to the telephone.

Los Angeles give me Norfolk Virginia,
Tidewater four ten O nine
Tell the folks back home this is the promised land callin'
And the poor boy's on the line.
-----
or this bit from "Bye Bye Johnny"
Bye, Bye Johnny

She drew out all her money out of the Southern Trust
And put her little boy aboard a Greyhound Bus
Leaving Louisiana for the Golden West
Down came the tears from her happiness
Her own little son name 'o Johnny B. Goode
Was gonna make some motion pictures out in Hollywood

Bye, bye, bye, bye
Bye, bye, bye, bye
Bye bye Johnny
Good bye Johnny B. Goode

She remembered taking money out from gathering crop
And buying Johnny's guitar at a broker shop
As long as he would play it by the railroad side
And wouldn't get in trouble he was satisfied
But never thought that there would come a day like this
When she would have to give her son a goodby kiss

Or, "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man". I played this for my eight year old a couple of weeks ago, explaining that it wasn't just his eyes that were brown.

exactly! Not to mention that Berry could be very, very funny..on purpose...ie..."it wasn't me" as the protagonist escapes from one potentially bad scene into another.

It wasn't me, baby, no it wasn't me, baby.
It must have been some other body, uh uh, baby, it wasn't me

Said he was cold, tired and hungry, came a beggin' for bread;
The lady took him and fed him breakfast in bed.
It wasn't me, Boss, it wasn't me, it wasn't me.
It must have been some other body, uh uh, Boss, it wasn't me.
....
Met a German girl in London, said she went to school in France
Say we were down in Mississippi at an Alpha Kappa dance?
Wasn't me officer..no no, it wasn't me....
(Black men/boys were being lynched for much less than dancing w/ a white girl in Oxford Mississippi).
_____
or just being a kid..

Sweet Little Sixteen
She's got the grown - up blues
Tight dresses and lipstick
She's sportin' high - heel shoes
Oh but tomorrow morning
She'll have to change her trend
And be sweet sixteen
And back in class again

Lard's Sylvestre Matuschka was about a notorious Hungarian military officer between the wars who had a fetish for train crashes.

And of course, every Pogues album is a history lesson.

Who Made the Nazis? by the Fall ... perhaps a little tongue in cheek, not really a history lesson as much as a bit of smartarsing about.

Paul Kelly, an Australian singer prominent in the early 1990s was a great storyteller. Two real life (his)stories he told via the medium of song were:

i) Bradman - a song about the Australian cricketer and national hero Donald Bradman, in particular his clash with Wally Hamnnond, the aristocratic captain of the controversial English team which toured in the late 1920s.

"A team came out from England
Wally Hammond wore his felt hat like a chief
All through the summer of '28, '29 they gave the greencaps no relief"

You have to be either a) a cricket fan, or b) an Australian (preferably both) to really appreciate this song.

ii)From little things big things grow - a song about an aboriginal tribe who stood up to a multinational corporation (Vestey Group) in order to regain their ancestral land.

"Vestey was fat with money and muscle
Beef was his business, broad was his door
Vincent was lean and spoke very little
He had no bank balance, hard dirt was his floor "

Just ran across this older thread again and have to add "Green Hills of France" by the Dropkick Murphys. I liked the lyrics so much I put them up as part of a library display on WW I (next to "In Flanders Fields"). Don't know if anybody ever noticed.