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Historical event songs.

Tom R

Tom R

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I’ve been thinking of songs that were about of inspired by historic events. Here are a few. (No religious songs)

Low hanging fruit:

The Stat Spangled Banner - F. S. Key
Ohio – Neil Young
Woodstock – Jonie Mitchell
Monterey –
Bangladesh – George Harrison

Others:
Garden Party – Rick Nelson
New Speedway Boogie – Grateful Dead
Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition – Various
Smoke on the Water- Deep Purple
What’s the Frequency Kenneth? - REM
The Battle of New Orleans
 
More low hanging fruit -

American Pie - Don McLean
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald - Gordon Lightfoot We have had a thread about this
 
Right Here Right Now - Jesus Jones


Okay, I'll bite what historic event does 'What’s the Frequency Kenneth? by REM refer to? (or better what is the meaning of 95% of any lyrics REM sings:r:)
 
folk tunes

JNA said:
More low hanging fruit -

American Pie - Don McLean
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald - Gordon Lightfoot We have had a thread about this
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Folk songs could take up their own thread.
The Ludlow Massacre -
The Ludlow Massacre everal popular songs have been written and recorded about the events at Ludlow. Among them is "Ludlow Massacre" by American folk singer Woody Guthrie, and "The Monument (Lest We Forget)" by Irish musician Andy Irvine.
Alice's Restaurant - Arlo Guthrie
 
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Maister said:
Right Here Right Now - Jesus Jones


Okay, I'll bite what historic event does 'What’s the Frequency Kenneth? by REM refer to? (or better what is the meaning of 95% of any lyrics REM sings:r:)
Click to expand...

Found on Wikipedia -
The title of the song is not original to the band, which guitarist Peter Buck explains in the liner notes to In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988–2003. It refers to an incident in New York City in 1986, where news anchor Dan Rather was the victim of an unprovoked attack by one or two assailants who, between beatings, would ask, "what's the frequency, Kenneth?"[5] (although the phrase Dan Rather says he actually heard was, "Kenneth, what is the frequency?").
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What's_the_Frequency,_Kenneth?
 
Tom R said:
In 1986 Dan Rather was mugged by a guy who kept askin him "Kenneth, what's the frequency?"
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[ot]I'm not convinced mugging a news anchor quite rises to the level of an 'historic event' but thanks for providing an answer:).[/ot]

BOT
'Sunday Bloody Sunday' - U2
 
L.A. Riots: Sublime's "April 29, 1992" and Aerosmith's "Livin' on the Edge"

9/11: Alan Jackson's "Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning", Bon Jovi's "Undivided", Bruce Springsteen's "The Rising", Toby Keith's "Courtesy of the Red White and Blue", etc., etc.
 
"Battle of New Orleans," by Doug Krenshaw (and others)

"Please, Mr. Custer, I Don't Wanna Go," by Larry Verne
 
"You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive" by variouis country/bluegrass artists, most recently Brad Paisley and Patty Loveless. It the coal mining era in eastern Kentucky and Tennessee.
 
Of course, We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel is every historical event that ever happened in one song.
 
Tom R said:
"Hurricane" How Dylan's
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I have always thought this was one of the best songs written by Dylan. He never was a great singer, but this just showcased his songwriting ability.

This was the first song I thought of when I saw this thread.

There are numerous country songs about 9/11.
 
Bear Up North said:
Let's not forget Woody Guthrie's 1913 Massacre. It takes the union viewpoint of a tragic event that occured in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. As Woody tells the story.....
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Like the stellar folk artist he was, many Guthrie songs talked about contemporary events. "Pretty Boy Floyd," "Deportee," "Talking Dust Bowl Blues," "Union Burying Ground," "Roll on Columbia, Roll on" and so on. The same was true of Dylan - ie. "Who Killed Davey Moore"
 
Maister said:
Probably not familiar to many Americans, but there's always 'Croppies Lie Down'
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Gee Maister if you're going to go down that road I'm compelled to add "James Connolly", "The Helicopter Song", "The Rifles of the IRA", etc. and they're familiar to anyone who was a regular in pubs in certain neighborhoods of Boston, NYC and Chicago during the 70's and 80's.
 
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