# Appropriate song commemorating 9/11? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 11, 2008, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/appropriate-song-commemorating-9-11/463127 "2008-09-11T18:15:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/appropriate-song-commemorating-9-11/463127/21 "2008-09-12T05:53:34Z")
Neil Young’s “Let’s Roll.” ---
**Author:** ![initech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/439d5e/32.png) [@initech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/initech)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/appropriate-song-commemorating-9-11/463127/22 "2008-09-12T06:20:58Z")
The best 9/11 song I’ve ever heard was Jesus, Etc. by Wilco. Recorded many months before September 11. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cBhj73WtiZU/hqdefault.jpg "Wilco - Jesus, Etc (clip)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBhj73WtiZU) ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/appropriate-song-commemorating-9-11/463127/23 "2008-09-12T07:17:04Z")
In a New York Minute - Either by the Eagles or Don Henley. It’s about losing what you have in a flash (a New York Minute). You could even show [this video](Lying here in the darkness). I was listening to Clark Howard on 9/11 and he played this. I remember it vividly. It really struck home to hear the song. Lying here in the darkness I hear the sirens wail Somebody going to emergency Somebody’s going to jail If you find somebody to love in this world You better hand on tooth and nail The wolf is always at the door In a New York Minute Everything can change In a New York Minute Things can get a little strange In a New York Minute Everything can change In a New York Minute ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/59ef9b/32.png) [@FlyingRat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRat)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/appropriate-song-commemorating-9-11/463127/24 "2008-09-12T07:18:11Z")
“New York” by U2 is a good song-- it was written before September 11th but became something of an anthem as they toured the US at the end of 2001-beginning of 2002. The one piece of music I always listen to on September 11th, however, is the first movement of Henryk Gorecki’s Third Symphony, aka “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs”. It’s long (20+ minutes) but no other piece of music, in my opinion, captures so well the dignity of human sorrow. For poems, there’s always [“September 1, 1939”](http://www.poemdujour.com/Sept1.1939.html) by W.H. Auden-- written upon the poet’s hearing the news of Hitler invading Poland, it’s an anguished meditation on the nature of extremism (one might say) and how the world can change in an instant. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/appropriate-song-commemorating-9-11/463127/25 "2008-09-12T09:34:25Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Bruce Springsteen’s album, “The Rising,” is essentially all about 9/11. “Into The Fire” and “The Rising” itself are about the collapse of the towers; the latter recounts the death and, well, transcendence of a firefighter. “Empty Sky,” “You’re Missing,” and “Lonesome Day” are about dealing with loss. “Nothing Man” is about survivor guilt. Don’t forget “My City of Ruins.” Although it was written pre-9/11 and was about Asbury Park, N.J., Springsteen performed it on the **America: A Tribute to Heroes** telethon of September 21, 2001, and it took on an identity as a “9/11” song. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/appropriate-song-commemorating-9-11/463127/26 "2008-09-12T15:20:49Z")
Me, I think the most appropriate song is probably “Trouble in River City” from _The Music Man_. That’s the one where the salesman needs to convince the town that it’s in horrible trouble and the only way out is to buy his stuff, so he seizes on the fact that a bar in town just got a new pool table. Or just Fear’s “Let’s Have a War” [“Let’s have a war/Jack Up the Dow Jones/ Let’s Have a War/ Sell the Rights to the Networks”] I mean, no offense to the pain to the friends and families of the just over three thousand people who died in the attacks, but was their pain any worse than for instance the families of the five thousand people killed by drunk drivers that year (and each year since)? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/appropriate-song-commemorating-9-11/463127.md?page=1)