# Best "Ripped From The Headlines" Songs
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-ripped-from-the-headlines-songs/522858
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [December 29, 2009, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-ripped-from-the-headlines-songs/522858 "2009-12-29T00:11:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@thwartme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thwartme)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2009, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-ripped-from-the-headlines-songs/522858/1 "2009-12-29T00:11:32Z")
I was looking through my Random Tunes file, and ran across “41 Shots” by Bruce Springsteen. It’s about/inspired by the [Amadou Diallo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amadou_dialo) shooting in NYC. I personally think it’s an interesting piece of Social Commentary and simultaneously a pretty cool tune. I think that’s pretty rare.
I figure Neil Young’s got two: “Ohio” with CSNY, about the Kent State shootings, and “Let’s Roll”, about the 9/11 attacks.
I’m told the Filter track “[Hey Man, Nice Shot](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDiC83Usn2s)” is about the [Bud Dwyer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budd_Dwyer) on-air suicide.
So, who else has done the Law & Order thing with music? What are your favourite current events inspired songs?
Thanks,
thwartme
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### Author:  [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2009, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-ripped-from-the-headlines-songs/522858/2 "2009-12-29T00:23:03Z")
[I Don’t Like Mondays](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Don%27t_Like_Mondays)
And, possibly, [A Day in the Life](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Day_in_the_Life), but its inspiration isn’t totally clearcut.
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### Author:  [@Pray\_for\_peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pray_for_peace)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2009, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-ripped-from-the-headlines-songs/522858/3 "2009-12-29T00:26:25Z")
“Sunday Bloody Sunday” - U2
“A Day in the Life” - The Beatles
“Family Snapshot” - Peter Gabriel
ETA: **KarlGauss** got it first on “A Day in the Life.”
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### Author:  [@thwartme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thwartme)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2009, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-ripped-from-the-headlines-songs/522858/4 "2009-12-29T00:31:50Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#):
>
> [I Don’t Like Mondays](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Don%27t_Like_Mondays)
Yes, perfect. Very good.
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### Author:  [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2009, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-ripped-from-the-headlines-songs/522858/5 "2009-12-29T00:38:36Z")
“The Way” by **Fastball**
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### Author:  [@Small\_Hen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Hen)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2009, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-ripped-from-the-headlines-songs/522858/6 "2009-12-29T00:41:50Z")
“Jeremy” by **Pearl Jam**
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### Author:  [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2009, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-ripped-from-the-headlines-songs/522858/7 "2009-12-29T00:42:04Z")
What’s the Frequency, Kenneth? – REM
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### Author:  [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2009, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-ripped-from-the-headlines-songs/522858/8 "2009-12-29T00:52:11Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#):
>
> [I Don’t Like Mondays](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Don%27t_Like_Mondays)
I figured with six posts already in the thread that someone had beaten me to this. 😛
Also Peter Gabriel’s _Biko_.
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### Author:  [@Gary\_Baldy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Baldy)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2009, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-ripped-from-the-headlines-songs/522858/9 "2009-12-29T00:56:53Z")
On Bob Dylan’s Desire album, there’s “Hurricane” about Hurricane Carter and "Joey about Joey Gallo.
Going back a bit further, Moonshine Kate’s [Little Mary Phagan](http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/littlemary/littlemary.html) was composed by her father the same year that Leo Frank was lynched.
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### Author:  [@not\_alice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_alice)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2009, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-ripped-from-the-headlines-songs/522858/10 "2009-12-29T00:58:06Z")
The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald comes to mind.
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### Author:  [@thwartme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thwartme)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2009, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-ripped-from-the-headlines-songs/522858/11 "2009-12-29T01:21:49Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#):
>
> Also Peter Gabriel’s _Biko_.
The thing about “I Don’t Like Mondays” and “Ohio” is that they are so immediate. “Ohio” was recorded and out on shelves mere days after the Kent State shootings. Geldof & The Boomtown Rats performed “Mondays” within a month of the shootings which inspired it.
“Biko” is more historical. Stephen Biko had been dead three years before Gabriel sang about his arrest (although, to be sure, the larger problems in South Africa persisted).
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### Author:  [@thwartme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thwartme)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2009, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-ripped-from-the-headlines-songs/522858/12 "2009-12-29T01:26:58Z")
> [@not\_alice](#):
>
> The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald comes to mind.
One of the times I saw Gordon in concert, he forgot the lyrics to this.
We got something along the lines of:
_Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms…
…uh, da, da, da, dum..
…dee, doo…
…yadda… North Wind they’d been feeling?_
I had always thought (up until the mid-90s) that the song was about some old, historical event. It wasn’t until I read something in an old BBS message about it happening in 1975 that I realized my mistake.
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### Author:  [@not\_alice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_alice)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2009, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-ripped-from-the-headlines-songs/522858/13 "2009-12-29T01:32:17Z")
Now that I think about it, The Clash’s White Man in Hammersmith Palais" probably qualifies.
And there is one about a battle in my home town you may have heard of, although it is much older: The Star Spangled something-or-other…
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2009, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-ripped-from-the-headlines-songs/522858/14 "2009-12-29T02:17:39Z")
Bruce Springsteen’s “My City of Ruins” was actually written (but not recorded) prior to the headline, but was first introduced to the general public as being connected with 9/11.
Similarly, Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind” was rewritten after Princess Diana’s death (the original was about Marilyn Monroe) and became associated with her.
“Smoke on the Water” was inspired by an actual fire in Montreux, Switzerland.
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### Author:  [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2009, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-ripped-from-the-headlines-songs/522858/15 "2009-12-29T02:27:02Z")
The Who’s _“Black Widow’s Eyes”_ is about the Beslan school massacre.
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### Author:  [@breezman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/breezman)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2009, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-ripped-from-the-headlines-songs/522858/16 "2009-12-29T03:49:18Z")
Sublime’s April 29, 1992
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### Author:  [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2009, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-ripped-from-the-headlines-songs/522858/17 "2009-12-29T04:08:59Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> “Smoke on the Water” was inspired by an actual fire in Montreux, Switzerland.
There’s also Randy Newman’s “Burn On,” about the time the Cuyahoga River caught fire in Cleveland. (This song is featured in the opening of _Major League.)_
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### Author:  [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2009, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-ripped-from-the-headlines-songs/522858/18 "2009-12-29T05:27:53Z")
Jethro Tull released “Crossfire” only a few months after the 1980 [Iranian embassy seige](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Embassy_Siege) that inspired it. The same album (_“A”_) also included “Fylingdale Flyer,” based on a false alarm at the RAF’s Fylingdales early warning installation the previous year.
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### Author:  [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2009, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-ripped-from-the-headlines-songs/522858/19 "2009-12-29T05:58:37Z")
“The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll” and “George Jackson” by Bob Dylan
[“Deportee” by Woody Guthrie](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deportee_(Plane_Wreck_at_Los_Gatos))
From the 1920’s: [“The Mystery of the Dunbar Child” by Rabbit Brown](http://www.folo.us/2008/03/23/the-mystery-of-the-dunbar-child/)
And about a million other folk songs.
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### Author:  [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2009, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-ripped-from-the-headlines-songs/522858/20 "2009-12-29T08:03:49Z")
[Kathleen Edwards - “Alicia Ross.”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_2tbunfanY&feature=related)
Also on my list of “Saddest Songs I’ve Ever Heard.”
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