The heavy metal band Hades recorded a song called “Ground Zero NYC” – in 2000. :eek:
Leonard Cohen’s Chelsea Hotel No. 2 and Loudon Wainwright III’s “Saw Your Name in the Papers,” both about the death of Janis Joplin.
Weird Al Yankovic’s “Headline News,” which told the stories of Tonya Harding, John Bobbitt and that kid who got caned in Singapore, to the tune of Crash Test Dummies “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm.”
Randy Newman’s Lousiana 1927 was originally about a certainflood, but it became associated with another one 78 years later.
And of course, there’s Strange Fruit.
Shel Silverstein’s “The Ballad of Lucy Jordan” is said to be based on the story of a woman who killed her family. The movie Montenegro, which uses the song on the soundtrack, is supposedly based on the same story.
Kate Bush has several story songs: “Houdini” is about the death of Houdini and his wife’s attempts to contact him after death. “Mother Stands for Comfort” is about how mothers of murderers will protect their children against the police. I’m sure there are more specific songs of hers too, but brain tired.
“Dead Skin Mask” by Slayer was “inspired” by Ed Gein. The song was 29 years after the killings, so it’s not quite “current” events.
Similarly, “Pride (In The Name Of Love”) was released 17 years after the assassination of MLK Jr.
Her song “Cloudbusting” is the story, more or less, of Wilhelm Reich’s experiments.
I should have pointed out that "Pride (In The Name Of Love) was a U2 song. My first post makes it seem like it’s a Slayer song. Which would, I think, cause the universe to implode.
Bonzo Goes to Bitburg by the Ramones, 1985, about Regan’s visit to West Germany earlier that year.
“Black Day in July” by Gordon Lightfoot.
Another one that’s more historical, but “Marie Provost” by Nick Lowe, about a former silent film actress who died in her apartment and was nibbled on by her dog before anyone found her.
I’ve always been partial to “Wheat Kings” by The Tragically Hip, which is about David Milgaard.
Wyclef Jean also did a song about this tragedy. It’s called “Diallo” and really quite beautiful.
I’ve always read that Chelsea Hotel is about his affair with Janis. Cohen joked that he never was one to kiss and tell, except for this song. It’s one of my favorites, the lyrics are so great.
“I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel
you were famous, your heart was a legend.
You told me again you preferred handsome men
but for me you would make an exception.”
and
“I don’t mean to suggest that I loved you the best,
I can’t keep track of each fallen robin.
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
that’s all, I don’t even think of you that often.”
I thought “ripped from the headlines” meant a current specific event. Not to pick on just Alessan since I see several posts that don’t seem to be “ripped from the headlines”, but a song written 50 years (give or take) after the event is not ripped from the headlines. People might as well start saying things like Chris DeBurgh’s Crusader or Motorhead’s 1916.
Tom Lehrer wrote a series of headline songs for That Was the Week That Was called That Was the Year that Was.
I know what you mean. To be fair, though, the OP threw me off track by including “Hey Man, Nice Shot,” which was released 8 years after Bud Dwyer’s death.
Thanks for sharing that song. It’s heartbreakingly lovely.
(I remember following the Alicia Ross case back when it happened, because a couple of my friends ran in the same extended social circle up in Thornhill… it was an awful, awful story)
Free Nelson Mandela - The Special AKA
The Lonesome Death of Rachel Corrie - Billy Bragg
(About Rachel Corrie.)
“Remember Pearl Harbor”
“Rueben James”
And my all-time favorite which was written and published in 1961 shortly after a group of Lumbee indians broke up a Klan meeting in Maxton County, N.C.: The Battle of Maxton County
Oh, Have you seen the bed sheet boys,
The Terrors of the night?
They’re gathering in Maxton,
Just a-honing for a fight.
Oh, gather round you Klansmen bold,
But do not show your face.
We’ll burn the fiery cross tonight,
And save the Nordic race.
Oh, the Klan, Oh, the Klan
It calls on every red-blood fighting man.
If you are free and white and bigot,
And get your courage from a spigot,
We’ll be needing reinforcements
For to fight the indian…