Ballad of Billy the Kid - Billy Joel - Billy the Kid wasn’t hanged but shot by Pat Garrett.
Indian Sunset - Eton John/Bernie Taupin - Geronimo died of pnumonia after a fall from a horse, not full of lead as he was laying down his weapons.
What’s the matter with these writers? Couldn’t find words that rhymed?
Any (many?) others?
I’m pretty sure Marlon Brando and Pocahontas didn’t sit around the camp fire with Neil Young.
“The Night Chicago Died” - Paper Lace, There really isn’t an ‘East Side’ of Chicago and the cops and Capone’s gang never really came to such blows (100 cops dead?)
U2 - “Pride (In the Name of Love)”
MLK was shot in the evening, not in the early morning of April 4.
From where I sit, I would flip the question: Find any song that is historically accurate. Facts take a back seat to rhyme, meter, other poetic devices, and whatever political fervor is sweeping the land at the time it’s written (or passed on word-of-mouth to the next generation).
Seriously, I can’t think of a single one that owns the facts. I would hope that most of the Edmund Fitzgerald is accurate, but I doubt it is.
Historical and or factual inaccuracies in song lyrics is a thread from back in 2008, which includes my personal favorite, from the song “What Are We Gonna Do” by Dramarama-
“It’s April 21st, and everybody knows today is Earth Day”. No. No it isn’t.
Likewise, I’m quite sure that James Earl Jones wasn’t on a plane with Ben Folds and his uncle, Richard, as was documented is the Ben Folds Five song, “Lullaby.”
Supposedly this song really pissed off the city of Chicago.
Also, despite what Johnny Horton told us, during the Battle of New Orleans the Americans did not powder the behinds of alligators and use them to fire cannon balls at the British. Although it’s quite true that there wasn’t quite so many of them as there was before.
When I drove my Chevy to the Levy the Levy was wet.
Also, 5,000 holes in Blackburn Lancashire? I think not, Mr Macartney. Not with a LibDem council in office.
It’s 4000 holes. Written by Lennon. And Paul’s surname is McCartney. Otherwise, yeah. 
I recall in an interview this was pointed this out to Phil Wright, the drummer and lead singer and he said, “What do you mean? There is an east side to everything.”
Ras Kass - “The Nature of the Threat”
Critical deconstruction of the historical errors in the song, which also contains numerous errors and dubious assumptions and assertions itself.
What about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Side,_Chicago?
I’ll have to check my copy of Anthology, but I think all the stuff Lennon wrote was from newspaper stories that were lying around, and I think they showed the hole story. The guy who blew his mind out in the car was a Guiness heir, and the film was “How I Won the War,” which Lennon was in, and which people did turn away from.
Jaime Brockett’s Legend of the USS Titanic had a few historical mistakes.
[ul]
[li]The name of the ship[/li][li]That it was built of good Italian iron[/li][li]That it was sailing from New York[/li][li]That Jack Johnson was banned from it[/li][/ul]
and that is off the top of my head.
Yes, but the point Nother was trying to make was that
Other than that, completely correct on all counts.
It is a well know historical fact that George Stoneman commanded his cavalry to destroy the tracks of the R&D in the Winter of 1865 rendering the Confederate Army unable to fight.
Look it up.
Daddy was one of those Lake Cops.
Joan Baez sang it as “so much cavalry came” which made me want to go all Al Capp on her ass.