# Songs about historical events **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 9, 2010, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-historical-events/535532 "2010-04-09T14:54:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2010, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-historical-events/535532/61 "2010-04-10T07:28:17Z")
> [@Ronald\_C.Semone](#): > > Re-read the OP. First you get on my case about “I Dreamed I Saw Mighty Joe Young” and now this. Pick, pick, pick! ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2010, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-historical-events/535532/62 "2010-04-10T07:44:06Z")
Quite a few about 9-11: “Where Were You when the World Stopped Turning?” and “Let’s Move” come to mind. The Kinks’ “Give the People What They Want”–JFK assassination “Goodbye England’s Rose,” Elton John “Song of the South,” Alabama, about Black Sunday and the Depression as the South experienced it. “Winds of Change” by The Scorpions (Fall of the Berlin Wall) ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2010, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-historical-events/535532/63 "2010-04-10T07:53:10Z")
“Enola Gay” by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark “Oxford Town” by Bob Dylan “Spanish Bombs” by The Clash “Starry Starry Night” by Don McLean (Hey, it’s ART history!) “Werner Von Braun” and “Alma” by Tom Lehrer ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2010, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-historical-events/535532/64 "2010-04-10T15:41:45Z")
[Cold Missouri Waters](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_Missouri_Waters) ---
**Author:** ![Enterprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/76d3ee/32.png) [@Enterprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enterprise)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2010, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-historical-events/535532/65 "2010-04-10T20:51:17Z")
“Sailing to Philadelphia” by Mark Knopfler is about the arrival (sorta) of Jeremiah Dixon and Charles Mason, the men who surveyed the Mason-Dixon line. And it’s a pretty catchy tune, too. ---
**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2010, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-historical-events/535532/66 "2010-04-10T22:37:37Z")
Chris Wood’s [Hollow Point](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI2YdHt_V7s) is about the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005 (if that’s not too recent). ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-historical-events/535532/67 "2010-04-11T03:49:57Z")
> [@dwyr](#): > > I have this box set and it’s pretty good. Yep. Many of these songs happened around my part of the world. I have had neighbors who are kin to both Freda Bolt and her killer. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-historical-events/535532/68 "2010-04-11T04:31:34Z")
> [@winterhawk11](#): > > The entire album “Harbour of Tears” by Camel is about the experiences of Irish immigrants coming to America, and those they left behind. Also the Camel album “Nude” is about the Japanese soldier that they found on an island in the Pacific about thirty years after WWII ended, who still thought the war was going on. ---
**Author:** ![MadTheSwine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MadTheSwine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadTheSwine)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-historical-events/535532/69 "2010-04-11T05:59:17Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple? also Smoke on the Water by Red Foley [Red Foley: Smoke on the Water](http://www.ookingdom.com/writings/music/001) ---
**Author:** ![Sparky812](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Sparky812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky812)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-historical-events/535532/70 "2010-04-12T11:21:31Z")
Rush - Manhattan Project ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-historical-events/535532/71 "2010-04-12T12:21:18Z")
Christmas in the Trenches by John McCutcheon Joe Hill by John McCutcheon ---
**Author:** ![In\_Winnipeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a8b319/32.png) [@In\_Winnipeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Winnipeg)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2010, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-historical-events/535532/72 "2010-04-13T15:37:45Z")
_Black Donnelly’s Massacre_ and _Reesor Crossing Tragedy_ by Stompin’ Tom Connors. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2010, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-historical-events/535532/73 "2010-04-13T16:31:22Z")
> [@dwyr](#): > > I have this box set and it’s pretty good. Just don’t listen to too many songs at one time - a wee bit depressing. I do too! Got it for my birthday! So . . . festive! ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2010, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-historical-events/535532/74 "2010-04-13T18:00:45Z")
A couple more Johnny Horton songs for the list: [ul] [li]_Commanche_ - About the horse that was the sole survivor of Custer’s division at the Little Bighorn[/li][li]_Johnny Reb_ - You Confederate boys might’ve lost the war, but you put up a helluva fight.[/li][li]_Johnny Freedom_ - You redcoats lost the war, because we put up a helluva fight.[/ul][/li] Having been raised on my dad’s Kingston Trio records, here are a few more: [ul] [li]_Tom Dooley_ - According to the liner notes on a boxed CD set, the lyrics were supposedly written by the confessed murderer himself shortly before his execution.[/li][li]_Jesse James_ - Not the same as the Woody Guthrie song. “But that dirty little coward who shot Mr. Howard has laid poor Jesse in his grave.”[/li][li]_Some Fool Made A Soldier of Me_ - “Hey General Custer, I think I see an Indian over there.” “Yeah! Ask her if she’s got a friend for me.”[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-historical-events/535532/75 "2010-04-14T05:07:06Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > Yep. Many of these songs happened around my part of the world. I have had neighbors who are kin to both Freda Bolt and her killer. I used to live near the cave where Floyd Collins bought it. ---
**Author:** ![In\_Winnipeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a8b319/32.png) [@In\_Winnipeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Winnipeg)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-historical-events/535532/76 "2010-04-14T20:24:56Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > [Here’s seventy of them](http://www.amazon.com/People-Warning-Ballads-Disaster-1913-1938/dp/B000ULQV20), every one of which features untimely death! That looked so interesting that I looked online for it and found it at a place called “ack ack ack”: [Ack Ack Ack](http://3ack.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2008-01-24T07%3A21%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=7) Feel free to check it out. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-historical-events/535532/77 "2010-04-15T13:37:07Z")
[Battle of the Beanfield](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqE3SqSpT50) by the **Levellers** , about clashes between new age travellers and police in the early 1980s. [We Were All Wounded at Wounded Knee](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT7TJi2Rk7c) by **Redbone**. Two of the original members of the group appear to have died in the past 4 months… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-historical-events/535532.md?page=3)