Smoke On The Water is a pretty good rock interpretation of how some stupid with a flare gun burned a venue down during a concert.
Ohio about Kent State.
There are more, I just can’t think of them.
Hurricane - Bob Dylan. I hear its accuracy is doubtful
I Don’t Like Mondays - Boomtown Rats
Bloody Sunday - U2
The Boomtown Rats’ “I Don’t Like Mondays” was inspired by a teenager who went on a shooting spree in San Diego.
Ninja’d!
Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Ohh, just thought of another The Way by Fastball
The Battle of New Orleans- Johnny Horton
The Trooper - Iron Maiden (about the Charge of the Light Brigade)
Sink the Bismark - Johnny Horton
Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald - Gordon Lightfoot
When The Tigers Broke Free - Pink Floyd (Roger Water’s father killed by Tiger tanks)
Strange Fruit - Billy Holiday
“Trouble Every Day” – The Mothers (about the 1968 Watts riots).
“Ride Captain Ride” – The Blues Image (about the Pueblo incident)
“Creeque Alley” – The Mamas and the Papas (the history of the members of the group)
“Acadian Driftwood” – The Band (about the history of the Cajuns).
“Sub Rosa Subway” – Klaatu (the first New York City subway line, built in secret)
I think we did a thread about this not too far back.
Al Stewart’s album Past, Present & Future has a historical theme, with each song depicting a different decade of the 20th century. Several pertain to specific historical events and personages – “Warren Harding” (about the 29th President of the US), “The Last Day of June 1934” (about the Night of the Long Knives in Germany), and “Roads to Moscow” (about the defense of Moscow against the Nazis).
There are a lot of old folk and blues songs about real natural disasters (floods, mine collapses, etc.). Also, the subgenre of folk called “talking blues” is often about specific events (e.g., Phil Ochs’ “Talkin’ Cuban Crisis”). There are a lot of protest songs about real events (e.g., Dylan’s “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll”). Also, calypso songs were often about real events.
Alice’s Restaurant - Arlo Guthrie
Peter Gabriel wrote about the attempted assassination of George Wallace in Family Snapshot
Harry Chapin wrote about a truck accident in 30,000 Pounds of Bananas
Pearl Jam (Eddie Vedder) wrote about two school shootings in Jeremy
Wow, I had no idea.
CSNY - Woodstock
John Wayne Gacy Jr. - Sufjan Stevens
Joni Mitchell
Claude Dallas
Ballad by Tom Russell/Ian Tyson. Happened near my home, and I know a few of the people involved.
SS
Pete Seeger’s “Reuben James” (not the other song about a black man of that name) – about the sinking of a U.S. destroyer by a U-boat in the lead-up to U.S. entry into WWII
“The Night Chicago Died”
Not strictly fitting the category, but most of the imagery in “America the Beautiful” was taken from a trip taken by the lyricist (Katherine Bates) to see the Columbian Exposition and Pikes Peak. (Chicago tie-in!)
“Hey Man Nice Shot,” by Filter.
Some people speculate that “I’m Your Captain” by Grand Funk Railroad is about Lt Com Marcus Arnheiter.
“Cold Missouri Waters” covered by Cry Cry Cry. It’s about the Mann Gulch fire, which Norman Maclean wrote about in “Young Men and Fire.”
Stack O’Lee Blues was based on a real incident.
We Didn’t Start the Fire - Billy Joel