Songs based on real-life shipwrecks/trainwrecks/etc.

[Skywatcher]

I guess Welsh Mining Disaster 1966 wasn’t as catchy.

[Spoke]

@Bridget Burke

My grandma used to tell us about a train wreck back around the turn of the last century. Her uncle was an engineer who realized that a mistake had been made–his train was going to crash into another one. So he stayed on the brake until the last minute, hoping to reduce the damage. And was thrown into the firebox.

She said there was a song–but she died in 1966. Just another detail I never learned. (Hmmm… a research topic?)

Well, that sounds like the story of Casey Jones.

[Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew]

@Annie-Xmas

If we are including mining disasters, there should be a mention of Timothy, except it’s not real-life (I hope)

Trimdon Grange Explosion is about a real-life mining disaster.

[fifty-six]

OMG

The the best wreck in C&W history has not been mentioned.

“You Never Even Called Me By My Name”

Written By Steve Goodman
Recorded By David Allan Coe

The perfect Country and Western Song.

Here are a couple lines

RECITATION:

THE LAST VERSE GOES LIKE THIS HERE:

WELL, I WAS DRUNK THE DAY MY MOM GOT OUT OF PRISON
AND I WENT TO PICK HER UP IN THE RAIN
BUT BEFORE I COULD GET TO THE STATION IN MY PICKUP TRUCK
SHE GOT RUN NED OVER BY A DAMNED OLD TRAIN.

[ZebraShaSha]

@spoke-

There’s a hard-to find old gospel song about the 1946 burning of the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, the worst hotel fire in US history (119 dead, including a large number of the state’s brightest high school students, in town for a mock legislature). One haunting lyric I still remember from hearing the song on an old 78:

Those faces in the windows
I see them in my dreams
I always will remember
Those agonizing screams

Holy shit, I’ve broken into that building before. Twice actually. It was undergoing renovation, which meant it was fairly easy to get into. The first time I went, there was still a lot inside, and it felt really, really odd. Especially the basement. Anyway…

[BrainGlutton]

The Springhill Mining Disaster gave rise to a song, which I’ve heard done in folk/barbershop style (by the Duke’s Men of Yale) and, on the radio just this week, in bluegrass style (exact same lyrics, completely different melody).

In the town of Springhill, Nova Scotia,
Down in the dark of the Cumberland Mine
There’s blood on the coal and the miners lie
In the roads that never saw sun nor sky
Roads that never saw sun nor sky

[Spoke]

@ZebraShaSha

Holy shit, I’ve broken into that building before. Twice actually. It was undergoing renovation, which meant it was fairly easy to get into. The first time I went, there was still a lot inside, and it felt really, really odd. Especially the basement. Anyway…

Well, if any place were apt to be haunted…

[BrainGlutton]

I once heard a haunting filksong about the Apollo 1 Disaster, but I can’t seem to find the lyrics online. It’s set to the tune of the (folk/barbershop version of) “The Springhill Mining Disaster.”

[TripleTee]

@gotpasswords

The song itself is nothing about any sort of disaster - the lyrics are actually fairly insipid stuff about a lost love. Such is life when you have to write words to fit into an existing melody that someone else put together.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Heart_Will_Go_On:
*[composer James] Horner had originally composed the song as an instrumental motif that is used in several scenes during Titanic. He then wanted to make a full vocal song out of it, for use in the end credits of the film. Director James Cameron did not want such a song, but Horner went ahead anyway and got [songwriter Will] Jennings to write the lyrics. *

Of course, I think the song itself is a trainwreck, so it becomes a circular reference.

uh… I. was. kidding. Apparently my joke was way too subtle. I will work on that.

[ouryL]

The burning of the Montreux Casino lead to one of the best known guitar riffs in rock and roll:

Smoke on the water, fire in the sky…

[BrainGlutton]

When the space shuttle Columbia was destroyed on re-entry, it called to mind these two filk songs (not actually written about the disaster) which brought tears to my eyes:

“Fly, Columbia!” by Diana Gallagher:

Fly Columbia
Thunder t’wards tomorrow on an oxygen stream
Thunder t’ward tomorrow, fire, flame and rocket song
Mark a new time of man; booster candles light the dawn
Fly Columbia
Foundation of the future, currier of dreams
Thunder on

And “Fire in the Sky,” by Jordin Kare:

Prometheus they say brought gods fire down to man
And we’ve caught it, tamed it, trained it since our history began
Now we’re going back to Heaven just to look Him in the eye
And there’s a thunder ‘cross the land and a fire in the sky

[ryobserver]

@BrainGlutton

The Springhill Mining Disaster gave rise to a song, which I’ve heard done in folk/barbershop style (by the Duke’s Men of Yale) and, on the radio just this week, in bluegrass style (exact same lyrics, completely different melody).

Springhill Mining Disaster is by Peggy Seeger and Ewan MacColl, and has been covered by The Dubliners, among others. The U2 cover is probably the most famous but IMHO the worst, as they sing less than half the song.

[RTFirefly]

@gotpasswords

Of course, I think the song itself is a trainwreck, so it becomes a circular reference.

IMHO, My Heart Will Go On edges out MacArthur Park for the Worst Popular Song Ever title.

[WarmNPrickly]

Oh crap! All this talk of ship songs got me started. Here it goes…
IIII’mmmm Sailiiiiing Awaaaay

set an open course for the virgin sea
Ive got to be free, free to face the life thats ahead of me

[edited out for copywright issues of course]

Come sail away with me

[/Cartman]