# Songs With Factual Inaccuracies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 25, 2012, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650 "2012-08-25T22:46:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2012, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/21 "2012-08-26T02:28:13Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > He used one hell of a sniper rifle. That’s funny. Never noticed the CA NV thing and did that song a lot. We used to play Merle Haggard’s “Daddy Frank” fairly often. One night I wondered aloud about a lyric “Momma couldn’t hear our pretty music, but she read our lips and help the family sing” Really? Momma was deaf and helped you sing. I wonder what that sounded like? ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2012, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/22 "2012-08-26T02:36:03Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The one in the OP sounds fine to me: The whole trip is coast-to-coast. The first leg of the trip starts on one coast in the city of angels, heads north to I-80 or I-90, then across to Chicago, and from there, the trip continues to Key Largo, on the other coast. My take on the song quoted in the OP was that the singer first traveled coast to coast (East Coast to West Coast) and _then_ from Los Angeles to Chicago. Since I don’t know the song I don’t know if this makes any sense in context, but I was imagining a song about a singer who has to travel around a lot to do concerts and events and might have to hop from one big city to another. > [@GreasyJack](#): > > Hey, speaking of Johnny Cash and Reno, why did he end up in the California State Prison at Folsom for shooting a man in Reno, Nevada? The song doesn’t actually say he’s at Folsom for the crime of shooting the man in Reno, does it? If not, it’s possible that he wasn’t apprehended for the murder in Reno but was arrested in California on unrelated charges. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2012, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/23 "2012-08-26T03:04:56Z")
If we’re talking about songs that are factually wrong, can I propose a **Lifetime Achievement Award** for Johnny Horton? Because so many of his songs are just filled with factual errors. Comanche, the Brave Horse: _“one lone survivor…”_ seems to me that a lot of the Indians survived this battle. North to Alaska: _“Big Sam left Seattle in the year of ninety-two”_. – The Alaska Gold Rush was started by the strikes at Circle City in 1893, and the main one, Rabbit Creek in 1896. This song says “the rush is on”, but it appears that Big Sam started rushin’ a few years early! The Battle of New Orleans: _“In 1814 we took a little trip…”_ – But the Battle of New Orleans (the climactic battle) was in 1815. _“Along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip”_ – the battleground was up river from New Orleans. _“And we caught the bloody British in the town of New Orleans”_ – no, they caught them outside New Orleans – preventing the British from taking the town was the point of the battle. _“We looked down the river and we see’d the British come”_ – the British came by land, marching across from Lake Borgne. _“they began to runnin’, On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico”_ – the British retreat was also by land, back across to Lake Borgne and into the Gulf. Preventing them from going down the Mississippi, into New Orleans, was what the Americans were fighting for. Perhaps the highlight is his song Sink the Bismarck, which has factual errors in nearly every line: _In May of nineteen forty-one the war had just begun_ – the war began in 1939, 3 years earlier; hardly “just begun”. _The Germans had the biggest ship that had the biggest guns_ – the biggest warships were the Japanese battleships Yamato & Musashi, bigger than the Bismarck, and with much bigger (18.1" vs. 15") guns. If you discount them because they weren’t actually at sea until after the Bismarck was sunk, then the German sister ship Tirpitz was larger than the Bismarck. _The Bismarck was the fastest ship that ever sailed the sea_ – There were at least 4 faster battleships at the time, German Scharnhorst, French Richelieu, Italian Vittorio Veneto, and even the antiquated British Hood, which Bismarck sunk. And many passenger liners were even faster: the Queen Mary (30.9 knots to the Bismarcks 30.1) or the Normandie. And those were documented speed records, while the Bismarck’s speed wasn’t. _On her decks were guns as big as steers and shells as big as trees_ – her largest guns (on the turrets, not on her decks) were 15"; most steers are quite a bit bigger than that. And many trees are much bigger. Probably reversed here to make the rhyme work. _Out of the cold and foggy night came the British ship The Hood_ – May is Springtime in the north Atlantic, not the coldest time of the year (though still pretty cold). But there isn’t much fog at those temperatures. Also the battle with the Hood didn’t take place at night, but at 6 in the morning. And it was the ship Prince of Wales that came out first, the Hood followed behind. _The Bismarck started firing fifteen miles away_ – It was the Hood that started firing first, when they were about 12.5 miles apart. Bismarck didn’t fire until 2 minutes later, when they were only 11 miles apart. _We gotta sink the Bismarck was the battle sound But when the smoke had cleared away the mighty Hood went down_ – The Hood was hit, exploded, and sank all within 3 minutes – hardly time for the smoke to have cleared. In fact, it was the smoke that enabled Prince of Wales to escape from the battle. _For six long days and weary nights they tried to find her trail_ – HMS Suffolk was fitted with the new radar, so was able to continue shadowing Bismarck most of this time. It was only the last couple of days when Bismarck managed to get away. Even then, radio monitoring gave the British a fair idea of where Bismarck was. _Churchill told the people put every ship asail_ – Why he told the people instead of the Navy is curious. And would you really send sailboats and yachts into the North Atlantic? But in fact, only a limited number of British ships were sent after the Bismarck – most were busy and could not be spared. Many of the ones sent were old, obsolete ships, like the carrier Ark Royal that was sent from the Mediterranean. _Cause somewhere on that ocean I know she’s gotta be_ – Well, at least this line has no factual errors (but not much info, either). _The fog was gone the seventh day and they saw the morning sun Ten hours away from homeland the Bismarck made its run_ – Bismarck was going toward the coast of France, hardly her homeland. And it wasn’t much of a run, since an airplane bomb the evening before had jammed her steering, so she was only able to cruise in a circle. _The British guns were aimed and the shells were coming fast The first shell hit the Bismarck they knew she couldn’t last_ – Not aimed very well – only about 1 in 7 of the shells fired hit the Bismarck, and most of them just bounced off her armor. And she wasn’t sunk by gunfire, nobody claims that. The British battleships were nearly out of shells and had been sent home before the Bismarck sank. She was hit by torpedoes just before sinking, but at the same time survivors have said they were ordered to open valves and scuttle the ship, to prevent her capture. Recent examination of the underwater wreckage seems to confirm the scuttling theory – none of the shell hits below the waterline actually penetrated the Bismarck’s armor. Despite all the factual errors, I still love his songs. Music doesn’t depend on facts! ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2012, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/24 "2012-08-26T03:18:46Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > _In May of nineteen forty-one the war had just begun_ > – the war began in 1939, 3 years earlier I detect a factual error in this factual error. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2012, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/25 "2012-08-26T03:33:16Z")
**Bargain** (Who) “In life one and one don’t make two, one and one make one.” ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2012, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/26 "2012-08-26T03:48:44Z")
> [@GreasyJack](#): > > If we sort all the land area in California by its longitude, LA and San Diego are in the eastern 1/4. LA is actually east of Reno. Ah, yes, I am sure that must have been what she was thinking. :rolleyes: > [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > **Bargain** (Who) “In life one and one don’t make two, one and one make one.” It’s called a metaphor, dear. Songwriters use them a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2012, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/27 "2012-08-26T03:52:36Z")
Moxy Fruvous manages to place Mt. Washington in Maine, and mis-identifies the lowest highest elevation in the US, both in the same song. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2012, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/28 "2012-08-26T04:38:19Z")
NM ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2012, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/29 "2012-08-26T06:22:00Z")
Lou Reed-_Sick of You_ * * * They arrested the Mayor for an illegal favor sold the Empire State to Japan And Oliver North married William Secord and gave birth to a little Tehran * * * It’s actually Richard Secord. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2012, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/30 "2012-08-26T06:29:36Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > You could spend all day pointing out every misapplication of irony in that song. For example: > That’s just bad luck. In order to make that ironic she should have specified (somehow) that he was an Airline Safety Inspector. To be really ironic he drives instead and ends up in a four-car highway pileup ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2012, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/31 "2012-08-26T06:52:11Z")
It’s minor, but it’s annoying: Slade’s “Far Far Away” includes the line: > [@](#): > > I’ve seen the sun set in the east and in the west Not without pharmaceuticals, you haven’t (at least on Earth). The sun will always appear to rise in the eastern half of the sky, and appear to set in the western half. It cannot set in the east. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2012, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/32 "2012-08-26T08:24:13Z")
Madonna: Quicker than a ray of light Quicker than a ray of light Quicker than a ray of light Nonsense!!! …Unless she’s talking about Cherenkov Radiation or something 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2012, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/33 "2012-08-26T08:35:20Z")
I’ll give my usual one in such threads: “Cotton Fields,” by Creedence Clearwater Revival. The lyrics say the fields are “down in Louisiana, just about a mile from Texarkana.” But the Louisiana state line is a good 30 miles from Texarkana. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2012, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/34 "2012-08-26T09:01:53Z")
The Band’s “Up on Cripple Creek” places the titular locale on Lake Charles, Louisiana. There’s a Cripple Creek in Colorado, and one in Virginia, but there’s not one in Louisiana. Boney M’s “Rasputin” describes Rasputin as “lover of the Russian queen” - Rasputin was many things to the czar’s family, but the queen’s lover he was not. Whether he was, in fact, “Russia’s greatest love machine”, of course, is a matter of opinion. Korpiklaani’s “Vodka” contains a line wherein the singer is “promising that the vodka we serve is as pure as it was thousands of years ago”. Vodka was first distilled in the 8th century, which is hardly “thousands” of years ago; and early vodka was considerably _less_ pure than it is today, owing to primitive methods of distillation and the use of potatoes rather than grain spirit. Gin, in fact, was originally invented in order to salvage the unusably bitter vodka of the Middle Ages by covering the unpalatable aftertaste with herbal notes. To touch on the errors in _The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald_; [QUOTE=Gordon Lightfoot] concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms when they left fully loaded for Cleveland [/QUOTE] The Edmund Fitzgerald was bound for Detroit, not Cleveland, on its final voyage. > [@](#): > > When suppertime came the old cook came on deck sayin’ > “Fellas, it’s too rough t’feed ya.” The cook on the final voyage was a replacement crewman because the regular cook was sick, had never sailed on the ship before, and was a younger man. > [@](#): > > At seven P.M. a main hatchway caved in The theory that the Edmund Fitzgerald sank because the hatches were improperly secured has been discounted. Wikipedia notes that Lightfoot now sings this line differently in concert. > [@](#): > > The captain wired in he had water comin’ in > and the good ship and crew was in peril In the last radio transmission from the ship, some ten minutes or so prior to the sinking, the captain stated that they were “holding our own”. It’s likely that the ship sank suddenly and that the captain did not see it coming. ---
**Author:** ![polar\_bear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ec9cab/32.png) [@polar\_bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/polar_bear)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2012, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/35 "2012-08-26T09:10:42Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > You could spend all day pointing out every misapplication of irony in that song. For example: > That’s just bad luck. In order to make that ironic she should have specified (somehow) that he was an Airline Safety Inspector. Obligatory clip: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT1TVSTkAXg](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT1TVSTkAXg) ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2012, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/36 "2012-08-26T10:04:50Z")
> [@flodnak](#): > > It’s minor, but it’s annoying: Slade’s “Far Far Away” includes the line: > > > [@](#): > > > > I’ve seen the sun set in the east and in the west > > Not without pharmaceuticals, you haven’t (at least on Earth). The sun will always appear to rise in the eastern half of the sky, and appear to set in the western half. It cannot set in the east. Let’s say you were vacationing in Beijing could you say, “I’ve seen the sun set in China”? Or if you wanted to be less specific, “I’ve seen the sun set in the far east”? Or to be even less specific, “I’ve seen the sun set in the east”? Similarly if you were in Manitoba, could you say “I’ve seen the sun set in the north”? Or if you were in Cape Town, could you say “I’ve seen the sun set in the south”? ---
**Author:** ![Corcaigh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Corcaigh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corcaigh)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2012, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/37 "2012-08-26T10:23:41Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Kim Wilde: Kids in America. > Outside a new day is dawning. > Outside Suburbia’s sprawling everywhere. > I don’t want to go baby. > New York to East California. > There’s a new wave coming I warn you. > No, _nothing_ is happening in east California, there is fuck all there! You have never actually been to America, or met any of the kids there, have you? I always took that song to mean she was intending to head to America to make her fortune and was informing said kids of same. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2012, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/38 "2012-08-26T10:32:21Z")
In _Cortez the Killer_, Neil Young describes the Aztecs as “never having known war,” or something to that effect. Actually, they had spent much of the 1400s conquering various peoples (Zapotecs, Otomis, etc.) and incorporating them into their tribute structure…that’s why you see towns with Nahuatl names in places like the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca state (where people speak Zapotec, Chinantec, etc.), and forms of Nahuatl spoken even as far as coastal El Salvador. (But Neil’s larger point about Spanish brutality and destruction of native culture is still valid, of course.) ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2012, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/39 "2012-08-26T10:34:30Z")
> [@Corcaigh](#): > > I always took that song to mean she was intending to head to America to make her fortune and was informing said kids of same. Yeah, but by sending them into the Mojave Desert or the Sierra Nevada? I guess they could make a few bucks working the ski lifts around Lake Tahoe… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Telperion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telperion/32/509_2.png) [@Telperion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperion)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2012, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/40 "2012-08-26T10:41:29Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Korpiklaani’s “Vodka” contains a line wherein the singer is “promising that the vodka we serve is as pure as it was thousands of years ago”. Vodka was first distilled in the 8th century, which is hardly “thousands” of years ago; and early vodka was considerably _less_ pure than it is today, owing to primitive methods of distillation and the use of potatoes rather than grain spirit. That would be rather impressive, since potatoes originated in the Americas and weren’t known to the rest of Europe until the 17th century. And it’s certainly possible to make vodka that is as pure as the original, it just wouldn’t be very good by current standards. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650.md?page=3)