Table of Historical Songs

[ciroccoj]

Just what it says: table of historical songs. Ie, songs about a part of history, or a historical character. 86 of 'em :)

...	Name Of Song	Artist or Composer	Historic event/person	Website (where the song can be found)	Website (to learn more about the history of the song)
1	A Land Called Paradise	Kareem Salama	Muslims in America	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbcmPe0z3Sc http://www.4shared.com/video/QzU3QQrM/A_Land_Called_Paradise.html	...
2	A Rosa De Hiroshima (The Hiroshima Rose)	Vinicius de Moraes, Ney Matogrosso	(It's about the a-bomb dropped in Hiroshima and its consequences)	http://www.leoslyrics.com/listlyrics.php?hid=fBKydA3AJps%3D (sorry, it's Japanese)	...
3	Abraham, Martin And John	Dion	Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, John Kennedy; mention Robert Kennedy	...	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham,_Martin_&_John
4	Alice's Restaurant	Arlo Guthrie	Vietnam draft	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0a6iWHSWbA (video excerpt) http://susiebright.blogs.com/Arlo.mp3	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription_in_the_United_States
5	All Too Soon	Stephen Hatfield	The Maritime provinces	http://www.stephenhatfield.com/audio/AllGoodPeople/AllTooSoon.mp3	...
6	American Pie	Don McLean	about the deaths of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper, as well as just about the 60s in general.	http://www.lyrics007.com/Don%20McLean%20Lyrics/American%20Pie%20Lyrics.html	...
7	Aquarius	From Hair, the musical	The Sixties	http://www.4shared.com/account/video/8pFXBhGY/Hair_Aquarius.html	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hair_(musical)
8	Ballad Of Booth	Stephen Sondheim	Part of the play "assassins"	...	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassins_(musical)#Song_list
9	Ballad Of Ira Hayes	Johnny Cash	Ira Hayes who is in the photo of the flag at Iwo Jima (WWII)	...	http://www.iwojima.com/raising/raisingc.htm
10	Ballad Of Spring Hill	Peter, Paul and Mary	Spring Hill, Nova Scotia mine disaster, 1958	...	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springhill,_Nova_Scotia
11	Beautiful Land	Nina Simon	South Africa	http://www.4shared.com/audio/txiv5cjQ/Beautiful_Land.html	...
12	Biko	Peter Gabriel	Steven Biko, the South African anti-apartheid activist	...	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/steve_biko
13	Birmingham Sunday	Joan Baez	the bombing of the black church that killed four little girls	http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Birmingham-Sunday-lyrics-Joan-Baez/B3B1EF18D6DFDC7548256C9C00212F91	...
14	Black Velvet	Alannah Myles	Elvis Presley	http://www.lyrics007.com/Alannah%20Myles%20Lyrics/Black%20Velvet%20Lyrics.html http://www.4shared.com/audio/XZggGs1J/Black_Velvet.html	...
15	Bonny Portmore	Loreena McKennett	the cutting of the Great Oak in Portmore	...	http://www.lisburn.com/books/ballinderry/ballinderry.html
16	Brothers In Arms	Dire straits	The fierce loyalty that develops between comrades in arms, but also how silly and foolish war is in the end	http://www.lyricsfreak.com/d/dire+straits/brothers+in+arms_20040736.html http://www.4shared.com/video/VTLZFOGd/Brothers_in_Arms.html	...
17	Candle In The Wind	Elton John	Marilyn Monroe or Princess Diana	...	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana,_Princess_of_Wales
18	Children's Crusade	Sting	WWI, 1914-1918	...	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I
19	Christmas In The Trenches	John McCutcheon	WWI	http://www.oculture.com/2008/12/christmas_in_the_trenches.html http://www.4shared.com/video/FOfAEqAd/Christmas_in_the_Trenches.html	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_truce
20	Cold Missouri Waters	James Keelaghan (the version I know is by Cry Cry Cry) -	inspired by Mann Gulch fire Aug 1949	...	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mann_Gulch_fire
21	Comanche (The Brave Horse)	Johnny Horton	Custer's Last Stand, though I'm not sure how accurate	...	http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/custer.htm
22	Cueca Sola	Mercedes Sosa	Pinochet (or Argentina?)	http://www.lyricsdownload.com/sting-they-dance-alone-cueca-solo-lyrics.html http://www.4shared.com/video/mPAJULCx/Cueca_Sola.html	...
23	Dakota	Christine Lavin	Murder of John Lennon	http://www.4shared.com/audio/bkE6uuYa/The_Dakota.html	http://www.christinelavin.com/index.php?page=songs&display=313&category=Future_Fossils
24	El Pueblo Unido	Quilapayun	The inevitable victory of communism	http://www.4shared.com/account/audio/Ic_017a5/inti_illimani_El_Pueblo_Unido.html	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_pueblo_unido_jam%C3%A1s_ser%C3%A1_vencido
25	Empty Garden	Elton John	John Lennon, who had been murdered by an obsessed fan	...	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empty_Garden_(Hey_Hey_Johnny)
26	Fernando	ABBA	Nobody knows for sure, some say the mexican of revolution of 1910, some say lost love, some say the Spanish revolution of 1974	http://www.4shared.com/audio/098EdCR8/Fernando.html	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_%28song%29
27	Fields Of Athenry	Irish folk	Irish Potato famine	http://www.4shared.com/account/audio/oSjDbLBm/Fields_of_Athenry.html	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fields_of_Athenry
28	Follow The Drinking Gourd	Slaves in the American south	How to get out of the south and into canada	http://www.osblackhistory.com/drinkinggourd.php	http://www.osblackhistory.com/drinkinggourd.php
29	For What It's Worth	Buffalo Springfield	The cause of war, and it's irrationalities	http://www.metrolyrics.com/for-what-its-worth-lyrics-buffalo-springfield.html	...
30	Forever Young	Alphaville	80's song about the cold war, hopes and dreams of the youth living in the context of an arms' race).	http://www.lyricsfreak.com/a/alphaville/forever+young_20006842.html	...
31	Garota De Ipanema (The Girl From Ipanema)	Tom Jobim	about Helô Pinheiro, a woman he was in love with way back when. She usually passed the bar he sat in every day on her way to Ipanema beach. She was always by herself and never once looked his way. Not even after the song became a hit!).	...	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_from_Ipanema
32	George Jackson	Bob Dylan	the Black Panther leader George Jackson's death at Attica prison	...	http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/rodneyjackson.html
33	Geronimo's Cadillac	Michael Martin Murphy	about the end of the Indian Wars	...	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Wars
34	He Was My Brother	Paul Simon	freedom riders.	http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/simon_garfunkel/he_was_my_brother.html	...
35	Hope For Resolution	Paul Caldwell	The end of apartheid	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnzTzpuy0g0	...
36	Hurricane	Bob Dylan	Hurricane Carter, the boxer	...	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubin_Carter
37	I Ain't Marching Anymore	Phil Ochs	A soldier who has come to hate war	http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/ochs-phil/i-aint-marching-anymore-11442.html	...
38	I Was Only Nineteen	Redgum	being in Vietnam and PTSD	http://www.4shared.com/audio/a2byrXjq/I_was_only_19.html	http://www.vietnow.com/ptsd.htm
39	Istanbul/Constantinople	They Might Be Giants	The conquest and subsequent renaming of constantinople	http://www.4shared.com/audio/BmP0g7qT/Istanbul__Not_Constantinople_.html	http://www.sephardicstudies.org/istanbul.html
40	James K. Polk	They Might Be Giants	James K. Polk	http://www.lyricsdepot.com/they-might-be-giants/james-k-polk.html	...
41	Joe Hill	Joan Baez	the labor activist and IWW member	...	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill
42	Johnny Ace	Paul Simon	Johnny Ace	...	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Ace
43	Johnny Horton - Sink The Bismarck	Cathie Ryan	The destruction of the Germans WW2 flagship	http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Sink-The-Bismarck-lyrics-Johnny-Horton/65C9EACCFC5F91FA48256E2A001278C1	...
44	Leningrad	Billy Joe	The siege of Leningrad	...	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Leningrad
45	Light One Candle	Peter Yarrow	Jewish history, Hannukah	http://www.4shared.com/audio/nD0469rA/lightonecandle.html	http://www.lyricsfreak.com/p/peter+paul+mary/light+one+candle_20107723.html
46	London's Burning	The Clash	80's England	...	http://members.tripod.com/~warlight/MAITLIS.html
47	Long Title About William Butler Yeats	Phil Ochs	The police riots at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968.	...	http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/conventions/chicago/facts/chicago68/index.shtml
48	Mississippi Goddam	Nina Simone	civil rights violence in the 60's	...	http://www.guyanajournal.com/CivRht_g.html
49	Mopping Up The Dirty Pool	Spirit of the West	Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, 1989	...	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exxon_Valdez_oil_spill
50	Mothers Of The Disappeared	U2	1976 Argentinean coup and the 'disappeared'	...	http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB185/index.htm
51	National Brotherhood Week	Tom Lehrer	National Brotherhood Week	http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/National-Brotherhood-Week-lyrics-Tom-Lehrer/625DBDA1F04F231148256A7D0025A2FC	...
52	No Man's Land	Artist?	about WWI	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1VD84SLW8I	...
53	Northwest Passage	Stan Rogers	The Northwest Passage	http://www.4shared.com/audio/_rQQxBUX/Stan_Rogers_-_Northwest_Passag.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Passage_(song)	...
54	Ohio	Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young	the National Guard killings at Kent State	...	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings
55	Panic	The Smiths	(Morrissey wrote this song as a response to DJ Steve Wright's insensitive placing of Wham's "I'm Your Man" directly after a news report of the horrible Chernobyl disaster).	http://www.lyricsdepot.com/the-smiths/panic.html	...
56	Pride	U2	Martin Luther King Jr., 1929-1968	...	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.
57	Skye Boat Song	Traditional scottish	The escape of bonnie prince charlie	http://www.4shared.com/audio/jCbFkHBo/Skye_Boat_Song_2.html	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Skye_Boat_Song
58	Stand Down, Margaret	English beat	Margaret Thatcher regime	...	http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/thatcher_margaret.shtml
59	Strange Fruit	Billie Holiday	lynchings in the south	...	http://faculty.berea.edu/browners/chesnutt/classroom/lynchingstat.html
60	Sunday Bloody Sunday	U2	1972 shootings in Derry, N.Ireland	http://larkspirit.com/bloodysunday/	...
61	Talking Union Blues	Pete Seeger	Unionizing	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talking_blues	...
62	Thank You Sister Rosa	Neville Brothers	Rosa Parks, 1913-2005	...	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Parks
63	The Ballad Of John And Yoko	The Beatles	(about John Lennon and Yoko Ono's relationship back in 1969).	http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/the-ballad-of-john-and-yoko-lyrics-the-beatles/2c0f78061e07cb9e48256bc2001cfca6	...
64	The Band Played Waltzing Matilda	June Tabor	Gallipoli, WWI	http://www.4shared.com/audio/li461EcP/The_Band_Played_Waltzing_Matil.html	http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/gf.htm
65	The Battle Of New Orleans	Johnny Horton	The war for independence	...	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_New_Orleans
66	The Bravest	Tom Paxton	9/11: firemen	http://tompaxton.com/audio/the_bravest.mp3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEGjzuGI71w	...
67	The Mesopotamians	They Might Be Giants	Silly version of Mesopotamian history	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAMRTGv82Zo	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesopotamia
68	The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down	The Band	Sherman's March through Georgia	...	http://ehistory.osu.edu/world/articles/ArticleView.cfm?AID=35
69	The Russians	Sting	Cold War, 1940s-1990s	http://www.4shared.com/video/3ltm23w5/The_Russians.html	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War
70	The Ship Titanic	campfire song	Titanic Sinking, 1219	...	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Titanic
71	The War Is Over	Phil Ochs	The war in Vietnam?	...	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War
72	The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald	Gordon Lightfoot	self-explanatory, 1975	...	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Edmund_Fitzgerald
73	There Were Roses	Tommy Sands	the conflict in Northern Ireland	...	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Troubles
74	They Dance Alone	(Cueca Solo), sting	The death of sting's mother and his involvement in a conspiracy of hope tour on behalf of amnesty international, and the mothers of the Disappeared in Chile	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...Nothing_Like_the_Sun	...
75	This Memory	The Wyrd Sisters	Montreal Massacre, 1989	...	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89cole_Polytechnique_Massacre
76	Tiny Fish For Japan	Stan Rogers	The poisoning of the Maritimes	http://www.lyricsdownload.com/rogers-stan-tiny-fish-for-japan-lyrics.html	...
77	Vuelvo	Inti Illimani	Chilean diaspora coming back to Chile	http://www.lyricsmania.com/vuelvo_lyrics_inti-illimani.html	...
78	Warsaw 1943	Johnny Clegg	the title references the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, but the song deals with the political situation in Africa	...	http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/topics/3755/3756/3788/3790/t19362.htm
79	We Didn't Know	Tom Paxton	about WWII bystanders, and Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney.	http://www.mydfz.com/Paxton/lyrics/wdk.htm	...
80	When We Was Fab	George Harrison	about John Lennon (Johnny Ace is also about, well, Johnny Ace)	http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/g/george_harrison/when_we_was_fab.html	...
81	White Boots Marching In A Yellow Land	Phil Ochs	War?	http://www.metrolyrics.com/white-boots-marching-in-a-yellow-land-lyrics-phil-ochs.html	...
82	Who's Next	Tom Lehrer	Arms race	...	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_arms_race
83	Will Ye No Come Back Again	Scottish folk	Scotland, Bonnie Prince Charlie	http://www.4shared.com/audio/bdcTsbFq/Will_Ye_No_Come_Back_Again_-_S.html http://www.4shared.com/audio/GsSs1Bi5/Will_Ye_No_Come_Back_Again_ORY.html	http://www.contemplator.com/scotland/willyeno.html
84	Winds Of Change	Klaus meane	The political changes in eastern europe	http://www.4shared.com/video/52M7XOci/Winds_of_Change.html	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_of_Change_(song)
85	Woodstock	Joni Mitchell	The Woodstock music and art festival	http://www.lyricsfreak.com/j/joni+mitchell/woodstock_20075381.html	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodstock_(song)
86	You Went The Wrong Way Old King Louis	Allan (sp?) Sherman	French revolution.	...	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution

Comments

[cariad3.livejournal.com]

Not modern history, but one of my favorites is The Mesopotamians by They Might Be Giants.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAMRTGv82Zo

[mynuet.livejournal.com]

No Schoolhouse Rock?

[cariad3.livejournal.com]

And DOH! You had it. But I linked to the video. :p

[kudilu.livejournal.com]

Tippecanoe and Tyler Too (i don't know the artist)

When Tenskwatawa Sings - Michael Longcor (http://www.ovff.org/pegasus/songs/when-tenskwatawa-sings.html is the best link i've got for it. If you can find a recording of the live version, he talks about the history of it for a bit before he sings). It's about the battle of Tippecanoe (like the above), but from the point of view of the natives)

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

::feels ignorant:: Was iss?

[mynuet.livejournal.com]

Schoolhouse Rock is a series of songs and videos that played on Saturday mornings wayway back. Basically, someone got the idea that his kid knew all the lyrics to the Rolling Stones, so maybe he'd learn school stuff if it was set to music.

The historical songs are centered on American history, but they have sets for science, math, and grammar. Milo loves them all.

The lyrics are all here.

No lie, The Preamble is how I actually remember the opening of the US Constitution. Interjections is probably my favorite - and, now that he heard a Schoolhouse Rock song from my computer, Milo is insisting on watching his absolute favorite of all time, Conjunction Junction.

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

Cool! Thank you! Will add it in :) :)