puffin wrote:Randy Newman's Burn On, Big River.

Yay!

Son Volt also has a shipwreck song: Sultana on American Central Dust:

The worst American disaster on water
The Titanic of the cold Mississippi was the Sultana

Hell was a better place that night
Titanic of the cold Mississippi was the Sultana

Vincent, by Don McLean is a good answer for most questions.

And if you're into Irish Rock, check out the Young Dubliners' version of The Foggy Dew.

He's A Friend of Mine --The Byrds

About the murder of JFK

RWoodward sez:

Vincent, by Don McLean is a good answer for most questions.

YES!!

Best song!!

I have always admired "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" by The Band as a poetic mix of military facts and storytelling.

I also am partial to "Frank and Jesse James" by Warren Zevon for mentioning Quantrill and reminding me how ugly things can get within a society under strain.

Nelson Mandela by The Special AKA. As a somewhat sheltered kid growing up in the rural midwest, it was the song that made me realize there was a whole world out there I knew absolutley nothing about.

Bruce Springsteen's "41 Shots (American Skin)"

Marty Robbins' "The Ballad of the Alamo"

dsmmrm wrote:"Lizzie Borden took an axe,
And gave her mother forty whacks,
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one."

Was that a song or just a limerick?

It's more of a nursery rhyme.

It's clearly not a limerick; it has one too few lines and the meter is wrong.

"The Ballad of Alfred Packer" by Phil Ochs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKYuJneq_sE

davep1 wrote:Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" complete with "27 8×10 color glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against us" . How much more historical can you get?

Mark Knopfler's "Done With Bonaparte", Napoleon and his disastrous march to/from Russia from the viewpoint of a French soldier. Mark even said in an interview that that song was fun for him to write because he got to do research on Napoleon's army. He wanted to determine that his narrator could have "Lost an eye at Austerlitz" and still have been serving when Bonaparte sent them to Russia.

Monty Python's Oliver Cromwell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b9KahZMOKM

Another Gordon Lightfoot song you missed was "Black Day in July" about the race riots in Detroit in the 60's. Instantly suppressed by the US Gov & media, it didn't show up again until 1993 in a multi disk compilation. Still not sure if it's available in the US yet.

If your going to say iron maiden then why not the albotros

AnniKat wrote:Mark Knopfler's "Done With Bonaparte", ....

You reminded me of another Knopfler song that is really quite poetic and historical, "Telegraph Road".

One of my favorite history songs (and favorite songs period) is 'The Last Resort' by the Eagles!. The story of how the West was Lost

Here are the lyrics:

"The Last Resort"

She came from Providence,
the one in Rhode Island
Where the old world shadows hang
heavy in the air
She packed her hopes and dreams
like a refugee
Just as her father came across the sea

She heard about a place people were smilin'
They spoke about the red man's way,
and how they loved the land
And they came from everywhere
to the Great Divide
Seeking a place to stand
or a place to hide

Down in the crowded bars,
out for a good time,
Can't wait to tell you all,
what it's like up there
And they called it paradise
I don't know why
Somebody laid the mountains low
while the town got high

Then the chilly winds blew down
Across the desert
through the canyons of the coast, to
the Malibu
Where the pretty people play,
hungry for power
to light their neon way
and give them things to do

Some rich men came and raped the land,
Nobody caught 'em
Put up a bunch of ugly boxes, and Jesus,
people bought 'em
And they called it paradise
The place to be
They watched the hazy sun, sinking in the sea

You can leave it all behind
and sail to Lahaina
just like the missionaries did, so many years ago
They even brought a neon sign: "Jesus is coming"
Brought the white man's burden down
Brought the white man's reign

Who will provide the grand design?
What is yours and what is mine?
'Cause there is no more new frontier
We have got to make it here

We satisfy our endless needs and
justify our bloody deeds,
in the name of destiny and the name
of God

And you can see them there,
On Sunday morning
They stand up and sing about
what it's like up there
They call it paradise
I don't know why
You call someplace paradise,
kiss it goodbye

IronDave wrote:You reminded me of another Knopfler song that is really quite poetic and historical, "Telegraph Road".

Yes, I thought of that and you are right, but Bonaparte is my one of my favorites.

"New York Mining Disaster 1941" by the The Bee Gees - song views the event from a trapped miner's point of view

"Sympathy For The Devil" by The Rolling Stones - song mentions some of the atrocities
that the devil made us do (but he states, "it was you and me").

"Biko" by Peter Gabriel

Billy Joel - We Didn't Start the Fire
Warren Zevon - Veracruz
Warren Zevon - Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner

Honestly, half of Zevon's work is at least somewhat historical in nature.

My personal favorite was always

Snoopy vs the Red Baron

Check out Scott Miller, a history man with a sense of humor and a talent for a wicked hook. "The Rain", "Dear Sarah", and "Highland County Boy" for Civil War. "Red Ball Express" and "The Only Road" for WW2.

Since someone brought up Stan Rogers, I'd like to add "Barrett's Privateers" (about privateering during the Revolutionary War) and "Northwest Passage" (about Franklin's attempt to find a northwest passage between the arctic ice cap and Canada).

Another historical folk song is "Cold Missouri Waters" about the Mann Gulch forest fire in Montana. This was also the subject of Norman MacLean's (author of A River Runs Through It) final book, Young Men and Fire.

"April 29, 1992 (Miami)" by Sublime. About the day of the riots from the fall out of the Rodney King trial. They got the date wrong, but the song captured a moment in time. Also, +1 for the Hurricane by Bob Dylan.

Oh yeah, and The Beasty Boys To the Five Boroughs song "An open letter to the NYC" about how NYC came together after 9-11. Love that one too.

EssenGrabow wrote:My personal favorite was always

Snoopy vs the Red Baron

+1

"Remember the Alamo" (written by Jane Bowers)
--
Recorded by Johnny Cash, The Kingston Trio and Donovan (not all at the same time).

"Remember the Alamo" (written by Jane Bowers)
--
Recorded by Johnny Cash, The Kingston Trio and Donovan (not all at the same time).

Is there an echo in here?

"PT-109" by Jimmy Dean (JFK's boat)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZZqnVYB4UA&feature=relmfu
Harry Chapin "30000 Pounds o9f Bananas"
This is the shorter video of the song.