Making history catchy...

M

mountainhare

Banned
Banned
I was listening to an old song in my archive, called "Sink the Bismarck" by Johnny Horton. It's quite a catchy song, and it's educational.

Does anyone else know of good songs which are educate the listener on historical events?
 
Well, one of the most famous historical songs has to be G W Hunt's music hall song from the time of the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78 that gave the world the word "Jingoism".
We don't want to fight,
But by Jingo if we do,
We've got the ships,
We've got the men,
And got the money too.
We've fought the Bear before,
And while we're Britons true,
The Russians shall not have Constantinople.
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But it's only educational if it encourages you to find out what it was all about.

And of course, it is due to a song that we all know what Hitler had only one of! :D
 
Also by Johnny Horton
North to Alaska about the gold rush.
Battle of New Orleans about a battle in the War of 1812. ( personal favorite )
 
Does anyone else know of good songs which are educate the listener on historical events?
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Don't know about songs but it ssure is hard to teach history to people these days. Lets face it unless heads are being severed or people roasting in hot liquids history is boring. I tought African History once, harder than teaching maths. Take Nigeria for example there is an ancient culture called the Nok (500 B.C.E), which developed to what we call Nigeria today. Many Africans have no idea of this much less high school kids.
 
Try all four verses of the Star Spangled Banner. Take each line and explain it to give a good impression of what happened and how a man who was as uninterested in the war as Francis Scott Key was ended up writing what became our national anthem.

Iron Maiden does quite a few songs based in history, such as "The Trooper", which illustrates a scene from I believe the Crimean War. "Paschendale" which tells the horrific story of the fighting at that place in WW1. "Aces High" is about WW2 air combat (Spitfires, I believe, or Hurricanes). There are plenty more.

Steve McDonald's albums "Sons of Sommerled" and "Stone of Destiny" are all about the history of the highland clans of Scotland, Joan Baez's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" is about the Reconstruction, and to add some more by Johnny Horton: "Johnny Reb", "Comanche", and "Jim Bridger".

Jim Bridger

Once there was a mountain man who couldn't write his name,
But he deserves a front row seat in history's Hall of Fame.
He forgot more about the indians than we will ever know;
He spoke the language of the Sioux, the Blackfoot and the Crow.

(chorus)
Let's drink to Old Jim Bridger, yes lift your glasses high,
As long as there's a USA don't let Jim's memory die.
That he was makin' history never once occured to him,
But I doubt if we'd have been here if it weren't for men like Jim.

Jim spoke with General Custer and said "Listen, Yellow Hair.
The Sioux here are a great nation, so treat 'em fair and square.
Sit in on their war council, don't laugh away their pride."
But Custer didn't listen; at Little Big Horn Custer died.

(chorus)
Let's drink to Old Jim Bridger, yes lift your glasses high,
As long as there's a USA don't let Jim's memory die.
That he was makin' history never once occured to him,
But I doubt if we'd have been here if it weren't for men like Jim.

I included the lyrics because the song can be a little hard to get hold of. Of course, the Civil Rights movement produced many songs about the times, and not all of them were "We Shall Overcome". I have a disc with some songs that just wouldn't make it on the radio today for some reason. Might be the lyrics. (WARNING: THESE TITLES ARE OFFENSIVE TO MOST MODERN SENSITIVITIES) "Move Them Niggers North" and "Nigger Hatin' Me" were two songs that came up on a CD a friend of mine gave me without telling me what was on the disc.

Also look for "Four Dead In Ohio", "The Night Chicago Died", "Remember Pearl Harbor", "Bomb Iran" (which was more of a novelty song, but said a lot about the frustrations of the American public at Carter's handling of the hostage situation), and more recently "Let's Roll" by Neil Young.

There are tons more, but I'm kind of "songed out" right now.
 
After the turn of the century
In the clear blue skies over Germany
Came a roar and a thunder men have never heard
Like the scream and the sound of a big war bird

Eins, zwei, drei, vier ....

Up in the sky, a man in a plane
Baron von Richthofen was his name
Eighty men tried and eighty men died
Now they're buried together on the countryside

Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or more
The Bloody Red Baron was rollin' out the score
Eighty men died tryin' to end that spree
Of the Bloody Red Baron of Germany

Left, two, three, four ....

In the nick of time, a hero arose
A funny-lookin' dog with a big black nose
He flew into the sky to seek revenge
But the Baron shot him down "Curses, foiled again!"

Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or more
The Bloody Red Baron was rollin' out the score
Eighty men died tryin' to end that spree
Of the Bloody Red Baron of Germany

Now, Snoopy had sworn that he'd get that man
So he asked the Great Pumpkin for a new battle plan
He challenged the German to a real dogfight
While the Baron was laughing, he got him in his sight

That Bloody Red Baron was in a fix
He'd tried everything, but he'd run out of tricks
Snoopy fired once and he fired twice
And that Bloody Red Baron went spinning out of sight

Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or more
The Bloody Red Baron was rollin' out the score
Eighty men died tryin' to end that spree
Of the Bloody Red Baron of Germany

Well, ten, twenty ....

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...rty9CA&usg=AFQjCNEN4giY_txpfe0rtbTbH2soJyNCcg
 
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