Top 10 Songs Inspired By Historic Events

WatchMojo

From history books to your ears! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’ll be counting down the greatest songs that drew inspiration from, or directly retold, important historical events.

Transcript

00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we'll be counting down the greatest songs that drew

00:13inspiration from, or directly retold, important historical events.

00:2810.

00:29April 29th, 1992 – Sublime We know what you're thinking, isn't he

00:40singing April 26th, 1992 in the song?

00:44That is correct.

00:46The story goes like this.

00:48Bradley Knoll sang the wrong date while recording the song, but he and his bandmates were so

00:52happy with the take, they just decided to keep it.

01:02The song commemorates the 1992 Los Angeles riots that took place following the acquittal

01:08of the four officers involved in the assault of Rodney King.

01:11Despite getting the date wrong, this song captured the spirit of righteous indignation

01:16felt by LA residents, who came together as a destructive force, transcending race, to

01:23voice a collective anger in response to the verdict.

01:299.

01:35Hurricane – Bob Dylan

01:45The year was 1966, and Reuben Hurricane Carter's boxing career had hit a rough patch.

01:51After a series of defeats, his career was up against the ropes.

01:55The career-ending blow came outside the ring, however, when he was arrested for a triple

02:00homicide, a crime for which he was convicted on, despite little evidence.

02:13Maintaining his innocence throughout his incarceration, he remained wrongly imprisoned

02:18until 1985.

02:19Roughly halfway through his sentence, Bob Dylan wrote what would become one of his most

02:24famous songs, Hurricane, after meeting Carter and his supporters.

02:28The song showed unabashed support for the boxer, calling out the overt racial profiling

02:34behind the arrest and conviction.

02:438.

02:47Cities in Dust – Suzie and the Banshees

02:58Nowadays, when someone hears the word Pompeii, the hit song by Bastille might come to mind.

03:12But nearly two decades earlier, Suzie and the Banshees paid homage to the city of Pompeii,

03:17its destruction, rediscovery, and excavation in their song Cities in Dust, which served

03:23as the first single off their seventh studio album, Tinderbox.

03:27Who is better, or catchier, is up for debate, but there's no denying that Suzie and the

03:33Banshees paid their respects to this doomed city and its petrified citizens more directly

03:38than the contemporary indie pop rockers of Bastille.

03:49The video features lava flows and the fossilized remains of people that have made this historical

03:54site so unique and haunting.

04:027.

04:06I Don't Like Mondays – The Boomtown Rats

04:16Written by Bob Geldof, this song explores the senseless act of violence committed by

04:2116-year-old Brenda Spencer, who carried out a shooting at a San Diego elementary school

04:26in 1979.

04:34She killed the principal and the custodian, additionally wounding eight children and a

04:39police officer.

04:40When asked why she did it, she replied, I don't like Mondays.

04:44This livens up the day.

04:46Geldof and his bandmates, the Boomtown Rats, performed the new song less than a month later.

04:59It resonated so well with fans both in the UK and on their US tour that it was released

05:04as a single rather than the B-side they initially imagined.

05:146.

05:17Smoke on the Water – Deep Purple

05:29It's a true classic and contains one of the most recognizable guitar riffs ever played.

05:35In fact, we ranked it as the fifth greatest guitar riff of all time.

05:47For years, the popular song kept people asking what the song meant.

05:51However, as John Lord explains, it simply recounts their failed attempt to record at

05:56the closed Montreux Casino during its winter renovations.

06:06A flare was set off during the final live performance of the season, which resulted

06:10in the entire casino complex burning to the ground.

06:13They recorded elsewhere, but the image of the casino smoke creeping across the water

06:17of Lake Geneva was an image that stuck with bassist Roger Glover.

06:265.

06:29Zombie – The Cranberries No, it's not about a zombie apocalypse.

06:44Sadly, this song, named after a fictitious monster, documents the all-too-real horrors

06:50of the bomb attacks perpetrated by the Irish Revolutionary Army in the early 90s.

06:56Written by the Cranberries while on their 1993 tour, it specifically commemorates the

07:01death of two young boys, Jonathan Ball and Tim Berry, killed by one of two bombs set

07:07off in Warrington, England that same year.

07:18The song was uncharacteristically grim and heavy for the band, but was nonetheless released

07:24as the lead single for their second album.

07:26Its powerful lyrics and music earned the band a Best Song award at the 1995 MTV Europe Music

07:33Video Awards.

07:404.

07:44The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald – Gordon Lightfoot

07:54Gordon Lightfoot has often been called Canada's greatest songwriter.

07:59The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is a heart-wrenching, six-and-a-half-minute ballad that tells the

08:03tragic story of a massive freighter ship that sank on Lake Superior in 1975.

08:17Traveling from the Duluth, Minnesota area to Detroit, she was caught in a heavy storm,

08:22which brought with it hurricane-level winds and waves up to 35 feet in height.

08:27The last communication from the ship came at 7.10pm on November 10th.

08:31It read, we are holding our own.

08:33Minutes later, she sank, taking all 29 men aboard with her.

08:433.

08:46Ohio – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young The 1970s may very well have been the golden

08:59age of protest songs.

09:02On May 2nd, 1970, the Ohio Army National Guard was called to quell a student demonstration

09:07that had turned violent.

09:09On May 4th, a day that would go on to be remembered as the Kent State Massacre, things turned

09:15deadly.

09:17The guards opened fire on a group of students, killing four and wounding nine.

09:21This elicited a number of musical reactions from artists such as Steve Miller Band, The

09:26Beach Boys, and Bruce Springsteen.

09:29Despite being banned on various AM stations, Ohio became the counter-culture anthem following

09:35the event.

09:422. Sunday, Bloody Sunday – U2 Pride in the name of love might have been met

09:58with mixed critical reception at the time of its release, but over the years, it has

10:03aged relatively gracefully.

10:14The reality is, try as he might, Bono could never sing about American civil rights nearly

10:19as successfully as he did the conflict in Northern Ireland on the track Sunday, Bloody

10:24Sunday.

10:25The song refers to not only one, but two Bloody Sundays.

10:30On January 30th, 1972, British paratroopers opened fire on unarmed civil rights demonstrators,

10:37which took place in 1920 and again in 1972.

10:42In the lyrics, Bono laments the loss of life resulting from the long history of Irish-British

10:47conflict in Ireland.

10:48It's considered one of their greatest songs.

11:00Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

11:041.

11:05Run to the Hills – Iron Maiden Laments the violence of European colonization

11:10in North America 2.

11:21Joan of Arc – Leonard Cohen Tells the tragic tale of this heroic French

11:26figure's fiery end 3.

11:38Spanish Bombs – The Clash Reflects on the Spanish Civil War

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12:061.

12:08American Pie – Don McLean The artist behind the song and his refusal

12:20to discuss the lyrics and their meaning are almost as famous as the song itself.

12:25There's no denying that the day the music died is a direct reference to one of the greatest

12:31losses in musical history.

12:39McLean has gone on record admitting that the first verse of the song was an exercise in

12:43expressing his long-stewing grief over the death of Buddy Holly and that fateful plane

12:48crash that also took the lives of Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson Jr.

12:53But this song, in all its poetic nuance, is truly a series of snapshots.

12:58A sprawling pastiche of American popular culture and its landscape in the years following

13:04that 1959 accident.

13:14Do you agree with our list?

13:16Here are some of your favorite songs inspired by historical events.

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