What songs do you associate with specific historical events?

We of course associate specific songs with events in our own lives, but do you also associate particular songs with historical events that were happening at the time?

For example, whenever I hear EMF's Unbelievable, I immediately think of the Gulf War, because the song was a big hit during the build up to the Gulf War and during the war itself (or maybe I just remember it that way - I was 17).

Another example: I associate Jay-Z's H to the izz-O with 9/11, again because the song was big in New York just before 9/11. I was actually in Lower Manhattan on 9/11, and got to experience the whole nasty bag of it, but the night before, I met an friend for dinner and drinks, and the song came on in the bar, and we were groovin' to it:

H to the izz-O, V to the izz-A
Fo' shizzle my nizzle used to dribble down in VA
H to the izz-O, V to the izz-A
That's the anthem get'cha damn hands up
H to the izz-O, V to the izz-A
Not guilty ya'll got-ta feel me
H to the izz-O, V to the izz-A
That's the anthem get'cha damn hands UP!

For 9/11, for me, that's the anthem (get your damn hands UP)...

CCR's Fortunate Son and Hendrix's "All Along The Watchtower" the same.

...with a fabulous make-out session back in 1976! LOL. Sigh.

to gain world-historical importance...;-)

Came out the weekend after Bobby Kennedy's death

because Media Whores Online had a link to the song on its frontpage the day Wellstone died.

With Kent State, but that's a little too obvious.

TlalocW

When the Iranian hostages were released, I was getting ready for school (listening to WFBR, in Baltimore) when Johnny Walker made the announcement. Immediately he played "America" by Neil Diamond...and the words just seemed perfect for the occasion.

I also seem to remember that they played "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" by Tony Orlando and Dawn a lot.

Tim

It is a quick lesson in history.

http://www.teacheroz.com/fire.htm

Puts me in mind of Lincoln and/or the Civil War.


Either that or of Ken Burns.

Gordon Lightfoot's The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald comes to mind.

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they called 'Gitche Gumee'
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty.
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early.

The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most
With a crew and good captain well seasoned
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ship's bell rang
Could it be the north wind they'd been feelin'?

The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the captain did too,
T'was the witch of November come stealin'.
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the Gales of November came slashin'.
When afternoon came it was freezin' rain
In the face of a hurricane west wind.

When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck sayin'.
Fellas, it's too rough to feed ya.
At Seven P.M. a main hatchway caved in, he said
Fellas, it's been good t'know ya
The captain wired in he had water comin' in
And the good ship and crew was in peril.
And later that night when his lights went outta sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Does any one know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searches all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
If they'd put fifteen more miles behind her.
They might have split up or they might have capsized;
May have broke deep and took water.
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters.

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion.
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams;
The islands and bays are for sportsmen.
And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her,
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the Gales of November remembered.

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed,
In the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral.
The church bell chimed till it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call 'Gitche Gumee'.
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early!

Remember, we're doing songs that you associate with some historical event - and preferably one you lived through. As my examples show, the event need not be portrayed in the song...