Name a Song about a Historical Figure

[suziko]

Tonight, while drinking a bottle of "Old Rasputin" Russian Imperial Stout, I found myself singing the Boney M. song "Rasputin" (see below). It's always been a favorite of mine, partly due to my educational background (Slavic Literature and Languages) and partly the fact that it's just a really great song. For anyone who doesn't know already who Rasputin was, he was a Russian mystic and advisor to the last Tsarina (Alexandra), who believed he could heal her son, Alexei, of his hemophilia. He was murdered in a fairly gruesome way (poisoned, shot, beaten and drowned). Setting aside the macabre background to this song, it's quite catchy and funny.

This got me thinking about other songs about historical figures. Without giving it much thought, I could come up with at least 5 other songs.

So, your task is: name a song about a historical figure!


Rasputin by Boney M.

[BigBear]

Sailing to Philadelphia by Mark Knofler. It's about Jeremiah Dixon and Charlie Mason the two English surveryors who recorded the Mason-Dixon line. Mason and Dixon were hired by William Penn and Charles Calvert to settle a dispute caused by Charles II.

The version with James Taylor is one of my favorite songs!

Cheers! :cheer:

[Lavallee]

That is a fun thread Suzi, I always like the Rasputin song.

Here is my suggestion : Mexican by Babe Ruth , talking about the Alamo (which I visited) with Houston , Crockett and Santa Anna.

Marc

[haoli25]

Good one Suzi. I came up with;

Abraham, Martin, and John - Dion Dimucci

Joan of Arc - Leonard Cohen

We Didn't Start The Fire - Billy Joel

[Lavallee]

haoli25 wrote:

Joan of Arc - Leonard Cohen

We Didn't Start The Fire - Billy Joel

Interesting sequence

Marc

[haoli25]

I was blazing! lol

[lueders]

Suziko, cool post! Rasputin, fascinating historical figure!

Here is my absolute favorite historical-figure type tune. It is hard to omit "Rexroth's Daughter" (by Greg Brown) about beat writer Kenneth Rexroth. "Man on the Moon" the REM song about comic Andy Kaufman is excellent. Johnny Horton's "Battle of New Orleans" though campy, is also great...but here is my favorite though...Chicago Indie Folk Artist JOE PUG:

"A Thousand Men" ~ Joe Pug

See Thomas Jefferson on the eve of Bunker Hill.
Writing words to die for.
Writing sentences to kill.

They've come to paint his portrait
So he grabs a chair and sits
As the surgeon orders cotton
For a thousand tourniquets.

~
For God and country...
For us and them.
Every good idea kills at least a thousand men...
At least a thousand men.
~

See the able-bodied Christian in a dark and savage land
Tellin' all those who will listen
That God was once a man.

Through needles eye so narrow.
He will lead them four by four.
He's got nine hundred shackles.
He needs at least a hundred more...

~
A thousand men.
A thousand men.
Every good idea kills at least a thousand men...
At least a thousand men.
~

See the able-bodied student in his laboratory coat.
Whispering calculations
Like prayer stuck in his throat.

Soon he will discover
Some flawless medicine.
But right now he needs an oven
That holds at least a thousand men.

~
Some are the means.
Some are the ends.
Every good idea kills at least a thousand men...
At least a thousand men.
~

One thousand one...
One thousand one...
Every man I know
Thinks that he's one thousand one.

Nine hundred nine...
His day is done.
Every man I know
Thinks that he's one thousand one.


...I know I'm one thousand one...

[Chasplaya]

The infamous Outlaws - The Eagles 'Dooling Daltons' about Bill Dalton and Bill Doolin

[TGNeil]

Ok, I' m hooked. An abridged list of folks mentioned or bio'ed by Al, in chronologic order as recorded, as best I can recall quickly.

Jesus
Warren Harding
Eisenhower
Nostradamus
Lord Grenville
Amy Johnston
Jean-Paul Marat
Thomas More
Robespierre
Napoleon
Josef Mengele
Merlin (Scottish, not related to King Arthur)
Henry Cisneros
Pandora
Clarence 'Frogman' Henry
Nikita Khrushchev
Ted Kennedy
Josephine Baker
Robert Scott
Ernest Shackleton
Helen of Troy
Paris
Cassandra
Peter the Great
Charlotte Corday
Charles Lindbergh
William Randolph Hearst
Marion Davies
Josef Stalin
Winston Churchill
Woodrow Wilson
Jean Louis Chave
Socrates
Ben Franklin
Max Immelman
Edward Lear
Lord Salisbury
Elvis Presley
William McKinley

...so much for the quick list!

Who can spot them all?

Anon

[songman52]

Hmmm ... how about Andy Jackson in "The Battle of New Orleans" by Johnny Horton or Otto von Bismarck (though it was really about the ship) in "Sink the Bismarck".
When I was about three years old I constantly sang the theme to "Davy Crockett".

Jerry