I had a really great time making this mix and, it's weird to type it out loud but, I kind of learned things from it. Like, academically relevant things. Who'da thunk, right? But seriously, I actually reeeaaaalllly love music about historical events and figures. You learn things, you get to spazz out to great music and then you can dazzle your fellow nerds with totally random facts from scattered moments in history. It's a win win WIN! So, without further ado, I present to you my mix tape of KNOWLEDGE!!!
1. "Kid Charlemagne" by Steely Dan
What can I say, I love Steely Dan! Now, when I first saw the title of this song, I remember thinkin, "pshhh, no brainer, it's about KING Charlemagne". And then I was like, "Why the hell would anyone write a song about King Charlemagne?" And then I listened to the song and was all "ohhhhhhhhhhh." Basically, this song is about this infamous LSD chemist and dealer who lived in San Francisco, named Owsley Stanley. WOAH WOAH WOAH, don't freak out! It's not encouraging drugs or anything, it's just telling the story of this guy in a super awesome way. Steely Dan is just an incredible band when it comes to song lyrics. :) And the lyrics to this song are really great with all these obscure references to bits of Owsley's history that almost no one is actually going to understand. If you want to fully comprehend it, I suggest seeing if it has a wikipedia page or something. Actually, never mind. Wait a minute....
Here ya go. (<---CLICK ON IT!!)
2. "Pearl's Eye View" by Nanci Griffith
This is the song that made me want to make a collection of history themed music! It's the story of this Vietnam photographer named Dickey Chapelle. She was one of very few female war photographers of the time and (spoiler alert!) the first to be killed in action. :'( It's called "Pearl's Eye View" because she was known for wearing pearl earrings while she worked. My dad was the one who played it for me for the first time, only I listened to the Kennedys' version, and I remember it was the coolest song ever because I actually learned all this really awesome stuff about this amazing photographer I'd never heard of before! Nanci Griffith also has such a unique voice and the song is really well written and it's got this great energy even when it gets really sad. Returning to Dickey Chapelle, she was killed when hit by flying shrapnel from a land mine that another soldier up ahead stepped on. Another photographer who was with her actually got a photo of her receiving her last rights while dying. This is it:
Yup. Sad stuff. :'( But the song is peppy even though the content is sad so... that's good.
3. "Sunday Bloody Sunday" by U2
I love this song. There's a reason it's one of U2's biggest hits! It always pulls this really weird emotional response from me. I know it's cheesy, but it's true. It's just so beautiful and sad, you know? It has a lot of great harmonies and a really powerful beat. In case you don't know, it's a song that U2 wrote about the Bloody Sunday deaths in Ireland, where British troops fatally shot a bunch of unarmed protestors. If you haven't heard this song... well then you need to. It's one of the best protest songs ever, in my humble opinion. And, hehe, it's also really fun to sing cause it makes you feel all deep and epic. "SUUNDAAAAY BLOODAY SUNNDDAAAY!!!" Doesn't that just make you feel cool?
4. "99 Red Balloons"/"99 Luftballons" by Nena
This is a song by a German group called Nena. So puurrttyyy... And I love the original German version.. even though I don't understand a word of it. But hey, listen to the English one and then you know what's going on so it doesn't matter! I decided to include this song a) because it's a protest song about the Cold War and b) because it references Star Trek <3. Even in the German version!!!
"Everyone's a superhero,
Everyone's a Captain Kirk."
I also think her voice is really nice and I love her German-y English. :)
5. "Machine Gun" by Jimi Hendrix
I LOVE Jimi Hendrix. Honestly, who doesn't? My mom, that's who. Anyways, this song is just.... indescribable. It's also about the Vietnam war. It has this really amazing feel. Like, I actually feel like I'm in the thick of it all when I listen to it. I think it just captures the feeling of the war in this awe-inspiring way that's really hard to articulate. It's one of those songs where words really aren't that necessary either. You don't need them to explain what you're trying to convey, cause the instrumental does it all. But the lyrics that Jimi does have are really.... BOOM. I'm out of words so I'm just gonna use that sound effect. The drums also sound like machine guns btw, so if you play this really loud, I'm warning ya so you don't have a heart attack. There are also these really eerie, sort of ghostly "ooooh-ooooh"s that go on later in the song that sound like sirens and all of this back-up vocal stuff happening and it's just something you HAVE to listen to first hand. So listen to it! It'll change you! Or not. WHATEVER.
Here's a little taste, lyrics-wise:
"...Machine gun, tearing my, tearing my body all apart..."
"...Evil men make me kill ya, evil men make you kill me..."
"...So I pick up my axe and fight like a farmer... But your bullets keep cutting me down just the same, just the same..."
6. "Rasputin" by Boney M.
I thought I'd include this just to balance out all the angst and violence of the last song. Don't worry, this one is also about history... which means it's also got plenty of death and stuff, it's just sung in a happier, peppier fashion. ;) This song was a disco hit from 1978, by a German-based pop group called "Boney M.", about a mystic named "Grigori Rasputin" who was an advisor to Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. It's sort of just this musical biography that talks about him being a playboy and a "healer" and a big political figure all at the same time. In the end it describes his demise, but all in a really funky, disco-y way. There's this really deep guy's voice singing part of it, and a woman singing the other part and it's all very dramatic and rhythmic and awesome. Great for dancing and studying Russian history. ;) I actually learned a lot about Rasputin through this song which is really cool! :D It also reminded me of something. There's an apartment building really close to my house with this big neon sign that says "Rasputin" above the door!!! Crazy, right? Does that word mean something in Russian (other than a last name)?? Hmmm. I also like the last line: "Oh, those RUSSIANS...."
7. "Cortez the Killer" by Neil Young
Neil Young is what I listen to when I feel like relaxing and pondering the mysteries of the universe. This song really sobers me up, you know? What I mean is it puts me in a very thoughtful, reflective mood. It also makes me feel sad for all those Indians we killed with our Small Pox infested blankets... And Conquistadores, of course. Which is the subject of this song! (duh.) It's about the conquistador "Hernan Cortez" and how he killed Montezuma and the Aztecs :( But it's very beautiful, so I think you should listen to it despite it's high sadness factor. And come on. It's Neil Young...
8. "We Didn't Start The Fire" by Billy Joel
This is a more fast-paced and energizing way to end this mix! It's kind of awesome. It's basically just a huge mesh of all the big events and celebrities and discoveries from 1949 to 1989. Kind of what you'd play for someone who had just woken up from a comma and missed the last 62 years (of course then you'd have to find another way of covering the 22 years after 1989). I think one of the messages that he's trying to convey here is that the Baby Boomer generation (of which he's a part of) isn't solely responsible for all the problems in the world, because I think that at the time, people were very prone to blaming it on them poor boomers of babies! But I could just be crazy.
I hope you learned a little bit from this educational mix tape! Mind you, ya need to actually listen to the songs to really soak in all the information. So be gone!!! Scurry off and learn from the musical world! (May I recommend Spotify? It is really fantastic, you can just connect through facebook and listen to free, legal music w/ barely any ads. I was kind of skeptical at first but I have since had to eat all my doubts because Spotify is awesome.)
If you're not interested in Spotify though, here are some YouTube links:
Couldn't find Pearl's Eye View on YouTube! :(
For some reason I haven't been getting emails from your blog? Idk why but it worries me.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, it was fun to read a bunch of posts at once =)