I came across this today – I like the TV show and wondered what the words to the title song were. And here it is – what clever chaps they are.
I know the Horrible Histories people have done some fantastic and historically accurate songs – but that’s their MO. I want actual pop songs where the band have decided to break from songs about love etc to explain photosynthesis, or global warming, or the Suez Crisis?
Chrisf says
Following similar theme, here are They Might Be Giants from their “Here Comes Science” CD…..
Pajp says
They Might Be Giants have form. There’s one called “Here Come the ABCs” as well.
Pajp says
How about this?
Jonathan Richman with Our Dog Is Getting Older Now. Not sure if it’s (potentially) educational or just maudlin. I incline to the latter
https://youtu.be/_BCY397EuKI
Fin59 says
Gordon Lightfoot
The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald
Kaisfatdad says
I’d never heard of Rosa Parks before I heard this very catchy song.
Neville Brothers – Miss Rosa
Mike_H says
Tiggerlion says
Randy Newman taught me everything I know. He is the lyrical equivalent of Count Basie, whose piano style is characterised not by the notes he plays, but by the notes he leaves out. With Randy, it’s not the words he sings but the ones he leaves out that are really educational.
For example, Dayton, Ohio – 1903
Kaisfatdad says
Route 66 is a useful geography lesson.
It was written by Bobby and Cynthia Troup when they drove west from Pennsylvania to California in 1946-
retropath2 says
Or, for a more scenic and roundabout route
Mike_H says
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOqjlRsUnBM
Skirky says
Folk’s got more form in this sort of thing, but I read up on Sacco and Vanzetti after hearing Christy Moore sing about them.
Skirky says
And who could forget “Early morning, April 4, shot rings out in the Memphis sky”?
*checks earpiece*
Oh.
Chrisf says
Or similarly “September 77, Port Elizabeth weather fine. It was business as usual in police cell 619”
Wayfarer says
Whover wrote this for Boney M – they taught us all we needed to know about Ra-Ra-Rasputin
Ditto Peggy, Elvis and countless others
Diddley Farquar says
The song Enola Gay made me aware for the first time of the name of the plane that dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima.
paulspud says
As well as the name of the bomb itself.
Mike_H says
Happier history
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7n-osm7xH8
(Young Tiger – I Was There)
Kaisfatdad says
Calypso is a wonderful genre for story telling. That marvellous song, London is the place for me, tells us a little of what it was like for the Windrush generation. Some of the British calypso jabs visited the US and wrote about the prejudice they encountered.
ianess says
The Floyd made me realise I didn’t need no educayshun..
Kaisfatdad says
Another history lesson from Young Tiger: Birth of Ghana. His joy at the Gold Coast becoming independent.
http://youtu.be/xEUML__amYw
Rigid Digit says
Maybe not “history” as such, but informed us of a recent event in the US involving gun massacre (oh, how times have changed?).
When you’re 9, the last thing you watch is the News. Bob and his mates told us what was happen in in the world.
Boomtown Rats – I Don’t Like Mondays
Rigid Digit says
Same subject matter, 9 years earlier
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Ohio
timtunes says
My son was so pleased when in history class someone actually asked how many people died at Kent State……
Kaisfatdad says
Songs can be invaluable for marriage counselling.
If you want to be happy
Rigid Digit says
Billy Joel gave a very brief run through of US History from World War 2 to the start of the Ninetie on “We Didn’t Start The Fire”
Uncle Mick says
Sparks comment on the post marriage malaise
Black Celebration says
Here’s an interesting thing – I have always liked the fact that the Human League wrote a song about the assassination of JFK (Seconds) and particularly the line “your knuckles white as your fingers curled – the shot that was heard around the world”. Until yesterday, I had thought that this was what people said about the JFK killing – “the shot that was heard around the world”. It certainly seems like it – as everyone from that time remembers clearly where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news.
But the origin is earlier than that. In the first nationally televised baseball game in 1951, the New York Giants scored a decisive home run right at the death – which was a sensational win. That was famously described to as “the shot that was heard around the world”.
And then we go back further – to 1837. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s poem “Hymn To Concord” recognising the heroics of those that fought there against the British.
“Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled/Here once the embattled farmers stood/And fired the shot heard round the world.”
You live and learn.
Tiggerlion says
Swot!
ganglesprocket says
GZA raps about science these days…
Bamber says
I had a proper argument about the Plagues of Egypt and IMHO won it against a Catholic priest, basing my knowledge totally on the classic Charlton Heston song by Stump…He questioned whether the Bible described the plague of boils as having been “the size of 50ps”.