What’s the Historia, Morning Gloria?
Background: Many of my favorite songwriters are storytellers as well. Most of the songs I tend to enjoy are personal anecdotes, so I can get a glimpse into the life of the writer. But another subset of my favorite songs are ones that draw from historic events. The first two songs I’ll talk about will deal with the horrors of war, while the third will deal with political unrest. The fourth will discuss music history and how it affected history overall.
In a previous blog, we talked about character development, where an artist takes an existing character and takes creative liberties in song form. Of course it’s almost impossible for a writer to not have a biased point of view, or skew events a little, but things like Bob Dylan inserting himself onto the Mayflower in “Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream” are what I’m trying to avoid, as good as those songs are.
“8th of November” by Big & Rich
Lyrically: “8th of November” follows Big & Rich’s friend, Niles Harris, from the time he was drafted for the Vietnam War to present day, as “the battle still plays in his head.” The song focuses specifically on a battle during Operation Hump, which ended on November 8th, 1965. Throughout the operation, 49 American soldiers were killed, while around 400 Viet Cong soldiers were as well. There are many songs in country music that focus on nationalism, but this song focuses on the mental health behind a war. Yes, this operation was successful for the U.S. military, but there were around 450 lives lost as a result, and the song discusses how Niles honors his fallen brothers every year. And with so much opposition to the war on American soil, the line in the first verse discussing Niles “Just doing what he had to do” makes his grief all the more powerful — I’m sure he mourns the loss of life on the Viet Cong side as well.
Melodically: The song is written in A mixolydian, and uses a pattern of A, G, and D (the I, VIIb, and IV) throughout the whole song. However, at the end of the chorus (starting with “Saw the eagle fly…,” F and G (the VIb and VIIb) get played twice, before going back to the I, VIIb, IV pattern). In addition to guitar, a distinct violin part can be heard throughout the song. Electric guitar, bass guitar, and a synthesizer also fill out the instrumentals.
Structurally: The song uses a very interesting structure, compared to a lot of what was coming out in Nashville at the time of its release. Though there are only two verses throughout the song, the first verse contains three stanzas, which helps build up the tension. After the first chorus, there is another verse, containing two stanzas. This is followed by a second chorus, a solo, and a third chorus. After the third chorus, the ending kicks in, which is the first stanza from the first verse.
“8th of November” is embedded below.
2. Zombie” by the Cranberries
Lyrically: “Zombie” was written by Cranberries lead singer Dolores O’Riordan. It was based on a memory about the death of two children, aged 3 and 12, during The Troubles Conflict between Northern Ireland, under British control, and the Irish Republic Army (IRA). Their deaths occurred during a bombing in 1993, and O’Riordan visited the town shortly after. Her reaction to the aftermath and the town’s destruction is reflected in the song.
The thing that’s strikingly powerful about this tune is the line at the end of the verse that says, “But you see, it’s not me, it’s not my family” because there was a sense of horror, even though it was not people she was related to getting killed. The distinct line in the chorus, “It’s in your head, in your head” is so well-delivered, and not only is an earworm, but also shows the desperation and sadness, and is something that, even 30 plus years after the conflict sticks in our heads as an inescapable injustice.
Melodically: The song is written the key of E minor, using a i, VI, III, VIIb pattern of Em, C, G, D/F# in the intro, forming a perfect cadence into the verses, which use the same pattern, as does the chorus. The solo plays the same pattern twice, followed by Em, C, Em, C (a i, VI, i, VI pattern, also played twice), before going back into the main riff (played three times), and ending on Em, C, Em, C, Em, C, Em. The intro has a heavily distorted guitar, which disappears in the verses, but returns in the chorus. The verses are distinguished by the bassline that accompanies the vocals. Drums can also be heard all throughout.
Structurally: The song follows a verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo, chorus format. Though this song was inspired by a singular bombing, it actually takes the form of an example song, as the war had already been going on for 30 plus years at the time of writing. Each verse therefore focuses on another mother crying due to the death of her child. By changing up the part right before the chorus (which I still consider a verse, as the verses are short), it gives us a glimpse of some new information, while still giving us the powerful realization that it’s still the same old tragedy.
Closing Note: In one of my first blogs, I discussed how “Every Rose Has its Thorn” was initially rejected by the record label, but how Bret Michaels insisted it still go on. Dolores O’Riordan did the same thing with this song, and she was right — it went to number 3 in their home country and to number 1 on the Billboard Alternative Airplay Chart in the U.S. So write what you need to write, and people will listen!
“Zombie” is embedded below.
3. “The Death of Emmett Till” by Bob Dylan
Lyrically: While Dylan has many songs about historical events, he definitely has a tendency to take history into his own hands sometimes. But in listening to this song, he stays true to the story, and any details he leaves out, he even says, “They did some things too evil to repeat.” There are so many beautifully poetic and powerful lines in this song and I’ll break down my favorites by verse. In the first verse, he mentions the “screaming sounds in the barn” contrasted with the “Laughing sounds on the street.” In the second verse, he says that he was a “Black-skinned boy, so he was born to die.” In the third verse, he says the people on the jury “Helped the brothers commit the crime, this trial was a mockery but nobody seemed to mind.” The last two verses are a call to action, because although it happened in the past (albeit the recent past, as the earliest recording of this song was only 7 years after Till’s murder), there are still modern day lynchings that we turn a blind eye to. Dylan would revisit the theme of an unfair trial in “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” a few years later, but he definitely took some creative liberties there. With that said, the general message of Dylan’s protest songs still hold up 60+ years later, which says a lot about both his writing and our justice system.
Melodically/Structurally: The song uses a capo on the 3rd fret, and is in the key of C minor. It uses for the first line — Cm, Eb/Bb, F/A, Ab (i, III, IV, VIb); second line — Cm, Eb/Bb, F/A, G (i, III, IV, V); repeat first line chords; Cm, Eb/Bb, G, Cm (i, III, V, i). Instrumentally, the song just contains a guitar. Dylan used these sparse arrangements quite a bit in his early days, and it allowed for the lyrics to stand out more than they would have with a fuller arrangement (although he also did that to great effect after he went electric). The song contains all verses, of which there are seven. Since at least in Dylan’s eyes, this killing was so blatantly wrong, there’s no need for a chorus with a subjective take–instead, he opts to just tell the story in those seven verses and let us sit with what was done.
4. “American Pie” by Don McLean
Background: While deciding on the songs for this blog, I had to make a tough decision about “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” because although it’s based on a factual event, Mr. Lightfoot took some creative liberties for the sake of rhyming. And while Don McLean has smartly not broken down his masterpiece word by word, there are many interpretations of the songs that make a ton of sense to me and make me especially fun at parties when the topic inevitably comes up. Those interpretations will be my focus in the lyric section.
Lyrically: The song begins with the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and The Big Bopper. Though not completely fair to the blues musicians of the day, the death of these three stars was immortalized with the term “The Day the Music Died,” as it was pre-Beatles. The song then goes on to describe how life went on: From Don’s paper route as a kid to him being “a bronkin’ buck with a pink carnation and a pickup truck,” to the re-emergence of the blues (“Moss grows fat on a rolling stone”) to the change from rock n roll to folk music (“When the jester — Bob Dylan sang for the king and queen” and later saying that “While the king (Elvis) was looking down, the Jester stole his thorny crown.”) There are also multiple references to the Beatles — Lennon reading a book on Marx (a reference to John’s socialist leanings) and referring to them as a marching band (a nod to Sgt. Pepper), and them refusing to yield could refer to the Vietnam War protests that went on throughout the late 60s and early 70s. In that same verse, you have a reference to Dylan’s motorcycle accident (“The Jester on the sidelines in a cast”). You then have references to Kennedy’s assassination (“A generation lost in space,” as well as being one of the “Three men I admired most” who “Caught the last train for the coast” — the others being Bobby Kennedy and MLK), and a reference to the killing at Altamont during a Rolling Stones concert (“So come on, Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack Flash sat on a candle stick ‘cause fire is the Devil’s only friend”) before closing with references to Janis Joplin’s death (“I met a girl who sang the blues, and I asked her for some happy news, but she just smiled and turned away”) as well as the closing of the Fillmore West (“The Sacred Store”) which signaled the final nail in the coffin for music and innocence.
Melodically: The song is written in G major, and uses G, D, Em, Am, C, Em, and D, played twice, followed by Em, Am, played twice, followed by C, G, Am, C, and D, G, D, Em, C, and D, before ending on G, D, Em, C, D, and G. The chorus then uses G, C, G, D, played three times, followed by Em, A7, Em, and D7. In addition to acoustic guitar, there is also piano, clavinet, electric guitar, and drums.
Structurally: The song contains six verses, each containing three stanzas, and each verse has a chorus after it. The first verse and the last verse are slowed down, but follow the same chord structures, and similar starting and stopping patterns. In previous blogs, I have mentioned story songs, example songs, and hybrid songs. This is a great example of a hybrid song, as it tells a story from 1959 until 1971, but it all comes back to the central theme of the loss of innocence (“Miss American Pie”). So even though not everything is tied back to the death of Buddy Holly and company, everytime society loses something or someone important, it takes him back to the first time that happened, the day of the plane crash.
I know a lot of people like to bash this song, because it’s so arrogantly long, but once you realize the scope of poeticism necessary for writing it, you realize how necessary it is to be this long. If you had the single on vinyl, you had to flip it over in the middle of the song, just to hear the rest of it! I hope you get inspired to write something historic, as well.
“American Pie” is embedded below:
