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Songs about/inspired specific events (the story behind the song)

UTCzech III

By UTCzech III
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Hornius Emeritus

Hornius Emeritus 12491

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Jimmy Buffet wrote most of "Margaritaville" in Austin after being served a margarita at Lung's Cocina del Sur restaurant on Anderson Lane. He wrote most of the song that night at a friend's house in Austin and finished it while returning it to Key West. It's funny to hear Jimmy talk about it now. He says that he wrote it on a scrap of paper. He thought it was a throwaway lyric, something to just fill out an album, and says that if he'd had any idea what that song and that moment would mean for his career he would have been properly reverential.

I'm always struck by the randomness of history. What would have happened had Jimmy had whiskey sour that night? "Wasted away in whiskey sourville" just doesn't have the same ring.

But it's true: Margaritaville was written in Austin, as so many other good songs have been.

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Ignatius

Ignatius 4038

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On 4/2/2020 at 7:58 PM, Grandioso said:

Couple of Dylan masterpieces about black folks getting shit justice:

Hurricane

The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll

Both songs are totally awesome and rocked out on Rolling Thunder Revue (Bootleg Series Vol. 5). 

Hattie Carroll is the best of an album full of stellar versions of Dylan songs.  Apparently the antagonist in that song, William Zantziger, (shockingly) remained a total piece of shit his entire life.

Behind paywall:

Outside his circle of friends, Zantzinger did not like to draw attention. But he did in 1991 when he was indicted for collecting more than $64,000 in rent on properties he had not owned for more than five years. He lost the homes, described as rural shacks in the county’s Patuxent Woods subdivision, because of failure to pay taxes.

Nevertheless, Zantzinger continued to collect rent -- suing some when they did not pay and evicting others. He also raised the rent on the properties. The homes were located off a dirt road and lacked indoor plumbing.

In November 1991, Zantzinger pleaded guilty to 50 misdemeanor counts of unfair and deceptive trade practices.

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Hornius Emeritus

Hornius Emeritus 12491

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The song:
 

 


In the melting snows of Ontario
Where the wind'll make you shiver
It was the month of May up in Georgian Bay
Near the mouth of the Musquash River
Where the bears prowl and the coyotes howl
And you can hear the osprey scream
Back in '99 we were cutting pine
And sending it down the stream
Young Sandy Gray came to Go Home Bay
All the way from P.E.I.
Where the weather's rough and it makes you tough
No man's afraid to die
Sandy came a smilin', Thirty Thousand Islands
Was the place to claim his glory
Now Sandy's gone but his name lives on
This is Sandy's story
Young Sandy Gray lives on today
In the echoes of a mighty yell
Listen close and you'll hear a ghost
In this story that I tell, boys
This story that I tell
Now Sandy Gray was boss of the men who'd toss
The trees onto the shore
They'd come and go till they'd built a floe
100, 000 logs or more
And he'd ride 'em down toward Severn Sound
To cut 'em up in the mills for timber
And the ships would haul spring summer and fall
Till the ice came in December
One Sabbath Day big Sandy Gray
Came into camp with a Peavey on his shoulder
With a thunder crack he dropped his axe
And the room got a little bit colder
Said, "Come on all you, we got work to do
We gotta give 'er all we can give 'er
There's a jam of logs at the little jog
Near the mouth of the Musquash River"
With no time to pray on the Lord's day
They were hoping for God's forgiveness
But the jam was high in a troubled sky
And they set out about their business
They poked with poles and ran with the rolls
And tried to stay on their feet
Every trick they tried, one man cried
"This logjam's got us beat!"
But Sandy Gray was not afraid
And he let out a mighty yell
"I'll be damned, we'll break this jam
Or it's breakfast in hell, boys
Breakfast in hell!"
Now every one of the men did the work of ten
And Sandy scrambled up to the top
He is working like a dog heaving 30 foot logs
And it looked like he'd never stop
They struggled on, these men so strong
Till the jam began to sway
Then they dove for cover to the banks of the river
All except for Sandy Gray
Now with thoughts of death they held their breath
As they saw their friend go down
They all knew in a second or two
He'd be crushed or frozen or drowned
They saw him fall and they heard him call
Just once and then it was over
Young Sandy Gray gave his life that day
Near the mouth of the Musquash River
But Sandy Gray was not afraid
And he let out a mighty yell
"I'll be damned, we'll break this jam
Or it's breakfast in hell, boys
Breakfast in hell!"
East of Giant's Tomb there's plenty of room
There's no fences and no walls
And if you listen close you'll hear a ghost
Down by Sandy Gray Falls
Through the tops of the trees you'll hear in the breeze
The echoes of a mighty yell
"I'll be damned, we'll break this jam
Or it's breakfast in hell"
And Sandy Gray lives on today
And he let out a mighty yell
"I'll be damned, we'll break this jam
Or it's breakfast in hell, boys
Breakfast in hell!"

 

The story that Inspired it:


https://umaine.edu/folklife/what-we-do/programs-and-events/maine-song-and-story-sampler-map/places/baring-breakfast-in-hell/

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HiggyBaby

HiggyBaby 2548

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Fastball - The Way

Wiki:

Fastball front man Tony Scalzo came up with the idea for the song after reading articles which described the June 1997 disappearance of an elderly married couple, Lela and Raymond Howard from Salado, Texas,[2] who left home to attend the Pioneer Day festival at nearby Temple, Texas, despite Lela's Alzheimer’s and Raymond recently recovering from brain surgery. They were discovered two weeks later, dead, at the bottom of a ravine near Hot Springs, Arkansas, hundreds of miles off their intended route.[3][4]

About the song, Scalzo said that "It's a romanticized take on what happened" - he "pictured them taking off to have fun, like they did when they first met."[citation needed]




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