Songs Based on Man-Made Intended Tragedies Quiz

Answer: Rob Zombie

Rob Zombie's third solo album produced "American Witch" released as the second promotional single at 3 minutes and 47 seconds, in the heavy metal/shock rock genre. Written by John Lowery, Rob Zombie, and Scott Humphrey, the lyrics hearken on the historical events in which twenty people, mostly women, were accused of witchcraft and executed: "We all pray for 20 innocents..." The music video featured live performance footage from various cities and some animation by David Hartman. The song reached number 12 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks.

Answer: "Birmingham Sunday" by Joan Baez

"Birmingham Sunday" was written by Richard Fariņa and performed by Joan Baez with a haunting, ethereal quality, It was interpreted as both a eulogy for the victims and a protest against the violence that took the lives of four young girls when the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, was bombed on September 15, 1963, by The Ku Klux Klan.

The four Black little girls were Addie Mae Collins (14), Denise McNair (11), Carole Robertson (14), and Cynthia Wesley (14), while 22 other people sustained injuries. From Ms. Baez's 1964 album "Joan Baez/5", the melody was based on a traditional Scottish ballad called "I Once Loved a Lass".

Answer: Ohio

"Ohio" was written by Neil Young when four students at Kent State University in Ohio were killed by the United States National Guard, on May 4th, 1970. The victims were Allison Krause, William Schroeder, Jeffrey Miller, and Sandra Scheuer. The May 15 issue of "Life" magazine showed the now world-famous photo of a wounded student lying on the ground, with another kneeling beside him crying out in anguish. Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young said that when Neil Young read the story and saw the photos, Young went into the woods, came back an hour later and played "Ohio" for David Crosby. Crosby assembled the other members of the group, and they recorded the song in Los Angeles on May 21. Neil Young regards it as the best song he's ever written for CSN&Y.

It's David Crosby's despairing vocals yelling out at the end "why?" and "how many more." After they completed the take in the studio, Crosby broke down and cried.

Answer: Sunday Bloody Sunday

"Out of Control" is from U2's 1979 debut album is about growing up and the impending loss of innocence. "Under a Blood Red Sky" is the title of U2's 1983 live concert album. "The Unforgettable Fire" is the title track from their 1984 album; the song was inspired by an exhibit at the Chicago Peace Museum showing artwork by Japanese victims of the Hiroshima bombing.
"Sunday Bloody Sunday" was inspired by the January 30, 1972, civil rights demonstration in Derry, North Ireland in which shooting into the unarmed crowd by British troops broke out.

Answer: Jonestown

The 1978 mass suicide at Jonestown involved an agricultural settlement in northern Guyana led by Peoples Temple cult leader Reverend Jim Jones.
"I will deliver
'Cos I'm your Reverend Charisma
And by amphetamine's end
We'll get to heaven."
The cult ended in tragedy when 918 members died after being led to drink a Kool-Aid drink laced with cyanide, the largest mass suicide in United States history, a "parade of lemmings marching toward the sea to commit a mass self-drowning."

Answer: Zombie

The song "Zombie", which had become a stadium anthem hit for The Cranberries, was spurred by the Irish Republican Army bombing in Warrington, Cheshire, England on March 30, 1993. 56 people were injured, and two children aged 3 and 12 were killed. "It's the same old theme since nineteen-sixteen" sang lead singer Dolores O'Riordan, referring to an April 1916 rebellion in Ireland known as the Easter Rising. The October 1994 music video for the song featured Dolores O'Riordan covered in gold makeup, as per her idea: "...I thought it was a nice idea. It was kind of an abstract thing."

Answer: Oklahoma City bombing, April 1995

"One hand
Reaches out
And pulls a lost soul from harm" sang Garth Brooks in "The Change", a song about
The Oklahoma City Bombing on April 19, 1995, at 9:02 AM. It was perpetrated by right-wing extremists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, and it destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing 168 people, including 19 children.
"Contraption made up of
Nuts and bolts creates the
New monster to burn your family tree down
Tick-tocking, times up now" sang Billy Talent, referencing the terrorists' Ryder rental truck filled with over 4,800 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, nitromethane, and diesel fuel mixture.
It was the largest terrorist attack on American soil up to that point.

Answer: "Rat Trap" by Boomtown Rats; and "Shoot It Out" by 10 Years

Although The Boomtown Rats did record "I Don't Like Mondays" in 1979, the grandaddy of all mass shooting songs, "Rat Trap" is about a boy named Billy who feels that he lives in a depressing town. And "Shoot It Out" by 10 Years is about the music business, and the pressures that bands are under.

Answer: "I Believe" by George Strait

"I Believe" by George Strait is actually about the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary school tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, in which a mentally disturbed 20-year-old murdered 20 children and six adult staff members. In 2002, Bruce Springsteen memorialized the September 11 World Trade Center attacks in his song about a fireman climbing the smoke-filled stairs of a Twin Tower after the plane flew into it. "The Rising" was the first song played during the "We Are One" concert, accompanied by a 125-member female choir. Neil Young wrote "Let's Roll" in response to the 9/11 attacks, titling the song on the words of passenger Todd Beamer who was on United Airlines Flight 93, and led his fellow passengers to battle the hijackers and prevent them from surely flying the plane into another highly populated, significant building.

Answer: "Enola Gay" and "Hiroshima Mon Amour"

The Enola Gay was the plane that dropped the atom bomb over Hiroshima in World War II. The plane was named after the plane's pilot's mother, Enola Gay Tibbets. The song "Enola Gay" by OMD was written by lead singer Andrew McCluskey:
"It's eight fifteen
And that's the time that it's always been
We got your message on the radio
Conditions normal and you're coming home"
Graham Bonnet, the lead singer of the band Alcatrazz, and guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen wrote the lyrics to "Hiroshima Mon Amour" inspired by Alain Resnais's 1959 film. That film is also about the bombs dropped on August 6 and 9, in 1945.
"Hiroshima Mon Amour
As we beg to be forgiven do you spit,
In our face and curse us all."