<p>Please help if you can! I’m a high school US history teacher and this year as part of my professional growth plan I’m incorporating music in my lessons on a regular basis. Sometimes I use lyrics as historical texts and we analyze them as primary sources, and sometimes I simply play a song that is in some way at least loosely connected to the topics in the lesson. An example of this last type would be the Eagles’ “Witchy Woman” which I played while showing a little slide show of sketches of the Salem witch trials before we read excerpts from testimones, or Johnny Horton’s “Battle of New Orleans” for the War of 1812 (kids were singing that one for days!). And I have some good abolition, temperance movement, and Civil War songs (sheet music that I play on a portable keyboard while projecting lyrics).</p>
<p>I’d really like some suggestions of 20th century songs as historical texts–things I can actually find recordings of to play. Some I have used or plan to use include Billie Holliday’s “Strange Fruit,” a couple by Billy Joel, “Allentown” and “We Didn’t Start the Fire” as well as a good selection of 60s war protest/counter culture examples. </p>
<p>It’s a year-long survey course covering the colonial period to the present, the typical mile-wide, inch-deep curriculum that I regret but can’t change, and it seems to me that music is a means to help make parts of it more memorable. If you think of any songs that would be good additions, please post!</p>
<p>Where Have All the Flowers Gone? for WWI.
O Brother Where Art Thou? has some great songs that could be used in a US history class.
We Shall Overcome for the Civil Rights Movement.</p>
<p>It might be a cliche by now, but to cover the late 60’s protest/counterculture Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth.” Dion’s “Abraham, Martin & John”, for the asassinations of the Kennedy’s and Martin Luther King. John Lennon’s “Give Me Some Truth” for Vietnam/Watergate. Also, Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance” for Vietnam. Madonna’s “Material Girl” for the 80’s. These are just a few off the top of my head…good luck with the curriculum!</p>
<p>Are you familiar with Tom Lehrer? A lot of his songs were social commentary about the 1950s and early 1960s. Not many songwriters tackled subjects like “National Brotherhood Week,” the Atomic Energy Commission, the Mulitlateral Force (the “MLF Lullaby”), or global thermonuclear war.</p>
<p>Warron Zevon’s “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner” would be an interesting song to background the wars of African independence in the early-to-mid 1960s.</p>
<p>“Sixteen Tons” by Tennesse Ernie Ford for the Industrial Revolution (or you could use the opening scene of “Joe vs. the Volcano.”)</p>
<p>Renee - this is a great idea! My D is very active in National History Day, and has gone to the national competition twice. You would be amazed at how many projects incorporate music as you are suggesting (a documentary on “Strange Fruit” was one of the finalists last year - very powerful). A project from our school recently went to states about “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” (pretty recent history though). And there are tons of songs that come to mind from the Harlem Renaissance. I’ll try to think up some more for you. But in the meantime look at the titles of projects from the past few years at <a href=“http://www.nhd.org%5B/url%5D”>www.nhd.org</a></p>
<p>You know, when I saw Billy Joel live he told the crowd (before he dove into We Didn’t Start the Fire) that if he didn’t become a musician he would have been a history teacher…</p>
<p>Oh - (DUH!!) My D did a NHD project on Sacco and Vanzetti, and Woody Guthrie wrote a series of songs about that trial and other labor issues…more will come to me I’m sure…</p>
<p>Oh, so glad I asked! We’re on the labor movement right now. My mom’s grandpa was a Wobblie logger in western Oregon and Washington, and I have a little pamphlet of his with lyrics of IWW songs, but I don’t know any of the melodies. Mother Jones and “Coming 'Round the Mountain” will be added to tomorrow’s lesson. Thanks and keep the great suggestions coming!</p>
<p>If you are on the labor movement, you’ve got to include this one:</p>
<p>As we go marching, marching, in the beauty of the day,
A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray,
Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,
For the people hear us singing: Bread and Roses! Bread and Roses!</p>
<p>(There’s more verses)</p>
<p>The Judy Collins version is hauntingly beautiful.</p>
<p>Here’s some wiki info…that’s fairly accurate:</p>
<p>Someone just beat me to Which Side Are You On (written during Harlan County miners’ strike), but Smithsonian Folkways has great collections of labor songs:<a href=“eMusic”>eMusic; Joan Baez wrote a song about Sacco and Vanzeti (sp?)</p>
<p>Malvina Reynolds (most famous for “Little Boxes” about an early subdivision) wrote some songs pertinent to the Cold War and the 1950s and sixties.</p>
<p>Spanish Civil War Songs. My father always sang Los Quatros Generales, about the betrayal of Madrid.</p>
<p>You might also use songs that were part of history, rather than about it. The Internationale, for example. Recordings of the Soviet Army Choir. Deutchland Uber Alles. Don’t want to get you in trouble, though…</p>
<p>I’m a U.S. History teacher as well and like you, I try to incorporate music into my teaching whenever possible.</p>
<p>I have used Randy Newman’s Louisiana 1927 to teach about the attitude of the Republican presidents of the 1920’s. (not a political statement but rather an historical one)</p>
<p>I also have used The Grateful Dead’s Morning Dew for teaching about people’s fears of nuclear attack during the Cold War. </p>
<p>Other possibilities include Bob Dylan’s Talkin’ World War Three Blues
Marvin Gaye Mercy Mercy Me
CSNY Ohio
If you can find it Gil Scott Heron’s H2O Gate Blues
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised</p>
<p>Also, if you have access to Dear America: Letters from Vietnam the soundtrack is AMAZING!</p>
<p>James Taylor’s Millworker, about a New England textile worker, circa 1800s. That song was part of the score to Studs Terkel’s Working, which has songs about several professions.</p>
<p>“You might also use songs that were part of history, rather than about it. The Internationale, for example. Recordings of the Soviet Army Choir. Deutchland Uber Alles. Don’t want to get you in trouble, though…”</p>
<p>With the suggestions from you and other posters, I’ll be able to do both. To start my world history class last week, students learned to sing “Va, pensiero” from Verdi’s opera Nabucco and then learned why the premiere caused a sensation and how the story of the Babylonian captivity connected to Italian unification and led to shouts of Viva VERDI = Viva Vittorio Emmanuale Re d’ Italia. I couldn’t believe a group of tenth graders wanted to try to sing opera; I was just going to play it for them. And I use Deutschland Uber Alles–what a contrast between the first verse and the third, which is the anthem now: “Unity and law and freedom, the foundation for happiness.”</p>
<p>And WashDad, don’t worry, I don’t have enough time to overdose them on anything!</p>
<p>It’s so nice to have so many links to help me find things…thanks all!</p>