More of that musical History bee from Genius.com, with links that don’t rely on Spotify, though they do count on YouTube. Not to be confused with the history of the musical.
Backwater Blues – Leadbelly — “About the Tennessee flood of 1926”
The Ballad Of Casey Jones – I couldn’t find the version by Wallace Saunders, so I settled on Johnny Cash, though LOTS of folks have covered this.– “About a 1900 train wreck in Mississippi and the engineer’s heroic death.”
The Ballad Of John And Yoko – The Beatles — “About John and Yoko’s marriage”
The Ballad Of John Axon – Ewan MacColl — “Called the British Casey Jones, Axon’s actions saved many lives in the 1957 train wreck”
Ballad Of The Alamo – Marty Robbins — “Folk story of the siege of the Alamo in 1836”
Ballad Of Sacco And Vanzetti – Joan Baez and Ennio Morricone. This is a three-part song stitched together. — “About a duo sent to the electric chair” on August 23, 1925
Ballad Of Spring Hill – Peter, Paul, and Mary — “about the Spring Hill mining disaster.” There were actually three disasters, in 1891, 1956, and 1958, in different mines near the town of Springhill in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia. The song refers to the latter.
Ballad Of Tim Evans (Go Down Ye Murderers) – Ewan MacColl — “About the 1949 Timothy Evans murder trial.” He was executed in March 1950
Not Conan
Barbarian – The Darkness — “About 9th-century Viking invasion”
The Battle Of Hampton Roads – Titus Andronicus — “From a naval technology view, this was the most important naval battle of the U.S. Civil War, between the Monitor and the CSS Virginia.” March 8, 1862
The Battle Of New Orleans – Johnny Horton — “About the Battle of New Orleans.” January 8, 1815, at the end of the War of 1812
Belfast Child – Simple Minds — “About the Enniskillen bombing.” 8 November 1987 in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. An IRA bomb exploded near the town’s war memorial. Eleven people (10 civilians and a police officer) were killed, many of them elderly, and 63 were injured.
Belsen Was A Gas – The Sex Pistols — “About the Nazis.” I assume this is about the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany. It became a refugee camp after it was liberated by the Allies in 1945.
The Big Three Killed My Baby – The White Stripes — “The struggle (and failure) of Preston Tucker to launch a new automobile company” c. 1948.
MY Addition: Biko – Peter Gabriel. About the black South African who protested against apartheid who died in police custody in 1977. Lyrics.
Birdland– Manhattan Transfer — “About the New York jazz club, Birdland, that operated from 1949 – 1965. Charlie (“Yardbird”) Parker reportedly named it.”
Ebony
Blackbeard’s Ghost – Chase Rice — “About a North Carolina ghost story stating you can see Blackbeard’s Ghost, the song also references Blackbeard’s death and journey in the state.” Edward Teach (or Edward Thatch) died on 22 November 1718.
Black Day In July – Gordon Lightfoot — “About 1967 Detroit Riot”
Black Friday – Steely Dan — “About the original Black Friday, 24 September 1869,” the collapse of the U.S. gold market
Blue Sky Mine – Midnight Oil –“About Workers at Wittenoom asbestos mines.” A tragedy in Western Australia.
Boston Tea Party – The Sensational Alex Harvey Band — “About the Boston Tea Party” December 16, 1773
The Boy In The Bubble – Paul Simon — “About the change that began in the 1980s from conventional wars to terrorism.”
Braes O’Killiecrankie – The Corries — “About the Battle of Killiecrankie in 1689” – a Scottish Jacobite victory
Brian Wilson – Barenaked Ladies — “About Brian Wilson’s struggles with mental health” – the Beach Boy
Brighter Than A Thousand Suns – Iron Maiden — “About The Manhattan Project,” the research and development undertaking during WWII that produced the first nuclear weapons
The British Are Coming – Weezer — “Using the American Colonies relationship with the King of England as a metaphor for the relationship between a father and son”
Burial Of Wild Bill – Captain Jack Crawford — “Bill Hickok was killed 2 August 1876 by a shot to the back of the head by Jack McCall while playing poker in a Deadwood, South Dakota saloon” Read by Francisco Castro Videla
Burke and Hare – The Scaffold — “About the Burke and Hare murders,” sixteen killings committed over a period of about ten months in 1828 in Edinburgh, Scotland
Burn On – Randy Newman — About the 1969 Cuyahoga River fire in Cleveland, Ohio
Bye Bye Badman – The Stone Roses — About the 1968 Paris riots
