New Wave Outpost Forum

by **glokstadt** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 2:44 am

Was just thinking about some of the songs I like/love listening to, and realized some of them were composed in reaction to real life events in the news or history. Which ones do you remember?

The ones I remember off the top of my head:

O. M. in the D. - Enola Gay/88 Seconds in Greensboro
The Boomtown Rats - I Don't Like Mondays
U2 - Sunday Bloody Sunday/The Unforgettable Fire
Depeche Mode - Tora! Tora! Tora!
The Clash - Guns of Brixton/Spanish Bombs/English Civil War
The Specials - Ghost Town
Siouxsie & The Banshees - Hong Kong Garden
Midnight Oil - Short Memory
Madness - (Waiting For) The Ghost Train

Which ones do you recall or know of??? [?]

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by **Retro_NRG** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 3:19 am

Artists Against Apartheid - Sun City
BAD - James Brown
Siouxsie & The Banshees - Cities In Dust
Simply Red - Money's Too Tight To Mention
The Human League - The Lebanon
U2 - Pride (In The Name of Love)
Ultravox - Reap The Wild Wind (more applicable to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDspWsK_-vQ" target="blank">the music vid</a>)

<MARQUEE><h5>Moving @The Speed of Life</h5></MARQUEE>

by **Frau_Blucher** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 3:20 am

Cool topic.

Angel & the Reruns - Buffy Come Back
Midnight Oil - Kosciusko
The Clash - Straight to Hell
Dead Kennedys - Holiday in Cambodia
Stiff Little Fingers - Alternative Ulster
The Untouchables - Lebanon
The Human League - The Lebanon
The Human League - Seconds
Siouxsie & the Banshees - Israel
Morrissey - Last of the Famous International Playboys
OMD - Georgia (I think?)
The Fixx - Stand or Fall (though a bit vaguely)
Split Enz - Six Months In a Leaky Boat (if you believe the Falklands rumors)

[ack, didn't see the previous Lebanon post]

by **wherewereuin82** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 3:30 am

Two that come to mind straight off (and I'm sure more will come)

Angelic Upstarts - Murder Of Liddle Towers
The Cranberries - Zombie

See that didn't take long,

The Adverts - Gary Gilmour's Eyes

by **KYYX4ever** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 2:31 pm

I recall reading somewhere a long time ago that New Order's "Blue Monday" was about the Falkland Islands war.

*goes off to look into it*

by **Retro_NRG** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 4:12 pm

[quote][i]Originally posted by KYYX4ever[/i]
<br>I recall reading somewhere a long time ago that New Order's "Blue Monday" was about the Falkland Islands war.
[/quote]The 1st minute of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niCfmQajoh0" target="blank">the video</a> definitely has a smattering of some Falklands War imagery (amongst others).

<MARQUEE><h5>Moving @The Speed of Life</h5></MARQUEE>

by **Spindlebrook** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 11:36 pm

[quote][i]Originally posted by Blir[/i]
<br>Cool topic.

Midnight Oil - Kosciusko

[/quote]

Pretty much any Midnight Oil song will apply here.

I nominate "Dark Parade" by The Comsat Angels, a song about the failed hostage rescue mission in Iran back in 1980.

by **oldwaver** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 12:34 am

"Jimmie Jones" - The Vapors

Referring to Jim Jones, cult leader who led a mass suicide in 1978.

by **Judas101** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 2:06 am

Political (depeche) Mode:

Question of Time
Master & Servants
New Dress
People are People
John the Revelator
Flies on the windscreen

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by **schwenko** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 2:24 am

[quote][i]Originally posted by oldwaver[/i]
<br>"Jimmie Jones" - The Vapors

Referring to Jim Jones, cult leader who led a mass suicide in 1978.
[/quote]

It was thirty years ago today....[^]

by **gspot** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 6:36 am

The Chameleons - Here Today (death of John Lennon)

by **Violent Pacification** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 12:48 pm

"Soviet Snow" Shona Laing

by **KYYX4ever** » Sat Nov 22, 2008 2:52 am

Latin Quarter - Radio Africa

by **club80** » Sat Nov 22, 2008 5:16 am

"How Does It Feel (To Be The Mother Of 1,000 Dead)?" by Crass was about The Falklands War and actually resulted in a lawsuit from the U.K. government against Crass and their record company.

Also,
Glad I'm Not A Kennedy - Shona Laing
John Hinckley Jr - Ism
When The Oil Runs Out - Newtown Neurotics
I'm In Love With Margaret Thatcher - Notsensibles

We didn't sell a lot of records, but somehow we left an impression.
-Johnny Ramone-

by **oldwaver** » Sat Nov 22, 2008 6:25 am

[quote][i]Originally posted by gspot[/i]
<br>The Chameleons - Here Today (death of John Lennon)
[/quote]

"Everywhere That I'm Not" by Translator was also inspired by Lennon's death.

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