Real People

Songs about real people, take 1.5:

1. “Dear Amelia” - Vance Gilbert
   Vance Gilbert, fellow alumnus of Connecticut College, wrote this lovely ode to Amelia Earhart, pioneer of women’s aviation. The song asks many open questions of the fallen pilot, asking if she was aware of her fate, if it was all some cruel joke, and informs her (in the present day) of all that has happened since she went down in the south Pacific all those years ago.
2. “John Sinclair” - John Lennon
   John Sinclair is a poet and civil rights activist who served a 10 year prison term in the 1970s for possession of marijuana - the only crime Nixon’s government could easily peg on the man. John Lennon was a close friend of Sinclair (who also dabbled in music management), and wrote this song as a protest against the rather draconian sentence given for a minor narcotics infraction. Lennon was familiar with these brushes with the law, having been arrested for marijuana possession in London by the infamous Detective Pilcher, whose busts of 60s entertainers often involved planting evidence in order to facilitate arrest.
3. “He Was My Brother” - Simon & Garfunkel
   One of Paul Simon’s more pure folk protest songs (and a clear musical nod to Dylan’s “He Was A Friend Of Mine”), the words of this song directly address the 1964 slayings of civil rights workers in Mississippi. Simon knew at least one of the men murdered in this incident (which became the subject of the 1988 film, Mississippi Burning), and wrote this song as a raw, emotional reaction to the violence that the murders encapsulated.
4. “Ohio” - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
   “Tin soldiers and Nixon’s comin’/We’re finally on our own/This summer I heard the drummin:/Four dead in Ohio.” It’s a potent opening couplet to a powerful song, delivered in brilliant four-part harmony. Largely a product of Neil Young, this song uses every musical trick in CSNY’s arsenal, and to great effect. The subject of the song - the Kent State University shootings - still stands as one of the more powerful events in the anti-war movement during the Vietnam War.
5. “Murder” - David Gilmour
   Not only were the other Beatles and Elton John affected by the murder of John Lennon, but David Gilmour, guitarist extraordinaire of Pink Floyd, also felt some anger at the loss of his fellow musician. So on his 1984 solo album, About Face, Gilmour wrote this open letter to Mark David Chapman, Lennon’s murderer. As a song, this is one of Gilmour’s strongest solo writing efforts, and it really captures the feelings of those who really wanted a piece of Chapman for what he did.

Download: “Dear Amelia” - Vance Gilbert (mp3)
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Download: “John Sinclair” - John Lennon (mp3)
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Download: “He Was My Brother” - Simon & Garfunkel (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: “Ohio” - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: “Murder” - David Gilmour (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)