Songs With Historical Errors In Their Lyrics

In July 1815, defeated at Waterloo and finding escape to America barred by the blockading Bellerophon, Napoleon came aboard "the ship that had dogged his steps for twenty years" (according to maritime historian David Cordingly) to finally surrender to the British. It was Bellerophon's last seagoing service.

HMS Bellerophon (1786) - Wikipedia

 

Elton John - 'Indian Sunset'
Great song, ridiculous lyrics.

 

"In a time when dinosaurs walked the earth
When the land was swamp and caves were home." - Quest for Fire, Iron Maiden

a few million years accuracy mistake, but I still like that song, its one of my secretly favorites

 

"And the jukebox kept on playing Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"

As neither the song, nor any other song from the album, was released on a 45 in 1967, nor did anyone put together a jukebox EP of songs from the album, this line from "Summer Rain," made famous by Johnny Rivers in late 1967, was historically inaccurate. But it's great at evoking the mood of that summer.

 

Talking Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues

Bob Dylan

Bootleg Series 1-3
1961-91

Knowing Dylan he had to have taken artistic license with this one to get the most out of the story!

 

James Blunt. One minute he says he's got a plan. The next minute he doesn't know what to do.

My life is brilliant
My love is pure
I saw an angel
Of that I'm sure
She smiled at me on the subway
She was with another man
But I won't lose no sleep on that
'Cause I've got a plan
You're beautiful
You're beautiful
You're beautiful, it's true
I saw your face in a crowded place
And I don't know what to do
'Cause I'll never be with you

 

Mmmmmm, sort of missing the point, but I did wonder who was listening to Mr. Blunt.

 

Song does not mention drugs per-se, and only says that nobody was sure about if he was from the HOL. Clearly they were erring towards "not".

 

Bob Dylan.

Right, that's sorted. Onto other things...

 

As far as I know, Grigori Rasputin was never actually the ‘lover of the Russian Queen’, or Czarina, as her subjects referred to her.

 

I'm happy to own up to enjoying the music of James Blunt. He's excellent!

 

Again artistic licence rather than a doh! moment but in Sutter's Mill, Dan Fogelberg has John Sutter fining gold in the Spring of 1847 when it was actually January 1848.

 

Iron Maiden~ Alexander the Great

Near to the east
In a part of ancient Greece
In an ancient land called Macedonia
Was born a son
To Philip of Macedon
The legend his name was Alexander

 

i think his parents made an historical error.

 

In his "Song of the Viking", Todd Rundgren claims to be Knut, the Viking who "beats the drum in time/ to stroke the oars that drive our galleons on". However a galleon is ship entirely powered by wind, with no facility for rowing, Rundgren seemingly confusing 'galleon' with 'galley', though wouldn't it have been better just to use the word 'longship', it would fit just as well?

 

In U2's Pride in the name of love, Martin Luther King, Jr. is reported to have been shot on the morning of April 4, when it actually occurred at approximately 6pm.

 

So what's the error, for those of us not up on our ancient history?

 

I can't see any errors there - though I admittedly I am not a Greek scholar.

 

see OP.

 

Rasputin wasn't "shot until he was dead"

 

A valid point, if a blurry line under some circumstances.

 

We Are The World includes a Biblical inaccuracy:
“As God has shown us by turning stone to bread...”
If the intended reference is to Jesus in the wilderness, he never turns stone to bread, although he is tempted to.

 

Actually, he was... he had a bullet wound through his head as well as several on his body, and no water was found in his lungs after he was dragged frozen stiff (quite literally!) from the river.

By the time an aggrieved aristocracy threw him over the bridge into the frigid waters that freezing December night, he was as dead as Julius Ceasar... but the man knew how to party, I'll give him that!

 

The bit about the cook saying "Fellas it's been good to know ya" is probably also false, as evidence suggests the crew didn't know how much danger they were in until they actually sank. I believe "the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral" was an intentional mistake, as the real name of the church in Detroit didn't fit the meter.

A couple of Dylan mistakes:
"Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" - "In a matter of minutes on bail was out walking"...Nope, Zantzinger spent the night in jail. (The rest of the song, sadly, appears to be all true.)
"Hurricane" got several things wrong. Rubin Carter wasn't "the number one contender for the heavyweight crown"; his career was in a slump when he was arrested. He most certainly did "like to talk about it all that much", he was notoriously boastful. The judge did not make Rubin's witnesses drunkards from the slums: one of them actually was drunk while on the stand (I don't know if he was from the slums, but if so, the judge didn't make it that way!).

From "She is Always Seventeen" by Harry Chapin:
Nineteen sixty-three, white and black upon the land;
She brought me to the monuments and made us all join hands.
And scarcely six months later she held me through the night
When we heard what had happened in that brutal Dallas light.
The march on Washington was in August 1963, so it should be "scarcely three months later".

Two from Billy Joel: "We Didn't Start the Fire" places "British Beatlemania" in 1962, a year too early, and nearly everything in "The Ballad of Billy the Kid" is wrong.

And this is pushing the envelope a bit, but Bob Seger has said the "song from 1962" in "Night Moves" was "Be My Baby," which is really from 1963. Hey, in 1976 he couldn't hop on the Internet to check the dates.

 

The Cranberries' I Just Shot John Lennon refers to a Smith and Wesson .38, but Mark Chapman had a Charter Arms .38.